Synopsis
(A View To A Kill)
Siberia: James Bond uses a miniature Geiger counter to locate
the body of fellow agent 003, retrieving a microchip hidden in
a locket around his neck. Surprised by the sudden arrival of Russian
troops, Bond is forced to flee on skis as the troops close in.
His escape is facilitated briefly when he hijacks a ski mobile
but he soon loses that when a pursuing helicopter blows it up.
Using part of the wreckage as a snowboard, Bond sets off again
[accompanied on the soundtrack by The Beach Boys singing California
Girls] but is again beset by Russian troops in the helicopter.
He makes short work of them this time however by firing a flare
into the cabin causing the machine to crash into an ice floe.
He finally reaches a submarine disguised as an iceberg and piloted
by agent Kimberley Jones. Breaking out the champagne, Bond celebrates
as only he can...
London: Bond reports in to M's office and finds Moneypenny all
dressed up and Bond can't resist the "customary pleasantries."
In M's office, Q is playing with a small, radio controlled robot,
the prototype of a "highly sophisticated surveillance machine."
Q shows Bond, M and the Minister a microchip, explaining to them
their vulnerability of such devices to attack by electro magnetic
pulse. But now, one of the British government's contractors has
developed a new chip that is impervious to such attack and a replica
of the chip is what Bond retrieved from 003. The British contractors
were recently taken over by Zorin Industries, led by Max Zorin,
a staunch anti Communist. M sets Bond the task of investigating
Zorin.
M and Moneypenny accompany Bond to Ascot [hence Moneypenny's
attire] where they spy on Zorin and his female sidekick, May Day.
M introduces Bond to another agent, Sir Godfrey Tibbett, who suspects
that Zorin's win at the races was due to the industrialist's cheating.
Bond sets off for Paris where he meets with French agent Aubergine
in a restaurant half way up the Eiffel Tower. The entertainment
is provided by Dominique, a woman who seems to enchant paper butterflies
which are actually being controlled off stage by puppeteers. Aubergine
tells Bond that Zorin will be holding his annual horse sales later
that month and is then killed when one of the butterflies, equipped
with a dagger, strikes him in the neck. Bond pursues the cloaked
assassin, who turns out to be May Day, up the tower, but she effects
a daring escape by parachute.
Bond gives chase in a stolen taxi, trashing the car and half
of Paris in the process, driving along the top of a bus and losing
the back half of the car before finally jumping onto a boat where
a wedding reception is being held and where moments before May
Day had landed. But he's too late and May Day gets away in a power
boat driven by Zorin.
After a dressing down from M for his less than subtle behaviour
in Paris, Bond sets off for Zorin's immense stables, posing as
James St John Smythe, a horse dealer. Along for the ride is Sir
Godfrey, posing as 'St John Smythe's' chauffeur. Bond has his
eye on one particular horse, Pegasus, which he saw win so convincingly
at Ascot. While Sir Godfrey tries to get a closer look at Pegasus,
Bond is invited to a reception later where Zorin is anxious to
meet him. Sir Godfrey is mystified when he finds that Pegasus
is missing.
Bond and Sir Godfrey travel to Zorin's mansion where they are
greeted by one of Zorin's assistants, Jenny Flex. Later, Bond
and Sir Godfrey set up Bond's room with a tape recorder to make
it appear to anyone listening that they are still in there. Out
on the balcony, Bond sees a helicopter arrive and a beautiful
young woman gets out to be greeted by Zorin.
Later that day, a reception for the horse sale is in full swing
and Bond tries to gain access to Zorin's private quarters, only
to be stopped by May Day. Using special polarising sunglasses,
Bond is able to see through Zorin's blacked out windows where
he observes Zorin handing over a cheque to the woman he saw getting
out of the helicopter earlier. He manages to sneak in through
a back door and, using a special miniature photocopier, is able
to produce a replica of the cheque from the
pen impressions left on the cheque pad it's for $5,000 made out
to S. Sutton. Outside, Zorin is approached by a geologist, Conley,
who asks him if Main Strike is ready yet. Zorin assures him that
they will know "after the 22nd."
Bond is leaving Zorin's quarters when he bumps into Zorin's sidekick,
Dr Carl Mortner who leads him back outside and introduces him
briefly to Conley. He also tells Bond that he is Zorin's horse
breeding consultant and lets slip that his theories on selective
breeding and conditioning are equally applicable to horses and
human beings. All the while, Bond is both taking photographs with
a micro camera hidden in a ring and keeping an eye on the woman
from the helicopter.
