The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights is a short story written by Ian Fleming featuring British spy James Bond. The story was first published in the first ever colour magazine supplement of the Sunday Times on February 4 1962, and was later reprinted under the title "Berlin Escape" by Argosy magazine. In 1966 it was published as the second story in the short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights, which was published in 1966, two years after Fleming's death.

The story inspired a film of the same name which was first released in 1987. It featured Timothy Dalton in the first of two outings as Bond. The early part of the film borrows much of its plot from the story. This is the last Bond film to date to take its title from an Ian Fleming novel or short story.

Movie plot summary

In the beginning of the film, Bond and several other agents compete in a training exercise on Gibraltar. An imposter, disguised as one of the agents, kills some agents (sending one falling off a cliff, a tag reading Smiert Spionom attached to his climbing equiptment) before Bond kills the imposter was distracting him while he is driving a truck filled with explosives and forcing him to fly off the island, the truck explosing in mid-air. Bond narrowly escapes by using a parachute.

Later, Bond has been enlisted to participate in the defection of a top KGB General, Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé), to the West. He must protect Koskov as he escapes from a Czechoslovakian concert hall. Bond notices that the sniper assigned to protect Koskov is a beautiful cello player from the orchestra, Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo). Suspecting that she is not a trained assassin, he simply shoots the rifle out of her hand, sparing her life, while completing the defection mission to bring Koskov to Britain.

Koskov informs MI6 that the KGB is now being run by a power-hungry leader, Leonid Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies). According to Koskov, Pushkin is pursuing a policy known as Smiert Spionom - which is a programme of assassinations of Western spies, and that he needs to be "removed". Another "00" agent has already been assassinated in Gibraltar during a training exercise (the pre-credits sequence), so the British are now concerned. Shortly afterwards the KGB, led by an assassin named Necros, stage a raid on the secure house which the British are using to protect Koskov and snatch him back.

Before Bond leaves to eliminate Pushkin, Q supplies him with a new Aston Martin and an electric key-finder that is able to both release stun gas or explode. Bond discovers that Milovy is in fact Koskov's girlfriend and begins to suspect that Koskov's defection and subsequent re-capture were staged. He poses as Koskov's friend, and the pair flee to Vienna in the Aston Martin. They are persued by the KGB, but Bond and Milovy escape using the Aston Martin's "special features", which include a laser and missile launcher. However, Bond is forced to destroy the car, and in one of the movie's funniest scenes, Bond and Milovy ride down a hill on Milovy's cello case.

Meanwhile, the mastermind behind the scam turns out to be a corrupt American arms dealer, Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker), who arranged to supply the KGB with high-tech Western weapons through Koskov. However, Koskov and Whitaker are working together, and the KGB's down payment on the weapons order has been used by the pair to purchase a quantity of diamonds. Koskov has been deliberately disinforming MI6 so that Bond will assassinate Pushkin before he reaches the truth.

In Vienna, Bond makes and excuse to leave Milovy and meets his partner, Saunders, in a cafe. Saunders tells Bond what he has found out: the cello Milovy owns, while bought by Koskov, was funded by Brad Whitaker. Saunders leaves the cafe, only to be killed by Necros, who causes the sliding door in front of the cafe to close on Saunders. Necros leaves behind a balloon with the words Smiert Spionam on it. Bond returns to Milovy, and they leave for Tangier immediately.

Bond and Pushkin meet; Pushkin says that the KGB had abandoned Smiert Spionom decades earlier, confirming Bond's suspicions that another party was behind the plot. The two decide to fake the assassination to force Whitaker and Koskov to move on with their scam, and Bond "kills" Pushkin during a speech at a trade convention in Tangier. Ironically, in this way Bond saves Pushkin; Necros was about to kill Pushkin himself before Bond showed up. Bond escapes from the police and is picked up by Felix Leiter (Leiter, again, is played by a different actor, so people watching The Living Daylights for the first time are tricked into at first believing he is an enemy!).

Thinking Pushkin to be dead for real, Koskov contects Milovy and convinces her that Bond is a KGB agent looking for him. She assists in capturing Bond for him, realizing only too late that Koskov has duped her and had intended her killed during his defection. After being captured by Koskov, Bond and Milovy are taken to an air base in Afghanistan, at the height of the Soviet occupation. They escape from custody, with the help of Bond's key-finder, and, while they're at it, free a prisoner who is to be hung the next day. The prisoner turns out to be Kamran Shah, the leader of the local Mujahideen. Bond discovers that Whitaker and Koskov are using diamonds to buy a huge shipment of opium, which would turn a huge profit in days on the streets of the US, while still supplying the Soviets with their arms. The Mujahideen help Bond and Milovy infiltrate the air base.

