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."