Trivia - A View To A Kill

"A View To A Kill" is an abridged title derived from the Ian Fleming short story "From A View To A Kill". The title and the story's French setting and some Russian spies are the only common story elements of the film and the short story. The short story was included in the "For Your Eyes Only" short story anthology which was the first collection of Ian Fleming James Bond short stories. This was first published on 11 April 1960. The collection was subtitled "Five Secret Occasions in the life of James Bond" and was the eighth James Bond book. Working titles for the story included "The Rough with the Smooth" and "Murder Before Breakfast". The name of the Bond girl in the short story was Mary Ann Russell but this name was not used for the film.

In 1959, The "London Daily News" published an original Ian Fleming short story (conceived as a plot for an abandoned James Bond TV show) called "Murder Before Breakfast". Fleming felt the title did not capture the essence of the story and re-titled it "From A View To A Kill" when it was included in his "For Your Eyes Only" collection of five James Bond stories in 1960. 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.

This is the only James Bond movie to have the title from an Ian Fleming work be amended or changed in some way. The source title which is from the "For Your Eyes Only" collection of short stories was called "From a View to a Kill". This was also this movie's working title, as seen in the end credits of Octopussy, but the word "From" was dropped before filming began in May 1984.

The film's story is considered a re-working of much of the story structure of the earlier movie "Goldfinger". The two films share many similar story elements.

The idea to set the story in California's Silicon Valley was a concept conceived by producer and co-writer Michael G. Wilson. In the first draft, Zorin wanted to destroy Silicon Valley by changing the course of the Halley Comet, but it was later decided that this plot was not believable.

Two scenes in the shooting script never made it to the finished film: 1) After Bond has been arrested following his destructive pursuit of May Day through Paris, we were to have seen Bond being released from his prison cell and collecting his belongings at the police station front desk. The desk sergeant played by Albert Simons would have handed Bond his collection of gadgets, singing his eyebrows on a cigarette lighter that concealed a powerful oxy-acetylene torch. 2) The second excised scene formed part of Bond's reconnaissance of Zorin's pumping station. Bond was due to have used the electronic snooping device created by Q [seen only briefly in the finished film, once when Bond arrives to see M and again when Q uses it to locate Bond and Stacey in the shower]. When the device is threatened by guard dogs, it sprays them, skunk-like, with a noxious liquid, and then gets stuck in a tunnel. Q later berates Bond for deserting "a fellow agent in the field."

This was Lois Maxwell's final appearance as Miss Moneypenny. After she was told that she would be retiring from the role, she thought that she could become the M character as a promotion. However, at the time producer Albert R. Broccoli believed that audiences would not accept James Bond being given orders by woman. The M character did become a lady a decade later when Judi Dench took on the role in "GoldenEye".

Anthony Chinn as a Taiwanese Tycoon previously played a SPECTRE Guard in "You Only Live Twice" and was an uncredited Servant at Auric Stud Farm in "Goldfinger". Manning Redwood as Bob Conley had previously played General Miller in "Never Say Never Again".

Roger Moore celebrated his 57th birthday during filming, making him the oldest actor to play Bond. Sean Connery was 52 in "Never Say Never Again".

Roger Moore had some cosmetic surgery before filming began to remove a facial mole.

The description of Max Zorin in the script was based on Sting, and written with David Bowie in mind, but he turned the film down in favor of "Labyrinth". Christopher Walken became the first Academy Award-winning actor to star in a Bond film.

Tanya Roberts got the role after Albert R. Broccoli saw her in "The Beastmaster".

First cinema feature of Alison Doody.

Jean Rougerie is dubbed.

Maud Adams makes a cameo as a woman in the crowd at Fisherman's Wharf. Adams happened to be visiting San Francisco when the film was in production there. Roger Moore got her to appear as an uncredited extra in a crowd scene, making her the only actress to appear in 3 Bond films (excluding actresses in recurring roles), after "The Man with the Golden Gun" and "Octopussy".

