FAQ for
A View to a Kill (1985) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for A View to a Kill can be found here.

When a microchip that can resist destruction by a nuclear electromagnetic pulse, found on the body of a 003 agent killed in Siberia, is found to be identical to microchips produced by British-based Zorin Industries, 007 agent James Bond (Roger Moore) is dispatched to investigate owner Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), suspected of leaking details of the design to the Russians. What Bond finds, however, is even more chilling. Zorin is planning to set off an earthquake in California's San Andreas fault that will wipe out Silicon Valley and give Zorin a monopoly in the microchip market. Aided by geologist Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts), whose grandfather's oil company was taken over by Zorin, the pair attempt to infiltrate Zorin's mines in order to inestigate.

All of the James Bond movies are based, in some part, upon novels or stories by British author Ian Fleming [1908-1964]. The title, A View to a Kill, comes from the short story From a View to a Kill, included in Fleming's 1960 anthology, For Your Eyes Only. Fleming found the inspiration for this new title from John Woodcock Grave's 1820 Cumberland Hunting Song, "D'Ye Ken John Peel". It read in part: "From the drag to the chase. From the chase to the view. From the view to a death in the morning..." Fleming adapted the third stanza for his short story title. However, apart from the title, the Paris setting of both the film and the short story (which deals with the assassination of couriers by a secret nest of Soviet agents), there is nothing else in common between them. The film script is based on a screenplay co-written by American screenwriters Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum. At the end of Octopussy the words "James Bond will return in From a View to A Kill" are included, however the title was obviously changed in the intervening years between the films.

An electromagnetic pulse, as presented in the movie, is a burst of electromagnetic radiation created by a nuclear explosion. Bond explains its danger like this: "One burst in outer space over the UK, and everything with a microchip in it, from the modern toaster to the most sophisticated computers and our defense systems, would be rendered absolutely useless."

As the airship of big baddie Max Zorin flies over the Golden Gate Bridge, his henchman May Day (Grace Jones) exclaims, "Wow, what a view!" Zorin, who is planning to blow up Silicon Valley so that he will have domination of the microchip market, adds: "...to a kill!"

In the opening pre-credit sequence, Bond is skiing in Siberia where he recovers a microchip from the body of 003 and escapes in a submarine disguised as an iceberg while pursued by Soviet troops. Once back in London, he is informed by Q (Desmond Llewelyn) that the recovered microchip is identical to special microchips produced by one of England's private defense contractors, Zorin Industries. The chips are special because they are built to withstand the intense magnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion. Consequently, Bond is sent to the Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, England to observe Zorin Industries owner, Max Zorin. When Zorin's horse, Pegasus, wins the race by an amazing burst of speed in the last furlough and it is suspected that Zorin may be using drugs on his horses, Bond is sent to Paris to meet with Detective Achilles Aubergine (Jean Rougerie) who has been hired by the French Jockey Club to investigate Zorin. While there, Bond also visits Zorin's stables at Chantilly, northeast of Paris. When Zorin attempts, unsuccessfully, to drown Bond in a lake, Bond follows him to San Francisco, in order to investigate his oil operations.

A View to a Kill is the 14th film in the EON Bond franchise and the seventh and last movie to feature Roger Moore as James Bond, 007.

Although it is credited as "Title Song ", the opening song, A View to a Kill (aka Dance into the Fire), is performed by the English rock band Duran Duran. For more information about the song, see here.

Bond discovers that the Zorin oil-pumping station is pumping seawater into its pipelines instead of pumping oil out. He is informed by state geologist Stacey Sutton that such a procedure could trigger a major earthquake. In order to find out what is going on inside the Zorin mine, they don miners uniforms and hide inside a tram car. They sneak into a control room where Bond sees Zorin setting a detonator for 3600 seconds (one hour) and Stacey finds a scale model of Silicon Valley. From the indicators on the model, she is able to tell that Zorin is planning to blow up the four major fault lines under San Francisco and flood the entire Valley with seawater. Suddenly, Zorin enters the room, and Stacey and Bond are forced to escape through a window. May Day goes after them. As Stacey and Bond look for a way out of the mine, Zorin sets off a powder keg below the San Andreas lake which instantly floods the mines with seawater. Zorin and his assistant, Scarpine, shoot all the surviving workers. Bond and Stacey try to escape through a ventilator shaft; Stacey makes it but Bond, along with May Day, are sucked back by the rushing water. Zorin rejoins his cohorts at the top of the mine, and they escape in their airship. The water level in the mine begins to drop. May Day realizes that Zorin meant to kill her, too, and helps Bond retrieve the bomb from a descending shaft by lifting out him and the bomb with a platform rig. With only seconds to spare, they try to push bomb and detonator out of the mine on a tram car, but the handbrake slips. May Day hops on the car and holds down the handbrake while Bond gives it a push. As May Day rides the car out of the mine, Bond keeps telling her to jump, but she stays there, holding brake in the open position. "Get Zorin for me!" she shouts. She rides the car outside the mine and a few seconds later the bomb goes off, taking her with it.

Seeing that his plan has been foiled, Zorin swoops down and grabs Stacey. Bond grabs on to one of the mooring ropes and is carried out over the San Francisco Bay. Zorin attempts to knock him off the rope by crashing him into the Golden Gate Bridge, but Bond quickly grabs hold of the cables and ties the mooring rope to the bridge's framework, causing the airship to crash into the bridge. Stacey takes this opportunity to leap out of the airship joining Bond on the girders. Zorin goes after them, armed with an axe, and he and Bond have at each other, until Zorin loses his handhold and falls to his death below. Mortner/Glaub (Willoughby Gray) tries to blow up Bond with a bundle of dynamite, but Bond cuts the airship free with the axe, and the jerking causes Glaub to drop the dynamite inside the cabin. The dynamite goes off, and the airship explodes. Back in London, KGB General Gogol (Walter Gotell) wants to award Bond the Order of Lenin for saving Silicon Valley ("Where would Russian research be without out it?" he explains), but 007's whereabouts are unknown, until Q releases a remote control spy "dog" that roams through Stacey's house, eventually locating Bond and Stacey in the shower together. When M asks Q about Bond's status, Q replies, "He's cleaning up a few details."

Yes. The largest of the four, the San Andreas Fault, runs along the western side of San Francisco Bay and peninsula and is the principal sliding boundary between the Pacific and the North American tectonic plates of the Earth's crust. The Hayward Fault runs along the eastern side of the Bay. East of the Hayward lies the Calaveras Fault. North of San Francisco and under the San Pablo Bay is the Rodgers Creek Fault. All four faults contribute to the seismic activity associated with the San Francisco Bay region. The last truly devastating quake to occur in the region was the Loma Prieta quake which happened on 10/17/1989. It caused a large amount of damage, killed many people & left thousands homeless.

Moore was born in October 1927, so he was about 57 years old when this film was shot. Some viewers feel that Moore was too old to be playing James Bond. Apparently, Moore agreed because he announced his retirement from the Bond role in December 1985, just months after A View to a Kill was released.

Including A View to a Kill, Moore made seven movies in which he played James Bond: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985).