Just when you thought 007 couldn’t get any sillier…
The Mission: When 003 turns up dead in Siberia the only clue MI:6 has to go on is a batch of microchips found on the body. Bond is dispatched to investigate Max Zorin, an industrialist who is making waves in the microchip market.
Locales: Begins in Siberia before moving to Ascot in England, France and the USA.
Gadgets: We get the SNOOPER, a small roving robot controlled by Q, polarizing sunglasses, a credit card that unlocks doors, an electric shaver that detects electronic surveillance and a billfold with a UV light.
If you think it looks creepy now wait until it’s watching Bond have sex.
Vehicles: James Bond uses a makeshift snowboard (complete with cheesy surf music). Also a submarine disguised as an iceberg.
Sidekicks: Bond recruits Sir Godfrey Tibbett who advises Bond on the horse racing industry while posing as his hired help.
The Girls: Stacy Sutton, the grand-daughter of an oil tycoon bought out by Zorin and geologist, and Pola Ivanova, a KGB agent.
The Enemy: Max Zorin, an energy and technology tycoon who was born out of a Nazi experiment to create a super soldier and trained by the CIA.
Evil Plot: Zorin intends to stockpile the world’s supply of microchips before flooding Silicon Valley and holding a monopoly of the industry.
Distinguishing Features: Bleached blonde hair and aviator sunglasses. Also, Christopher Walken – which is pretty distinctive.
Secret Lair: Less a secret lair, more a giant mansion. Although he does keep a giant zeppelin inside a small shed.
Henchmen: May Day, Zorin’s bodyguard and lover who possesses an unconvincing level of strength.
Facts About the Movie
Politically Incorrect Behaviour: Happily shagging a KGB agent who he is fully aware is seducing him to steal from him.
Notable Firsts: An Oscar winner performs in a Bond film – Christopher Walken as Zorin.
Random Trivia: Although a stunt man was hired to perform May Day’s leap of the Eiffel Tower, actress Grace Jones stepped up at the last moment and volunteered to do the jump in his place.
Lois Maxwell, who had played Moneypenny in every Bond film to date, made her final appearance in A View to a Kill.
Patrick McNee, who plays Tibbett, also played a famous British spy in the television series The Avengers.
Duran Duran’s theme song played in the opening credits became the first Bond theme to reach #1 in the music charts.