Michael G. Wilson can be heard over the loudspeaker at San Francisco City Hall.

Although only appearing very briefly, this movie is Dolph Lundgren's first on-screen role, playing General Gogol's KGB bodyguard Venz. He landed the position because he was dating Grace Jones at the time of the filming, and was conveniently on set when director John Glen realized he quickly needed someone to fill in as a simple gun wielding body guard.

The name of the character Achille Aubergine translates as "Achilles Eggplant."

Bond beds 4 women in this film, which is a tie for the most (at time of release) with the unofficial "Never Say Never Again".

The opening sequence of this film is the first time 007 is depicted on a mission inside Russia. Specifically, it was the snow-capped region of Siberia inside Russia (which was actually filmed in Iceland). None of the principal cast ever went to Iceland for this film, not even Roger Moore.

The Eiffel Tower features prominently in the movie. In the earlier film "Moonraker", it is mentioned that the villain Hugo Drax actually bought the structure but his application to transport the tower was refused. Paris was also seen in the opening scenes of "Thunderball" which included a long-shot of the Eiffel Tower.

Stacy Sutton's villa mansion, Whitewood House, was in fact Oakland California's Dunsmuir House.

This is the only James Bond movie where the famous spy genre catchphrase "Nobody ever leaves the KGB" is heard. It is said by General Gogol (Walter Gotell).

Despite it being Bond's best-known catchphrase, "The name's Bond. James Bond." only appears in full in this movie and "Casino Royale". All other Bond films have only used "Bond. James Bond."

The Remy-Julienne Stunt Team from France did many of the stunts in this movie, but in the San Francisco segment, a scene in which Roger Moore was supposed to be driving a fire truck, the stunt driver was too short to reach the pedals and properly operate the truck. There wasn't much time to 'rig' the truck so Moore volunteered to drive it himself, quite expertly as noted by the local San Francisco Teamsters. Moore was a lorry driver among other things before his acting paid the bills, and had undergone training to drive a double decker bus for "Live And Let Die".

Just before the jump off the Eiffel Tower stunt was to be undertaken, two thrill-seeking members of the public made an unauthorized jump off Paris' famous landmark. It has long been a dare, lark and thrill for people to jump off famous structures without permission. The first of the film's jumps was so successful that the second jump was canceled thereby eliminating any further risk, cost and time. However, as mentioned in Inside 'A View to a Kill', two of the crew, including Don 'Tweet' Caltvedt, allegedly went and made an unauthorized jump as they were apparently so disappointed that they didn't get to jump off the Eiffel Tower. The non-permitted stunt jump cost them their jobs as it jeopardized the remaining filming of the shoot in the French capital.

The Eiffel Tower jump was made from a platform extending out into air which was necessary in order to perform the stunt. The platform was painted the same color as the Eiffel Tower and it can still be seen in the final film's footage.

The fishing-butterfly-hook-marionette kill in the Eiffel Tower restaurant was an unused concept from "Moonraker", where it would have been a poisonous bee brooch. Director John Glen suggested the change from bee to butterfly.

When Grace Jones as May Day screams during the mine sequence when sparks fly around her, her screams are for real. She did not know that electric cables around her would go off as a special effect for the scene.

To cut costs, the production only painted one side of the full-size model of Max Zorin's blimp.

The color scheme of red, white and green of the Zorin airship was based on the Fuji Airship logo color scheme. This is because during a location scout, actual footage was used from this in the finished movie, and the long shots had to match the close-ups.

Roger Moore's hair had to be thickened every day during filming.

Filming was delayed when the "007 Stage" at Pinewood Studios burned down on 27 June 1984. It was totally rebuilt in less than four months, and renamed "The Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage". The stage burnt down again in July 2006 just after filming had been completed on "Casino Royale".

James Bond utilized two aliases in this movie. The first alias was as James St. John Smythe whilst visiting Zorin's horse sales. The second alias was as journalist James Stock (a pun on stocks and bonds) of the London Financial Times whilst in San Francisco. In neither case did he use a disguise.

