For Your Eyes Only is a 1981 British spy film, the twelfth in the James Bond seriesproduced by Eon Productions, and the fifth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6agent James Bond. It marked the directorial debut of John Glen, who had worked as editor and second unit director in three other Bond films.

The screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson takes its characters and combines elements from the plots from two short stories from Ian Fleming's For Your Eyes Only collection: the title story 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 Onlyfollowed a grittier, more realistic approach and a narrative theme of revenge and its consequences. Filming locations included Greece, Italy and England, while underwater footage was shot in The Bahamas.

For Your Eyes Only was released on 24 June 1981, ten years after release of Diamonds Are Forever (1971), to a mixed critical reception; 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 studio merged with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon after this film's release.

Plot

The British information gathering vessel St Georges, which holds the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), the system used by the Ministry of Defence to communicate with and co-ordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of Polaris submarines, is sunk after accidentally trawling an old naval mine in the Ionian Sea. 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, as the transmitter could order attacks by the submarines' Polarisballistic missiles.

The head of the KGB, General Gogol, has also learned of the fate of the St Georges and already notified his contact in Greece. A marine archaeologist, Sir Timothy Havelock, who had been asked by the British to secretly locate the St Georges, is murdered with his wife by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales. Bond goes to Spain to find out who hired Gonzales.

While spying on Gonzales' villa, Bond is captured by his men, but manages to escape as Gonzales is killed by a crossbow bolt. Outside, he finds the assassin was Melina Havelock, the daughter of Sir Timothy, 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 businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos, who tells Bond that Locque is employed by Milos Columbo, known as "the Dove" in the Greek underworld, Kristatos' former resistance partner during the Second World War. After Bond goes with Kristatos' 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 men in ice hockey gear. Ferrara is killed in Bond's car, with a dove pin in his hand. Bond then travels to Corfuin 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' car and driver. The two then spend the night together. In the morning Lisl and Bond are ambushed by Locque and Lisl is killed. 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' 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.

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' 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. As Columbo confronts Kristatos, Bond kills the biathlete Kriegler.

Bond retrieves the ATAC system and stops Melina from killing Kristatos after he surrenders. Kristatos tries 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. Bond and Melina later spend a romantic evening aboard her father's yacht when he receives a call from the Prime Minister.

Cast

• Roger Moore as James Bond: MI6 agent 007, who is sent to retrieve a stolen "ATAC" system that could be misused for controlling British military submarines.
• Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock: The daughter of marine archaeologists who are murdered while tracking down the ATAC's whereabouts. Bouquet had auditioned for the role of Holly Goodhead in Moonraker, but was unsuccessful.
• Chaim Topol (credited as "Topol") as Milos Columbo: Kristatos' former smuggling partner who assists Bond in his mission. Named after Gioacchino Colombo, the Ferrariengine designer, specifically Ferrari 125, which Fleming admired. Topol suggested the pistachios as a trademark of the character, which are used in a scene to orient Columbo's men on where to shoot.
• Julian Glover as Aristotle Kristatos: Initially shown as an ally, later as the main villain. A smuggler planning to expand his fortune by selling the ATAC to the KGB. Glover had been shortlisted as a possible Bond for Live and Let Die, eventually losing out to Moore.
• Lynn-Holly Johnson as Bibi Dahl: An ice-skating prodigy who is training with the financial support of Kristatos. Johnson was an ice skater before turning to acting, and achieved second place at the novice level of the 1974 United States Figure Skating Championships.
• Michael Gothard as Emile Leopold Locque: A Belgian hired killer and associate of Kristatos.
• Cassandra Harris as Countess Lisl von Schlaf: Columbo's mistress. At the time of filming Harris was married to future Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, and the couple lunched with the film's producer Albert R. Broccoli during filming.
• John Wyman as Erich Kriegler: An East German Olympic class biathete and Kristatos' henchman/KGB contact. The academic Jeremy Black said that he resembles Hans of You Only Live Twice and Stamper of Tomorrow Never Dies.
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q, the head of MI6's technical department.
• Jill Bennett as Jacoba Brink: Bibi's skating coach.
• Jack Hedley as Sir Timothy Havelock: A marine archaeologist hired by the British Secret Service to secretly locate the wreck of St. Georges.
• Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary.
• Geoffrey Keen as Sir Frederick Gray: The British Minister of Defence, a minister in the British government. The role, along with Bill Tanner as Chief of Staff, was used to brief Bond in place of M, following the death of Bernard Lee.
• James Villiers as MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner. The role of Tanner first appeared on film in The Man with the Golden Gun, although in an un-credited capacity. Villiers presumed he would play the role of M in subsequent films and was disappointed not to be asked; the producers thought him too young for the role and wanted an actor in his 70s.
• John Moreno as Luigi Ferrara: 007's MI6 contact in northern Italy.
• Walter Gotell as General Gogol: Head of the KGB.
• Toby Robins as Iona Havelock: Melina's mother and wife of Sir Timothy.
• Jack Klaff as Apostis: One of Kristatos's henchmen and chauffeur.
• Stefan Kalipha as Hector Gonzales: A Cuban hitman hired by Kristatos to kill the Havelocks.
• Charles Dance as Claus, an associate of Locque. The role was early in Dance's career; in 1989 he would play Ian Fleming in Anglia Television's Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, a dramatised portrayal of the life of Ian Fleming.
• Eva Reuber-Staier as Rublevich: General Gogol's secretary.
• Janet Brown as the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who appears in the closing scene alongside John Wells as Denis.
• John Hollis as the "bald villain in wheelchair", voiced by Robert Rietti. The character appears in the pre-credits sequence and is both unnamed and uncredited. The character contains a number of characteristics of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but could not be identified as such because of the legal reasons surrounding the Thunderballcontroversy with Kevin McClory claiming sole rights to the Blofeld character, a claim disputed by Eon.
• Bob Simmons, who previously portrayed Bond in the gun barrel sequences in the first three films and SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Bouvar in Thunderball, cameos as another villain as Gonzales' henchman who falls victim to Bond's exploding Lotus.