Licence To Kill More Info

Licence To Kill (1989)

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON Licence To Kill (1989)

The Living Daylights had established Timothy Dalton as a new Bond. Ticket sales were buoyant (with the exception of the US), and the time was right to make the second of the 3 movies for which Dalton was contracted for, without delay. At an early stage the production had a change of plans. Plans to shoot in China had developed to an advanced stage, including scouting for locations and screenings to communist party officials keen to continue to open up their studios after the success of ‘The Last Emperor’, but the Bond producers decided that there were too many variables and uncertainties in costs, and decided to go elsewhere. It must have been a huge sigh of relief, when June 1989, close to the release date of Licence to Kill, came around and the world watched a million pro-democracy protestors brutally suppressed, particularly the image of one young student standing in front of an oncoming tank. Meantime the question of costs dominated, as Michael Wilson continued to take a bigger role as co-producer and writer, and settled down with Richard Maibaum once more to develop the story. This was an original story, but based on a key event from Live and Let Die, as well as one of the characters from The Hildebrand Rarity. A darker tone was established, and a back to roots style – as is quickly apparent when the villain orders someones heart cut out in the first scene. But luck was not to favour the production – budgets for the Bond movies had remained flat, but costs were going up and up, and the 1985 tax change (Eady Levy being rescinded) in the UK meant the time had come the Bond team had to move from their regular space in Pinewood. Mexico was chosen, having exotic location nearby and facilities in place.. but it was to be an ill fated set, with talks of a curse and ghosts abounding (see trivia). Coupled with this change, Cubby Brocolli fell ill in Mexico and had to leave the set, and then to cap things off, the Writers Guild went on strike before the script was completed.. never a positive start to a movie. Nonetheless, casting was finalised, with Robert Davi taking the role of a drugs Lord, not the sort Bond would normally bother with – except this time this particular drug lord has messed with Felix Leiter, Bond’s pal – played for the first time by an actor who had played the role before – David Hedison

Davi’s villain was plucked from the headlines, as the plot mirrored events in Noriega’s Panama.. the writers choosing to rip a story from the headlines rather than work a cold war plot when the cold war was fizzling out.

Davi handpicked the actress Talisa Soto, the Puerto Rican model, as the villains lady, and the Bond lady was filled out by Richard Gere’s squeeze, Carey Lowell

Talisa Soto

Carey Lowell

Desmond Llewellyn had a larger role than normal, but in many ways this movie was the end of an era – it was the last movie for many of the Bond regulars.

Apart from Dalton, it was the last Bond movie for Broccoli as producer (he only consulted on Goldeneye), credit title genius Maurice Binder, Arthur Wooster the long time second unit director, screenwriter Richard Maibaum and John Glen, one of the most prolific Bond directors and before that editor and second unit director. After this movie, the idea of keeping the Bond ‘family’ sadly disappeared with Broccoli.

Set pieces involved an underwater escape in Key West, the famous Kenworth truck scenes (yes, it did a wheelie in real life without cgi.. thanks to a little extra ballast and Remy Juliennes stunt drivers) and Bond busting up a drug transfer in the ocean, a scene which required four different units, with the aerial unit, underwater unit, second unit and main unit all working on its completion. There were beautiful ladies, a Fleming Bond, and action, and even a comedy cameo from none other than Wayne Newton fulfilling a lifetime ambition to be in a Bond movie –so what was the result to be with audiences…?

On its release, the movie suffered from stiff competition.. Lethal Weapon 2, Die Hard, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman and others had significantly bigger budgets . On release it received one last blow of fate – the 15 rating in UK, PG-13 in US. The result..? Ticket sales in the US less than a half of Octopussy. In UK it started strongly, but ultimately only pulled in 2/3 of The Living Daylights take. There was no question that even though the movie was not a flop it was certainly a disappointment. Director John Glen considered it his best film – so what went wrong.. Was it the darker more Fleming like tone? The increased quota of violence? The restrictive rating? Dalton’s failure to connect with audiences? The writer’s strike causing an unfinished script? Michael Kamen’s score being too generic compared to John Barry’s sweeping scores? Frankly I have always felt that this movie - while not perfect - was the precursor to the later Casino Royale with Daniel Craig. It was an attempt to make a gritty realistic Bond who showed his feelings and acted in cold blood.. With its failure we were sent back in time to a jokier Bond for the next movies. So has time been kind and revealed a stronger movie than Box office would suggest – or was it really an ugly confluence of circumstances leading to a flawed movie? Whatever it was, give it another watch and make up your own mind..

Trivia

At 21 years old, Benicio Del Toro is the youngest actor to ever play a villain in a James Bond film.

In the final chase sequence just after 007 lands on the tanker, Sanchez fires at Bond hitting the truck's fuel tanks. The sound of the bullets ricocheting off the tanks plays the start of the James Bond theme.