The name on the cat's bowl is PUSSY. This was a nod to one of the most ever popular Bond girl's name, Pussy Galore.

When Bond first talks with Chuck Lee near the boat, a horn sounds the first notes of the James Bond theme.

The disclaimer, "Neither the name Zorin nor any other name or character in this film is meant to portray a real company or actual person" was added after producers discovered a real company known as Zoran Ladicorbic Ltd. Their industry was fashion design.

The Swedish release of the film subtitled the line "What a view...To a kill" as "What a view...Yeah, Tokyo."

The title song for this film, "Dance Into the Fire (A View To A Kill)", was the last song recorded by the rock group Duran Duran before the band briefly split up. John Barry reportedly didn't like the producers' idea of having a pop-rock band performing the title song. According to the sleeve notes for this movie's CD soundtrack, as a joke, composer Barry used the melody from this song in the score for the scene where James Bond and Stacy Sutton escape from the fire in San Francisco City Hall. The leader singer, Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran, shares a surname with Sir Otto Le Bon, ancestor of James Bond mentioned in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. At the end of the music video for this song, Simon Le Bon says: "Bon. Simon Le Bon" like the famous Bond catchphrase of the film series, "Bond. James Bond". Coincidentally, the Danish title for the earlier James Bond movie Thunderball was actually called "Agent 007 Into The Fire."

The title theme is the only ever James Bond song to reach #1 in the USA. It stayed at the top position for two weeks out of its seventeen week run in the charts. It entered both the UK and USA charts on 18 May 1985 and it peaked at No. #2 in the UK charts. The soundtrack album charted in the UK on 22 June 1985 where it went to No. #81. In the USA, the soundtrack album peaked at No. #38 after entering the charts on 29 June 1985.

This film is often credited with helping to spark the interest in snowboarding due to its use in the pre-credits opening action snow sequence. The The Beach Boys song "California Girls" can be briefly heard as an in-joke when James Bond snowboards. The song however does not feature on the soundtrack album, as the film used a cover version to save expense on the rights to the original recording.

Two classical pieces of music are excerpted in the movie. The piece of classical music heard during the French château sequence was Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" (Italian title is Le quattro stagioni). The piece of music heard during the hot tub sequence was classical music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Neither piece of music though is included on the movie's soundtrack album as they are only excerpted for the movie.

First James Bond movie where Michael G. Wilson, stepson of Albert R. Broccoli, is credited as a fully-fledged producer. He had previously been an executive producer on Moonraker, "For Your Eyes Only" and "Octopussy" and a special assistant to the producer on "The Spy Who Loved Me". His association with the James Bond series started with "Goldfinger" in which he was a 3rd assistant director and made an appearance, the cameo becoming a tradition regularly from "The Spy Who Loved Me". He was also a scriptwriter for the series on five occasions. This was also the first Bond film that Broccoli shared a producer's credit with anyone besides original Bond co-producer Harry Saltzman.

Product placements, brand integrations and promotional tie-ins for this movie include Renault Automobiles; Michelin Tyres; Stolichnaya Vodka; BP; Phillips Computers; Phillips Electronics; Lafite Rothschild wine; The Sharper Image; Cartier; Bollinger Champagne, particularly a Bollinger '75; Diner's Club; Chevron Oil USA; Seiko Time (U.K.) Ltd.; and Whiskas.

First James Bond movie to have an associated video game produced tied-in with it. The game had two versions, one was called James Bond 007: A View to a Kill and the other A View to a Kill. Though there had been a James Bond video game produced prior to it called James Bond 007, this was the first to have a Bond film's name which was also the name of the video game. A video game called "James Bond as seen in Octopussy" had been developed in 1984 by Capcom and Parker Brothers for the previous film Octopussy. It was designed for the Atari 2600/5200, Commodore 64 and ColecoVision platforms but was never released.

