10 Things You Didn’t Know About A View to a Kill

I once heard that all good things must come to an end. And so it is true with Sir Roger Moore’s run as 007 with 1985’s A View to a Kill. Roger Moore is joined by Tanya Roberts, Christopher Walken and Grace Jones in the most microchip of all the James Bond movies.  I have viewed the film countless times, but I thought it would be killer to check out the audio commentary with director John Glen and members of the cast and crew on the DVD. I found out things I didn’t know, ten of them in fact and maybe you will also learn 10 Things You Didn’t Know About A View to a Kill.

1. A View to a Kill is the only James Bond film to start with a disclaimer. In this case, the movie wants to make sure you know that the antagonist Zorin (Walken) is not based on a real person. The production was worried about a silicon valley company with a similar sounding name and a fashion designer named Zoren.

2. The pre-credits ski chase features “California Girls” by The Beach Boys and that is thanks to director John Glen who thought it would add a humorous touch. It may seem out of place, but I do agree with Mr. Glen because I smile when I watch the scene. However, I will take Duran Duran’s “A View to a Kill” anyday. The first James Bond theme song to reach number 1.

3. Producer Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli is the one to thank for A View to a Kill getting to film in places not normally kind to filming. Royal Ascot always said no to filming at the famed racecourse, but Cubby got’em.

4. Filming in the streets of Paris and in and on the Eiffel Tower were no easy feat, but A View to a Kill somehow got permission to allow stuntman B.J. Worth to parachute off the top.  The restaurant with the butterfly show was filmed in Pinewood and was thanks to a French hotelier that entertained the production and so mesmerized John Glen he needed it in the movie.

5. Zorin’s equine estate is the famed Chantilly near Paris. Zorin actually is incorrect when he says it dates from the 16th century as it is actually from the 18th century. He is correct in that the duke who founded believed he was to be reincarnated, just that it should be as donkey and not as a horse as Zorin says.

6. Patrick Macnee has a small role as Tibbet, well he thought it was small, but Cubby Broccoli didn’t and made sure he was credited with a starring role. Filming Tibbet’s death scene gave Macnee an irrational fear of car washes, but he does think that garroted is a lovely word. A bonus thing is that the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud he was driving was Cubby Broccoli’s personal Rolls Royce. Another one was used for the underwater scene.

7. San Francisco was very accommodating to A View to a Kill as future longtime U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein was the mayor at the time and keen to see the movie biz pump money into her city. She even let the production set City Hall ablaze, of course it was done safely with propane. Only the tax department got some damage because they left the window open, so nobody that anyone cared about got hurt. The San Francisco fire department was very helpful with the use of one of their trucks for the top notch chase. However, there was a small internal fight among the firefighters as to who would get to carry Stacey Sutton (Roberts) down the ladder.

8. Zorin’s airship was white with a green and red design because it matches the Fujifilm airship that was filmed as test footage in San Francisco. Test footage that made its way into the actual movie. Filming was also done on the actual Golden Gate Bridge, but also with a full size and several smaller size replicas at Pinewood.

9. The draining of the California lake was actually just filmed at an estuary in the West Country of England where the tides are extreme enough to make it look like a lake was drained.. All they had to do was add an explosion and some fish and movie magic.

10. The finale in the mine was filmed at Pinewood, but it had to be scaled back and delayed thanks to the Ridley Scott directed Legend burning down the famed 007 Stage. They originally wanted to flood the entire set, but had to settle for some flooding and some miniatures after the stage was rebuilt and christened the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage… only to catch on fire again in 2006.