Hacker Cinema
A View to a Kill
1985 · Film · 131 min
Part of James Bond Collection
Directed by John Glen
A newly-developed microchip designed by Zorin Industries for the British Government that can survive the electromagnetic radiation caused by a nuclear explosion has landed in the hands of the KGB. James Bond must find out how and why. His suspicions soon lead him to big industry leader Max Zorin who forms a plan to destroy his only competition in Silicon Valley by triggering a massive earthquake in the San Francisco Bay.
1 positive1 negative9 neutralfrom 11 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
11 comments on Hacker News
Cool article - I was sad to see 'View to a Kill' called the worst Bond film as I must have seen 500 times as a child, it was always on TV.
“A View to a Kill (1985)” The database does not recognise when the movie name is spoken by 2 people. In this movie 1 character begins the sentence “what a view…” and a 2nd character completes the line: “…to a kill”.
Could we say this is the "Manhattan or Apollo 11 Project for Chips"? For its articulation.
BTW, about this topic, I always recall "A View To Kill" James Bond's (1985) movie [1]. The top hit in the soundtrack from Duran Duran [2] is also recommended and playing in radios even today. Seems like Intel passed the torch long time ago but don't forget to read the mantra book: "Only the Paranoid Survive" [3].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_View_to_a_Kill
[2] https://open.spotify.com/track/6I4snLrVOrJsLdd43isc27?si=7ba0c55e669d4747
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove#Books
I've never really been a bond fan, but of course the craig era eschews much of the almost 100% of the camp of previous generations. Except (and you'll need to pardon me, i've seen each of these movies at most once and they don't really stick in my brain at all) maybe the villan who's face had been eaten by acid or something, it's not jawz or oddjob levels of camp but it's getting there.
Earlier bonds i've seen a few here and there but missed many. Like I've seen moonraker, but never thunderball, view to a kill but not goldeneye, octopussy but not never say never again. I couldn't tell you what any of the plots were (other than i'm pretty sure they go to a moon base in moonraker) or which villan goes with which film. Bond, to me, has always been kind of a mystery to me, how do these terrible films keep getting made?
I will also say that 'yes' to thor rangnarok, no to 'love and thunder' which i thought got mired in too many plots and had too many inappropriately timed jokes. Like do the Jane arc or do the Gor arc, but if you do either right they don't both fit in the film. So instead they opted to do a half assed version of each.
I haven't read James Fleming's book but would like to. I'm glad that the review does not explicitly claim that James Bond fights the Communists, something so often asserted by people who don't know what they're talking about. Ian Fleming created SPECTRE because he thought that the Cold War might end soon, and so wanted a nonpolitical opponent for Bond.
In the films, the USSR is Bond's opponent only in For Your Eyes Only. Red China is the silent backer in Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, but Auric Goldfinger and SPECTRE are the real enemies, and Thunderball establishes that SPECTRE is willing to work for anyone (including Western powers). Max Zorin in A View to a Kill, General Orlov in Octopussy, and Gustav Graves in Die Another Day are explicitly rogue agents.
The fact that he’s known seems to be inconsistent throughout the movies. Tiffany Case apparently knew who he was but not what he looked like, but a lot of other people had to look him up after giving his real name.
He also does have a cover in some films, like St John Smythe in A View to a Kill
A recreation of Stacey's Apple IIc program from the 1985 James Bond film A View To A Kill. Written in Applesoft Basic for the Apple II. Video available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGVfwEEjRfs
A similar project recreated the Apple IIc computer program from the 1985 James Bond film, A View to a Kill:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YGVfwEEjRfs
Works great on a IIe, as well!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/blakespot/49838052551/in/album-72157609631794748/
I had particularly strong memories of that movie and that Apple //c scene. I was compelled to share some of them in a blog post about Max’s achievement. What an effort he put in!
https://bytecellar.com/2020/04/29/apple-c-scene-from-80s-bond-film-a-view-to-a-kill-perfectly-re-created-with-applesoft-basic/
"For Your Eyes Only" will always stand out to me as the highest quality Bond movie he did. They were trying to take the franchise back from being too many gadgets -- I think it worked well. Love the ski chase scene.
That said, I still think "A View to a Kill" is the most enjoyable campy Bond movie.
Pretty similar to the plot of A View to a Kill[1] too (an okay Jame Bond movie set in Silicon Valley back when it was aptly named).
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_View_to_a_Kill