| A View to a Kill | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster by Dan Goozee |
|
| Directed by | John Glen |
| Produced by | Albert R. Broccoli Michael G. Wilson |
| Written by | Ian Fleming |
| Screenplay by | Michael G. Wilson Richard Maibaum |
| Starring | Roger Moore Christopher Walken Tanya Roberts Grace Jones Robert Brown |
| Music by | John Barry "A View to a Kill" |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | Peter Davies |
| Studio | Danjaq EON Productions |
| Distributed by | MGM/UA Distribution[1] |
| Release date(s) | 22 May 1985 (San Francisco premiere) 12 June 1985 (London, premiere) |
| Running time | 131 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $152.4 million |
A View to a Kill (1985) is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker and Octopussy to have an entirely original screenplay. In A View to a Kill, Bond is pitted against Max Zorin, 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 being a commercial success, with the Duran Duran theme song performing well in the charts and earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Song, A View to a Kill got a mixed reception by critics and was disliked by Roger Moore himself due to his age. Christopher Walken, however, was praised for portraying a "classic Bond villain".[2]
Contents |
James Bond, MI6 agent 007 and sometimes simply "007", is sent to Siberia to locate the body of 003 and recover a microchip. He is ambushed but flees in a submarine built to resemble an iceberg. Q analyses the microchip, establishing it to be a copy of a microchip designed to withstand an electromagnetic pulse made by government contractor Zorin Industries.
Bond visits Ascot Racecourse to observe the company's owner, Max Zorin. Zorin's horse wins a race but proves hard to control. Sir Godfrey Tibbett, a horse trainer and MI6 agent, believes Zorin's horse was drugged, although tests proved negative. Through Tibbett, Bond meets French private detective Achille Aubergine and Aubergine informs Bond that Zorin is holding a horse sale later in the month. However, during their dinner at the Eiffel Tower, Aubergine is assassinated by Zorin's mysterious bodyguard, May Day, who jumps off of the tower with a parachute. Bond chases, but fails to apprehend her.
Bond and Tibbett travel to Chantilly, France to stay at Zorin's estate. Bond is puzzled by a woman who rebuffs him and finds out that Zorin has paid her a very large cheque. At night, Bond and Tibbett break into Zorin's laboratory and learn that he is implanting drug-releasing microchips in his horses. Their intrusion is discovered and May Day assassinates Tibbett. Zorin identifies Bond and tries to have him killed too, but 007 survives.
General Gogol of the KGB confronts Zorin for murdering Bond without permission as Zorin was trained and financed by the KGB, but he has now gone rogue. Zorin unveils to a group of investors his plan to destroy Silicon Valley to gain a monopoly in the microchip market.
007 goes to San Francisco where he learns from CIA agent Chuck Lee that Zorin is the product of medical experimentation with steroids performed by a Nazi, now Zorin's henchman Dr. Carl Mortner, who took refuge in the Soviet Union after World War II. He then investigates an oil rig owned by Zorin. While recording conversations there, he finds KGB agent Pola Ivanova trying to blow up the rig, but her partner is caught and murdered. Ivanova and Bond escape together. She tries to steal his recording, but then finds out that Bond had switched tapes. Bond tracks down the woman Zorin attempted to pay off, State Geologist Stacey Sutton, whose family oil company Zorin has been trying to buy. Posing as a journalist, he rescues her from Zorin henchmen and the two attempt to steal documents about Zorin's plans from the San Francisco City Hall.
Zorin arrives and kills the chief Geologist with Bond's gun, then sets the building on fire in order to frame Bond for the murder and kill him. Bond and Sutton escape from the fire, but when the police try to arrest Bond, they escape in a fire engine.
Bond and Sutton then infiltrate Zorin's mine, discovering his plot to detonate explosives beneath the lakes along the Hayward Fault and the San Andreas Fault, which will cause them to flood. A larger bomb is also on site in the mine to destroy a "geological lock" that prevents the two faults from moving at the same time. Zorin and his security chief Scarpine flood the mines and murder the mine workers.
Sutton escapes while Bond fights May Day; when she realises Zorin abandoned her, she helps Bond remove the larger bomb, putting the device onto a handcar and pushing it out of the mine. May Day stays on the car to hold the faulty brake lever, sacrificing herself as the bomb explodes.
Zorin, who had escaped in his airship with Scarpine and Mortner, abducts Sutton. Bond grabs hold of the mooring rope as the airship ascends. Zorin tries to kill Bond by flying him into the Transamerica Pyramid, then the Golden Gate Bridge, but Bond manages to moor the airship to the bridge framework. Stacey attacks Zorin and in the fracas, Mortner and Scarpine are temporarily knocked out. Stacey flees and joins Bond, but Zorin attacks them with an axe: Bond sends Zorin falling to his death. Mortner also attacks Bond, but Bond escapes, blowing up the airship, killing Mortner and Scarpine.
