Would this have been a better climax to A View to A Kill?
ironpony
Posts: 57MI6 Agent
SPOILERS FROM THE MOVIE
In the movie Mayday is set up as a dangerous physical threat you don't want to mess with, so I was kind if disappointed that the filmmakers threw that set up away in the end.
I think it would have been a better ending if instead of Zorin betraying Mayday, it would be the other way around, and Mayday would betray Zorin, and leave him to die, along with everyone else, who isn't dead yet.
The other henchmen of course, would have to be on it too. So then after Zorin realizes he has been betrayed, he would then sacrifice himself to get the bomb out of there, and foil the plan.
Then Bond can still have a fight with Mayday on the Golden Gate bridge, instead of Zorin, and we still get see Mayday as a physical challenge, for Bond to save himself and Stacey from. What do you think?
In the movie Mayday is set up as a dangerous physical threat you don't want to mess with, so I was kind if disappointed that the filmmakers threw that set up away in the end.
I think it would have been a better ending if instead of Zorin betraying Mayday, it would be the other way around, and Mayday would betray Zorin, and leave him to die, along with everyone else, who isn't dead yet.
The other henchmen of course, would have to be on it too. So then after Zorin realizes he has been betrayed, he would then sacrifice himself to get the bomb out of there, and foil the plan.
Then Bond can still have a fight with Mayday on the Golden Gate bridge, instead of Zorin, and we still get see Mayday as a physical challenge, for Bond to save himself and Stacey from. What do you think?
Comments
Roger Moore 1927-2017
They would have to write in a reason for Mayday and his men to betray Zorin, if they were to go that route for sure. But I thought that Bond could just use his brains to defeat Mayday. It's like how he couldn't defeat Jaws, but he had to use his brains to think of the metal detector or something. Or with Oddjob, how he had to think of a way to kill him that Oddjob, wouldn't see coming. So I thought Bond would just do something like that and use his brain.
all Bond needs to do is to let her fall of the bridge first, same as Walken did, he doesn't need to be stronger for that ... now Jaws probably would have survived that fall, don't know about Jones
here is the recent "who'd win a fight" thread referenced by others above: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/49669/how-would-bond-have-fared-in-a-fight-with-mayday/
this is a new topic though, far's I know
I think Jaws was just very lucky for some reason in MR and had he fallen off GG he wouldve been killed imo.
Yeah, I haven't seen A View to a Kill yet either.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Still wanted to see her and Bond have a fight though, considering her physical threat. Maybe they could have before Zorin betrayed her.
I have some questions about the plot of A View to a Kill that I don't understand though, and might be plot holes.
SPOILERS
1. How did Gogol know that Zorin eliminated Bond, when he went to confront Zorin about it? Zorin wouldn't have told Gogol about it, since he know longer considers himself a KGB agent, as he put it. So how would Gogol have found out? Does he have a spy working in Zorin's organization who was there when Zorin tried to drown Bond?
If this is so, then why didn't Zorin immediately become suspicious of his own group, after Gogol confronted him about it? Zorin is just relaxed and doesn't suspect anything of why Gogol would know about that.
2. How did Bond know that Zorin went to San Francisco? Bond had to stay underwater till Zorin left, so did he catch up with Zorin later, and tracked him to San Francisco somehow? If so, this is not shown.
3. When Mayday says "What a view", and Zorin says "To a kill", I don't understand his response. What does a good view of San Francisco have to do with a kill?
I can't answer number 1, but for 2, Zorin is travelling in a "Zorin" labelled blimp. He can't travel in secret in that blimp. There's probably a public record of where it's going, so it's not difficult to track.
For 3, Mayday and Zorin are killers, and both really get pleasure out of killing. They have some killing to do, and they both just killed someone.
But why didn't the agent just detonate the bomb and take Zorin out with him? I mean he knows that Zorin is not going to let him live and that he is going to die, and Zorin just hanged him his own bomb. So why didn't he just take Zorin out with him?
Fleming's title came from a 19th century song called D'ye Ken John Peel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Peel_(huntsman)
the relevant verse goes thus:
I think they simply thought the title was too long or they had some sort of rights issues.
(PROOF: https://youtu.be/Ow1ULkAdolY?t=1m46s)
The agent's wishful thinking. Normal people will do anything to save their life. He SHOULD understand that he's already dead and might as well kill himself and take out Zorin, but a person's instinct is to first try to save his life and not kill himself because he still thinks there's a chance he can get away. After all, it always seems to work for Bond. Later on in the film, Mayday is happy to kill herself to take down Zorin, but she's not a normal person.