Bond plants a bomb in the back of the airplane transporting the drugs, but is recognized by Koskov. Bond is forced to hijack the airplane, while the Mujahideen attack the airbase. Milovy, at the last minute, joins Bond in the airplane before it takes off and takes the controls of the plane while Bond leaves to defuse the bomb. However, Necros has also boarded the plane at the last minute, and attacks Bond. Milovy accidentally opens the cargo door, and Bond and Necros are sucked out the back of the plane, the only thing keeping them from death a net attached to the inside of the airplane. In a dramatic fight scene, Necros is left literally hanging on for dear life to Bond's shoe. As he pleads for mercy. Bond coldly cuts through his shoelaces with a knife, sending Necros to his death.

Bond barely defuses the bomb, and Milovy flies over Kamran Shah and the Mujahideen, who are being persued over a bridge by Russian troops. Bond drops the bomb onto the bridge, destroying it and helping the Mujahideen win their battle.

In the final confrontation between Bond and Whitaker, Bond's key-finder saves him once again when he uses to to topple a bust of Wellington onto Whitaker's head (an appropriate end for Whitaker, who had made a wax model of himself as, of all people, Napoleon!). The KGB effectively save Bond's life when agents led by Pushkin burst in and kill one of Whitaker's guards while he has Bond cornered. Koskov is there too, and while not killed, he is flown back to his home, as Pushkin says, "in the diplomatic bag".

Theme music

The title song of the film, "The Living Daylights," was recorded by pop group a-ha. It is also the final Bond film (to date) scored by John Barry.

Vehicles & gadgets

• Aston Martin Vantage. Came with all the usual refinements including side skis, spiked tires, missles, lasers, rocket propulsion and could self-destruct when armed.
• Keychain - Bond's keychain designed by Q-Branch could be used as an explosive device that used a wolf whistle to activate the detonation function. It also could deploy stun gas and be used to "open 90% of the worlds locks".
• Ghetto Blaster - While never used by James Bond, we see this gadget tested in Q-Branch. The ghetto blaster is an '80s stereo that can fire a rocket.

Locations

• Gibraltar
• Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
• Vienna, Austria
• London, U.K.
• Afghanistan
• Tangier
• New York

Cast & characters

• James Bond - Timothy Dalton
• Miss Moneypenny - Caroline Bliss
• M - Robert Brown
• Q - Desmond Llewelyn
• Felix Leiter - John Terry
• Brad Whitaker - Joe Don Baker
• Kara Milovy - Maryam d'Abo
• Kamran Shah - Art Malik
• General Georgi Koskov - Jeroen Krabbé
• General Leonid Pushkin - John Rhys-Davies
• Necros - Andreas Wisniewski
• Saunders - Thomas Wheatley

Director: John Glen

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

Written by: Ian Fleming

Screenplay by: Michael G. Wilson, Richard Maibaum

Composed by: John Barry

Quotes

(Bond cuts his shoelaces to make Necros fall to death) Necros: No please, (Necros screaming to death)

Kara Milovy: What Happened?

James Bond: He got the boot

Trivia

• Both Sam Neill and Pierce Brosnan were screen tested for the role of James Bond in The Living Daylights. Brosnan was successfully signed for the role, but his contractual obligations to the TV show Remington Steele intervened, and he was forced to withdraw from the project. He would have to wait another seven years before he finally got his chance in GoldenEye. Maryam d'Abo, however, who plays Kara Milovy got her role based on the screen test she did with Brosnan.

• Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson produced a first draft of a script portraying James Bond's first field mission. This idea was rejected by Cubby Broccoli.

• This is Caroline Bliss' first appearance as Miss Moneypenny.

• Originally, the KGB general being set up by Koskov was supposed to be General Gogol: however, Walter Gotell was suffering health problems and was not able to handle a major role, and so the character of Leonid Pushkin was introduced to replace Gogol, who has a minor appearance at the end of the film, having transferred to the Soviet diplomatic service. This is Gogol's final appearance in a Bond film.

• This is also the final film to date to be scored by John Barry.

• Joe Don Baker would again appear in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, as a different character, Jack Wade, Bond's CIA liaison and a semi-replacement for Felix Leiter.

• In the daring cargo net stunt near the end of the film, the Hercules airlifter used was a two-engine version, when in fact the close up shots showed that it had four engines.

• Composer John Barry has a cameo role, conducting the orchestra at the end of the film. Producer Michael G. Wilson also does his now-obligatory cameo - this time appearing as a member of the audience in an opera house.

External links

• The Living Daylights (1987) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093428/) at the Internet Movie Database
• MGM's official The Living Daylights website (http://www.mgm.com/title_title.do?title_star=LIVINGDA)

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