A View to Kill

A View to Kill is another Bond movie from the 80’s, and is Rodger Moore’s last appearance as British Secret Service Agent 007 (at this point he is in his late 50s and he looks it). This movie had a distinctive feel to it which was immediately noticeable from the beach-like music that was played during the opening sequence in which Bond was out skiing on a mountain while on a mission to recover a lost microchip. The theme song is by Duran Duran and interestingly there was a strong neon theme during the opening sequence. Again the whole mission begins due to the death of a fellow agent, 003, who died recovering the micro-chip that Bond found on his person. This time the main action of the film doesn’t take place in the ‘third world’ rather the main suspect is a French businessman named Zorin, who is praised by Bond’s superiors as being anti-communist. Later we find out he was a member of KGB but left them (hence their desire to be rid of him), we also find out that he is the result of a doctor’s genetic experiment in WWII concentration camps in Germany. The doctor tried to create super smart Jewish babies by experimenting on pregnant woman, the problem is that while they were intelligent they were also insane (which explains quite a bit about Zorin). Most of the action of this film takes place in France and in the U.S., the main ‘thug’ is actually a woman this time (in fact Zorin’s gang is all female), her name is May Day (reminds me a lot of Lex Luthor’s Mercy), she is a surprisingly strong African American woman, who in the end, when betrayed by Zorin, sacrifices her life to stop his plans, although while she was still ‘evil’ the hairdressers had a bit of fun and in one scene her hair was styled to look like devil’s horns. Bond’s gadgetes in this film include a Louie Vouiton device that can copy whatever was last written on top of a sheet of paper, a Sharper Image credit card shaped object that can unlock windows from the outside (I’m starting to wonder if the studio had needed some help funding this movie), a ring that takes pictures, and x-ray sunglasses (and Q plays around with a robot, but that doesn’t help Bond much).

Zorin has decided that in order for him to take over the production and distribution of micro-chips he must first rid himself of Silicone Valley. To do this he has found a way to create a giant earthquake which would eat up the entire area. He is, of course, stopped by Bond and his newfound friend and geologist Stacy Sutton. Of course we only learn this after Bond (and his accomplice who is later killed by May Day) discovers that the doctor (who in essence created Zorin) was using a natural horse steroid and the micro-chips to fix Zorin’s horses to win races. Bond was drawn to Zorin when the micro-chip he recovered had only leaked after Zorin took over the company and because his horses kept winning despite their unworthy bloodlines. Oddly by the end of the film Bond is offered an award by the KGB for his work in ridding them of Zorin, he is apparently the first non-Soviet to receive this award; of course he is a bit preoccupied by Stacy back in California at the time to accept.