Max Zorin is the main villain in the James Bond film A View to a Kill. He was portrayed by Christopher Walken.

Christopher Walken as Max Zorin in ‘A View to a Kill’.

Biography: Born in Dresden, and later moving to France, Zorin becomes a leading French businessman, operating in the microchip market. However, it is revealed later in the film that he is the product of Nazi medical experimentation during World War II, in which pregnant women were injected with massive quantities of steroids in an attempt to create “super-children.” Most of the pregnancies failed. The few surviving babies grew to become extraordinarily intelligent—but also psychopathic.

After the war, Dr Hans Glaub (alias Dr Carl Mortner), the German scientist who conducted the experiments, is spirited away by the Soviet Union, where he continues his experiments with steroids. It is strongly implied that the young Zorin was raised by Mortner, who is one of Zorin’s closest confidants in the movie, and explicitly stated that Zorin was trained by and long affiliated with the KGB. Among other activities, Mortner organises a doping programme for Zorin’s thoroughbred race horses.

Despite Zorin’s longtime KGB affiliation, his outside activities draw attention that the KGB sees as unwelcome, and at a meeting between Zorin and KGB head General Gogol, Gogol rebukes him. Zorin responds by telling Gogol that he no longer considers himself a KGB employee.

Zorin forms a plan to destroy his only competition in Silicon Valley by triggering an earthquake in the San Andreas Fault at high tide, causing the valley to flood. Zorin’s plan is foiled by Bond and Zorin’s former lover and henchman May Day, who joins Bond’s side after Zorin attempts to kill her and his men and sacrifices her life to ensure that the bomb set by Zorin could not trigger the quake. Zorin later is killed in a confrontation with Bond, when he falls into the waters of San Francisco Bay from one of the support cables of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Legal problems arose when producers became aware there was a pre-existing company named the Zoran Corporation which makes microchips. The corporation threatened to sue for defamation. Pre-production crew had neglected to do a trademark search prior to filming. The parties came to an agreement and, A View to a Kill is the first 007 film with a legal disclaimer inserted.

See also:

• Bond villains