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Licence to Kill

May 05, 2023

For other uses, see Licence to Kill (disambiguation).

Licence to Kill is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond. It sees Bond suspended from MI6 as he pursues the drug lord Franz Sanchez, who has ordered an attack against Bond's CIA friend Felix Leiter and the murder of Felix's wife after their wedding.

Licence to Kill
Theatrical release poster by Robin Behling
Directed byJohn Glen
Written by
Based onJames Bond
by Ian Fleming
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAlec Mills
Edited byJohn Grover
Music byMichael Kamen
Production
companies
Distributed byMGM/UA Communications Co. (United States)
United International Pictures (International)
Release dates
  • 13 June 1989 (1989-06-13) (London)
  • 10 July 1989 (1989-07-10) (United Kingdom)
  • 14 July 1989 (1989-07-14) (United States)
Running time
133 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom[1]
United States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$32 million
Box office$156.1 million

Licence to Kill was the fifth and final Bond film directed by John Glen, the last to feature Robert Brown as M and Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny. It was also the last to feature the work of the screenwriter Richard Maibaum, the title designer Maurice Binder and the producer Albert R. Broccoli, all of whom died in the following years.

Licence to Kill was the first Bond film to not use the title of an Ian Fleming story. Originally titled Licence Revoked, the name was changed during post-production due to American test audiences associating the term with driver's license. Although its plot is largely original, it contains elements of the Fleming novel Live and Let Die and the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity", interwoven with a sabotage premise influenced by Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo.

For budget reasons, Licence to Kill became the first Bond film shot entirely outside the United Kingdom: principal photography took place on location in Mexico and the US, while interiors were filmed at Estudios Churubusco instead of Pinewood Studios. The film earned over $156 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews, with praise for the stunts, but attracted criticism for its darker tone, which carried into Dalton's portrayal of Bond.

Plot

DEA agents collect MI6 agent James Bond and his friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, on their way to Leiter's wedding in Key West, to have them assist in capturing drugs lord Franz Sanchez. Bond and Leiter capture Sanchez by attaching a hook and cord to Sanchez's plane and pulling it out of the air with a Coast Guard helicopter. Afterwards, Bond and Leiter parachute down to the church in time for the ceremony.

Sanchez bribes DEA agent Ed Killifer and escapes. Meanwhile, Sanchez's henchman Dario and his crew ambush Leiter and his wife Della and take Leiter to an aquarium owned by one of Sanchez's accomplices, Milton Krest. Sanchez has Leiter lowered into a tank holding a tiger shark. When Bond learns that Sanchez has escaped, he returns to Leiter's house to find that Leiter has been maimed and that Della has been murdered (and by implication raped).[3][4] Bond, with Leiter's friend Sharkey, start their own investigation. They discover a marine research centre run by Krest, where Sanchez has hidden cocaine and a submarine for smuggling.

After Bond kills Killifer using the same shark tank used for Leiter, M meets Bond in Key West's Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul, Turkey. Bond resigns after turning down the assignment, but M suspends Bond instead and revokes his licence to kill. Bond becomes a rogue agent, although he later receives unauthorised assistance from Q.

Bond boards Krest's ship Wavekrest and foils Sanchez's latest drug shipment, stealing five million dollars in the process. He discovers that Sharkey has been killed by Sanchez's henchmen. Bond meets and teams up with Pam Bouvier, a pilot and DEA informant, at a Bimini bar,[5] and journeys with her to the Republic of Isthmus. He seeks Sanchez's employment by posing as an assassin for hire. Two Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau officers foil Bond's attempt to assassinate Sanchez and take him to an abandoned warehouse. They are joined by Fallon, an MI6 agent who was sent by M to apprehend Bond. Sanchez's men rescue him and kill the officers, believing them to be the assassins. Later, with the aid of Bouvier, Q, and Sanchez's girlfriend Lupe Lamora, Bond frames Krest by planting the $5 million in Wavekrest. Sanchez shuts Krest into a decompression chamber and cuts the oxygen cord, causing Krest to explosively decompress to his death. Bond is then admitted into the inner circle.

Sanchez takes Bond to his base, which is disguised as the headquarters of a religious cult. Bond learns that Sanchez's scientists can dissolve cocaine in petrol and then sell it disguised as fuel to Asian drug dealers. The televangelist Joe Butcher serves as middleman, working under Sanchez's business manager Truman-Lodge, who uses Butcher's TV broadcasts to communicate with Sanchez's customers in the United States. During Sanchez's presentation to potential Asian customers, Dario enters the room and recognises Bond. Bond starts a fire in the laboratory, but is captured again and placed on the conveyor belt that drops the brick-cocaine into a giant shredder. Bouvier arrives and shoots Dario, allowing Bond to pull Dario into the shredder, killing him.

Sanchez and most of the others flee as fire consumes his base, taking with him four tankers full of the cocaine and petrol mixture. Bond pursues them by plane, with Bouvier at the controls. During the course of a stunt-filled chase through the desert, Bond destroys three of the tankers and kills several of Sanchez's men. Sanchez attacks Bond with a machete aboard the final remaining tanker, which crashes down a hillside. A petrol-soaked Sanchez attempts to kill Bond with his machete. Bond then reveals his cigarette lighter—the Leiters' gift for being the best man at their wedding—and sets Sanchez on fire. Sanchez stumbles into the wrecked tanker, causing a big explosion and killing himself. Bouvier arrives shortly afterward, and picks up Bond.

