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The Living Daylights
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The Living Daylights (1987) is the fifteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story "The Living Daylights."
The beginning of the film (following the title sequence) resembles the short story, in which Bond has to act as a counter sniper to protect a defecting Soviet. The film begins with Bond investigating the deaths of a number of MI6 agents.
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Encyclopedia
The Living Daylights (1987) is the fifteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story "The Living Daylights."
The beginning of the film (following the title sequence) resembles the short story, in which Bond has to act as a counter sniper to protect a defecting Soviet. The film begins with Bond investigating the deaths of a number of MI6 agents. The Soviet defector, Georgi Koskov, informs him that General Pushkin, head of the KGB, is systematically killing Western operatives. When Koskov is seemingly snatched back by the Soviets, Bond follows him across Europe, Morocco and Afghanistan.
The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli, his stepson Michael G. Wilson, and his daughter Barbara Broccoli. The Living Daylights was well received by most critics, and was also a financial success, grossing $191.2 million worldwide.
It was also the last film to be based on a story by Ian Fleming until 2006's Casino Royale, 19 years later.
Plot
In the pre-title sequence, Agents 002, 004, and 007 parachute onto the Rock of Gibraltar as part of a war games scenario to test its defenses. 002 is immediately captured by the SAS, while Bond and 004 begin scaling the cliffs to the base. As they ascend an assassin appears and, after shooting an SAS guard, sends a tag reading "Smiert Spionam" ("Death to Spies") down the rope before cutting it, killing 004. Bond chases the assassin, ending in an explosives-laden Land Rover careening down Gibraltar's roads and then into the air. Bond escapes (via his reserve parachute) mid-air from the falling jeep, while the assassin is killed when the Land Rover explodes, and Bond lands on a nearby yacht.
In Bratislava, Bond along with Saunders, another MI6 Agent, conducts the defection of a KGB officer, General Georgi Koskov, covering his intermission escape from a concert hall. He notices a sniper assigned to assassinate Koskov, who is actually a cellist named Kara Milovy. Suspecting that she is not an actual assassin, he shoots her sniper rifle out of her hands, instead of killing her, much to Saunders condemnation. Koskov is smuggled through the Russian gas pipeline into Austria and flown to England. There, at a countryside manor (Blayden House), Koskov informs MI6 that the KGB's old policy of Smert' Spionam, meaning Death to Spies, has been revived by General Leonid Pushkin, the new head of the KGB (heir to General Gogol). He presents them a list of British and American targets of SMERSH. Milovy is immediately speculated as an assassin. The leaders of MI6 leave for London to convene, while Koskov stays at the manor. Some time later, an assassin named Necros infiltrates the building, burns the list of targets, and abducts Koskov, killing two staff members and sending another two to the hospital.
Bond travels to Bratislava to kill Pushkin but soon begins to suspect that Koskov staged his defection upon learning that the bullets were blanks, and that Milovy was the latter's girlfriend, a fact that remains unknown to MI6. Bond travels to Bratislava to make contact with her and escapes with her into Austria. After a brief tryst with Kara in Vienna, he meets up his MI6 ally, Saunders, at the Wurstelprater amusement park. There, he reveals a link between Koskov and arms dealer, General Brad Whitaker, whose offer to sell the KGB high-tech weapons in Tangier was declined. Saunders is killed by Necros, who is disguised as a balloon seller; he leaves a balloon marked "Smert Spionam".
Bond infiltrates Pushkin's hotel room in Tangier at gun point. Pushkin reveals to Bond that contrary to Koskov's explanation, he had actually been investigating Koskov himself for the embezzlement of government funds. Bond fakes Pushkin's assassination, allowing Whitaker and Koskov, who now believe Pushkin is dead, to progress with their scheme. Meanwhile, Milovy contacts Koskov, who convinces her that Bond is a KGB agent. Accordingly, she puts Bond to sleep with a spiked beverage and engenders his capture. They are flown to a Soviet air base in Afghanistan, where Koskov betrays Milovy and imprisons her along with Bond. They escape from the air base's prison, and in doing so free a condemned prisoner, Kamran Shah, leader of the local Mujahideen. Kamran leads Bond and Milovy to the Mujahideen's base, where Bond informs Kamran of Whitaker's plan to sell the Soviets weapons that could be used against the Afghan resistance. The next day, during a mission, Bond discovers that Whitaker and Koskov are paying diamonds for a large, $500 million shipment of opium, in order to turn a huge profit with enough left over to supply the Soviets with their arms.
