Movies - A View to a Kill

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	Movies - A View to a Kill

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
. 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 track down 003 and recover a microchip. Upon doing so 007 is ambushed by Russian troops and is forced to flee. After returning to England and having the microchip analyzed by Q-Branch, Q informs M, Bond, and the Minister of Defence that the microchip's design is an exact match of a microchip made by "Zorin Technologies."

Along with Miss Moneypenny, the group then venture to the 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 using some sort of drug, although Zorin's horse when screened prior to the race came back negative. Through Tibbett, Bond meets with a man named Dr. Aubergine to discuss how Zorin's horse won the race, however, during their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Dr. Aubergine is killed by May Day, but not before Bond learns that Zorin is holding an annual horse sale later in the month.

Bond and Tibbett travel to Chantilly, France where Bond poses as St. John Smythe, a horse dealer. Bond and Tibbett locate and break into Zorin's secret labs where Tibbett learns that Zorin is using microchips in his horses to release a drug in the horse when prompted by a switch hidden in Zorin's cane. Afterwards Bond and Tibbett are discovered and are forced to flee. Tibbett is later killed by May Day and an attempt to drown Bond in a lake while unconscious inside a car fails.

In Zorin's airship, the billionaire industrialist unveils his plan to destroy Silicon Valley in an operation he dubbs "Main Strike" in order to gain complete control of the microchip market. Bond later learns that Zorin is a psychopath, the product of Nazi medical experimentation during World War II who was later trained by the KGB. To succeed, Zorin plans to detonate explosives beneath the lakes along the Hayward Fault and the San Andreas Fault causing them to flood. A bigger 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 the "geological lock" is destroyed, it would supposedly cause a massive double earthquake.

Zorin's plan goes wrong after he floods the mine with the first set of explosives, the action almost killing Bond and his henchwoman May Day. As a result May Day aids Bond at attempting to remove the bigger bomb that would destroy the lock. Doing so eventually costs her her life.

In the finale, Bond manages to grab a rope attached to Zorin's airship as he was leaving the mine. During the flight Bond gets the rope tangled in the Golden Gate Bridge. Zorin and Bond then fight upon the bridge resulting with Zorin falling to his death in San Francisco Bay.

Cast & characters

James Bond - Roger Moore
M - Robert Brown
Q - Desmond Llewelyn
Miss Moneypenny - Lois Maxwell
Max Zorin - Christopher Walken
Stacey Sutton - Tanya Roberts
May Day - Grace Jones
Fredrick Gray (Minister of Defence) — Geoffrey Keen
General Gogol — Walter Gotell
Sir Godfrey Tibbett - Patrick Macnee
Scarpine - Patrick Bauchau
Chuck Lee - David Yip
Pola Ivanova - Fiona Fullerton
Bob Conley - Manning Redwood
Dr. Carl Mortner - Willoughby Gray
Jenny Flex - Alison Doody
Pan Ho - Papillon Soo Soo

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for A View to a Kill ]

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