He finally gets to meet Zorin and they exchange pleasantries
during which Bond hints that he knows of Zorin's involvement with
the murder of Aubergine. He then meets the woman he's been watching
who turns out to be an American. Zorin sees them talking and sends
May Day to separate them May Day gets the feeling she's seen Bond
somewhere before, but can't remember where. Before Bond can learn
the woman's name, May Day arrives and tells her that her helicopter
will be leaving shortly and leads her away from Bond.
That night, Sir Godfrey is lurking in the stables and hides as
Mortner leaves for the night. Exploring further, he finds an empty
corral and is jumped from behind. His 'attacker', however, turns
out to Bond who activates a secret switch, turning the empty stable
into an elevator. They descend into a laboratory where they find
Pegasus. While Sir Godfrey examines the horse and finds evidence
of a recent operation one of its legs, Bond cracks a safe and
finds several microchips which control tiny injections of horse
steroids. He reasons that the devices are implanted in the horses
and activated by a switch hidden in Zorin's cane.
They are disturbed by a pair of security guards whose suspicions
are aroused by the lowered elevator. They escape into an automated
packing plant where Zorin appears to be hoarding microchips, despite
the world surplus. Bond takes on the two security men, depositing
them onto a conveyor belt where they are packed along with the
crates of chips.
Zorin and May Day are practising their martial arts which turns
into a rough love making session when they are disturbed by a
call from the packing plant security the two guards have been
discovered. Zorin sends May Day out to look for Bond. But Bond
and Sir Godfrey have managed to sneak back into the mansion.
May Day suddenly remembers where she's seen Bond before at the
Eiffel Tower and unexpectedly finds him in her bed, waiting for
her. At the urging of Zorin, who is out of Bond's eyeline, she
goes to bed with Bond while Zorin and Mortner examine the lab.
They find that one of the microchips has been disturbed and a
furious Zorin arranges for Bond to be brought to him in the morning.
The next day, Zorin meets with Bond under the pretence that he's
searching his database for a suitable horse. In fact he's using
hidden cameras to search a very different database, looking for
clues as the 'St John Smythe''s real identity. He learns Bond's
real name and that he's a British secret agent with a license
to kill, a fact he seems to find very amusing. He arranges for
Bond to join him on his morning ride and takes him out to his
private riding track. Sir Godfrey, meanwhile, has been despatched
into town to contact M to arrange a trace on the cheque that Bond
has retrieved.
Before Bond joins him, Zorin primes his riding crop with the
trigger for one of the microchips. Bond is given a horse named
Inferno which proves to be "a little spirited." In town,
Sir Godfrey is being tailed by Jenny Flex among others and, as
he takes the Rolls Royce through a car washing machine, he is
garrotted by an assassin hiding in the back.
At the track, Zorin offers Bond a deal: if he can stay the course
of a steeplechase over which he will race against Zorin and several
stable hands, if will be able to keep the horse. But Zorin proves
a terrible cheat and has men operating electrically modified jumps
which raise or water jumps which lengthen as Bond approaches.
Bond fights of the crop wielding stable hands and gains the lead.
But Zorin operates the microchip and the horse bolts. Bond steers
it out of the track and through the surrounding woods, pursued
by Zorin and his men. He sees his Rolls approaching and leaps
aboard only to find may Day at the wheel and Sir Godfrey dead
in the back seat. Zorin catches up and reveals that he knows who
he really is.
Bond is knocked unconscious and bundled into the back of the
car which is driven to a remote lake. There, may Day and Zorin
push it under the water, gloating as the car disappears beneath
the surface. But Bond revives and, using air from the tyres, hides
underwater until the pair have left.
Later, Zorin is a deserted race track watching one of his horses
go through its paces when he is visited by General Gogol of the
KGB. Gogol is angry that Zorin, one of his agents, killed Bond
without authorisation. Zorin is furious that the KGB allowed the
British to infiltrate his Siberian operation. He tells Gogol that
he no longer considers himself to be a KGB agent and is taunted
by one of the general's less cautious men, calling him a "physiological
freak." May Day arrives and lifts the man over her head in
a show of strength designed to frighten the Russians. They take
the hint and leave, but Gogol warns Zorin "No one ever leaves
the KGB."
Later, Zorin is chairing a meeting of his associates where he
outlines his plans he intends to create a world wide monopoly
on microchip production by destroying Silicon Valley. He wants
$100 million and half the net income from his associates in return
for a part in Project Main Strike. When one of the men objects
and decides to opt out of the scheme, he is taken outside by May
Day and sent down some stairs, A door opens at the bottom, the
steps vanish and the man is ejected into mid air the meeting,
it seems is being held aboard Zorin's airship. The meeting over,
the airship heads for San Francisco.
