For Your Eyes Only (film)

The twelfth film in the James Bond franchise produced by Eon Productions, For Your Eyes Only was written by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson, based on two Ian Fleming short stories "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico". In the plot, Bond attempts to locate a missile command system while becoming tangled in a web of deception spun by rival Greek businessmen along with Melina Havelock, a woman seeking to avenge the murder of her parents. Some writing elements were inspired by the novels Live and Let Die, Goldfinger and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.


After the science fiction-focused Moonraker, the producers wanted a return to the style of the early Bond films and the works of 007 creator Fleming. For Your Eyes Only followed a grittier, more realistic approach and a narrative theme of revenge and its consequences rather than the fantasy narrative of Moonraker. Filming locations included Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom, while underwater footage was shot in the Bahamas. Sheena Easton performed the title theme song.


For Your Eyes Only was released in the UK on 24 June 1981 and in the US two days later; it received a mixed to positive critical reception. The film's reputation has improved over time, with reviewers praising the more serious tone in comparison to previous entries in the series. The film was a financial success, generating $195.3 million worldwide. This was the final Bond film to be distributed solely by United Artists; the company was absorbed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon after this film's release.

Plot[edit]

The British information gathering vessel St Georges, which holds the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), the system used by the Ministry of Defence to co-ordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of Polaris submarines, is sunk after accidentally trawling an old naval mine in the Ionian Sea. A marine archaeologist, Sir Timothy Havelock, is asked by the British to secretly locate the St Georges. However, he and his wife are then murdered on their yacht (the Triana) by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales. Sir Timothy Havelock's daughter, Melina Havelock, witnesses the murders and vows revenge.


The head of the KGB, General Gogol, has also learned of the fate of the St Georges and already notified his contact in Greece. MI6 agent James Bond is ordered by the Minister of Defence, Sir Frederick Gray, and MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner to retrieve the ATAC before the Soviets since the transmitter could order attacks by the submarines' Polaris ballistic missiles. Bond goes to Spain to find out who hired Gonzales.


While spying on Gonzales's villa, Bond is captured by his men, but escapes as Gonzales is killed by a crossbow bolt. Outside, he finds the assassin was Melina and the two escape. With the help of Bond, Q uses computerised technology to identify the man Bond saw paying off Gonzales as Emile Leopold Locque, and then goes to Locque's possible base in Cortina, Italy. There Bond meets his contact, Luigi Ferrara, and a well-connected Greek business magnate and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos, who tells Bond that Locque is employed by Milos Columbo, known as "the Dove" in the Greek underworld, Kristatos's former resistance partner during the Second World War. After Bond goes with Kristatos's protégée, figure skater Bibi Dahl, to a biathlon course, a group of three men, which includes East German biathlete Eric Kriegler, chases Bond, trying to kill him. Bond escapes and then goes with Ferrara to bid Bibi farewell in an ice rink, where he fends off another attempt on his life by three men in ice hockey gear. Ferrara is killed in Bond's car, with a dove pin in his hand. Bond then travels to Corfu in pursuit of Columbo.


There, at the casino, Bond meets Kristatos and asks how to meet Columbo, not knowing that Columbo's men are secretly recording their conversation. After Columbo and his mistress, Countess Lisl von Schlaf, argue, Bond offers to escort her home with Kristatos's car and driver. The two then spend the night together. The next morning, Lisl and Bond are ambushed on the beach and Lisl is killed by Locque, who mows her down in a beach buggy before speeding away. Bond is captured by Columbo's men before Locque can kill him; Columbo then tells Bond that Locque was actually hired by Kristatos, who is working for the KGB to retrieve the ATAC. Bond accompanies Columbo and his crew on a raid on one of Kristatos's opium-processing warehouses in Albania, where Bond uncovers naval mines similar to the one that sank the St Georges, suggesting it was not an accident. After the base is destroyed, Bond chases Locque and kills him by shoving his car off a cliff while he is trapped inside.


Afterwards, Bond meets Melina, and they recover the ATAC from the wreckage of the St Georges, but Kristatos is waiting for them when they surface and he takes the ATAC. After the two escape an assassination attempt, they discover Kristatos's rendezvous point when Melina's parrot repeats the phrase "ATAC to St Cyril's". With the help of Columbo and his men, Bond and Melina break into St Cyril's, an abandoned mountaintop monastery. Bond scales the peak and dispatches Apostis, a henchman of Kristatos. As Columbo confronts Kristatos, Bond kills Kriegler.


Bond retrieves the ATAC system and stops Melina from killing Kristatos after he surrenders. Kristatos prepares to kill Bond with a hidden flick knife, but is killed by a knife thrown by Columbo; Gogol arrives by helicopter to collect the ATAC, but Bond throws it off the cliff, maintaining the relatively peaceful status quo, and Gogol departs in amused understanding. Bond and Melina later spend a romantic evening aboard her father's yacht while Melina's parrot fields a call from MI6 and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.