-Its possible he overheard a guest at Zorins party talking about that Zorin was going away to SF and became suspicious (Bond is a spy after all and pays attention to details that might be overlooked by others)
3. When Mayday says "What a view", and Zorin says "To a kill", I don't understand his response. What does a good view of San Francisco have to do with a kill?
-They have a similar inside joke in TLD : "I must have scared the living daylights out of her !"
Bond-Oh...Texas? (*click*)
Man-Frisco (as in San Francisco)
After he did some research he found that he escaped from a mine after some workers got killed inside of it. He had to go to Frisco for him as Zorin couldn't be far away, him being integral for Main Strike, but Bond didn't know that yet.
as opposed to the "what a view!" "to a kill!" dialog, which does not occur in Fleming and does not make sense within the dialog of the film
While Bond has to save the day largely on his own - I would've enjoyed all three chasing him down and Mayday getting involved a bit more in wiping him out (FYEO revenge styles).
While I enjoy the mine scenes and GG finale fight, I do find the fact that nothing much happens with the flooding or earthquakes etc., a bit low budget and stuffy. I wish there was slightly more scale to AVTAK other than fitting around locations.
I f'ing love AVTAK!
"Better make that two."
Ranking Moore's climax scenes, best to worst...
1. AVTAK
2. TMWTGG
3. FYEO
4. OP
5. LALD
6. TSWLM
7. MR
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Lazenby 5. Craig 6. Brosnan
What if Dr. Mortner had long passed away and Zorin wanted to do something he would have been so proud of him for when he came up with Project Main Strike? So let's say May Day assisted her boss and lover in the mass murder of everybody else, except Scarpine, who took the place of Mortner getting the blimp set up for Zorin and May Day. Somehow Bond gets the bomb out safely before it explodes and it plays out with Stacey abducted and Bond grabbing the rope to hitch a ride.
When Bond tries the rope to the Golden Gate Bridge, Zorin gets knocked out, May Day orders Scarpine to get Bond, Stacey knocks him out and May Day follows her grabbing the axe. Then Zorin wakes up to behold May Day vainly trying to climb back up the slippery structure. He shouts "MAY DAY! MAY DAY!" and she reacts with a mad laugh upon hearing him call out her name before she falls to her death.
Finally the ending goes as in the original with Zorin enraged firing his gun at Bond who ducks for cover till the bullets are gone and as Bond takes the axe loosing the blimp so that Zorin loses his balance and is blown up wrestling with Scarpine over the lighted stick of dynamite.
On another note somebody else posted about whether or not Jaws would have survived this fall. I don't think it likely. I have seen while perusing the internet that the Golden Gate Bridge has signs warning people that the consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic. Very few jumpers have survived the fall and that is from the point of standard access where those who walk across or perhaps may be able to pull over and exit their vehicles sometimes climb over the safety rails. How much more surely fatal and tragic must be the point from which Zorin fell. Think about it.
Admittedly some of the things Jaws has survived are pretty exaggerated, especially in Moonraker. But maybe there could be a fishing boat passing conveniently under the bridge with a large enough catch of fish to cushion the impact for Jaws, like the circus net in the pre-title sequence of Moonraker. But I'm sure we can agree that the fate of Dario in Licence To Kill is definitely at least one thing that not even Jaws could get back up from. Though of course with his size and strength, he would probably have succeeded in unfortunately taking Dalton's Bond through the shredder with him.
Interesting that your two best choices are AVTAK and TMWTGG both of which I've heard suffer heavy criticism from some other Bond fans as Roger Moore's worst film entries. Personally I think AVTAK is awesome, though perhaps TMWTGG may be lacking the usual excitement and action packed-ness of he rest of the series. But even so you simply must love little Nick Nack.
The cart transporting the bomb makes it out of the mine, no problem. The bomb explodes in the exact same position as where it already existed. Zorin is extremely angry.
Then, I would go for three possible endings.
1. Zorin sees May Day and Bond emerge from the mine, and shoots May Day dead. What we already know happens next.
2. May Day and Bond emerge from the mine, see Zorin grab Stacey, and both grab ropes to the airship. At the GGB, May Day engages in the fight. She is killled by either Scarpine or Zorin, or gets blown up helping Bond and Stacey.
3. May Day makes it with Bond to the Bridge climax and takes out Scarpine. She also kills Mortner and defuses the dynamite, while Bond takes out Zorin as normal. She then goes her separate ways from Bond and Stacey.
Take your pick which ending you would have.