Also in San Francisco is Bond who has arranged to meet CIA agent
Chuck Lee in Chinatown, Lee tells him that Zorin has arrived in
town and identifies Bond's photograph of Conley. Mortner real
name Hans Glaub turns out to have been a Nazi doctor experimenting
with steroids in the concentration camps during the war. Most
of his experiments failed, though a few produced psychotic children
with "phenomenal IQs." After the war, Glaub was sheltered
by the Russians. Lee and Bond speculate that Zorin, who arrived
in the West at around the same time as Mortner dropped out of
sight, may be one of the steroid children. From a local fisherman,
Bond learns that the crab fishing fields near a Zorin oil pumping
station have been ruined and Bond decides he should take a closer
look.
That night, Bond uses diving gear to sneak up on the pumping
station. Nearby two figures are lurking beneath the pier using
an eavesdropping device. They hear Zorin and Conley discussing
Project Main Strike. Bond investigates the pumping device closer
and is almost killed when the gates are opened and he is nearly
sucked into a massive set of prop blades. He escapes by jamming
the propeller with his air tank and barely manages to get to the
surface alive. As Zorin's own divers begin to explore the pipe,
Bond escapes and sees May Day capture what appears to be a Russian
agent who has planted explosive devices on the pump. Believing
the man to be responsible for the breakdown of the pump, Zorin
has him fed into the blades and his mines are diffused.
Coming ashore, Bond is startled to discover another Russian agent,
Pola Ivanova, an old adversary. Ivanova has with her a tape recording
she made of Zorin's conversation with Conley. They return to her
hotel where they share a hot tub together and Bond seduces Ivanova.
Outside, a mysterious figure waits in a car...
Ivanova sneaks out while Bond is having a shower and joins the
man in the car who drives her off. He turns out to be Gogol who
wants to listen to the recording she made of Zorin. But Bond has
switched it for a tape of Japanese music and he is now listening
to the tape and learning for the first time of Project Main Strike.
The next day, Bond visits Howe at the Department of Conservation,
Divisions of Oil and Mines posing as a reporter from the "London
Financial Times." He wants to know more about Zorin and asks
why Zorin is pumping water into his pipeline and not pumping water
out. Howe assures him that it's perfectly normal procedure, to
test the integrity of the pipeline.
When leaving Howe's office, he spots the woman from the helicopter
trying to arrange a meeting with Howe. He waits for her in reception
and follows her to her home, a sprawling mansion beside the San
Andreas Lake Reservoir. Bond breaks into the house and is busy
exploring when he's confronted by the woman wielding a shotgun.
She accuses him of being "another Zorin stooge" and
tries to call the police. When she finds that the phone lines
have been cut, he realises that the house is being attacked by
Zorin's agents and takes the gun from the woman. Unfortunately,
it turns out to be loaded with nothing more lethal than rock salts
and Bond has to resort to his fists instead.
Having seen off the intruders, Bond still posing as a journalist
named Stock learns that the woman is Stacey Sutton, a geologist
who has information on Zorin that she's willing to share. Over
dinner which Bond cooks she tells of how Zorin took over her grandfather's
oil company and bankrupted her all she has left now are a few
shares and the house left to her by her grandfather. Sutton is
holding out against Zorin's pressures to buy her out. That night,
Sutton sleeps peacefully in her bed as Bond reconnects the phone,
then falls asleep in a chair while watching over her.
Bond is woken the next morning by a minor earth tremor and Sutton
is surprised to find that its epicentre is near Zorin's oil field.
She tells Bond that pumping sea water into the oil fields could
be catastrophic as the fields lie along the San Andreas fault
line. Sutton tries to get her boss, Howe, to stop Zorin but he
fires her instead.
That night, Lee pays a visit to Sutton's house where they discuss
what Zorin is up to. Zorin seems to be trying to start an earthquake,
but Sutton doesn't believe that his flooding the mine could have
any effect on Silicon Valley. Lee sets off to get more help but
is murdered in his car by May Day and Bond accompanies Sutton
back to the Department of Conservation where her pass manages
to get her past the night watchman. They're trying to discover
how many oil fields Zorin owns in the area to determine how much
damage he might be able to cause.
In the Department's file room, they find what they are looking
for, but are disturbed when Zorin and May Day burst in. They take
Bond and Sutton to Howe's office and asks him to call the police.
Zorin then outlines his plan to kill Bond he will kill both him
and Sutton and make it look as though they came here looking for
revenge over Sutton's firing. Zorin shoots Howe, then sets fire
to the building, trapping Bond and Sutton in a lift. As the fire
rages, threatening to burn through the elevator's suspension cables,
Bond effects an escape through the roof hatch. He pulls Sutton
free just as the elevator crashes to the basement.