Later, a party is held at Sanchez's former residence. Bond receives a call from Leiter telling him that M has congratulated him for his work and offers him his job back. He then rejects Lupe's advances and romances Bouvier instead.

Cast

Production

Shortly after The Living Daylights was released, producer Albert R. Broccoli and writers Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum started discussing its successor. The film would retain a realistic style, as well as showing the "darker edge" of the Bond character. For the primary location, the producers wanted a place where the series had not yet visited.[6] While China was visited after an invitation by its government, the idea fell through partly because the 1987 film The Last Emperor had removed some of the novelty from filming in China.[7] By this stage the writers had already talked about a chase sequence along the Great Wall, as well as a fight scene amongst the Terracotta Army.[8] Wilson also wrote two plot outlines about a drugs lord in the Golden Triangle before the plans fell through out of Broccoli's concerns that the Chinese government would censor the script.[8][9] The writers eventually decided on a setting in a tropical country while Broccoli negotiated to film in Mexico,[6] at the Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City.[8] In 1985, the Films Act was passed, removing the Eady Levy, resulting in foreign artists being taxed more heavily.[7] The associated rising costs to Eon Productions meant no part of Licence to Kill was filmed in the UK,[10] the first Bond film not to do so.[7] Pinewood Studios, used in every previous Bond film, undertook only the post-production and sound re-recording.[11]

Writing and themes

The initial outline of what would become Licence to Kill was drawn up by Wilson and Maibaum.[7] Before the pair could develop the script, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike and Maibaum was unable to continue writing, leaving Wilson to work on the script on his own.[12] Although both the main plot and title of Licence to Kill owe nothing to any of the Fleming novels, there are elements from the books that are used in the storyline, including a number of aspects of the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity", such as the character Milton Krest.[6][13] The novel Live and Let Die provided the material surrounding Felix Leiter's mauling by a shark,[7] whilst the film version of the book provided the close similarity between the main villain, Mr. Big, and Licence to Kill's main villain Sanchez.[14] The screenplay was not ready by the time casting had begun, with Carey Lowell being auditioned with lines from A View to a Kill.[6]

The script—initially called Licence Revoked—was written with Dalton's characterisation of Bond in mind,[7] and the obsession with which Bond pursues Sanchez on behalf of Leiter and his dead wife is seen as being because "of his own brutally cut-short marriage".[15] Dalton's darker portrayal of Bond led to the violence being increased and becoming more graphic.[13] Wilson compared the script to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, where a samurai "without any attacking of the villain or its cohorts, only sowing the seeds of distrust, he manages to have the villain bring himself down".[6] Wilson freely admitted that the idea of the destruction-from-within aspect of the plot came more from Yojimbo and Sergio Leone's remake of that film, A Fistful of Dollars, than from Fleming's use of that plot device from The Man with the Golden Gun.[14]

For the location Wilson created the Republic of Isthmus, a banana republic based on Panama, with the pock-marked Sanchez bearing similarities to General Manuel Noriega.[14] The parallels between the two figures were based on Noriega's political use of drug trafficking and money laundering to provide revenues for Panama.[16] Robert Davi suggested the line "loyalty is more important than money", which he felt was fitting to the character of Franz Sanchez, whose actions were noticed by Davi to be concerned with betrayal and retaliation.[11]

The United Artists press kits referred to the film's background as being "Torn straight from the headlines of today's newspapers"[17] and the backdrop of Panama was connected to "the Medellín Cartel in Colombia and corruption of government officials in Mexico thrown in for good measure."[18] This use of the cocaine-smuggling backdrop put Licence to Kill alongside other cinema blockbusters, such as the 1987 films Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop II and RoboCop, and Bond was seen to be "poaching on their turf" with the drug-related revenge story.[19]

Casting

After Carey Lowell was chosen to play Pam Bouvier, she watched many of the films in the series for inspiration. Lowell had described becoming a Bond girl as "huge shoes to fill", as she did not see herself as a "glamour girl", even coming to audition in jeans and a leather jacket. While Lowell wore a wig for the scenes set in the United States, a scene where Bouvier is given money and told by Bond to go and buy some new clothes (and, going off and doing so, also has her hair cut) was added so that Lowell's own short hair style could be used.[20]

Robert Davi was cast following a suggestion by Broccoli's daughter Tina,[6] and screenwriter Richard Maibaum, who had seen Davi in the television film Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami.[21] To portray Sanchez, Davi researched the Colombian drug cartels and how to do a Colombian accent,[11] and since he was method acting, he would stay in character off-set. After Davi read Casino Royale for preparation, he decided to turn Sanchez into a "mirror image" of James Bond, based on Ian Fleming's descriptions of Le Chiffre.[6] The actor also learned scuba diving for the scene where Sanchez is rescued from the sunken armoured car.[11]

Davi later helped with the casting of Sanchez's mistress Lupe Lamora, by playing Bond in the audition.[8] Talisa Soto was picked from twelve candidates because Davi said he "would kill for her".[6] David Hedison returned to play Felix Leiter, sixteen years after playing the character in Live and Let Die. Hedison did not expect to return to the role, saying "I was sure that [Live and Let Die] would be my first – and last"[22] and Glen was reluctant to cast the 61-year-old actor, since the role included a scene parachuting.

