The Living Daylights
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.
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".[1]
- 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.