Leaving Sutton in the elevator shaft, Bond clambers up to the
next floor and manages to force open the doors. He uses a fire
hose to rescue Sutton and together they flee the burning building.
Outside, the fire department have arrived and Bond is detained
by an over zealous police officer. Bond and Sutton escape, stealing
a fire engine and are pursued across the city by a number of police
cars. Bond brings chaos to the city as the chase causes numerous
crashes and pile ups. To make matters worse, Bond has to clamber
out on the fire engine's ladder which has come loose and try to
fasten it down. Eventually, Bond and Sutton escape by making a
daring jump across a partly open swing bridge, leaving the pursuers
stranded.
The next day, Bond and Sutton arrive at the supposedly abandoned
mine where Zorin is shipping in tons of high explosive. Commandeering
one of the explosives trucks, they disguise themselves as site
workers and manage to gain access to the mine by hiding in a rail
truck packed full of explosives. Inside, they find a massive operation
underway, overseen by Zorin himself. They see a huge explosive
device being primed by Zorin and moved into position in the mine
shaft.
In a small office, Sutton discovers a model of Zorin's plans
for Project Main Strike and they realise that he intends to cause
detonations beneath lakes along the San Andreas and Hayward faults,
causing them to flood. At the site of the mine is the "key
geological lock" that usually keeps the two faults from moving
at once. Bond realises that the massive bomb they saw is going
to be used to break that lock, causing a massive double earthquake.
He's timed the attack to coincide with the peak of the spring
tide which is due in less than an hour.
They are discovered by Zorin and his men and are forced to flee
into the mine, May Day, Flex and another of Zorin's assassins,
Pan Ho in pursuit. Zorin seals the mine so that no one can get
out while Bond and Sutton head deeper into the mine. Zorin detonates
the first wave of explosives, despite Conley's protestations that
May Day and the mine workers will all be killed. The San Andreas
lake above them is emptied into the mine and down into the fault
line, killing hundreds of mine workers and sweeping away Flex
and Pan Ho. From his position of safety, Zorin mercilessly guns
down fleeing workers as the tidal wave engulfs them.
Bond and Sutton have escaped the water by climbing up a ventilation
shaft, but May Day is onto them. She struggles with Bond and they
are both washed away by the flood, leaving Sutton clinging precariously
to a crumbling ladder. May Day, shocked that Zorin could have
betrayed her, joins forces with Bond as Zorin and Sutton both
make their separate ways to the surface.
Zorin and his henchmen, Dr Mortner and Scarpine, escape in the
Zorin airship while in the mine, Bond and May Day struggle to
dispose of the main bomb that will deactivate the geological key
and start the earthquakes. Zorin takes up position over Silicon
Valley while Bond and May Day move the bomb, which has been booby
trapped so that they can't deactivate it, out of the fault. They
mount it on a rail truck and May Day drives it out of the mine,
unable to leave the truck as the hand brake has slipped. As she
rides out into the open, Zorin's airship returns to the mine and
he sees May Day killed as the bomb explodes and his plans are
ruined.
Sutton, hiding in the hills above the mine, spots Bond but is
snatched by Zorin and whisked aboard the airship. Bond grabs one
of the mooring ropes and tries to clamber aboard the airship as
it climbs away. Zorin tries to dislodge him by flying low over
tall buildings, then tries to ram him against the supports of
the Golden Gate Bridge. But Bond instead secures the mooring rope
to the bridge, trapping the airship.
Bond is nearly pitched off the support as the airship struggles
to get away and Sutton attacks Zorin, causing him to lose control
of the ship and crash it into the bridge. Sutton knocks Scarpine
unconscious and jumps out of the airship, very nearly tumbling
to her death from the bridge. Zorin and Bond struggle hand to
hand and eventually, Zorin falls to his death. Mortner tries to
throw a bundle of explosives at Bond and Sutton, but Bond dislodges
the airship, causing Mortner to drop the explosive. As the airship
drifts away, it spectacularly explodes.
Back in London, General Gogol visits M and offers him an Order
of Lenin medal to give to Bond, the first time the honour has
ever been bestowed on a non Soviet citizen. The Russians are pleased
that Bond saved Silicon valley because "where would Russian
research be without it?"
But Bond is missing and Moneypenny is beside herself. Q is on
the case, using his robot surveillance device to explore Sutton's
house where, perhaps unsurprisingly, he finds Bond and Sutton
in the shower together, "cleaning up a few details."