The Mujahideen help Bond and Milovy to infiltrate the air base. Bond plants a bomb in the back of the cargo aeroplane transporting the opium, but Koskov recognises him just as he is leaving. Bond hijacks the plane, while the Mujahideen attack the airbase on horseback, killing many Soviets. Milovy joins Bond on a jeep in the back of the plane as they take off and later assumes the controls while Bond leaves to defuse his bomb. Necros, however, had stowed away on board and attacks Bond. Bond throws Necros to his death after a struggle and deactivates the bomb. Milovy flies over Kamran Shah's Mujahideen, who are being pursued by two Soviet armored cars across a bridge. Bond drops his bomb onto the bridge, killing the Soviets and ending their pursuit of Kamran and his men. When their plane runs out of fuel, Bond and Milovy escape on the jeep, while the plane crashes into the hills.
Bond returns to Tangier and arrives at Whitaker's residence as General Whitaker is playing Pickett's Charge on Little Round Top, fighting the Battle of Gettysburg on his terms. When Bond tells him that the opium is burned, Whitaker takes out a submachine gun with a shield of bullet proof glass. When Bond uses up all of his bullets, Whitaker fires. Bond hides behind a pillar with a bust of the Duke of Wellington, and inserts his explosive key chain on it while Whitaker taunts Bond on how Wellington had to hire German mercenaries to defeat Napoleon. Bond's explosive key-chain, triggered by a wolf whistle, sends the bust topples onto Whitaker, who crashes onto a diorama of Waterloo, and as Bond sums it up, "He met his Waterloo." At the same time Pushkin and his bodyguards arrive. Koskov is arrested and ordered to be flown back to Moscow in a "diplomatic bag".
Cast
- Timothy Dalton as James Bond: An MI6 agent assigned to look into the deaths of and conspiracies against several of his allies.
- Jeroen Krabbé as General Georgi Koskov: A renegade Soviet general who pretends to defect and falsely accuses his superior Pushkin of planning assassination attempts on British agents, when in fact he was under investigation by Pushkin and hoped to trick the British into killing him.
- Maryam d'Abo as Kara Milovy: Koskov's girlfriend who is persuaded by him to enact an attempt on his life and thus framed as the KGB's sniper. Bond protects her from his allies who are suspicious about her.
- Joe Don Baker as Brad Whitaker: An American arms dealer and self-styled general who smuggles advanced weapons to Koskov in exchange for opium. Baker called his character "a nut" who "thought he was Napoleon".
- John Rhys-Davies as General Leonid Pushkin: The new head of the KGB, replacing General Gogol. He proves Koskov's words false and then assists Bond in foiling his and Whitaker's plans.
- Art Malik as Kamran Shah: a leader in the Mujahideen, who joins hands with Bond for destroying Koskov's opium stockpile.
- Robert Brown as M: The strict head of MI6.
- Desmond Llewelyn as Q: MI6's "quartermaster" who supplies Bond with multi-purpose vehicles and gadgets useful in the latter's mission.
- Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny: M's secretary.
- John Terry as Felix Leiter: A CIA agent and ally to Bond.
- Geoffrey Keen as Fredrick Gray: The British Minister of Defence
- Walter Gotell as General Gogol: The retired head of the KGB, now a diplomat shown in a cameo at the end of the film.
- Andreas Wisniewski as Necros: Koskov's henchman who poses repeated threats to Bond but is finally killed in Afghanistan.
- Thomas Wheatley as Saunders: Bond's ally who initially discourages all of his intentions due to the misconception that Milovy is an assassin. He later helps them stay safely in Austria and leads them to Whitaker.
- Nadim Sawalha cameos as a police chief in Tangiers. Sawalha also starred in a previous 007 film as Aziz Fekkesh in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Production
Originally the film was proposed to be a prequel in the series. But the idea was dropped. SMERSH's motto "Smiert Spionem" from the short story formed the storyline.
Casting
In 1985, Roger Moore retired from playing James Bond after the financial success, but critical disappointment, of 1985's A View to a Kill. This led to a significant search for a new actor to play Bond. Timothy Dalton, Sam Neill, Lewis Collins, and Pierce Brosnan were screen-tested for the role in 1986. Dalton had been considered to replace Sean Connery in 1968, which he refused feeling that he was too young. He was originally the producers' first choice for The Living Daylights but turned down the role because he was busy with the film version of Brenda Starr, while Collins and Neill failed the screen-test.
