Licence to Kill

This article is about the film and computer game. For the concept in real situations see licence to kill.

Licence to Kill (released theatrically in the United States as License to Kill, but sold for the home video market in the USA with the British spelling) is the sixteenth film in the popular James Bond series made by EON Productions. Released in 1989 and directed by John Glen, it is the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as Bond.

Licence to Kill was one of the least successful Bond films for three reasons. First, the increased level of violence led to the film being given a "15" rating which banned children from seeing the film. (In the United States, it was the first Bond film to receive a PG-13 rating.) Additionally, this was a very serious motion picture and not all members of the audience took to Timothy Dalton's dark portrayal of James Bond, although it is widely acknowledged that this is indeed the closest to the Fleming character. Finally, a late change of title (see Trivia section for details) severely affected the marketing and promotion of the film.

This was the first EON Bond film to use a title not derived from an Ian Fleming novel or short story. It does, however, contain elements and characters from Fleming's novel, Live and Let Die and short story, "The Hildebrand Rarity". This would be the last Bond film to make direct use of Fleming concepts and characters until Die Another Day (2002).

Plot summary

The movie opens with Bond and his friend, DEA agent Felix Leiter, parachuting into Leiter's wedding in Key West. On their honeymoon night, Leiter and his wife are captured by agents working for Sanchez, a Latino drug baron Bond had helped Felix to apprehend in the Bahamas earlier that day. Just before this scene, Sanchez had been released in the melee by a turncoat DEA agent, Killifer, whom Bond promptly dispatched. Leiter is bound and lowered into a shark tank; the shark bites off the lower half of one of his legs. Bond comes on the scene after Sanchez's agents depart; he finds Leiter barely alive and his new wife dead (the capture scene strongly implies she was raped before being killed). Apart from giving Felix a wife, this portion of the film is closely modeled on a previously unfilmed chapter of Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die novel—right down to a furious James Bond almost immediately setting out to hunt down and kill every person involved in his friend's torture.

M meets Bond in Key West's Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul. Bond says he's staying ("Sir, the Americans aren't going to do anything!"), but M refuses, claiming that Bond's vendetta could easily compromise the British Government. M again orders Bond to Istanbul, and he responds by resigning. M orders that Bond's resignation is effective immediately, and revokes his licence to kill. Bond then escapes from the House. Bereft of official MI6 backing (but surreptitiously helped by weaponsmaker Q, who joins Bond voluntarily while pretending to be on leave), Bond journeys to the fictional country of "Isthmus" (meant to be Panama but filmed on the Mexican Riviera), and swiftly works his way into Sanchez's inner circle (knowing that Sanchez prizes loyalty above all else, Bond frames most of Sanchez's staff and turns Sanchez against them), learning about his plans to make cocaine undetectable by chemically dissolving it in gasoline and selling it to Oriental drug dealers, while communicating to the underworld through a series of TV broadcasts by fake tele-evangelist Professor Joe Butcher. The re-integration process will be available to those clients who can pay Sanchez's price. CIA agent Pam Bouvier, one of Leiter's informants, aids Bond in Isthmus and again as he destroys Sanchez' cocaine plant. Bond then pursues Sanchez as he tries to make his escape with four tanker trucks of cocaine, in a sequence which is often referred to as one of, if not the greatest ending sequences in the movies. The tanker that Bond and Sanchez are fighting on crashes, rolling down a hillside, and Sanchez has Bond at the point of a machete, but Bond pulls out a lighter given to him by Felix at the wedding and sets Sanchez alight, who stumbles into the wreck of the tanker, causing it to explode.

Later, Bond and Q are attending a party at Sanchez' former residence. Bond takes a call from Felix and is then informed that M has contacted him, offering his job back (despite an earlier incident which helped further ingratiate Bond with Sanchez at the cost of several Hong Kong narcotics agents and another MI6 agent). Bond then joins Pam in the swimming pool.

Vehicles & gadgets

• Dentonite Toothpaste - Plastic explosives disguised as ordinary toothpaste.
• Signature Camera Gun - A camera that when put together became a sniper rifle that only worked for Bond due to a scanner built into the grip.

Theme music

The theme song to Licence to Kill was sung by Gladys Knight; the ending credits feature a "classic Bond" song, "If You Asked Me To", performed by Patti LaBelle. (Years later, the latter song would be a major hit for Céline Dion.) The soundtrack was composed by Michael Kamen.

Locations

• Key West, Florida
• London, U.K.
• South America

Cast & characters

• James Bond - Timothy Dalton
• Miss Moneypenny - Caroline Bliss
• M - Robert Brown
• Q - Desmond Llewelyn
• Felix Leiter - David Hedison
• Franz Sanchez - Robert Davi
• Pam Bouvier - Carey Lowell
• Sharkey - Frank McRae
• Milton Krest - Anthony Zerbe
• Professor Joe Butcher - Wayne Newton
• Dario - Benicio Del Toro
• Lupe Lamora - Talisa Soto

Director: John Glen

Producers: Albert R. Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson , Barbara Broccoli

Written by: Michael G. Wilson, Richard Maibaum

Composed by: Michael Kamen

Quotes

Pam Bouvier: I love James so much!

Pam Bouvier: Oh no, it's Heller!

James Bond: Yeah, looks like he came to a dead end!

Trivia

• The film was originally titled Licence Revoked. However, test screenings in the USA indicated that audiences didn't understand the meaning of the word 'revoked' (some reportedly claiming that they thought it was something to do with driving licences), and the title was changed to Licence to Kill. However, a large amount of promotional material had already been produced with the original title, and the resultant delay in producing new material with the final title severely affected the marketing and promotion of the film. The new title also caused some minor confusion as the British spelling "Licence" conflicted with the American spelling, "License".
• The shark attack scene involving Felix Leiter was originally in the book Live and Let Die.
• Bond novelist John Gardner was faced with a challenge when asked to produce a novel based upon this film. Gardner's books maintain the continuity of Ian Fleming's original novels (albeit updated to the present day), and in Fleming's and Gardner's continuity, Felix Leiter lost his leg in a shark attack in Live and Let Die. As a result, Gardner's book requires readers to suspend disbelief as Bond comes to terms with his friend being maimed twice using the same method - complete with the same note ("He disagreed with something that ate him"). Gardner does not attempt to reconcile the return of Milton Krest, who was supposedly killed in Fleming's short story "The Hildebrand Rarity".

External link

• Licence to Kill (1989) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097742/) at the Internet Movie Database
• MGM's official Licence to Kill website (http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=LICENCET)