The 14th James Bond film, starring Roger Moore in his last appearance (he was 57 years old - and it shows; no James Bond should have wrinkles). After a Zorin Industries computer chip is found in Siberia, Bond is sent to investigate the company at a horse show. Features Christopher Walken as a truly over the top villain and Grace Jones as one of the most genuinely creepy henchwomen of the series. Features Grace Jones jumping off the Eiffel Tower and an opening song by Duran Duran.The only thing this movie uses from the Ian Flemming short story "From A View To A Kill" are five words from the title and the Paris setting.
Contains examples of:
'80s Hair: All over the place, most notable being Grace Jones.
Ashes to Crashes: Stacey Sutton smashes a Priceless Ming Vase over the head of a baddie threatening Bond, before revealing it contains her grandfather's ashes. "He always loved a good fight."
Bad Boss: While they're completing work on the mine, Zorin orders the early detonation of some of the explosives, which will flood the mine and kill his own people. Then Zorin and his right-hand man grab a pair of machine guns and shoot the remainder. One of Zorin's lieutenants even protests that these men are completely loyal to him, which only serves to get himself killed as well.
Cat Scare: Occurs when Bond is creeping up the broad stairway of Stacy's house.
Cheaters Never Prosper: During a horse race between Bond and Zorin, Zorin uses remote-controlled hazards and goons to trip up Bond, and he still comes out ahead.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Zorin, Zorin, Zorin. He murders the Obstructive Bureaucrat in his pocket to frame Bond for the crime, machine guns his own men to death and blows up and floods the mine they were in kill anyone else who escapes his massacre, as well as two of his assistants and his own girlfriend. He's supposedly a KGB agent but after they helped set him up as a millionaire industrialist, he abandoned them too, and they hated him so much they gave Bond the Order of Lenin for foiling his scheme and killing him.
Covers Always Lie: See that image up there? Grace Jones is just 2 1/2 inches - 6 cm - shorter than Roger Moore. And considering she's wearing high heels makes it more unrealistic.
EMP: The MacGuffin for the first part of the movie is a computer chip that can withstand EMP, built by Zorn Industries — Bond is investigating how one of these chips ended up in the Soviet Union.
Even Evil Has Standards: Zorin prepares to flood the fault line, knowing full well he will be leaving his lackeys to die. One of his henchmen blasts him for this, citing the men's loyalty to him. Unfortunately for him, he becomes a victim as well. What's more, May Day is devastated at the death of her friends and the realization that Zorin left her to die is what makes her turn on him.
Fetish: Unlike most Bond villains, Zorin seems quite turned on at the thought of May Day sleeping with 007.
Fire Ax Crazy: Zorin goes after Bond with a hatchet in the final confrontation. He also seems to be having waaay too much fun gunning down his employees in the Main Strike mine. Justified since he's may well be the result of Nazi experiments to make a super soldier Gone Horribly Right.
Furo Scene: James Bond and KGB agent Pola Ivanova share a bath together at an oriental bathhouse in San Francisco.
Gay Paree: There's a scene in the Eiffel Tower, for cripes sake.
Heel Face TurnMayday. It's worth noting that it's not a High Heel Face Turn, since it wasn't Bond's charms that won her over. He was just her posthumous instrument of revenge.
Zorin's plan is to make it look as though Bond and Stacy died after being unable to escape the fire that they've set. That's why he doesn't shoot them—it would obviously be a murder.
In Name Only: Besides the Paris setting, the short story has nothing to do with the movie.
Indy Ploy: Zorin: "Intuitive improvisation is the spirit of genius"
Instant Convertible: This is one of the many mishaps that happen to Bond's Renault.
Kingpin In His Gym: We are treated to a scene of Zorin sparring with May Day.
The part was originally offered to David Bowie. It's really not too difficult to figure this tidbit out without even knowing about it, just by watching how Walken acts.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Christopher Walken plays Zorin with his usual accent, even though he's supposed to be the product of Nazi "experimentation".
To be fair, he's described as speaking several languages "with no accent", ie: like a native speaker.
Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: The unusual "Zorin is not a real company" blurb at the beginning — it seems there's at least two Real Life companies named Zoran, one of which is actually a chip maker.
Priceless Ming Vase: Played with. Bond and Stacey go through the familiar "don't-break-the-vase" fight scene, but after she ultimately uses it to knock out a Mook, she reveals it actually contains her grandfather's ashes.
Renegade Russian: Not a literal example of this trope, but in the same spirit — Zorin is a KGB agent who ditches his employers to carry out his mad scheme for world domination of the silicon chip industry.
Scenery Porn: San Francisco is shown in all its glory (as is Paris to a lesser extent). The end credits are basically a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Skeleton Key Card: Parodied. Bond pulls out a credit card to unlock a window, but after flipping it over we see that it's an electronic lockpick from The Sharper Image.
Soft Water: Subverted hard. Zorin dies by falling off of the Golden Gate bridge and is killed by the water.
We Have Reserves: After gunning down his own men, Zorin simply looks at his watch and says "Good. Right on schedule.".
What Measure Is a Mook?: After May Day bitterly pains over her henchmen being killed, Bond takes the time to look around at the cost in human life and states that Zorin betrayed a lot of people. One of the few times that Bond actually pauses to mourn the deaths of henchmen. Then again, most of the men who were killed weren't even henchmen. They were just working for the henchmen who were working for Zorin.
Woman Scorned: May Day. "And I thought that creep loved me!"
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