For Your Eyes Only is the twelfth film in the EON Productions James Bond series and the fifth to star Roger Moore as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond 007. Produced by Albert R Broccoli and directed by John Glen, it was released in 1981 and was an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s short stories For Your Eyes Only and Risico from the For Your Eyes Only collection, as well as part of the novel Live and Let Die.

Plot summary: The film focuses on the recovery of the vital Automatic Targeting and Attack Communicator (ATAC), which is lost in the Ionian Sea after the British spy ship St Georges is sunk by an old mine hauled up in its fishing nets. The ATAC system is used by the Ministry of Defence to communicate and coordinate the Royal Navy’s fleet of Polaris submarines. If ATAC was retrieved underwater by another superpower, the submarines’ ballistic missiles (equipped with nuclear weapons) could be used against major western cities.

Sir Timothy Havelock, a marine archaeologist based in Greece, is contacted by the British government to secretly locate the St Georges. However, before he can give a report, he and his wife are murdered by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales. Havelock’s daughter Melina survives and vows revenge. The British Minister of Defence and his Chief of Staff summon James Bond and assign him the task of recovering the ATAC. They explain that if the transmitter were retrieved underwater by another superpower the Polaris submarines’ ballistic missiles could be used against major western cities. Bond is sent to Spain after Gonzales to find out who hired him. Melina kills him before Bond can find out. Melina owns a Citroën 2CV which proves to be very resilient in the following car chase.

After identifying a hitman in Gonzales’ estate (Emile Locque) who appeared to be paying him, Bond is led to a well-connected Greek businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, a resort in northern Italy’s Dolomites. He tells Bond that the man he saw is employed by Milos Columbo, a Greek smuggler.

When Bond eventually confronts Columbo it emerges that Locque is actually in the employ of Kristatos who himself is in the employ of the KGB. Kristatos is attempting to recover the ATAC for the KGB, and had set up Columbo as the villain as the latter knew too much about Kristatos’ KGB leanings. Columbo proves this connection to Bond by allowing Bond to take part in a raid on one of Kristatos’ factories where they find Locque. In this factory, Bond discovers false rolls of paper containing poppy syrup, and additional naval mines similar to the one that sank the St Georges, suggesting that her fate was not an accident. Locque places explosives to destroy this evidence and flees, but loses control of his car and ultimately ends on the edge of a cliff. Bond approaches him there and gives the car a solid shove, sending Locque plunging to his death.

Bond and Melina recover the ATAC from the wreckage of the St Georges, but Kristatos is waiting for them when they surface, and he takes the ATAC from them. He attempts to dispose of them by dragging them behind his yacht while sharks circle in the water; however, Bond effects their escape. With Columbo’s help, Bond, Columbo’s team, and Melina break into a mountaintop monastery, St Cyril’s, being used by Kristatos to meet KGB chief General Gogol where he will turn over the ATAC. Bond climbs up the sheer face of the mountain and, upon reaching the top, gains control of the lift basket and brings the rest of the team up.

Bond eventually retrieves the ATAC system and talks Melina out of killing Kristatos after he surrenders. Kristatos tries to kill Bond with a hidden weapon, but Columbo throws a knife at him from behind and kills him. General Gogol arrives by helicopter to collect the ATAC, but Bond throws it over the cliff (it is dashed to pieces on the rocks below), with the quip, “That’s détente, comrade. You don’t have it; I don’t have it.” General Gogol gives Bond an understanding smile and leaves. Bond and Melina later spend a romantic evening aboard her father’s yacht.

See also:

• For Your Eyes Only: Film - Cast
• For Your Eyes Only: Film - Crew
• For Your Eyes Only: Film - Goofups
• For Your Eyes Only: Film - Locations
• For Your Eyes Only: Film - Soundtrack
• For Your Eyes Only: Film - Trivia