Plot
James Bond leaves Her Majesty's Secret Service to stop an evil drug lord and avenge his best friend, Felix Leiter.
Release Year: 1989
Rating: 6.5/10 (34,047 voted)
Director:
John Glen
Stars: Timothy Dalton, Robert Davi, Carey Lowell
Storyline James Bond is on possibly his most brutal mission yet. Bond's good friend, Felix Leiter, is left near to death, by drug baron Franz Sanchez. Bond sets off on the hunt for Sanchez, but not everyone is happy. MI6 does not feel Sanchez is their problem and strips Bond of his license to kill. Bond is now more dangerous than ever. Bond gains the aide of one of Leiter friends, known as Pam Bouvier and sneaks his way into the drug factories, which Sanchez owns. Will Bond be able to keep his identity secret, or will Sanchez see Bond's true intentions?
Writers: Michael G. Wilson, Richard Maibaum
Cast: Timothy Dalton
-
James Bond
Carey Lowell
-
Pam Bouvier
Robert Davi
-
Franz Sanchez
Talisa Soto
-
Lupe Lamora
Anthony Zerbe
-
Milton Krest
Frank McRae
-
Sharkey
David Hedison
-
Felix Leiter
Wayne Newton
-
Professor Joe Butcher
Benicio Del Toro
-
Dario
Anthony Starke
-
Truman-Lodge
Everett McGill
-
Ed Killifer
Desmond Llewelyn
-
Q
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.
-
President Hector Lopez
(as Pedro Armendariz)
Robert Brown
-
M
Priscilla Barnes
-
Della Churchill Leiter
Taglines:
James Bond is out on his own and out for revenge.
Filming Locations: 707 South Street, Key West, Florida Keys, Florida, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $32,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: £287,578
(UK)
(22 June 1989)
(4 Screens)
Gross: $156,200,000
(Worldwide)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
Felix's bride Della's wedding dress was made of re-embroidered French Llace adorned with seed pearls and opal sequins. Two versions of the dress had to be made because the scenes where Della is attacked were filmed before the wedding sequence. Therefore, 17 meters of the material had to be located at $150 a meter. The Leiter's bridal car was a white Lincoln Limousine.
Goofs:
Factual errors:
When the air hose on a truck's braking system is severed, the brakes lock on, they do not release as shown.
Quotes:
[first lines]
AWACS radar operator:
We have a mid-course deviation. Target heading 036, 126 miles, bearing 062, Havana VOR. Voice of DEA agent:
He's landing at Crab Key. Advise Key West Drug Enforcement.
AWACS radar operator:
Roger, sir. AWACS to Key West. Key West Drug Enforcement, please come in. Voice of DEA agent:
If they hurry, they just might be able to grab the bastard.
User Review
Fleming's Bond is Back
Rating:
This is the most underrated film in the series. It's ironic that the first
of the EON films not to draw its title directly from an Ian Fleming story
is also the closest in spirit to Fleming since "On Her Majesty's Secret
Service." Of course, the titles had long since become the ONLY connection
between Fleming's original stories and the movies -- the film plots and
Roger Moore's portrayal bore almost no resemblance to Fleming's Bond.
In "License to Kill" continues what he started in "The Living Daylights": he
portrays a Bond that is still an ultra-suave superagent, but is also moody
and reckless -- in other words, human.
Bond is driven to avenge the near murder of his friend Felix Leiter (and the
murder of Leiter's wife) at the hands of drug lord Franz Sanchez. Sanchez
is excellently played by Robert Davi. He ends up being assisted by CIA
agent Pam Bouvier. Bouvier is played by Cary Lowell, in a performance that
earns her automatic entry onto the list of top 5 all time Bond
women.
Some elements of the story come from Fleming's short story "The Hildebrande
Rarity." Sanchez's doomed henchmen Milton Krest is lifted directly from
"The Hildebrand Rarity," and elements of the relationship between Sanchez
and his girlfriend Lupe echo that of Krest and his wife Liz in the original
story.
The other Fleming story drawn upon is "Live and Let Die" for the
plot-driving scene in which Leiter is thrown to the sharks. (This marks the
second time that Fleming's "Live and Let Die" was drawn upon for a key scene
in a movie other than the film version of LALD. The other is the "dragged
behind a speedboat over the reef" scene in "For Your Eyes Only." It kind of
makes you wonder what the powers that be at EON were thinking when they
couldn't find a place for these powerful, effective scenes in the pastiche
that is LALD.)
"License to Kill" features a realistic, believable story. Add to it the
equal ruthlessness of Bond and Sanchez in their respective portrayals by
Dalton and Davi and you have a movie that will stand out over time as one of
the best in the series.
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