A View to a Kill (1985)
A View to a Kill is a 1985 spy film and the fourteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and is the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming’s 1960 short story “From a View to a Kill”, the film has an entirely original screenplay. In A View to a Kill, Bond is pitted against Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken), who plans to destroy California’s Silicon Valley. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who also wrote the screenplay with Richard Maibaum. It was the third James Bond film to be directed by John Glen, and the last to feature Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, who frequently took umbrage with the effects of Moore’s advanced age on his performance, it was a commercial success, with the Duran Duran theme song “A View to a Kill” performing well in the charts, becoming the only Bond theme song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Song.RELATED:
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Plot
MI6 agent James Bond is sent to Siberia to locate the body of 003 and recover a Soviet microchip. Q analyzes the microchip, establishing it to be a copy of one designed to withstand an electromagnetic pulse, made by government contractor Zorin Industries. Bond visits Ascot Racecourse to observe the company’s owner, Max Zorin. Sir Godfrey Tibbett, a racehorse trainer and MI6 agent, believes Zorin’s horses, which win consistently, are drugged, although tests proved negative. Through Tibbett, Bond meets with French private detective Achille Aubergine, who informs Bond that Zorin is holding a horse sale later in the month. During their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Aubergine is assassinated by Zorin’s bodyguard May Day, who subsequently escapes.
Bond and Tibbett travel to Zorin’s estate for the horse sale. Bond is puzzled by a woman who rebuffs him; he discovers Zorin has written her a cheque for $5 million. That night, Bond and Tibbett infiltrate Zorin’s laboratory, where he is implanting adrenaline-releasing devices in his horses. Zorin identifies Bond as an agent, has May Day assassinate Tibbett, and attempts to have Bond killed. General Gogol of the KGB confronts Zorin for trying to kill Bond without permission, revealing that Zorin was initially trained and financed by the KGB, but has now gone rogue. Later, Zorin unveils to a group of investors his plan to destroy Silicon Valley, which will give him and the potential investors a monopoly over microchip manufacture.
Bond travels to San Francisco and meets with CIA agent Chuck Lee, who says that Zorin is the product of medical experimentation with steroids performed by Dr. Carl Mortner, a Nazi scientist who is now Zorin’s veterinarian and racehorse-breeding consultant. Bond then investigates a nearby oil rig owned by Zorin, and while there finds KGB agent Pola Ivanova recording conversations and her partner, Klottoff, placing explosives on the rig. Klottoff is caught and killed by Zorin, but Ivanova and Bond escape. Later Ivanova takes the recording but finds that Bond had switched tapes with one of Japanese music
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Casting.
Roger Moore had originally signed a three-film contract with Eon Productions, His original contract had been for three films (Live and Let Die in 1973, The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974 and The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977) which was fulfilled. Moore’s following three films (Moonraker in 1979, For Your Eyes Only in 1981 and Octopussy in 1983) were negotiated on a film-by-film basis. Uncertainty surrounding his involvement in Octopussy in 1983 led to other actors being considered to take over but was convinced to come back as he was competing against Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again. Eon convinced Moore to do A View to a Kill but he announced in December 1985, 6 months after the release of A View to a Kill, that he would retire from the role after seven films. Early publicity for the film in 1984 included an announcement that David Bowie would play Zorin. He initially accepted the role, but later decided against it, saying “I didn’t want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs.” The role was then offered to Sting, who turned it down, and finally to Christopher Walken.
Filming
Principal photography began with the horse racing scenes at Ascot Racecourse on 1 August 1984. The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in London, Iceland, Switzerland, France and the United States with the budget initially being $35 million. Several French landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, its Jules Verne restaurant and the Château de Chantilly were filmed. The rest of the major filming was done at Fisherman’s Wharf, Dunsmuir House, San Francisco City Hall and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Lefty O’Doul Bridge was featured in the fire engine chase scene. Production of the film began on 23 June 1984 in Iceland, where the second unit filmed the pre-title sequence. On 27 June 1984, several leftover canisters of petrol used during filming of Ridley Scott’s Legend caused Pinewood Studios’ 007 Stage to burn to the ground. The stage was rebuilt, and reopened in January 1985 (renamed as Albert R. Broccoli’s 007 Stage) for filming of A View to a Kill. Work had continued on other stages at Pinewood when Roger Moore rejoined the main unit there on 1 August 1984.