Up-and-coming actor Benicio del Toro was chosen to play Sanchez's henchman, Dario, for being "laid back while menacing in a quirky sort of way", according to Glen.[6] Wayne Newton got the role of Professor Joe Butcher after sending a letter to the producers expressing interest in a cameo because he always wanted to be in a Bond film.[8] The President of Isthmus was played by Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., the son of Pedro Armendáriz, who played Ali Kerim Bey in From Russia with Love.[23]

John Rhys-Davies claimed he was asked to reprise his role from the previous film as General Pushkin in a cameo appearance, but declined since he felt the character was not necessary to the plot.[9]

Filming

 
Centro Ceremonial Otomi, designed as a place for the Otomi people to congregate and celebrate their culture, was used to represent the "Olympatec Meditation Institute".

Principal photography ran from 18 July to 18 November 1988. Shooting began in the Estudios Churubusco in Mexico, which mostly doubled for the fictional Republic of Isthmus:[24][6] locations in Mexico City included the Biblioteca del Banco de Mexico for the exterior of El Presidente Hotel and the Casino Español for the interior of Casino de Isthmus whilst the Teatro de la Ciudad was used for its exterior. Villa Arabesque in Acapulco was used for Sanchez's lavish villa, and the La Rumorosa Mountain Pass in Tecate was used as the filming site for the tanker chase during the climax of the film. Sanchez's Olympiatec Meditation Institute was shot at the Otomi Ceremonial Center in Temoaya.[25] Other underwater sequences were shot at the Isla Mujeres near Cancún.[26]

In August 1988, production moved to the Florida Keys, notably Key West.[6] Seven Mile Bridge towards Pigeon Key was used for the sequence in which the armoured truck transporting Sanchez, following his arrest, is driven off the edge. Other locations there included Ernest Hemingway House, Key West International Airport, Mallory Square, St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church for Leiter's wedding and Stephano's House 707 South Street for his house and patio. The US Coast Guard Pier was used to film Isthmus City harbour.[25] As production moved back to Mexico City, Broccoli became ill, marking the first time during the James Bond film series where he was not present during filming.[6]

The scene where Sanchez's plane is hijacked was filmed on location in Florida, with stuntman Jake Lombard jumping from a helicopter to a plane and Dalton himself being filmed atop the aircraft. The plane towed by the helicopter was a life-sized model created by special effects supervisor John Richardson. After filming wide shots of David Hedison and Dalton parachuting, closer shots were made near the church location.[6] During one of the takes, a malfunction of the harness equipment caused Hedison to fall on the pavement. The injury made him limp for the remainder of filming.[22] The aquatic battle between Bond and the henchmen required two separate units, a surface one led by Arthur Wooster which used Dalton himself, and an underwater one which involved experienced divers. The barefoot waterskiing was done by world champion Dave Reinhart, with some close-ups using Dalton on a special rig.[6] Milton Krest's death used a prosthetic head which was created by John Richardson's team based on a mould of Anthony Zerbe's face.[27] The result was so gruesome that it was shortened and toned down to avoid censorship problems.[13]

For the climactic tanker chase, the producers used an entire section of Mexican Federal Highway 2D in La Rumorosa, Baja California, which had been closed for safety reasons.[24] Sixteen eighteen-wheeler tankers were used,[6] some with modifications made by manufacturer Kenworth at the request of driving stunts arranger Rémy Julienne. Most were given improvements to their engines to run faster, while one model had an extra steering wheel on the back of the cabin so a hidden stuntman could drive while Carey Lowell was in the front and another received extra suspension on its back so it could lift its front wheels.[6][28] Although a rig was constructed to help a rig tilt onto its side, it was not necessary as Julienne was able to pull off the stunt without the aid of camera trickery.[6][29]

Music

Main article: Licence to Kill (soundtrack)

Initially Vic Flick, who had played lead guitar on Monty Norman's original 007 theme, and Eric Clapton were asked to write and perform the theme song to Licence to Kill and they produced a theme to match Dalton's gritty performance, but the producers turned it down[30] and instead Gladys Knight's song and performance was chosen. The song was based on the "horn line" from "Goldfinger", seen as an homage to the film of the same name,[30] which required royalty payments to the original writers.[31] The song gave Knight her first British top-ten hit since 1977.[32] The end credits feature the Top 10 R&B hit "If You Asked Me To", sung by Patti LaBelle.[33]

John Barry was originally intended to score but was not available at the time due to throat surgery after suffering a rupture of the esophagus in 1988 and it was considered unsafe to fly him from his home in New York to London to complete the score, post-production was extended to allow Barry time to recover.[9] The soundtrack's score was composed and conducted by Michael Kamen, who was known for scoring many action films at the time, such as Lethal Weapon and Die Hard.[34] Glen said he picked Kamen, feeling he could give "the closest thing to John Barry."[11]

Release

Film ratings organisations had objections to the excessive and realistic violence, with both the Motion Picture Association of America and the British Board of Film Classification requesting content adaptations,[35] with the BBFC in particular demanding the cut of 36 seconds of film.[26] Licence to Kill became the first Bond film to receive a PG-13 rating from the MPAA’s ratings board, a rating that has been applied to every Bond film since. The 2006 Ultimate Edition DVD of Licence to Kill marked the first release of the film without cuts.[36] It remains the only Bond movie to be originally rated 15 by the BBFC.

