James Bond in film of the funding for the Bond films, fell into financial difficulties following the box office failure of "Heaven's Gate" (1980), bringing uncertainty to the future of the funding. The situation was resolved in May 1981, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired United Artists. Following "For Your Eyes Only", Roger Moore had expressed a desire to stop playing James Bond. His original contract had been for three films, a requirement fulfilled with "The Spy Who Loved Me". Subsequent films had been negotiated on a film-by-film basis. The producers engaged in a semi-public quest for the next actor to play Bond, which would be for
Karl Stromberg men, to fire their nuclear warheads at each other. Prior to this, however, Stromberg had abducted Bond's partner, the Russian agent Anya Amasova, and escaped to his city-ship, Atlantis. Bond pursues Stromberg, and after two failed attempts by Stromberg to kill him (including the use of an explosive harpoon which ran the length of a dinner table), Bond exercises his licence to kill by shooting Stromberg multiple times in the groin and chest. Atlantis is later torpedoed and sunk, giving Stromberg a burial at sea. Karl Stromberg Karl Sigmund Stromberg is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the