Note: Spoilers for The Living Daylights below.

Number on Countdown: 16

Title: The Living Daylights

Year: 1987

Synopsis:

Bond’s fifteenth adventure begins at the Rock of Gibraltar, where M and a couple of his 00-agents fly aboard a plane. M explains to his men that while this mission is just a training exercise, he still wants them penetrate the radar installations as if it were real. His three black-clad agents dive out of the plane and land on the rock base below. One of them is taken out by paintball immediately. The second man grappling-hooks it up a cliff-face. Before reaching the top, some angry guy in black sends a note down his rope, then cuts it. The agent falls down to his death, which catches the attention of the last agent, Agent 007. Realizing this “training exercise” just got real, Agent 007 chases after the bad guy, who is now in an explosive-laden truck. After a crazy fight/drive, Bond sends the truck off a cliff, parachuting out of it before it blows the hell up. Bond then lands on a rich lady’s yacht and has some fun with her.

In Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, Bond meets fellow MI6 dude Saunders, the biggest killjoy of all time. Bond and Saunders binocular in on Georgi Koskov, a Russian guy who is planning to defect to the west. Before heading to the meeting point, Bond checks out the foxy girl playing the cello. The two go to the meeting point and Bond, assigned to look for snipers, gazes out the window with his gun. Koskov begins to sneak over to the meeting point, just when Bond spots a sniper. It’s the girl with the cello! Saunders orders Bond to kill her, but he instead shoots the gun out of her hand. Bond then drives off with the escaped Koskov. Bond takes him to some place where they put him in a pipeline, sending him westward at like a billion miles per hour. Eventually, Koskov gets off in a plane, headed for England. Bond is pleased, but Saunders is pissed that Bond disobeyed orders and didn’t kill the sniper-babe. Bond states he only kills professionals, which the cellist was most definitely not. “Whoever she was, it must have scared the living daylights out of her.”

Back at MI6, Bond and Q have no luck in identifying the cellist. Bond tells Moneypenny to look up cellists and thwarts her advances yet again. Bond arrives at some manor to meet with his boss, the same manor where a blond-haired baddie (named Necros) kills the milkman and takes his disguise. Bond arrives at the meeting, where the defected Koskov tells them the new KGB leader, Leonid Pushkin, is making some radical changes, including reinstating the “Smiert Spionam” program, which in English translates to “Death to Spies”. Seeing this as the push that could lead to a domino-effect of killing, M and crew head out to London to consult with higher authority. Just after they leave, the faux-milkman goes on a milk-bottle-grenade throwing spree, kidnapping Koskov.

M, Bond, and the Minister of Defense are all embarrassed that the KGB was able to snatch up their man just hours after he defected. Although Bond and M have never known this Leonid Pushkin to be a psychotic weirdo, Bond is sent to go kill him in Tangier. At Q Branch, Moneypenny has found the cellist (named Kara Milovy), and states that she’ll be playing some song at some place in the coming days. Bond grabs his nifty gadgets and gets on his way.

Before going to Tangier, Bond decides to track down Kara, seeing her performance and then following her onto a bus. She is taken off the bus by some bad guy and put in the car of Pushkin. Bond exits the bus with her cello and, upon opening it, finds the very sniper rifle she was using the night of Koskov’s defection. He also finds that the bullets were blanks. He finds her address in there as well, and is waiting for her when she arrives home a little later. Bond talks with her and asks what Pushkin wanted and she explains that he wanted to know where Koskov was. After a chat, Bond suggests they get the fuck outta there because the KGB is watching her. The two escape the city, but not before going back to get her cello. In an intense car chase and cello-case ride down a mountain, they reach Austria and make it to Vienna, where Koskov is rumored to be.

In Tangier, Pushkin meets with American war aficionado Brad Whitaker, who shows off all the weapons he is selling to the Russians. Pushkin is there, however, to tell him the order is cancelled. Whitaker explains that he can’t cancel the order, but Pushkin tells him to end it or he’ll be “out of business permanently”. Bond and Kara chill in Vienna and here he finds out Koskov bought Kara her cello, “The Lady Rose” for a large sum of money. They then go to the opera and Saunders is there, who admonishes Bond for chilling with the sniper. Bond reveals he’s only doing it to get info from the girl, who is Koskov’s girlfriend. Bond wonders how Koskov could have bought such an expensive cello. After a couple hours (and a trip to the fair!) Saunders reveals that Kara’s cello was sold in New York for 150,000 dollars to a Mr. Brad Whitaker, who is in Tangier. (Hmmm…) Saunders is then killed right after by a balloon-selling Necros, who leaves behind a “smiert spionam” balloon. Bond pops it in outrage!

