A View to a Kill

Brief synopsis (a view to A View To A Kill, you might say):

Max Zorin (played to the hilt of cool by Christopher Walken) seeks to corner the market on silicon chips, and therefore control the computer industry, by destroying Silicon Valley. He hires seismologists, geologists, and evil henchmen galore, and plans to trigger an earthquake which will trigger a flood, which will in turn make real estate prices in Silly Valley even sillier.

James Bond, played for the last time by Roger Moore, foils the plot with a heroic assist from former evil henchwoman May Day (a snarling Grace Jones). He prevents Zorin's escape by dangling from a mooring rope (no pun intended) on the getaway blimp; when Zorin tries to ram Bond into the Golden Gate Bridge, Bond quickly ties the blimp to the suspension bridge. (This is known as suspension of disbelief.)

Evil is foiled, good prevails, 007 gets laid, and a classic James Bond actor has his last hurrah. Not bad for what Leonard Maltin called "one of the weakest" in the series.

Ian Fleming's original short story, titled "From A View to a Kill", is, of course, nothing at all like the Hollywood Bond. It is the first story in his 1960 collection For Your Eyes Only.

A top secret courier on a French road is killed, his dispatches stolen. Bond is called in to investigate. No one has a clue how it happened.

Bond, nosing around, finds a sophisticated spy station, hidden as a giant rose bush. (The View).

He impersonates a courier to draw out the assassin. When the assassins fellow spies emerge, Bond miscalculates and is nearly killed -- but his assailant is shot by the Girl (The Kill). I did mention there was a Girl, didn't I?

Bond: The last Moore

James Bond: My name is Bond, James Bond.
U.S. Police Captain: And I'm Dick Tracy and you're STILL under arrest!

Introduction:

In 1985, Roger Moore performed the role of James Bond for the last time, and I suspect that he won't come back again, unlike his predecessor Sean Connerey. Director John Glen presents a facinationg and entertaining adventure worthy of the lagacy, and a nice farewell to Moore.

Plot:

As the main plot has already been noded by Sylvar in the wu above, I won't intrude on his turf.

(Hovering over Silicon Valley in their airship)
May Day: Wow! What a view!
Max Zorin: To a KILL!

Trivia:

Does this Bond have any any good girls? Well of course,it wouldn't be a Bond without it, would it? This time around we have Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton, the damsel in distress, Alison Doody as Jenny Flex, and finally Grace Jones as May Day, Zoran's Henchwoman, who is, well...scary! And, as usual, there are many beautiful extras without speaking roles, including in a cameo appearance, Maud Adams (Octopussy)

James Bond: Well my dear, I take it you spend quite a lot of time in the saddle.
Jenny Flex: Yes, I love an early morning ride.
James Bond: Well, I'm an early riser myself.

What about "Q" (Desmond Llewelyn)? Well, he saves James's behind as usual by providing the needed equipment such as the Snooper (small robot surveillance machine), a watch with a garrote (Well, after James was on the wrong end of this device for a number of times, it's bloody time for Q-Branch todevelop their own model), a fountain pen with flammable ink, a bug-detector in the Philishave razor, a video camera that transposes a cinema image into graphics and plots in order to retrieve the identity of the subject from a central computer.

The title song, as noded above, is performed by Duran Duran, breaking wth the long tradition of female singers.

To finish up and complete the writeup, here is a nice link to all things Bond:

• Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!: http://www.ianfleming.org

Previous Bond: Octopussy and Never say never again, James Bond will return in: The Living Daylights