Licence to Kill premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on 13 June 1989,[37] raising £200,000 (£529,354 in 2023 pounds[38]) for The Prince's Trust on the night.[37]

There were also issues with the promotion of the film: promotional material in the form of teaser posters created by Bob Peak, based on the Licence Revoked title and commissioned by Albert Broccoli, had been produced, but MGM decided against using them[39] after American test screenings showed 'Licence Revoked' to be a common American phrase for the withdrawal of a driving licence.[10] The delayed, updated advertising by Steven Chorney, in the traditional style, limited the film's pre-release screenings.[6] MGM also discarded a campaign created by advertising executive Don Smolen, who had worked in the publicity campaign for eight previous Bond films, emphasising the rougher content of the film.[40][41]

Reception

Box office

At the box office, Licence to Kill grossed $156.2 million ($373.3 million in 2022 dollars) on its budget of $32 million ($78.9 million in 2022 dollars), grossing an inflation-adjusted profit of $287.2 million, making it the twelfth biggest box-office draw of the year.[42][43][44] The film grossed a total of £7.5 million (£20 million in 2023 pounds[38]) in the United Kingdom,[45] making it the seventh-most successful film of the year,[46] despite the 15 certificate which cut down audience numbers.[47] In the US and Canada, it grossed $34.6 million,[48] making Licence to Kill the least financially successful James Bond film in the US, when accounting for inflation.[49] A factor suggested for the poor takings was fierce competition at the cinema, with Licence to Kill released alongside Lethal Weapon 2, Ghostbusters II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (starring former Bond Sean Connery), and Batman.[32] Other large international grosses include $14.2 million in Germany, $12.4 million in France, $8.8 million in Japan, $8.7 million in the Netherlands and $8.6 million in Sweden.[50]

Despite grossing more than 4.3 times its budget, Licence to Kill has made the lowest inflation-adjusted box-office return—as well as having the lowest profit margin—out of all 25 of the official Bond films as of 2022. Interestingly, the only other Bond movie with "Kill" in the title—A View To a Kill, which was also directed by John Glen—has the second-lowest inflation-adjusted return of any Bond movie. However, Licence to Kill's return ratio of 4.3 ranks it 18th out of the 25 official film entries from the series.

Contemporary reviews

Derek Malcolm in The Guardian was broadly approving of Licence to Kill, liking the "harder edge of the earlier Bonds" that the film emulated, but wishing that "it was written and directed with a bit more flair."[51] Malcolm praised the way the film attempted "to tell a story rather than use one for the decorative purposes of endless spectacular tropes."[51] Writing in The Guardian's sister paper, The Observer, Philip French noted that "despite the playful sparkle in his eyes, Timothy Dalton's Bond is ... serious here."[52] Overall French called Licence to Kill "an entertaining, untaxing film".[52] Ian Christie in the Daily Express excoriated the film, saying that the plot was "absurd but fundamentally dull",[53] a further problem being that as "there isn't a coherent storyline to link [the stunts], they eventually become tiresome."[53]

Hilary Mantel in The Spectator dismissed the film:

It is a very noisy film. There is a weary and repetitive note to the frenzy.... The sex is low key and off-screen but there is a smirking perverse undertow which makes the film more disagreeable than a slasher movie.[54]

David Robinson, writing in The Times, observed that Licence to Kill "will probably neither disappoint nor surprise the great, faithful audience",[55] but bemoaned the fact that "over the years the plots have become less ambitious".[55] Robinson thought that Dalton's Bond "has more class"[55] than the previous Bonds and was "a warmer personality".[55] Iain Johnstone of The Sunday Times pointed out that "any vestiges of the gentleman spy ... by Ian Fleming" have now gone,[56] and in its place is a Bond that is "remarkably close both in deed and action to the eponymous hero of the Batman film"[56] that was released at the same time as Licence to Kill.

Adam Mars-Jones of The Independent gave the film a mixed review, pointing out that it took out some of the more dated ideas from the Fleming novels, such as imperialism; he wrote that the writers were "trying in effect to reproduce the recipe while leaving out ingredients that would now seem distasteful".[57] Overall Mars-Jones thought that:

James Bond is more like a low-tar cigarette than anything else—less stimulating than the throat-curdling gaspers of yesteryear, but still naggingly implicated in unhealthiness, a feeble bad habit without the kick of a vice.[57]

For the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, Rick Groen wrote that in Licence to Kill "they've excised Bond from the Bond flicks; they've turned James into Jimmy, strong and silent and (roll over, Britannia) downright American",[58] resulting in a Bond film that is "essentially Bond-less".[58] Summing up, Groen thought "Actually, that dialogue ... ain't bad. The silence looks good on Timothy Dalton".[58]

Gary Arnold of The Washington Times wrote that a number of factors "fail to prevent the finished product from jamming and misfiring with disillusioning frequency".[59] Arnold opined that "demanding that he [Dalton] play Bond's wrathfulness in a transparently seething and hotheaded manner"[59] means that Dalton "seems to waste away on this second outing as Bond."[59] Overall Arnold sees that there is a "failure to recognize that Bond productions are simply too extravagant to permit an uncompromised return to first principles."[59] The critic for The New York Times, Caryn James, thought Dalton was "the first James Bond with angst, a moody spy for the fin de siecle",[60] and that Licence to Kill "retains its familiar, effective mix of despicably powerful villains, suspiciously tantalizing women and ever-wilder special effects",[60] but was impressed that "Dalton's glowering presence adds a darker tone".[60] James concluded that "for all its clever updatings, stylish action and witty escapism, Licence to Kill ... is still a little too much by the book."[60]

Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 31⁄2 stars out of 4, saying "the stunts all look convincing, and the effect of the closing sequence is exhilarating ... Licence to Kill is one of the best of the recent Bonds."[61] Jack Kroll, writing in Newsweek, described Licence to Kill as "a pure, rousingly entertaining action movie".[62] Kroll was mixed in his appraisal of Dalton, calling him "a fine actor who hasn't yet stamped Bond with his own personality",[62] observing "Director John Glen is the Busby Berkeley of action flicks, and his chorus line is the legendary team of Bond stunt-persons who are at their death-defying best here".[62] For Time magazine, Richard Corliss bemoaned that although the truck stunts were good, it was "a pity nobody – not writers Michael G. Wilson, and Richard Maibaum nor director John Glen – thought to give the humans anything very clever to do."[63] Corliss found Dalton "misused" in the film, adding that "for every plausible reason, he looks as bored in his second Bond film as Sean Connery did in his sixth."[63]

Retrospective reviews

Opinion on Licence to Kill has changed with the passing of time: some reviews are still mixed, though film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes lists the film with a positive 79% rating from 62 reviews.[64] Tom Hibbert of Empire gives the film only two of a possible five stars, observing that "Dalton ... is really quite hopeless".[65] Hibbert concluded that "he may look the part, but Timothy Dalton fails the boots, the scuba gear, or the automobiles left him by Moore and Connery."[65] In 2006, IGN ranked Licence to Kill fifteenth out of the then 21 Bond films, claiming it is "too grim and had strayed too far from the Bond formula."[66] Norman Wilner of MSN considered Licence to Kill the second worst Bond film, above only A View to a Kill, but defended Dalton, saying he "got a raw deal. The actor who could have been the definitive 007 ... had the bad luck to inherit the role just as the series was at its weakest, struggling to cope with its general creative decline and the end of the Cold War".[67] In October 2008, Time Out re-issued a review of Licence to Kill and also thought that Dalton was unfortunate, saying: "one has to feel for Dalton, who was never given a fair shake by either of the films in which he appeared".[68]

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the film, Esquire's Bob Sassone urged readers to give it a second look.[69] High-Def Digest awarded it four out of five stars when re-released on Blu-ray.[70] British GQ considered it the most underrated in the series, thinking the change in tone caused upset among fans.[71] Digital Spy called Dalton the best Bond of the six actors, praising his depth,[72] terming Licence to Kill a "violently enjoyable 007 detour".[73]

Some critics, such as James Berardinelli, saw a fundamental weakness in the film: the "overemphasis on story may be a mistake, because there are times when Licence to Kill's narrative bogs down."[74] Berardinelli gave the film three out of a possible four stars, adding "Licence to Kill may be taut and gripping, but it's not traditional Bond, and that, as much as any other reason, may explain the public's rejection of this reasonably well-constructed picture."[74] Raymond Benson, the author of nine Bond novels, said of the film: "It boggles my mind that Licence to Kill is so controversial. There's really more of a true Ian Fleming story in that script than in most of the post-60s Bond movies."[75] John Glen has said Licence to Kill "is among my best Bond films, if not the best".[6]

Appearances in other media

 
1989 British Coronet Books paperback edition.

The Licence to Kill screenplay was novelised by the then-novelist of the Bond series John Gardner. It was the first Bond film novelisation since James Bond and Moonraker in 1979.[76]

Licence to Kill was also adapted as a forty-four-page, colour graphic novel, by writer and artist Mike Grell (also author of original-story Bond comic books), published by Eclipse Comics and ACME Press in hardcover and trade editions in 1989.[77] The adaptation closely follows the film story, although the ending is briefer, and James Bond is not drawn to resemble Timothy Dalton after Dalton refused to allow his likeness to be licensed.[78] Domark also published a video game adaptation, 007: Licence to Kill, to various personal computers.[79]

The 2012 video game 007 Legends features a level based on Licence to Kill with Carey Lowell reprising her role by providing the voice for the Pam Bouvier character.