Bond and Kara go to Tangier, where Bond tracks down Pushkin, confronting him in his hotel room (or something) and demands info. Bond asks about smiert spionam and the two dead agents, but Pushkin explains he is in the dark just as much as Bond is. Pushkin also says he was about to have Koskov arrested because he was being a questionable asshole and dealing with Whitaker. To find out what Koskov is really up to, Bond and Pushkin stage Pushkin’s death. Koskov is exuberant that Bond killed Pushkin. Whitaker and Koskov can now go through with their plan. Koskov then gets a call from someone.

Bond later visits Kara in her room and she makes him a drink. This is when Bond tells her that he is not a friend of Koskov’s but in fact a British agent looking for him. He explains how Koskov has betrayed everyone, even setting her up as the sniper to be offed. Kara retorts by saying she called Koskov and he told her the “real” story: that Bond is a KGB agent and using Kara to find him and kill him. Bond tries to explain himself, but she drugged his drink. (Stupid!) Knowing he has like ten seconds before he knocks out, he finds Kara’s arm-wound (from when Bond shot the gun out of her hand) and reveals to her that he was the one who was sent to kill her.

Bond finds himself aboard a big-ass plane, where him and Koskov share a nice chat. So, Koskov has been with the Russians all along, misinforming British intelligence, and got Bond to kill Pushkin for them. The plane lands in Afghanistan, where Bond and Kara are transported to prison. Bond and Kara escape the prison in like ten seconds and free a bearded man. Later, when Bond and Kara are running away from the base, this bearded man saves them, for he is actually Kamran Shah, leader of the Mujaheddin, the Afghan resistance. Bond explains to him that he needs to get back to the base, but they laugh at him and think he’s cray cray. The next morning, they decide to help Bond out. Bond finds out that Koskov is using Soviet money to buy tons of raw opium, which could turn him a massive profit somehow or something (?). Bond decides to help load some of the opium on Koskov’s truck, but as the truck pulls away, an in-love Kara rides after him.

The truck is carted onto the base and driven into the back of a big-ass plane. Bond loads a bomb on the plane in an opium bag and sets it for ten and half minutes. Just as he’s about to the leave, the back-ramp closes. Bond decides to exit via the side entrance, right where Koskov and Necros are entering. Bond abducts a gun from a soldier and starts firing. Right then, the Mujaheddin come and start fuckin’ some shit up. Bond starts driving the plane as everyone scrambles around amidst gunfire and explosions. Before taking off to the sky, Kara drives a truck into the plane. They takes off and Bond goes to diffuse the bomb, when Necros is there to cause him trouble. After a fight hanging out the back of a plane, Necros falls to his death. Bond climbs back aboard safely, but hears the ticking bomb. Bond quickly finds it amongst the nondescript bags and defuses it with 2 seconds left. Bond later throws this bomb out of a plane to stop some Soviet baddies advancing on his Mujaheddin friends.

Although Koskov’s plan has been thwarted, Bond decides to make a visit to Whitaker. The conversation quickly turns violent a gunfight ensues. Whitaker dies and with the help of Pushkin, the area is cleared. Koskov is there as well, pretending to have been Whitaker’s captive. Pushkin doesn’t believe him for a second and arrests him. Later, Kara plays her cello at some place and later finds some drinks, and Bond, waiting for her in her dressing room. Yay!

Things I like:

I’m not one to be interested in cars (like, at all), and often don’t really give a rat’s ass about Bond’s cars, but Bond’s Aston Martin from The Living Daylights is fucking awesome. Everything he does with it is awesome, from laser-cutting a police car off its chassis, blowing up a truck with some missiles, jumping off a ramp, or activating the skis and spiked tires to drive in the snow. Seriously, gotta love those spikes tires. Even when Bond’s tire is shot out over a frozen lake, Bond uses his wheel to the cut the ice, leaving one police car to sink into the water below. Fuck. Yea. At the end, he leaves it behind to self-destruct and blow up some bad guys. AWESOME.

In addition to the super-fab car chase, this movie does have some thrilling action sequences. The first scene, in which Bond parachutes out of a plane and hangs on the back of an explosive-laden truck, is pretty thrilling. And the final battle between Necros and Bond, hanging on a net out the back of a flying plane. Pretty thrilling stuff.

While neither Bond nor Kara come across as largely interesting in this installment, their chemistry together is to be appreciated. For example, when Bond and Kara get away and make a break for it, she insists they go back and get her cello. What ensues is a funny argument and while Bond says “No way!” to retrieving it, we see him in the next shot waiting for her to stuff it in the car. He’s mildly displeased with this, until they need to use the case to sled down a mountain in a desperate escape attempt. This is when he says “Glad I insisted you brought that cello!” Classic comedic reversal. Love it.

While their bickering is enjoyable, so are the serious, gentle moments. Bond understands that Kara is just a naive girl who was lied to by her stupid boyfriend Koskov. Bond becomes increasingly protective of her, and then her of him, and it seems like one of the most natural, organic, and honest relationships in any of the Bond flicks. When Bond goes off in the truck at the end, Kara gets her horse and a gun and takes off after her man. And not even in a dramatic way, but rather, in a matter-of-fact way. She’s gonna save her man, no matter what. And that’s pretty cool.

