The Living Daylights - Home Page Main Frame

General Info - The Living Daylights (1987)

New film and a new Bond. Timothy Dalton stepped into the role of 007 some eighteen years after first being spotted as a possible Connery replacement. The diminishing returns of the Moore films, since the high of Moonraker, and the sheer fact that film production was getting costly, particularly in Great Britain, meant that this Bond film had to hit the ground running - or face trouble. Luckily, with Dalton, the producers had the most experienced actor ever to play Bond and all the will in the world to make it a success - although many casting choices are questionable. The good shop Bond now steered a different course. It wouldn't last for long, but it did return Bond to his fictional roots. Question is, did that help or hinder the film at the box office?

The Plot

Bond's mission starts in Bratislava (Former Czechoslovakia) to help with the defection to the West of top Russian General, Koskov. They succeed and get the General back to Britain. At an MI6 safehouse, in the English countryside, Koskov reveals that the KGB's head, General Pushkin has started a programme to eliminate British agents. Bond, therefore, is assigned to kill Pushkin and end the threat. Bond's suspicions become fact when he finds out that really Koskov wants Pushkin dead because Pushkin was about to have the defector arrested for misappropriation of government funds. Through Saunders, an agent in Central Europe, Bond discovers that Koskov is working with Brad Whitaker, an arms dealer. Together they intend to use the money for an arms deal to fund the buying of raw opium, which they can sell at big profit in the West. Bond meets Pushkin and they collaborate to find Koskov. Whilst at an Afghan base, Bond persuades Shah, the local leader of the Afghan resistance, to attack the base and ruin Koskov's plot. The trail ends in Tangier where Bond kills Whitaker and Pushkin arrests Koskov.

Budget: $33m - Gross: $191m - Fastrac007 Rating: 66%