Maud Adams is said to be visible as an extra in one of the Fisherman's Wharf scenes; in the DVD documentary Inside A View to a Kill, Adams explains that she was visiting her friend Moore on location and ended up in the crowd, but admits she is unable to actually see herself in the film; In the same documentary, director John Glen confirms that Adams appears as an extra, but does not specify where she is visible.[3] The appearance remained a mystery for years until she was identified as standing in the background during one of the Fisherman's Wharf scenes.[4] As a result, Adams appears in three Bond films, previously in The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974 and in Octopussy in 1983.
A View to a Kill was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Wilson also co-authored the screenplay along with Richard Maibaum. At the end of Octopussy during the "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.
When a company with a name similar to Zorin (the Zoran Corporation) was discovered in the United States, a disclaimer was added to the start of the film affirming that Zorin was not related to any real-life company. This is the first Bond film to have a disclaimer (The Living Daylights had a disclaimer about the use of the Red Cross.)
Early publicity for A View to a Kill in 1984 included an announcement that David Bowie would play Zorin. He turned it down, saying, "I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs." The role was offered to Sting and finally to Christopher Walken.[5]
Dolph Lundgren has a brief appearance as one of General Gogol's KGB agents. Lundgren, who was Grace Jones's boyfriend, was visiting her on set when one day an extra was missing so the director John Glen then asked him if he wanted to get a shot at it. Lundgren appears during the confrontation between Gogol and Zorin at the racetrack, standing several steps below Gogol.[6]
The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in London, Iceland, Switzerland, France and the United States. 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 in the Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Lefty O'Doul Bridge was featured in the fire engine chase scene. The horse racing scenes were shot at Ascot Racecourse.[7]
The production of A View to a Kill began on 23 June 1984 in Iceland, where the second unit filmed the pre-title sequence.[8] On 27 June 1984, several leftover canisters of gasoline used during filming of Ridley Scott's Legend caused the Pinewood Studios' "007 Stage" to be burnt to the ground. Broccoli arranged its reconstruction which was done by the end of July 1984.[9] The soundstage was renamed "Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage". The filming of A View to a Kill continued when Roger Moore rejoined the main unit at Pinewood on 1 August 1984. The crew then departed for shooting the horse-racing scenes at Royal Ascot Racecourse. The scene in which Bond and Sutton enter the mineshaft was then filmed in a waterlogged quarry near Staines and the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum in West Sussex.[10]
On 6 October 1984, the fourth unit, headed by the special effects supervisor John Richardson, began its work on the climactic fight sequence. At first, only a few plates constructed to resemble the Golden Gate Bridge were used. Later that night, the shooting of the burning San Francisco City Hall commenced. The first actual scenes atop the bridge were filmed on 7 October 1984.[11]
In Paris it was planned that two stunt men, B.J. Worth and Don Caldvedt, would help film two takes of a parachute drop off a (clearly visible) platform that extended from a top edge of the Eiffel Tower. However, sufficient footage was obtained from Worth's jump, so Caldvedt was told he would not be performing his own jump. Caldvedt, unhappy at not being able to perform the jump, parachuted off the tower without authorisation from the City of Paris. He was subsequently sacked by the production team for jeopardising the continuation of filming in the city.[3]
Airship Industries managed a major marketing coup with the inclusion of their Skyship 500 series airship in the film. At the time Airship Industries were producing a fleet of ships which were recognisable over many capitals of the world offering tours, or advertising sponsorship deals. As all Bond films have included the most current technology, this included the lighter than air interest.[12]
The ship used in the climax was a Skyship 500, then on a promotional tour of Los Angeles after its participation in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympic Games. At that time, it had "WELCOME" painted across the side of the hull, but the word was replaced by "ZORIN INDUSTRIES" for the film. During the 1984 season, the ship was painted green and red as a part of Fujifilm's blimp fleet; it was subsequently coloured white. In real life, inflating it would take up to 24 hours, but during the film it was shown to take two minutes.[12]
The soundtrack was composed by John Barry, and published by EMI/Capitol.[13] The theme song, "A View to a Kill", was written by Barry and Duran Duran, and performed by the band. It has three different versions, of which the two made by Duran Duran make no reference to the James Bond theme; some of its notes are mixed, while "May Day Jumps" is the only song of the film that features the original theme. Barry's composition On Her Majesty's Secret Service was modified for use in the songs "Snow Job", "He's Dangerous" and "Golden Gate Fight" of A View to a Kill.[14] "A View to a Kill" was second in the British charts and first in the American charts, thus becoming the peak song in the James Bond series.[15]