I also like the Barry’s score, which incorporates all three songs that were created for The Living Daylights (which we’ll get to later). But really, each song is string-ified to be either an action theme, a mystery theme, or a love theme. It’s pretty damn awesome. And while we’re on the subject of John Barry, his cameo as composer is great!

Things I didn’t like:

I just spouted off a couple reasons why I like this movie, but it’s pretty far from number 1, so what was wrong with The Living Daylights?

Just like From Russia With Love, I thought this one was quite a snoozer. I remember seeing it for the first time and not being interested in anything that was happening at all. I don’t know if Dalton was an unfamiliar Bond to me (having really only been familiar with Brosnan), or if just doesn’t come across, or if I just don’t like deserts and spaced out during a bunch of important scenes, or. . .I have no idea. I don’t want to say Dalton is a bad James Bond, but, as someone pointed out, he’s a little too serious for the role. Some of his jokes are great, but some of them fall flat and you’re like “is that a joke?” But then again, Dalton’s Bond wasn’t supposed to be as funny as Moore, or funny at all. Still, I could see these jokes being delivered by Brosnan or Moore perfectly, so why do they fail to impress with Dalton? Maybe he’s a different type of actor, I don’t know.

Perhaps a reason why The Living Daylights doesn’t do much for me is because it keeps everything super grounded in reality. I’m a fan of the zanier, trippier, more creatively colorful Bond pictures (like of the Brosnan and Moore eras). I like the Bonds with the secret lair and the bad guys with some fucked-up eye or nose or whatever. Even Casino Royale, which wrangled in Bond’s ludicrously after Die Another Die, had a bad guy with an eye that cried blood. Amazing. But The Living Daylights doesn’t have ANY of the special frills that make some of the Bond movies memorable (and sometimes discernible) from others. Our main villain, Koskov is just a guy. Whitaker, the arms dealer, is just a guy. The henchman Necros takes after Red Grant by being a silent, tall, blond guy who goes around killing people, but is overall just a guy. No secret lair and no goofy plan to destroy the world with nukes. I know this can’t be done for every Bond movie, and I understand that the Bond producers were trying to get away from the Roger Moore era material, but I sorely missed the goofier aspects of Bond movies. Might work for other Bond fans, just not for me personally.

The Song:

It’s kind of sucky that John Barry’s last Bond-theme collaboration was such a terrible creative experience. Norwiegian rockers a-Ha didn’t have much of a good time either. No matter what was going on in the behind the scenes, The Living Daylights theme is rather meh in my book. I mention in the A View to a Kill review that I felt the song was a victim of the mid-80s style of music, and I feel the same way here. I feel like Bond themes should be timeless. Sure, they can have some flair of what music is popular at the time, but for the most part, they should be musically universal so they won’t sound dated, which The Living Daylights totally does.

The song starts out real exciting, but then loses its punch (kind of like the film itself). I do like the “ohhh ohh ohh ohhh the living daylights!” part of the song, though. That’s a cool part, I guess.

Before a-Ha was chosen for the title track, The Pretenders were considered to do it. They ended up recording two songs for the film, both of which’s melodies are used throughout the score (as I mentioned above). The first one, which plays over the end credits, is a slow romantic song that is used in dentists office where they don’t have laughing gas. While it served as a nice romantic theme to be featured in the score, this one is pretty boring. Here it is if you’re interested:

The second song is titled “Where Has Everybody Gone?” and is a pretty kick-ass song. This one might have been a candidate for the opening title track. What I like most about it is it has a very Goldfinger- or Thunderball-esque horn part to it (later to be used by Bond composer David Arnold…? More on that later in the countdown). Although I like “Where Has Everybody Gone”, I don’t know how it would have worked as the title theme. It seems a to be a little too exciting for the somewhat stale movie that follows.

Favorite Scene:

As I said above, the car chase is absolutely amazing, and if there’s any scene from The Living Daylights that stuck with me, it’s that one. I mean, this scene made me think cars were cool, which is a pretty big accomplishment. I’ve already summarized it, but if you’ve got five minutes and wanna check it out, here you go. It’s so damn awesome!

Favorite Line:

After joining with the Mujaheddin, Kara is a little miffed at Bond’s carelessness and cavalier attitude toward life. This urges her tackle him and spout of a string of Russian curses. He laughs and asks what that meant, when she screams “back end of horse!” He looks at her with laugh and asks “are you calling me a horse’s ass?” Lulz.

Extra Tidbit:

In the film, Bond delivers a parcel to Koskov, featuring some Bollinger and some foie gras, which Bond says is “excellent.” Sir Roger Moore, who played Bond in the seven movies, later teamed up with PETA and became a spokesman against the production of foie gras.

Find the next one in the countdown by clicking here!