In a diabolical master stroke, international arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) and Russian General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) devise a plan to pit Russia against The West by orchestrating the assassinations of spies from both sides with the obvious intent of having the super-powers blame each other and come to blows in nuclear fashion. Part of the subterfuge involves convincing the Brits that Soviet General Leonid Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies) is in firm opposition to détente, and with the defection of Koskov, it's made to appear that he's in a position to help the British Secret Service. It doesn't take long for James Bond (Timothy Dalton) to smell a rat in the set up, and from there on, you've got your typical globe trotting action that takes Bond across all seven continents to save the day not only for the British, but the entire world.
One of the head scratchers while watching the movie today is seeing Bond receive aid from Afghan warlord Kamran Shah (Art Malik), who identifies his affiliation with the mujahideen, and isn't above smuggling opium as a sideline to finance his own cause. It wouldn't be too far off in the future that Shah might have been an instrumental leader for the Taliban. Sounds like the makings of another James Bond flick, doesn't it?
Well, with the help of Russian cellist and former paramour of General Koskov, Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo), Bond eventually turns the tables on Whitaker's effort to corner the international arms market and put the entire globe in turmoil. Joe Don Baker is wonderfully colorful and over the top in his characterization of Whitaker, utilizing his spare time to reinvent the outcomes of history's major battles with scale model replicas. There's a point in the picture where Bond is put in the position of impersonating a Russian officer, and I got a kick out of the Russian name that the film makers came up with - Jerzi Bondov. Turns out it didn't fool anybody.
One of the head scratchers while watching the movie today is seeing Bond receive aid from Afghan warlord Kamran Shah (Art Malik), who identifies his affiliation with the mujahideen, and isn't above smuggling opium as a sideline to finance his own cause. It wouldn't be too far off in the future that Shah might have been an instrumental leader for the Taliban. Sounds like the makings of another James Bond flick, doesn't it?
Well, with the help of Russian cellist and former paramour of General Koskov, Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo), Bond eventually turns the tables on Whitaker's effort to corner the international arms market and put the entire globe in turmoil. Joe Don Baker is wonderfully colorful and over the top in his characterization of Whitaker, utilizing his spare time to reinvent the outcomes of history's major battles with scale model replicas. There's a point in the picture where Bond is put in the position of impersonating a Russian officer, and I got a kick out of the Russian name that the film makers came up with - Jerzi Bondov. Turns out it didn't fool anybody.