Awards and nominations

See also

Citations

  1. ^ "Licence to Kill". Lumiere. European Audiovisual Observatory. from the original on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  2. ^ "AFI|Catalog".
  3. ^ Black 2005, p. 152.
  4. ^ Chapman 2007, p. 206.
  5. ^ . Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. 2014. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cork, John (1999). Inside Licence to Kill (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Barnes & Hearn 2001, p. 176.
  8. ^ a b c d e Cork & Stutz 2007, p. 300.
  9. ^ a b c Field, Matthew (2015). Some kind of hero : 007 : the remarkable story of the James Bond films. Ajay Chowdhury. Stroud, Gloucestershire. ISBN 978-0-7509-6421-0. OCLC 930556527.
  10. ^ a b Smith 2002, p. 239.
  11. ^ a b c d e Robert Davi (1999). Audio commentary (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  12. ^ Smith 2002, p. 234.
  13. ^ a b c John Cork (1999). Audio commentary (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  14. ^ a b c Smith 2002, p. 235.
  15. ^ Smith 2002, p. 225.
  16. ^ Smith 2002, p. 236.
  17. ^ Harmetz, Aljean (9 July 1989). "Creating a Thriller, Their Words Are Their Bond". The New York Times.
  18. ^ Johnston, Sheila (16 June 1989). "A cleaner, harder 007". The Independent.
  19. ^ Smith 2002, pp. 236–7.
  20. ^ Carey Lowell (1999). Audio commentary (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  21. ^ Paul 2007, p. 58.
  22. ^ a b "David Hedison Interview". Mi6-HQ.com. 24 June 2005. from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
  23. ^ Cork, John (1999). Inside From Russia with Love (DVD). From Russia with Love: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  24. ^ a b "Licence to Kill". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  25. ^ a b Cork, John (1999). Exotic Locations (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  26. ^ a b Barnes & Hearn 2001, p. 185.
  27. ^ John Richardson (1999). Audio commentary (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  28. ^ Cork, John (2006). Kenworth Stunt Trucks (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  29. ^ Cork, John (2006). On Set with John Glen (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  30. ^ a b Rogers, Jude (31 October 2008). "Film & Music: Music: For your ears only". The Guardian.
  31. ^ Walden, Narada Michael (2006). James Bond's Greatest Hits (Television). UK: North One Television.
  32. ^ a b Barnes & Hearn 2001, p. 179.
  33. ^ Dingwall, John (12 July 2002). "DVD Reviews". Daily Record.
  34. ^ Smith 2002, pp. 231–2.
  35. ^ Chapman 2007, p. 245.
  36. ^ "Licence To Kill Uncut". Mi6-HQ.com. 16 May 2006. from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2011.
  37. ^ a b Leask, Annie (14 June 1989). "Bond's night on the town". Daily Express.
  38. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  39. ^ Pfeiffer & Worrall 1998, p. 167.
  40. ^ Rebello, Stephen (July 1989). . Cinefantastique. 19 (5): 126. Archived from the original on 10 April 2005.
  41. ^ Don Smolen (1999). Audio commentary (DVD). Licence to Kill: Ultimate Edition: MGM.
  42. ^ "1989 Yearly Box office result". Box Office Mojo. from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  43. ^ "Licence to Kill". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
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May 05, 2023
licence, kill, other, uses, disambiguation, 1989, film, sixteenth, james, bond, series, produced, productions, second, final, film, star, timothy, dalton, agent, james, bond, sees, bond, suspended, from, pursues, drug, lord, franz, sanchez, ordered, attack, ag. For other uses see Licence to Kill disambiguation Licence to Kill is a 1989 spy film the sixteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond It sees Bond suspended from MI6 as he pursues the drug lord Franz Sanchez who has ordered an attack against Bond s CIA friend Felix Leiter and the murder of Felix s wife after their wedding Licence to KillTheatrical release poster by Robin BehlingDirected byJohn GlenWritten byMichael G Wilson Richard MaibaumBased onJames Bondby Ian FlemingProduced byAlbert R Broccoli Michael G WilsonStarringTimothy Dalton Carey Lowell Robert Davi Talisa Soto Anthony ZerbeCinematographyAlec MillsEdited byJohn GroverMusic byMichael KamenProductioncompaniesEon ProductionsUnited ArtistsDistributed byMGM UA Communications Co United States United International Pictures International Release dates13 June 1989 1989 06 13 London 10 July 1989 1989 07 10 United Kingdom 14 July 1989 1989 07 14 United States Running time133 minutesCountriesUnited Kingdom 1 United States 2 LanguageEnglishBudget 32 millionBox office 156 1 millionLicence to Kill was the fifth and final Bond film directed by John Glen the last to feature Robert Brown as M and Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny It was also the last to feature the work of the screenwriter Richard Maibaum the title designer Maurice Binder and the producer Albert R Broccoli all of whom died in the following years Licence to Kill was the first Bond film to not use the title of an Ian Fleming story Originally titled Licence Revoked the name was changed during post production due to American test audiences associating the term with driver s license Although its plot is largely original it contains elements of the Fleming novel Live and Let Die and the short story The Hildebrand Rarity interwoven with a sabotage premise influenced by Akira Kurosawa s film Yojimbo For budget reasons Licence to Kill became the first Bond film shot entirely outside the United Kingdom principal photography took place on location in Mexico and the US while interiors were filmed at Estudios Churubusco instead of Pinewood Studios The film earned over 156 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews with praise for the stunts but attracted criticism for its darker tone which carried into Dalton s portrayal of Bond Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Writing and themes 3 2 Casting 3 3 Filming 3 4 Music 4 Release 5 Reception 5 1 Box office 5 2 Contemporary reviews 5 3 Retrospective reviews 6 Appearances in other media 7 Awards and nominations 8 See also 9 Citations 10 General and cited sources 11 External linksPlotDEA agents collect MI6 agent James Bond and his friend CIA agent Felix Leiter on their way to Leiter s wedding in Key West to