The producers offered the role to Brosnan after a three-day screen-test. At the time, he was contracted to the television show Remington Steele which had been cancelled by the NBC network due to falling ratings. The announcement that he would be chosen to play James Bond caused a surge in interest in the series, which led to NBC exercising an option in Brosnan's contract to make a further season of the show. NBC's action caused drastic repercussions, as a result of which Albert R. Broccoli withdrew the offer given to Brosnan, citing that he did not want the character associated with a contemporary TV series. This led to a drop in interest in Remington Steele, with the show ending abruptly following its fourth season. The edict from Broccoli was that "Remington Steele will not be James Bond."
In the intervening period, Dalton was offered the role once again, which he accepted. For a period, the filmmakers had got Dalton, but he had not signed a contract. A casting director persuaded Robert Bathurst, an actor who would become known for his roles in Joking Apart and Cold Feet, to audition for Bond. Bathurst believes that his "ludicrous audition" was only "an arm-twisting exercise" because the producers wanted to persuade Dalton to take the role by telling him they were still auditioning other actors.
Maryam d'Abo, a former model, was cast as the Czech cellist Kara Milovy. In 1984, d'Abo had attended auditions for the role of Pola Ivanova in A View To a Kill. Barbara Broccoli included d'Abo in the audition for playing Kara which she later passed.
Originally, the KGB general set up by Koskov was to be General Gogol; however, Walter Gotell was too sick to handle the major role, and the character of Leonid Pushkin replaced Gogol, who appears briefly at the end of the film, having transferred to the Soviet diplomatic service. This was Gogol's final appearance in a James Bond film. Morten Harket, the lead vocalist of the rock group a-ha (which performed the film's title song), was offered a small role as a villain's henchman in the film, but declined, because of lack of time and because he felt they wanted to cast him due to his popularity rather than his acting.
Director John Glen decided to include the macaw from For Your Eyes Only. It was seen chirping in the kitchen of Blayden House when Necros attacks MI6's officers.
Filming
The film was shot at the Pinewood Studios at its 007 Stage in UK, as well as Weissensee in Austria. The pre-title sequence was filmed on the Rock of Gibraltar and although the sequence shows a hijacked Land Rover careening down various sections of road over several minutes before bursting through a wall and towards the sea, the location mostly used the same short stretch of road, at the very top of the Rock, shot from numerous different angles. It is rumoured the producers felt the RAF station didn't look military enough for the sequence so fake barbed wire, additional security signs and other set dressings were added, some of which remain in place to this day. The beach defences seen at the foot of the Rock in the initial shot were also added solely for the film, to an otherwise non-military area. The action involving the Land Rover switched from Gibraltar, to Beachy Head in the UK for the shot showing the vehicle actually getting airborne. Trial runs of the stunt with the Land Rover, during which Bond escapes by parachute from the tumbling vehicle, were filmed in the Mojave Desert. although the final cut of the film uses a shot achieved using a dummy.
Other locations included Germany, the United States, and Italy. The desert scenes were done in Morocco. The conclusion of the film included the Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna and Elveden Hall, Suffolk.
Principal photography commenced at Gibraltar on 17 September 1986. Aerial stuntmen B.J. Worth and Jake Lombard performed to the pre-credits parachute jump. Both the terrain and wind were unfavourable. Consideration was given to the stunt being done using cranes but aerial stunts arranger B.J. Worth stuck to skydiving and completed the scenes in a day. The aircraft used for the jump was a C-130 Hercules which in the film had M's office installed in the aircraft cabin. The initial point of view for the scene shows M in what appears to be his usual London office, but the camera then zooms out to reveal that it is, in fact, inside an aircraft. Although marked as a Royal Air Force aircraft, the one in shot belonged to the Spanish Air Force and was used again later in the film for the Afghanistan sequences this time in "Russian" markings. During this later chapter, a fight breaks out on the open ramp of the aircraft in flight between Bond and Necros, before Necros falls to his death. Although the plot and preceeding shots suggest the aircraft is a C130, the shot of Necros falling away from the aircraft show a twin engine cargo plane, probably a C123 Provider.
