A View to a Kill

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.

"May Day: [overlooking San Francisco bay from the zeppelin] What a view! Zorin: To a kill!"
 * Eighties Hair: All over the place, most notable being Grace Jones.
 * Action Girl: Oh, Lord, May Day. May Day.
 * 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."
 * Axe Crazy: Zorin, thanks to genetic engineering.
 * Bonus points for him actually wielding an axe in his climactic fight with Bond.
 * Badass Grandpa: Bond himself (Roger Moore was 58).
 * 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.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Max Zorin.
 * Board to Death: "Anyone else want to drop out?"
 * The Cameo: Patrick Macnee as sir Godfrey Tibbet.
 * 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.
 * Complexity Addiction: First time, Bond is held at gunpoint, knocked out, and left in a car as it sinks into a lake. Second time, he's left in a lift in a burning building. The second one, at least, is somewhat justified by Zorin wanting to Make It Look Like an Accident.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Max Zorin.
 * 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.
 * Curse Cut Short: Three times. Can be jarring compared to the Precision F Strikes during the chase scene.
 * Cute but Cacophonic: Stacy Sutton.
 * Danger Takes a Backseat: Two of Bond's allies meet their end in this manner.
 * Disney Villain Death:
 * The Dragon: May Day.
 * The Eighties
 * 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.
 * Faux Affably Evil: Zorin.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Goggles Do Something Unusual: Bond has glasses that allow him to see through polarized glass.
 * Go Out with a Smile:
 * begins to laugh just before
 * So does
 * Groin Attack: Bond smacks his crotch against a building's antenna.
 * Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Bond and Mayday's sex scene.
 * Heel Face Turn
 * Hot Amazon: May Day.
 * Hot Scientist: Stacy, who's supposedly a geologist.
 * Idiot Ball: We're told Zorin is extremely intelligent, which is why he uses a loaded pistol to force Bond to walk into the elaborate falling elevator trap of Doom. The fact that he is supposed to be so smart and doesn't take the direct route with killing Bond really messes with the Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
 * 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.
 * Large Ham: Christopher Walken as a Bond villain. Need we say more?
 * 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.
 * Last-Second Word Swap: "The bubbles are tickling my... Tchaikovski!"
 * Lemming Cops: The SFPD cops, who make the unwise decision to try to chase Bond when he's driving a stolen fire engine.
 * Mad Scientist:
 * May-December Romance: Roger Moore is older than actress Tanya Roberts' mother.
 * Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Using steroids in horse races -->
 * Mismatched Eyes: Max Zorin.
 * Nazi Grandpa:
 * 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.
 * Put the Laughter In Slaughter: Zorin, while taking an Uzi to scads of his own men.
 * Ramp Jump: Of the "opening bridge" variety. In a fire truck.
 * Red Herring:
 * Red Right Hand: Zorin's eyes are different colors because in Real Life Christopher Walken has two different-colored eyes.
 * 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.
 * Scary Black Man: Gender Flip. Would you want to bump into Grace Jones in a dark alley?
 * Some would say a big "YES!"
 * 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.
 * Shower of Love: Between Bond and Stacy at the end.
 * 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.
 * Theme Tune: With guitar riffs!
 * More notably, the only Bond theme tune to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The theme song is played by the band at the wedding Bond accidentally crashes.
 * Thrown From the Zeppelin: Trope namer, though not the most famous example.
 * Title Drop: An impossibly awkward one.


 * The Trickster: Roger Moore survives only by playing with Zorin's head.
 * Two-Person Pool Party:
 * And earlier on, Bond and Pola in a hot tub.
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Pola's bathrobe serves as the only thing she has to hide the tape.
 * 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!"
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: