After the extravagant spectacle of MOONRAKER (1979), the Bond production team brought 007 back to Earth for a more grounded storyline involving the ATAC (Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator), a system for helping to launch nuclear submarines which is based on a spy ship in the Mediterranean. However when a stray mine hits the ship, the crew fail to destroy the ATAC, prompting a major situation.
Enter James Bond (Roger Moore in his fifth outing at the spy) who has to locate the ship, with help from Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet), out for revenge when her parents are killed by Chico Gonzalez. Her father, Timothy Havelock was trying to locate where the trawler sank when he was killed.
The trail leads Bond to Cortina, where he meets Kristatos (Julian Glover) who informs Bond of Columbo (Topol) who is the key to it. However, there are a few twists in store…
Some great action, including a great pre-credit sequence involving Bond in a remote controlled helicopter from old foe Blofeld and a mountain sequence that is a major cliffhanger, help elevate this to the level of one of Moore’s best entries.