For Your Eyes Only

In the pre-title sequence, Bond is picked up at his wife's gravesite by a helicopter, he escapes after being trapped in the aircraft. It is remotely controlled by Blofeld — Bond turns the helicopter on his enemy, who is in a motorized wheelchair, picking him up, and dropping him into a smokestack.

The film then turns its focus to the fishing trawler St Georges on the Ionian Sea, which is revealed to be a British spy ship equipped with 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. The ship dramatically sinks when a old naval mine becomes entangled in the fishing nets and pulled into the hull.

Sir Timothy Havelock, a marine archaeologist based in Greece, is contacted by the British government to secretly locate the St Georges. However, before he can give a report, he and his wife are murdered by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales. Havelock's daughter Melina survives and vows revenge. The British Minister of Defence and his Chief of Staff summons James Bond and assigns him the task of recovering the ATAC and explain to him that if the transmitter were retrieved underwater by another superpower the Polaris submarines' ballistic missiles could be used against major western cities. Bond is sent after Gonzales to find out who hired him. Melina kills him before Bond can find out.

After identifying a hitman in Gonzales' estate (Locque) who appeared to be paying him, Bond is led to a well-connected Greek businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos in Cortina d'Ampezzo a resort in northern Italy's Dolomites. He tells Bond that the man he saw is employed by Milos Columbo, a Greek smuggler.

When Bond eventually confronts Columbo it emerges that Locque is actually in the employ of Kristatos who himself is in the employ of the KGB. Kristatos is attempting to recover the ATAC for the KGB, and had set up Columbo as the villain as the latter knew too much about Kristatos' KGB leanings. Columbo proves this connection to Bond by allowing Bond to take part in a raid on one of Kristatos' factories where they find Locque. In this factory, Bond discovers false rolls of paper containing poppy syrup, and additional naval mines similar to the one that sunk the St. Georges suggesting that her fate may not have been an accident. Locque places explosives to destroy this evidence and flees, but loses control of his car and ultimately ends on the edge of a cliff. Bond approaches him there and gives the car a solid shove, sending Locque plunging to his death.

Bond and Melina recover the ATAC from the wreckage of the St Georges, but Kristatos is waiting for them when they surface, and he takes the ATAC from them. He attempts to dispose of them by dragging them behind his yacht while sharks circle in the water, however Bond affects their escape.

With the help of Columbo, Bond, Columbo's team and Melina break into a mountaintop monastery, St. Cyril's, being used by Kristatos to meet Gogol where he will turn over the ATAC. Bond climbs up the sheer face of the mountain and, upon reaching the top, gains control of the lift basket and brings the rest of the team up.

Bond eventually retrieves the ATAC system and talks Melina out of killing Kristatos after he surrenders. Kristatos tries to kill Bond with a hidden weapon, but Columbo throws a knife at him from behind and kills him. KGB chief General Gogol arrives by helicopter to collect the ATAC, but Bond throws it over the cliff (it is dashed to pieces on the rocks below), with the quip, "That's détente, comrade. You don't have it; I don't have it." General Gogol gives Bond an understanding smile and leaves. Bond and Melina later spend a romantic evening aboard her father's yacht; wearing nothing but a light blue robe, Melina allows Bond to strip her completely naked and goes for a much needed nude swim with him.