have them assist in capturing drugs lord Franz Sanchez Bond and Leiter capture Sanchez by attaching a hook and cord to Sanchez s plane and pulling it out of the air with a Coast Guard helicopter Afterwards Bond and Leiter parachute down to the church in time for the ceremony Sanchez bribes DEA agent Ed Killifer and escapes Meanwhile Sanchez s henchman Dario and his crew ambush Leiter and his wife Della and take Leiter to an aquarium owned by one of Sanchez s accomplices Milton Krest Sanchez has Leiter lowered into a tank holding a tiger shark When Bond learns that Sanchez has escaped he returns to Leiter s house to find that Leiter has been maimed and that Della has been murdered and by implication raped 3 4 Bond with Leiter s friend Sharkey start their own investigation They discover a marine research centre run by Krest where Sanchez has hidden cocaine and a submarine for smuggling After Bond kills Killifer using the same shark tank used for Leiter M meets Bond in Key West s Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul Turkey Bond resigns after turning down the assignment but M suspends Bond instead and revokes his licence to kill Bond becomes a rogue agent although he later receives unauthorised assistance from Q Bond boards Krest s ship Wavekrest and foils Sanchez s latest drug shipment stealing five million dollars in the process He discovers that Sharkey has been killed by Sanchez s henchmen Bond meets and teams up with Pam Bouvier a pilot and DEA informant at a Bimini bar 5 and journeys with her to the Republic of Isthmus He seeks Sanchez s employment by posing as an assassin for hire Two Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau officers foil Bond s attempt to assassinate Sanchez and take him to an abandoned warehouse They are joined by Fallon an MI6 agent who was sent by M to apprehend Bond Sanchez s men rescue him and kill the officers believing them to be the assassins Later with the aid of Bouvier Q and Sanchez s girlfriend Lupe Lamora Bond frames Krest by planting the 5 million in Wavekrest Sanchez shuts Krest into a decompression chamber and cuts the oxygen cord causing Krest to explosively decompress to his death Bond is then admitted into the inner circle Sanchez takes Bond to his base which is disguised as the headquarters of a religious cult Bond learns that Sanchez s scientists can dissolve cocaine in petrol and then sell it disguised as fuel to Asian drug dealers The televangelist Joe Butcher serves as middleman working under Sanchez s business manager Truman Lodge who uses Butcher s TV broadcasts to communicate with Sanchez s customers in the United States During Sanchez s presentation to potential Asian customers Dario enters the room and recognises Bond Bond starts a fire in the laboratory but is captured again and placed on the conveyor belt that drops the brick cocaine into a giant shredder Bouvier arrives and shoots Dario allowing Bond to pull Dario into the shredder killing him Sanchez and most of the others flee as fire consumes his base taking with him four tankers full of the cocaine and petrol mixture Bond pursues them by plane with Bouvier at the controls During the course of a stunt filled chase through the desert Bond destroys three of the tankers and kills several of Sanchez s men Sanchez attacks Bond with a machete aboard the final remaining tanker which crashes down a hillside A petrol soaked Sanchez attempts to kill Bond with his machete Bond then reveals his cigarette lighter the Leiters gift for being the best man at their wedding and sets Sanchez on fire Sanchez stumbles into the wrecked tanker causing a big explosion and killing himself Bouvier arrives shortly afterward and picks up Bond Later a party is held at Sanchez s former residence Bond receives a call from Leiter telling him that M has congratulated him for his work and offers him his job back He then rejects Lupe s advances and romances Bouvier instead CastTimothy Dalton as James Bond 007 an MI6 agent who resigns to take his revenge on drug lord Franz Sanchez Carey Lowell as Pam Bouvier an ex Army pilot and DEA informant Robert Davi as Franz Sanchez the most powerful drug lord in Latin America mentioned as having been wanted by the DEA for years Talisa Soto as Lupe Lamora Sanchez s girlfriend who has romantic feelings for Bond Anthony Zerbe as Milton Krest Sanchez s henchman who operates Wavekrest Marine Research and whom Bond sets up to turn Sanchez against him Everett McGill as Ed Killifer a corrupt DEA agent who frees Sanchez from custody Frank McRae as Sharkey a friend of Felix Leiter who owns a boat charter business Desmond Llewelyn as Q Bond s ally who supplies Bond with various gadgets and helps him in the field Robert Brown as M the head of MI6 and Bond s superior who revokes Bond s double 0 licence Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny M s personal secretary Anthony Starke as Truman Lodge Sanchez s financial advisor Grand L Bush as Hawkins a DEA operative who opposes Bond s vendetta Benicio del Toro as Dario Sanchez s personal henchman Alejandro Bracho as Perez one of Sanchez s henchmen Guy De Saint Cyr as Braun one of Sanchez s henchmen Diana Lee Hsu as Loti a female Hong Kong narcotics agent working with Kwang Rafer Johnson as Mullens a DEA operative David Hedison as Felix Leiter a former CIA agent now with DEA and a close friend of James Bond Don Stroud as Colonel Heller Sanchez s head of security Priscilla Barnes as Della Churchill Felix Leiter s fiancee then bride Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa as Kwang a Hong Kong Police narcotics agent sent to infiltrate Sanchez s heart of operations Pedro Armendariz as President Hector Lopez the president of Isthmus Wayne Newton as Professor Joe Butcher Sanchez s middleman and TV evangelist for Olimpatec Meditation Institute Christopher Neame as Fallon an MI6 agent sent by M to arrest Bond dead or alive Roger Cudney as Wavekrest Captain Jeannine Bisignano as Stripper Claudio Brook as MontelongoProductionShortly after The Living Daylights was released producer Albert R Broccoli and writers Michael G Wilson and Richard Maibaum started discussing its successor The film would retain a realistic style as well as showing the darker edge of the Bond character For the primary location the producers wanted a place where the series had not yet visited 6 While China was visited after an invitation by its