The Living Daylights (1987)

James Bond is living on the edge to stop an evil arms dealer from starting another world war. Bond crosses all seven continents in order to stop the evil Whitaker and General Koskov.

Director:

John Glen

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay), Michael G. Wilson (screenplay)

Stars:

Timothy Dalton, Maryam d'Abo, Jeroen Krabbé

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Timothy Dalton	...	James Bond
Maryam d'Abo	...	Kara Milovy
Jeroen Krabbé	...	General Georgi Koskov
Joe Don Baker	...	Brad Whitaker
John Rhys-Davies	...	General Leonid Pushkin
Art Malik	...	Kamran Shah
Andreas Wisniewski	...	Necros
Thomas Wheatley	...	Saunders
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Q
Robert Brown	...	M
Geoffrey Keen	...	Minister of Defence
Walter Gotell	...	General Anatol Gogol
Caroline Bliss	...	Miss Moneypenny
John Terry	...	Felix Leiter
Virginia Hey	...	Rubavitch

Storyline

James Bond 007's mission is to firstly, organise the defection of a top Soviet general. When the general is re-captured, Bond heads off to find why an ally of General Koskov was sent to murder him. Bond's mission continues to take him to Afghanistan, where he must confront an arms dealer known as Brad Whitaker. Everything eventually reveals its self to Bond.

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Plot Keywords:

soviet general | defection | escape | kgb | british agent | 

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Taglines:

Living on the edge. It's the only way he lives.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

UK

Language:

English Arabic French German Russian Czech Slovak Dari Pushto

Release Date:

31 July 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

James Bond 007: The Living Daylights

Filming Locations:

Antonigasse Tram terminus, Vienna, Austria

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$51,185,897 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eon Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Morten Harket, the lead singer of pop group A-Ha (who performed the title song), was offered a small role as a bad guy in the movie. He turned down the offer due to extensive touring in Japan. He also felt that they wanted to cast him due to his popularity rather than his acting.

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Goofs

When Koskov is wearing his Soviet military uniform, his cap has the wrong badge for a General (it's the badge worn by officers ranking no higher than Colonel), the cap's crown is the wrong shape for the 1980s and the gold braid over the visor is wrong.

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Quotes

[first lines]
M: Gentlemen, this may only be an exercise so far as the Ministry of Defence is concerned. But for me, it is a matter of pride that the 00 section has been chosen for this test. Your objective is to penetrate the radar installations of Gibralter. Now, the SAS has been placed on full alert to intercept you, but I know you won't let me down. Good luck, men.

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Crazy Credits

When A-HA is credited as the performers of the opening theme song in the opening credits, their band name is given in the actual "A-HA logo font." This is the only time this has been done in the series.

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Connections

Referenced in De slimste mens ter wereld: Episode #7.22 (2016)

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Soundtracks

String Quartet #2 In D Major: 3rd Movement 'Notturno' Andante
(uncredited)
Music by Aleksandr Borodin

User Reviews

One of the Best Bonds

Watching the Living Daylights, I can see that Dalton was *far* superior to Roger Moore. Moore was just a clown, looking for his next joke. When Moore wanted to quit after 1979's Moonraker, they should have let him go.

But Dalton brought a serious side to the role. You can see that he's determined to get the job done, and realizes he could be dead any minute, so he focuses on the mission and not clowning. Just like Sean Connery did back in the 60's.

---> As for the actual story, that too is serious & well-written. One of Bond's long-term enemies, Russian KGB Commander Pushkin, has crossed the line and is actively killing off agents. (To quote the movie "He's gone mental like Stalin.") Bond is tasked to search out & kill Pushkin, but Bond refuses because he knows Pushkin & knows he'd never cross the line like that. Instead, Bond suspects someone else inside the KGB is setting up Pushkin for a fall.

And thus begins a long adventure to discover the mystery man behind the killings. And like I said earlier, Dalton does an *excellent* job in this role. I highly recommend his movies. 10/10