The movie featured several Kenworth W900B trucks. Three were specifically modified, one so as to be able to do back-wheelies, one with dual-steering and one with a high supercharge engine. They were named Pamela One, Pamela Two and Pamela Three, after the character Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) in the movie.

The last feature film role of Robert Brown (as M).

The project was originally entitled "Licence Revoked" and teaser artwork was produced with this title. Among the reasons for changing the title was to avoid confusion with the 1981 James Bond novel, "Licence Renewed," written by John Gardner (who ended up writing a novel based on this film as well). Another reason for the change was that "license revoked" denotes losing one's driving privileges in the USA. After a minor controversy as to whether the British or American spelling ("licence" or "license") would be used in the title, the British spelling won out. Of course.

Pedro Armendáriz Jr. played President Hector Lopez, named after Héctor López, production supervisor in Mexico. Armendariz's father Pedro Armendáriz played Kerim Bay in From Russia with Love (1963).

Bond's controversial betrayal of M was, in part, a way to sidestep the fact that the British have no jurisdiction over a Latin American drug cartel.

Sanchez is from Isthmus City, a reference to the country of Panama which lies on an isthmus and the corrupt dictator Manuel Noriega, whom the CIA were working very hard to oust, at the time. He was eventually deposed by U.S. troops in the same year this film was released. Sanchez himself seems to be an on-screen representation of Colombian drug-lord Pablo Escobar which was terrorizing his country with bomb attacks and selective killing of presidential candidates at the time of the movie release.

The scene where Bond resigns from the MI6 was shot at Ernest Hemingway's house in Key West. That's why when M (Robert Brown) informs 007 that his licence to kill is revoked, he replies, "I guess this is a farewell to arms," a nod to one of Hemingway's most famous novels.

Gladys Knight's title song is the longest of all the Bond songs. As a Christian soul singer, Knight apparently objected to having to sing a song with the word "kill" in it, but eventually she conceded. The song is apparently based on the "horn line" from the Goldfinger (1964) title song and consequently royalty payments were allegedly made to relevant personnel. The music video of this song was directed by Daniel Kleinman, who succeeded Maurice Binder as title designer on GoldenEye (1995).

Former Playboy Playmate Diane Hsu plays Hong Kong narcotics agent Loti. She also appears in the opening titles.

The second James Bond film to openly feature the word "shit", the first being Live and Let Die (1973).

This is the third Bond film to use plot situations from the novel Live And Let Die, the others being Live and Let Die (1973) (obviously), and For Your Eyes Only (1981).

Cameo - Wayne Newton: The Las Vegas performer played a small part, in a credited performance as a televangelist called Professor Joe Butcher. His character was a dig at televangelists at the time (including Jim Bakker) who had been exposed during the mid-1980s as being involved in extra-marital affairs and/or general promiscuity. Being in a Bond movie fulfilled Wayne Newton's dream.

Director Trademark : John Glen: When Bond lands on the balcony outside Sanchez's office at the casino, he's startled by a flock of pigeons flying in his face. It also has his usual trademark of someone falling from a height.

According to the documentary Inside 'Licence to Kill' (1999), a number of mishaps and strange occurrences took place while filming the final climatic tanker chase. The sequence was filmed on the dangerous La Rumorosa Road, which had been closed down at the time of filming because of the number of fatal accidents occurring on the snake-like twists and turns. Among the mishaps involved the dummy rocket Sanchez (Robert Davi) uses to bring down Pam's (Carey Lowell) plane. The rocket traveled two-and-a-half miles, striking and injuring a telephone worker. Upon investigation, it was determined that the stretch of road they were filming on was where a van with five nuns crashed and were fatally killed. Bizarre incidents continued. Timothy Dalton was nearly added to the list of tragedies while filming the scene after James Bond releases the tanker to blow up the tanker trucks at the bottom of the hill, and jumps into the semi. All vehicles were cleared from the area, but when Dalton came around the curve, a vehicle was in his path and he narrowly missed driving over the edge. If he had, Dalton likely would have been seriously injured, and possibly killed. Director John Glen and others state that human figures would be seen standing around the fleet of Kenworth semis being used for filming. When challenged by security guards, they would simply disappear. Two semis caught fire for no apparent reason, and one started up and drove by itself a short distance before coming to a stop. However, the biggest creepy surprise occurred (SPOILER ALERT!!) while filming the final tanker explosion in which Bond sets Sanchez on fire and his flaming body ignites the tanker truck into a huge explosion. The scene went off without a hitch, with the still photographer shooting photos while the scene took place. Upon reviewing the photos, The still photographer found one contained what looked like a flaming hand coming out of the flames..

Four cameras were set up to record the final explosion, but after reviewing the footage, the only glimpse of the hand was found on the still photograph. According to John Glen, a copy was made for him, but his wife refused to allow it in the house.

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Licence To Kill (1989)

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND ON Licence To Kill (1989)