James Bond fans are just learning what 'A View To A Kill' means after 40 years

It's about to celebrate its 40th anniversary since its release in cinemas - but many James Bond still have no idea what A View to A Kill's film title actually means.

The 1985 movie follows British secret agent James Bond's mission to prevent Max Zorin from using a microchip, which was recovered from the body of a deceased colleague in Russia, for evil.

But despite being a well-known and well-loved movie, some fans still have no idea what 'A View to A Kill' represents, with one Reddit user asking: "Explain like I'm five: What does A View to A Kill mean? How does the grammar work? I could understand A View to Kill or A view to a Killing."

According to Cineworld, the movie was originally called From A View to A Kill as it is based on Ian Fleming's short story of the same name. However, the word 'From' ended up being removed during production.

A Cineworld statement reads: "The film adaptation owes little to its source other than the title; in the original story.

"Despite negative reviews, A View To A Kill was yet another Roger Moore Bond movie that managed to turn a sizeable profit.

"Against a budget of $30 million, the movie grossed $152.4 million worldwide - a sign of how Moore had consistently kept Bond in the black amidst an era of shifting pop culture trends and other challenges.

"To this day, A View To A Kill is regularly viewed as one of the weaker Bond movies by fans and critics. It was, perhaps, not the best note for Moore to go out on; it had been expected that he would retire following 1981's For Your Eyes Only, and his age is clearly an issue in A View To A Kill.

"Nevertheless, the end of Moore's tenure confirmed that he had successfully re-authored the role in the wake of Connery, no mean feat, and had kept the franchise lucrative throughout two of its most challenging decades."

Commenting on this, one Reddit user answered: "A View to A Kill is the seventh fourteenth James Bond film. It's loosely based on From a View to A Kill, a Bond short story written by Ian Fleming.

"For some reason, they removed the 'from' from the title when they made the movie version, making the title less sensical."

Another user added: "In hunting, a view is the moment you spot your target, a find is when you discover their trail/scent and start pursuing, and a check is when you lose that trail.

"There's an old British hunting song that goes 'From a find to a check, from a check to a view, from a view to a kill in the morning'.

"It's a reference to that, evoking the image of a hunter preparing to kill their target. (The movie's script is called 'From a View to A Kill.')"