The Living Daylights (1987) Director: John Glen
“Whoever she was, it must have scared the living daylights out of her.”
★★★☆☆
In a return to the stripped-down interpretation of the James Bond character, The Living Daylights is the fifteenth canonical Eon James Bond film, the first of two Bond movies to star Timothy Dalton as Agent 007 following the departure of an aging Roger Moore. Today, many fans today regard Timothy Dalton as the darkhorse quintessential James Bond actor. Interestingly enough, Eon briefly considered a variety of actors for the lead role including Pierce Brosnan, the star of The Remington Steele show which was renewed for another season thus preventing Brosnan from starring in The Living Daylights, and the production team even considered Mel Gibson (imagine that!). Eon eventually settled on Welsh-born stage actor Timothy Dalton and in preparation for his role, Dalton re-read all of the original Ian Fleming James Bond novels –an impressive feat! Indeed The Living Daylights shows a considerable effort to return to the spirit of Ian Fleming’s original work (this film is based on Fleming’s short story “The Living Daylights”). And The Living Daylights was the last classic Bond film to be produced by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, this time he had the support of his stepson Michael G. Wilson and daughter Barbara Broccoli –the next generation of the Broccoli family had begun to manage the Eon enterprise.
The Living Daylights offers a welcome change of pace with a wild opening sequence involving an MI6 drill as agents 002, 004, and 007 parachute onto Gibraltar but two of the agents, 002 and 004, are quickly eliminated (004 is killed when his climbing rope is cut, sending him tumbling down the rockface to his brutal death) –the exercise has been infiltrated by a group of enemies. Bond survives and hops aboard a truck full of explosives in a memorable car chase sequence that turns into a parachute drop over the open ocean. He lands on a boat where a woman complains there are no real men anymore just as she meets with Bond. Dalton performed many of the stunts himself (the delayed reveal of his face at the start of this film was a nice touch) and this opening action scene on Gibraltar is one of the most memorable in the whole series in my view. The phrase “Smyert Shpionam” can be briefly spotted alluding to SMERSH in the Fleming novels (meaning “death to spies”).
However, the true plot begins with James Bond assisting a Soviet general-turned defector General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Bond sets up camp as a sniper outside a classical performance where he spots a rival female sniper disguised as a cellist (as in the short story). Instead of killing her he merely shoots the sniper rifle out of her hands in a unique moral dilemma for Bond. Then Bond escapes and helps Koskov alongside Saunders (Thomas Wheatley) through a risky pipeline maneuver, but Bond becomes obsessed with the identity of the female sniper. Along the way, he learns of a new Russian general, Pushkin (played by John Rhys-Davies) now the head of the KGB. The Soviets eventually recapture their defector Koskov and Bond is assigned to the task of killing Pushkin. In general, the first half of the film is more captivating than the second half. Bond finds romance with an unwitting girl named Kara (played by Maryam d’Abo -her best known role) and the adventure leads him through Europe until he is eventually captured by the Russians only to escape alongside the Mujahideen warriors of Afghanistan (inspired by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan) –a now shocking scene that severely dates the film (though there are some amusing albeit uncomfortable jokes about the Mujahideen having difficulty boarding a plane at the airport). Soon Bond discovers an international diamond scheme and he stages an assassination of Pushkin. The dramatic conclusion ends on a plane, with a bomb, at low fuel, with only Bond and Kara escaping. It is an entertaining ride.
Timothy Dalton really shines in The Living Daylights –the fact that he took the role so seriously marks a welcome change of pace from the goofball antics replete throughout the Roger Moore era. However, the plot gets slightly complicated and drags in the middle –the cohort of Russian villains are pretty much entirely forgettable (with apologies to John Rhys Davies)– even if it offers a nice throwback to the Cold War era James Bond series. I hesitate to say that the Timothy Dalton era has always felt a bit forgettable to me –I almost never relish revisiting these two films, even if it’s hard to overlook the high quality of production on this film. The Living Daylights is carried by Timothy Dalton’s performance, the sharp cinematography of Alec Mills, and John Barry’s inspiring final score for the Bond franchise. Apparently, John Barry so despised working with A-Ha on the theme song that he decided to retire from the series entirely following The Living Daylights.
Click here to return to my survey of the James Bond saga.
Book Review: Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966) by Ian Fleming
- James Bond actor: Timothy Dalton
- Director: John Glen
- Producers: Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson
- Screenplay: Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum
- Cinematography: Alec Mills
- Editors: John Grover and Peter Davies
- Gun Barrel Sequence: performed by Timothy Dalton with John Barry’s score
- Villain(s): General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé), Necros, Koskov’s henchman (Andreas Wisniewski), Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker)
- Bond Girl(s): Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo)
- MI6: M (Robert Brown), Miss Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss), Q (Desmond Llewelyn), Sir Frederick Gray (Geoffrey Keen)
- Bond Gadgets: “Ghetto Blaster” rocket launcher, binoculars glasses, couch trap, milk bottle bombs, skeleton key, stun gas key fob
- Allies: Felix Leiter (John Terry), General Leonid Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies), Kamran Shah (Art Malik), Saunders (Thomas Wheatley), General Gogol (Walter Gotell)
- Score: John Barry (This was his last Bond film)
- Theme Song: “The Living Daylights” by John Barry and Pal Waaktaar, performed by A-ha (apparently, John Barry did not exactly see eye-to-eye with a-ha)
- Locales: Gibraltar, Bratislava (Czechoslovakia), Vienna (Austria), Tangier (Morocco), and Afghanistan along with England