The press would not meet Dalton and d'Abo until 5 October 1986, when the main unit travelled to Vienna.
Almost two weeks after the second unit filming on Gibraltar, the first unit started shooting with Andreas Wisniewski and stunt man Bill Weston. During the course of these three days it took to film this fight Weston fractured a finger, and Wisniewski knocked him out once. The next day finds the crew on location at Stonor House doubling for Bladen's Safe House, the first scene Jeroen Krabbé filmed.
The film reunites Bond with British car maker Aston Martin. The car (B549 WUU) in the film is somewhat confusing. At the beginning of the film, the car appears at the Bladen safe house as a V8 Vantage Volante (convertible), complete with Vantage badges. The car used in these scenes was a preproduction Vantage Volante owned by Aston Martin Lagonda chairman, Victor Gauntlett. Later, for the Czechoslovakia scenes, the car is fitted with a hardtop ("winterised") at Q Branch, and these scenes feature a non-Volante V8 saloon, fitted with the same number plate and Vantage badges as the initial car. Two cars were used during later filming. Clearly, the later cars are intended to be the same open top car that Bond uses at Bladen, but the modification from soft top to hard top was entirely fictional and simply isn't possible with real examples of the cars.
Music
The Living Daylights was the final Bond film to date to be scored by composer John Barry. The soundtrack is notable for its introduction of sequenced electronic rhythm tracks overdubbed with the orchestra—at the time, a relatively new innovation.
The title song of the film, "The Living Daylights", was recorded by the Norwegian pop-music group a-ha, the first non-English speaking artists to provide a Bond song. The group and Barry did not collaborate well, resulting in two versions of the theme song. Barry's film mix is heard on the soundtrack (and on a-ha's later greatest hits album Headlines and Deadlines). The version preferred by the band can be heard on the 1988 a-ha album Stay on These Roads. However, in 2006 a-ha member 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".
In a departure from conventions of previous Bond films, the film uses different songs over the opening and end credits (a trend that would continue until 2006, when "You Know My Name", the Chris Cornell song that served as the title song for Casino Royale, was also played over the last half of the end credits for that same film). The song heard over the end credits, "If There Was A Man", was one of two songs performed for the film by Chrissie Hynde, of The Pretenders. The other song, "Where Has Everybody Gone", is heard from Necros's Walkman in the film. The Pretenders were originally considered to perform Daylights title song. However, the producers had been pleased with the commercial success of Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill", and felt that a-ha would be more likely to make an impact in the charts.
The original soundtrack release was released on LP and CD by Warner Bros. and featured only 12 tracks. Later re-releases by Rykodisc and EMI added nine additional tracks, including alternate instrumental end credits music. Rykodisc's version included the gunbarrel and opening sequence of the film as well as the jailbreak sequence, and the bombing of the bridge.
Additionally, the film featured a number of pieces of classical music, as the main Bond girl, Kara Milovy, is a cellist. Mozart's 40th Symphony in G minor (1st movement) is performed by the orchestra at the Conservatoire in Bratislava when Koskov flees. As Moneypenny tells Bond, Kara is next to perform Alexander Borodin's String Quartet in D major. Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations and the finale to Act II of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (in Vienna) also feature. At the end of the film, Kara also performs the Dvorák cello concerto in B minor to rapturous applause.
Release and reception
Prince and Princess of Wales attended the film's premiere on 27 June 1987 at the Odeon Leicester Square Cinema in London. The Living Daylights grossed $191.2 million worldwide. In the United States it earned $51,185,000. Its opening weekend collections were $11,051,284, surpassing the $5 million grossed by The Lost Boys that was released on the same day.
In the film, Koskov and Whitaker repeatedly use vehicles and drug packets marked with the Red Cross. This action angered a number of Red Cross Societies, which sent letters of protest regarding the film. In addition, the British Red Cross attempted to prosecute the filmmakers and distributors. However, no legal action was taken. As a result, a disclaimer was added at the start of the film and some DVD releases.
The Living Daylights has a "Fresh" score of 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. IGN lauded the film for bringing back realism and espionage to the franchise and showing James Bond's dark side. Many including John J. Puccio and Chuck O'Leary praised Timothy Dalton's performance and his performing most of the stunts himself. The Washington Post even said Dalton developed "the best Bond ever." However, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticised the lack of humor in the protagonist.
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