A View To A Kill, released in 1985, is the fourteenth entry in the James Bond series of films made by EON Productions, and the last to star Roger Moore as British Secret Service Agent, Commander James Bond. It was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G Wilson. Wilson also co-authored the screenplay along with veteran screenwriter Richard Maibaum.

The title itself is adapted from Ian Fleming’s short story From a View to a Kill, contained in the For Your Eyes Only collection of short stories released in 1960; however the title is where the similarity between short story and the film end, making this the second completely original Bond film after The Spy Who Loved Me. The film does however take an idea from the James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever, in which horse races are being fixed. At the end of Octopussy during the famed “James Bond Will Return” sequence, it listed the next film as “From a View to a Kill”, the name of the original short story; however, the title was later changed a few months before filming for unknown reasons. The original title “From a View to a Kill” was taken from a version of the words to a traditional hunting song “D’ye ken John Peel?”: “From a find to a check, from a check to a view,/From a view to a kill in the morning”.

Plot summary: In the pre-title sequence, James Bond is sent to Siberia to locate 003’s corpse and recover a microchip. Upon doing so, he is ambushed by Soviet troops but flees in a submarine built to resemble an iceberg. After Bond has returned to England, Q has the microchip analysed and informs M, Bond and the Minister of Defence that its design is an exact match of a microchip made by Zorin Industries. The retrieved microchip is also designed to withstand the damage caused to other chips by a nuclear explosion.

Bond and his superiors visit Ascot Racecourse to observe the company’s owner, Max Zorin. While at the track, Zorin’s horse miraculously wins the race; Sir Godfrey Tibbett, a horse trainer, believes Zorin’s horse was given drugs, although when screened prior to the race, it did not show any signs of doping. Through Tibbett, Bond meets a French private detective named Aubergine to discuss how the horse won. Aubergine informs Bond that Zorin is holding an annual horse sale later in the month. However, during their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Aubergine is assassinated by Zorin’s mysterious bodyguard, May Day. Bond steals a Renault taxi to chase May Day but fails to apprehend her.

Bond and Tibbett travel to Chantilly, France where Bond poses as James St John Smythe (pronounced “sin-jin-smythe”), a rich dilettante. They break into Zorin’s secret laboratory and learn that he is using microchips in his horses to release a drug when prompted by a hidden switch. Their intrusion is discovered however and Tibbett is later killed by May Day, but they fail to kill Bond in an attempt to drown him in a lake. Later, General Gogol from the Soviet Union shows up at Zorin’s estate with several other KGB agents, but Zorin, an ex-KGB agent himself, becomes upset with Gogol and forces him to leave.

In his airship, Zorin unveils to a group of investors his plan to destroy Silicon Valley in an operation he dubs “Main Strike” in order to gain a monopoly in the microchip market. Bond later learns that Zorin is a psychopath, the product of Nazi medical experimentation during World War II, and later trained by the KGB.

007 goes to California and spies on an oil rig owned by Zorin. He catches KGB agent Pola Ivanova trying to blow up the rig, while recording Zorin announcing his plans. Bond soon meets state geologist Stacey Sutton, whose oil company had been taken over by Zorin, and the two team up to steal documents about his plan from the San Francisco City Hall. Zorin arrives, holding them hostage, and then forces a city official to call the police. He kills the official with Bond’s Walther PPK and sets the building on fire in order to frame Bond for the murder. Bond and Sutton escape from the fire but when the police try to arrest Bond, they escape in a fire engine.

The next day, Bond and Sutton infiltrate Zorin’s mine, discovering his plot to detonate explosives beneath the lakes along the Hayward Fault and the San Andreas Fault causing them to flood. A larger bomb is also on site in the mine to destroy a “geological lock” that is in place to prevent the two faults from moving at the same time. Once destroyed, it would supposedly cause a double earthquake. Zorin and Scarpine flood the mines, nearly killing Bond and May Day and murder all of the mine workers as they attempt to flee. Stacey manages to escape. Because she was betrayed, May Day helps Bond remove the larger bomb that would destroy the lock. They put the bomb on a handcar and push it out of the mine along a railroad line. May Day stays on the car to hold the faulty brake lever, sacrificing her own life as the bomb explodes outside, away from the lock.

Sutton is quickly captured by a devastated Zorin, who is escaping via airship with Scarpine and his mentor, Dr Carl Mortner. Bond grabs hold of the mooring rope and clings on as the airship ascends. Zorin tries to kill Bond by flying him into the Golden Gate Bridge, but Bond manages to moor the airship to the bridge framework, stopping it from moving. Stacey attacks Zorin and in the ensuing fracas, Mortner and Scarpine are temporarily knocked out. Stacey flees onto the bridge and joins with Bond, but Zorin comes after them with an axe and engages in a fierce battle with Bond. Bond gains the upper hand and sends Zorin plummeting off the bridge to his death. An enraged Mortner attempts to kill Bond with a bundle of dynamite, but Bond slashes the mooring rope, causing Mortner to drop the dynamite into the cabin. Seconds later, the dynamite explodes and destroys the airship, killing Mortner and Scarpine.

In the aftermath, Bond is ironically awarded the Order of Lenin by General Gogol. Q, inside a special van in California, uses his fake-dog surveillance camera to locate 007. He finds him safely making love to Stacey in her shower.

See also:

• View to a Kill, A: Film - Cast
• View to a Kill, A: Film - Crew
• View to a Kill, A: Film - Goofups
• View to a Kill, A: Film - Locations
• View to a Kill, A: Film - Soundtrack
• View to a Kill, A: Film - Trivia