Bond Revisited

The Living Daylights (1987)
Bond 15

James Bond (Timothy Dalton) finds himself helping a Soviet general escape from the Iron Curtain only to see a cellist holding a rifle on his subject. When the general is recaptured, Bond decides to track him by finding out why a concert cello player would try and kill her benefactor. He escapes with her first to Vienna, then to Morocco, finally ending up in a prison in Soviet occupied Afghanistan as he tracks down the elements in this mystery. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The casting of Frederick Warder and Glyn Baker as 004 and 002 was intentional, due to their resemblance to George Lazenby and Roger Moore, respectively. For the movie's opening scene, the writers wanted to toy with the audience's expectations of which of the 00 agents was Bond. In the opening scene at Gibraltar, real military installations were used. These included a Ministry of Defence road not open to the public. The machine gun nest on the airstrip was not authentic. Maryam d'Abo was originally hired only to appear in screen tests opposite actors screen testing for the role of the new James Bond. The character of Pushkin was originally to have been General Gogol, a recurring character since The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). Indeed, Pushkin is chief of the KGB, the very position Gogol held in previous appearances. A new character was created actor after Walter Gotell fell ill and producer Albert R. Broccoli could not get him insured. Gotell has said Broccoli even offered to pay an extensive sum personally but still could not get coverage. Pushkin's girlfriend was likewise supposed to be the secretary seen romancing Gogol in several films. Gotell was able to film a cameo as Gogol (now a member of the Soviet foreign office) for the end of the movie, marking that character's final appearance.

Contrary to popular belief, the strange looking rifle Bond uses to shoot Kara is an actual rifle and not some prop designed for the movie. The rifle is a WA2000 sniper rifle, perfect for Bond since it's designed by Walther Firearms, maker of his classic PPK. The term used in this movie "Smiert Spionam", meaning "death to spies", was the full phrase from which the acronym of the Soviet counterespionage organization SMERSH took its name. It existed as early as World War II, and was a branch of the NKVD (later KGB). A stuntman was originally going to play the role of The Imposter, the Russian assassin in Gibraltar at the beginning, but after watching rushes, director John Glen decided that they needed a real actor for the part and it was given to Carl Rigg. At the time, Rigg was out of work and staying home, taking care of his baby while his wife was away on business. Upon getting the call, Rigg left the baby with a neighbor, left his wife a note telling her he'd gone to be in a James Bond movie, and caught the next plane to Gibraltar to start filming. All the statues of famous military leaders in Brad Whitaker's Tangier mansion (Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, etc.) are modeled after Whitaker himself, and therefore all resemble actor Joe Don Baker. The rocket fired from the "ghetto blaster in Q's lab was an effect activated off-screen by Britain's Prince Charles -- who was touring the studio at the time of filming. The effects crew offered to allow Prince Charles to activate the rocket that was used in the final cut of the film.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Timothy Dalton, who has been up for the part before (for On Her Majesty's Secret Service) but was considered to young. This is his first of only two Bonds.
• General Georgi Koskov - Jeroen Krabbe. Koskov is a corrupt Soviet general in business for himself, who carefully plays both sides of the Cold War. Initially, Koskov gives the impression of a somewhat anxious pawn in the battle between the Soviet Union and the West, when he is, in reality, a mastermind using all means to his own advantage. He is prepared to dote on his mistress and give her all manner of expensive gifts, but when necessary will readily sign her death warrant.
• Necros - Necros, meaning 'death' in Greek, was General Koskov's highly trained and disciplined Soviet assassin with KGB affiliations, but ultimately loyal to Koskov. His only vice seems to be an addiction to his personal stereo playing The Pretenders, which he is rarely seen without. Necros uses a great number of disguises and many techniques of killing, although strangulation seems to be a preferred method.
• General Leonid Pushkin - John Rhys-Davies. Head of the KGB. Although he is originally thought by James Bond and the rest of the MI6 to be the enemy, a KGB leader turned psychotic, Bond still suspicious of Koskov stages Pushkin's death in the view of the Russian Necros to investigate his defection. With the enemy believing Pushkin to be dead Koskov and Whitaker the real enemies feel free to pursue their goals in Afghanistan. Pushkin turns out to be an invaluable ally.
• Brad Whitaker - Joe Don Baker. Brad Whitaker was a wealthy illegal international arms dealer from the U.S. His fascination with war, but failure in the military, led him to use other means for organising his own personal military force. Expelled from West Point for cheating, he spent a short stint as a mercenary in the Belgian Congo before working with various criminal organisations to help finance his first arms deals.
• Kara Milovy - Maryam d'Abo. Bond has been informed that General Georgi Koskov is willing to defect from the Russians. As Koskov runs across the road to meet Bond, 007 spots a sniper, whom he recognizes as the beautiful cellist he spotted during a concert earlier. Defying his orders to kill her, Bond shoots the rifle out of her hands, only marginally injuring her. This prompts the line for which the film is named, "I must have scared the living daylights out of her." Bond helps Kara escape from the KGB in Bratislava and they head to Austria. After Bond's Aston Martin is destroyed, they resort to riding on Kara's cello case. Bond uses the cello as a shield, and it catches one bullet. She is led to believe that Bond is a KGB agent after talking to Koskov. Kara switches back to being Bond's ally after drugging his drink and realising that Koskov has been using her. Interestingly enough, Kara Milovy is the last blonde Bond Girl to date. All subsequent leading Bond girls have been brunettes or dark-haired.

