The Living Daylights (1987)

Director:

John Glen

Writers:

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

Release Date:

31 July 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Music | Thriller

Tagline:

James Bond 007 at his most dangerous in The Living Daylights

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

James Bond | Afghanistan | Defection | Arms Dealer | Cello

Awards:

3 wins & 3 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 (Sir Frederick Gray)
Walter Gotell	...	General Anatol Gogol
Caroline Bliss	...	Miss Moneypenny
John Terry	...	Felix Leiter
Virginia Hey	...	Rubavitch

Also Known As:

James Bond 007: The Living Daylights (USA) (trailer title)

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Arabic | French | German | Russian | Czech | Slovak

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Netherlands:12 (TV rating) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-14 | Ireland:PG | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Ait Benhaddou, Ouarzazate, Morocco

Company:

Danjaq

Trivia:

Maryam d'Abo was originally hired only to appear in screen tests opposite actors screen testing for the role of the new James Bond. She had previously acted in the screen tests for For Your Eyes Only (1981) as well. When Maryam d'Abo was cast, Pierce Brosnan was still set to be the new James Bond.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Entering Pakistan, Bond looks at the sign posting showing the distances of Islamabad and Karachi. The foreign words on that board should be either in Urdu (Pakistan's national language) or Pushto (Afghan).

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.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Now Pay Attention 007! (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Symphony no 40 in G minor, 1st Movement

Dalton's first is a good one

One thing that can be said about Timothy Dalton's two appearances in the role of Bond is that both efforts where excellent.

This one is more in the traditional Bond mould than the much darker Licence To Kill that followed it but was still quite a fresh, well scripted and acted story.

It is a bit of a shame that the original plan to have General Gogol throughout rather than General Pushkin had to be dropped due to Walter Gottel being unavailable but even still, John Rhys Davies does well in his role.

Bond girl Myriam D'Abo is a great improvement on her immediate predecessor even if she does not have a huge amount to do and the quality of the photography, particularly the Afghanistan sequences, are excellent.

Unlike many of the Roger Moore Bond's there was a fresh air of originality here unlike previous efforts, which in many ways where bits of old Bonds remixed, reheated and served up.

It is also a refreshing change from the previous A View To A Kill to not have Bond bedding everything female in sight for once!! AVTAK produced four conquests for the rampant fossilised babe magnet (!) Moore, here just the one and discreet at that.

Thankfully silly gimmicks such as another of M's silly offices (Back of a Hercules plane this time following previous instalments in a submarine, Egyptian ruin, sunken ocean liner and a monastery!) were dispensed with quickly and never really seen in the Bond series again after this.

A cracking soundtrack from John Barry (quite possibly his best)finishes off this excellent instalment, which saw the farewell performances of two more stalwarts of the Bond series, Walter Gottel in an all too brief cameo as General Gogol and soundtrack master extraordinaire John Barry (he actually appears here as the orchestra conductor at the Opera House at the very end).

All in all a really good one……