Duran Duran was chosen to do the song after bassist John Taylor (a lifelong Bond fan) approached producer Cubby Broccoli at a party, and somewhat drunkenly asked "When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?"[16][17]
During the opening sequence, a cover version of the 1965 Beach Boys song "California Girls", performed by Gidea Park with Adrian Baker (a tribute band), is used during a chase in which Bond snowboards; it has been suggested that this teaser sequence helped initiate interest in snowboarding.[18]
A View to a Kill was the first Bond film with a premiere outside the UK, opening on 22 May 1985 at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts.[19] The British premiere was held on 12 June 1985 at the Odeon Leicester Square Cinema in London.[8] The film was first broadcast on British television on 31 January 1990. It achieved a box office collection of US $152.4 million worldwide with 50.3 million in the United States alone.[20][21] On its opening weekend in the US it earned $10.6 million.[21]
Although its box office reception was excellent, the film's critical response was mixed. Rotten Tomatoes currently gives A View to a Kill a 39% "Rotten" rating,[22] which is the lowest rating for the official Bond films on the website.[23] One of the most common criticisms was that Roger Moore's age was 57 - and had visibly aged in the two years that had passed since Octopussy; Sean Connery declared that "Bond should be played by an actor 35, 33 years old. I’m too old. Roger’s too old, too!".[19] Moore has also stated A View to a Kill as his least favourite film and mentioned that he was mortified to find out that he was older than his female co-star's mother. He was quoted saying "I was horrified on the last Bond I did. Whole slews of sequences where Christopher Walken was machine-gunning hundreds of people. I said 'That wasn't Bond, those weren't Bond films.' It stopped being what they were all about. You didn't dwell on the blood and the brains spewing all over the place".[24] In a December 2007 interview, Roger Moore remarked, "I was only about four hundred years too old for the part."[25]
The film was mentioned by Brian J. Arthurs of The Beach Reporter as the worst film of the Bond series.[22] C. Pea of the Time Out Film Guide said, "Grace Jones is badly wasted."[26] Norman Wilner of MSN chose it as the worst Bond film,[27] while IGN picked as the fourth worst,[28] and Entertainment Weekly as the fifth worst.[29]
Danny Peary had mixed feelings about A View to a Kill but was generally complimentary: “Despite what reviewers automatically reported, [Moore] looks trimmer and more energetic than in some of the previous efforts…I wish Bond had a few more of his famous gadgets on hand, but his actions scenes are exciting and some of the stunt work is spectacular. Walken’s the first Bond villain who is not so much an evil person as a crazed neurotic. I find him more memorable than some of the more recent Bond foes…Unfortunately, the filmmakers – who ruined villain Jaws by making him a nice guy in Moonraker – make the mistake of switching Mayday at the end from Bond’s nemesis to his accomplice, depriving us of a slam-bang fight to the finish between the two (I suppose gentleman Bond isn’t allowed to kill women, even a monster like Mayday)…[The film] lacks the flamboyance of earlier Bond films, and has a terrible slapstick chase sequence in San Francisco, but overall it’s fast-paced, fairly enjoyable, and a worthy entry in the series.”[30] Also among the more positive reviews was Movie Freaks 365's Kyle Bell: "Good ol' Roger gave it his best. ... Whether you can get past the absurdity of the storyline, you can't really deny that it has stunning stunt work and lots of action. It's an entertaining movie that could have been better."[31]
In 2011, the book James Bond in our Sights: A close look at A View to a Kill was released. Written by Andrew McNess, and published by Xlibris Corporation, the book highlighted "we may well be overlooking one of the most interesting and engrossing evocations of the James Bond formula" and stated that A View to a Kill's "intriguing, even subtle qualities have remained largely unrecognised since its 1985 release."[32] The book examined the film scene-by-scene in a thoughtful, engrossing and often entertaining manner, and also analysed the four principal characters.
A View to a Kill was adapted into two video games in 1985. The first, titled A View to a Kill, was published by Domark. It was available for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Oric 1 and Oric Atmos, and MSX. The second, titled James Bond 007: A View to a Kill was a text-based video game for DOS and Apple II computers. It was developed by Angelsoft, Inc. and published by Mindscape Inc.
The film was loosely adapted into a series of four Find Your Fate adventure game books, Win, Place, or Die, Strike it Deadly, Programmed for Danger, and Barracuda Run, which were released in 1985.[33]
May Day was a playable multiplayer character in the 1997 and 2000 video games GoldenEye 007 and The World Is Not Enough, for the Nintendo 64 and both N64 and PlayStation respectively. In the 2002 game Nightfire, May Day and Max Zorin also appears as bots.[34] Other references include Nikolai Diavolo, a character in the 2004 game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, claiming Zorin to be his mentor and friend.[35] In GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, a multiplayer level is the summit of the Golden Gate Bridge, including the Zorin blimp, which would fire on players when activated. Players are also able to climb the suspension cables (similar to the events of the film).[36]
| Preceded by Octopussy |
James Bond Films 1985 |
Succeeded by The Living Daylights |
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