Vehicles featured included two Zorin airship blimps, one with green and white and the other with green, red and white markings, the larger being a SkyShip 6000 and the smaller is marked G-BIHN and was inflatable from a Portakabin; a 1962 silver Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II chauffeured by Tippett but owned by the producer; a 1984 blue Renault 11 TXE French taxi; a Peugeot 604 limousine; a 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limousine (used by Zorin's thugs), a 1985 Ford LTD US sedan; a truck carrying explosives; a red American LaFrance Tiller Fire Engine Truck belonging to the San Francisco Fire Department; a MBB Bo-105 helicopter; Stacy's Jeep Cherokee XJ; Pola's 1984 General Motors Chevrolet Corvette C4 hire-car; Polaris Indy 600 snowmobiles; an Aerospatiale SA 341/342 Gazelle helicopter; an Iceberg Mini-Submarine and various makes and models for the San Francisco PD squad and patrol cars such as late 1970s Dodge Monacos, Dodge Diplomats, a Plymouth Volaré and vehicles typical of Mopar Squads, the latter being the only James Bond movie ever to feature them.

The 1962 silver Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II seen in the film was actually owned by producer Albert R. Broccoli, who lent it to the production. Its license plate number in the film was 354 HYK. A duplicate model without an engine is used when Zorin and May Day push it into the lake.

Four novelizations based on this movie were written and published in 1985 as part of a series of children's' book tie-ins called "Find Your Fate". The novels were called (in order): Find Your Fate #11: James Bond in Win, Place, or Die; Find Your Fate #12: James Bond in Strike It Deadly; Find Your Fate #13: James Bond in Programmed for Danger and Find Your Fate #14: James Bond in Barracuda Run.

The literal translations of some this film's foreign language titles include include Moving Target (Italy); Dangerously Yours (Canada & France); A Panorama To Kill (Spain); Dangerous Mission (Belgium); Operation: Moving Target (Greece); In The Face of Death (West Germany); Murder In The Eyes (Hebrew/Israel); The Beautiful Prey (Japan); Living Target (Sweden); 007: In The Aim Of The Assassins (or 007 At The Aim Of The Killers) / The Preview To A Death (Latin America); 007 In The Target Of The Assassins (Portugal and Brazil); 007 And A View Of Death (or 007 And The Look of Death) (Finland) and Agent 007 In The Line Of Fire (Denmark)

Dianne Feinstein was the mayor of San Francisco at the time of filming. Roger Moore was her favorite of the first three actors to play Bond, so she granted all the necessary permits to film in the city. Because of the unprecedented level of co-operation from the San Francisco authorities, producer Albert R. Broccoli insisted that the film's premiere take place in the city. It was held at the Palace of Fine Arts, and was the series' first World Premiere to be in the USA.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors forbade any falling stunt (as per "The Spy Who Loved Me", "Moonraker" and "For Your Eyes Only") from the Golden Gate Bridge in fear of copy-cat suicides. As such, the death of Zorin was created by special optical effects.

The Gala Charity Premiere Benefit was held in aid of the (San Francisco's) Mayor's Youth Fund to benefit the Tenderloin Child Care Center. A Benefit Premiere was also held in Los Angeles on the following night on 23rd May 1985. The British and European Gala Royal Charity Premiere was held on 12 June 1985 at London's Odeon Leicester Square Theatre. The after-premiere party was held at the Inner Temple Hall.

As reported by trade paper Variety on 26 November 1985. whilst this movie was still in release in some territories, Roger Moore had officially advised producer Albert R. Broccoli that he would be retiring from the role of James Bond. Afterwards, Moore said that he decided to end his run as James Bond when he realized that Tanya Roberts's mother was younger than he was.

The British Board of Film Classification asked that two kicks to the crotch and some blatant nudity in the opening titles be excised in order to secure a PG rating.

The cuts made to the film by the BBFC exist in all worldwide prints as of 2006.

This is the last film in the series that long time stunt man Bob Simmons would work on. He died in 1988.

First Bond film to not state the title of the next Bond film during the ending credits.