The Theme Song:

The title song of the film, "The Living Daylights", was recorded by pop group a-ha. The Living Daylights is the final Bond film to be scored by composer John Barry. a-ha and Barry did not collaborate well, resulting in two versions of the theme song. Barry's film mix is heard on the soundtrack and the a-ha greatest hits collection Headlines and Deadlines. The a-ha preferred mix can be heard on their 1988 album Stay on These Roads. However in 2006 a-ha's Pal Waaktaar complimented Barry's contributions "I loved the stuff he added to the track, I mean it gave it this really cool string arrangement. That's when for me it started to sound like a Bond thing".

The Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Aston Martin V8 Vantage (Series 2) - Equipped with the usual weapons, including side skis, spiked tires, missiles, lasers, rocket propulsion, a self-destruct device and a modified radio to tune in to police/military bands.
• Audi 200 Turbo Quattro - with BBS wheels and flaired wheel arches made by German tuning company ABT.
• Keychain - Bond's keychain, designed by Q-Branch, also is an explosive triggered by a wolf whistle. It also could deploy stun gas (when the user whistles the first few bars of "Rule Britannia"), and contains lockpicks capable of opening 90% of the world's locks.
• Ghetto Blaster - Never used by James Bond; it is seen tested in Q-Branch for American allies. The ghetto blaster is an '80s–style rocket-firing, stereophonic, cassette tapedeck.
• Scouring Pig - Used to initially to clean and check the natural gas pipeline from USSR to West Europe. It's converted here specially to smuggle a man out of the Eastern bloc, with Koskov being the first.
• Harrier - This V/STOL aircraft evacuates Koskov after his defection to the west. [Source]

The Pretitle Sequence:

In the prologue, Agents 002, 004, and 007 parachute onto Gibraltar to test its defences. 002 is captured almost immediately by the SAS, while James Bond and 004 start scaling the cliffs to the base. As they ascend an assassin appears and sends a tag reading Smert' Shpionam (Death to Spies) down the rope before cutting it, sending Agent 004 to his death. Bond witnesses the incident and gives chase to the assassin, ending in an explosives-laden Land Rover careening down Gibraltar's narrow roads and then into the air. Bond escapes with his reserve parachute while the assassin is killed when the Land Rover explodes in mid-air.

Well, Timothy Dalton, he is no Roger Moore, and he is definitely no Sean Connery. I think if he had been the first, or only Bond, he would have done fine, and the Bond films would have ended after three or four. But he was replacing Moore. The producers were going off the assumption that they could get Moore back for an eighth film so the script had Moore-ish humor and elements in it. Dalton wanted a more serious Bond, more like the Fleming novels and he would get his wish in the next installment.

Next Up: License To Kill, Bond 16, James Bond leaves Her Majesty's Secret Service to stop an evil drug lord and avenge his best friend, Felix Leiter.