The Spy Who Loved Me: A Roger Moore as James Bond retrospective

Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, bei den Dreharbeiten zum ‘James-Bond’-Film ‘Moonraker’, Paris/Frankreich, 01.01.1981, Uniform, Kulisse, Kostüm, verkleiden, Promis, Prominente, Prominenter, Schauspielerin, Schauspieler, (Photo by Peter Bischoff/Getty Images)

For Your Eyes Only

Moore’s fifth 007 film, For Your Eyes Only, was the first of the Bond films made in the 1980s and represented a marked return to a more realistic approach to the material.

After the more sci-fi Moonraker, the studios wanted a Bond film that hearkened back to the earlier, more grounded films (in the sense that they didn’t involved a spy going off to space but also with the usual Bond aesthetic). As a result,  For Your Eyes Only focuses on more serious themes instead.

Here’s how it goes down. After a British ship carrying an advanced targeting system sinks, a marine archaeologist, Dr. Havelock, is assassinated.  Bond is sent to investigate.  In the process, Bond is captured, as things usually go.  He is incidentally rescued by The Female Character, Dr. Havelock’s daughter Melina, as she avenges her father’s death.  The two escape together.

Several attempts are made on Bond’s life as he and Havelock chase the film’s villains, Aris Kristatos and Milos Colombo.  Bond learns that Kristatos is responsible for the sinking of the British ship and teams up with Columbo to take him out. There aren’t quite as many explosions in this one, but there are some knives thrown.