Although the title comes from Ian Fleming's 1960 short story 'From a View to a Kill', the film uses an entirely original screenplay unrelated to the story's plot.

Screenwriter Richard Maibaum's original script had villain Zorin manipulating Halley's Comet into crashing into Silicon Valley, but co-writer Michael G. Wilson insisted on a more realistic plot.

Because a real company called the Zoran Corporation was found to share a similar name to the villain Zorin, the filmmakers added a disclaimer at the start of the film stating Zorin was not related to any real-life company, the first such disclaimer in a Bond film.

David Bowie was initially announced and accepted the role of villain Max Zorin, but he turned it down, joking he didn't want to spend five months watching his stunt double fall off cliffs; the role was then offered to Sting, who also declined, before going to Christopher Walken.

Priscilla Presley was originally cast as Stacey Sutton but had to be replaced by Tanya Roberts due to her contract with the TV series Dallas.

The script originally intended for Barbara Bach to reprise her role as Major Anya Amasova from The Spy Who Loved Me, but she declined, leading to the creation of an entirely new character, Pola Ivanova, played by Fiona Fullerton.

David Yip's character Chuck Lee was originally written as the recurring CIA character Felix Leiter but was rewritten into a new Asian-American character to capitalize on the San Francisco setting.

Dolph Lundgren, who was dating Grace Jones at the time and visiting her on set, got his brief role as a KGB agent when an extra was missing and director John Glen asked him to fill in.

On 27 June 1984, leftover petrol canisters from filming Ridley Scott's Legend caused Pinewood Studios' 007 Stage to burn down; it was rebuilt and reopened in January 1985, renamed Albert R. Broccoli's 007 Stage.

During a Eiffel Tower parachute stunt, stuntman Don Caldvedt was told he wouldn't perform his jump since enough footage had been obtained from the other stuntman, so he jumped off the tower without authorization from the City of Paris and was subsequently fired from the production.

The film was shot two weeks over schedule but still finished $5 million under budget, at $30 million instead of the initial $35 million, according to director John Glen.

The blimp used in the climax was Airship Industries' Skyship 500, which had recently taken part in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics and had 'Welcome' painted on its side before being relabeled 'Zorin Industries' for the film; in reality inflating such an airship takes up to 24 hours, though the film depicts it taking just two minutes.

Duran Duran was chosen to perform the theme song after bassist John Taylor, a Bond fan, drunkenly approached producer Albert Broccoli at a party and asked 'When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?'

'A View to a Kill' became the only James Bond theme song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, a record that stood until 'Writing's on the Wall' outperformed it in the UK charts in 2015.

During the opening ski chase, a cover of the Beach Boys' 1965 song 'California Girls' performed by tribute band Gidea Park with Adrian Baker is used, and the sequence has been credited with helping spark interest in snowboarding.

This was the first Bond film to premiere outside the UK, opening on 22 May 1985 at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts.

Tanya Roberts was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her performance, though she lost to Linda Blair.

Roger Moore later said A View to a Kill was his least favorite Bond film and was mortified to learn he was older than his female co-star's mother; he also felt Christopher Walken's machine-gunning scenes didn't fit the spirit of Bond films.