government the idea fell through partly because the 1987 film The Last Emperor had removed some of the novelty from filming in China 7 By this stage the writers had already talked about a chase sequence along the Great Wall as well as a fight scene amongst the Terracotta Army 8 Wilson also wrote two plot outlines about a drugs lord in the Golden Triangle before the plans fell through out of Broccoli s concerns that the Chinese government would censor the script 8 9 The writers eventually decided on a setting in a tropical country while Broccoli negotiated to film in Mexico 6 at the Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City 8 In 1985 the Films Act was passed removing the Eady Levy resulting in foreign artists being taxed more heavily 7 The associated rising costs to Eon Productions meant no part of Licence to Kill was filmed in the UK 10 the first Bond film not to do so 7 Pinewood Studios used in every previous Bond film undertook only the post production and sound re recording 11 Writing and themes The initial outline of what would become Licence to Kill was drawn up by Wilson and Maibaum 7 Before the pair could develop the script the Writers Guild of America WGA went on strike and Maibaum was unable to continue writing leaving Wilson to work on the script on his own 12 Although both the main plot and title of Licence to Kill owe nothing to any of the Fleming novels there are elements from the books that are used in the storyline including a number of aspects of the short story The Hildebrand Rarity such as the character Milton Krest 6 13 The novel Live and Let Die provided the material surrounding Felix Leiter s mauling by a shark 7 whilst the film version of the book provided the close similarity between the main villain Mr Big and Licence to Kill s main villain Sanchez 14 The screenplay was not ready by the time casting had begun with Carey Lowell being auditioned with lines from A View to a Kill 6 The script initially called Licence Revoked was written with Dalton s characterisation of Bond in mind 7 and the obsession with which Bond pursues Sanchez on behalf of Leiter and his dead wife is seen as being because of his own brutally cut short marriage 15 Dalton s darker portrayal of Bond led to the violence being increased and becoming more graphic 13 Wilson compared the script to Akira Kurosawa s Yojimbo where a samurai without any attacking of the villain or its cohorts only sowing the seeds of distrust he manages to have the villain bring himself down 6 Wilson freely admitted that the idea of the destruction from within aspect of the plot came more from Yojimbo and Sergio Leone s remake of that film A Fistful of Dollars than from Fleming s use of that plot device from The Man with the Golden Gun 14 For the location Wilson created the Republic of Isthmus a banana republic based on Panama with the pock marked Sanchez bearing similarities to General Manuel Noriega 14 The parallels between the two figures were based on Noriega s political use of drug trafficking and money laundering to provide revenues for Panama 16 Robert Davi suggested the line loyalty is more important than money which he felt was fitting to the character of Franz Sanchez whose actions were noticed by Davi to be concerned with betrayal and retaliation 11 The United Artists press kits referred to the film s background as being Torn straight from the headlines of today s newspapers 17 and the backdrop of Panama was connected to the Medellin Cartel in Colombia and corruption of government officials in Mexico thrown in for good measure 18 This use of the cocaine smuggling backdrop put Licence to Kill alongside other cinema blockbusters such as the 1987 films Lethal Weapon Beverly Hills Cop II and RoboCop and Bond was seen to be poaching on their turf with the drug related revenge story 19 Casting After Carey Lowell was chosen to play Pam Bouvier she watched many of the films in the series for inspiration Lowell had described becoming a Bond girl as huge shoes to fill as she did not see herself as a glamour girl even coming to audition in jeans and a leather jacket While Lowell wore a wig for the scenes set in the United States a scene where Bouvier is given money and told by Bond to go and buy some new clothes and going off and doing so also has her hair cut was added so that Lowell s own short hair style could be used 20 Robert Davi was cast following a suggestion by Broccoli s daughter Tina 6 and screenwriter Richard Maibaum who had seen Davi in the television film Terrorist on Trial The United States vs Salim Ajami 21 To portray Sanchez Davi researched the Colombian drug cartels and how to do a Colombian accent 11 and since he was method acting he would stay in character off set After Davi read Casino Royale for preparation he decided to turn Sanchez into a mirror image of James Bond based on Ian Fleming s descriptions of Le Chiffre 6 The actor also learned scuba diving for the scene where Sanchez is rescued from the sunken armoured car 11 Davi later helped with the casting of Sanchez s mistress Lupe Lamora by playing Bond in the audition 8 Talisa Soto was picked from twelve candidates because Davi said he would kill for her 6 David Hedison returned to play Felix Leiter sixteen years after playing the character in Live and Let Die Hedison did not expect to return to the role saying I was sure that Live and Let Die would be my first and last 22 and Glen was reluctant to cast the 61 year old actor since the role included a scene parachuting Up and coming actor Benicio del Toro was chosen to play Sanchez s henchman Dario for being laid back while menacing in a quirky sort of way according to Glen 6 Wayne Newton got the role of Professor Joe Butcher after sending a letter to the producers expressing interest in a cameo because he always wanted to be in a Bond film 8 The President of Isthmus was played by Pedro Armendariz Jr the son of Pedro Armendariz who played Ali Kerim Bey in From Russia with Love 23 John Rhys Davies claimed he was asked to reprise his role from the previous film as General Pushkin in a cameo appearance but declined since he felt the character was not necessary to the plot 9 Filming Centro Ceremonial Otomi designed as a place for the Otomi people to congregate and celebrate their culture was used to represent the Olympatec Meditation Institute Principal photography ran from 18 July to 18 November 1988 Shooting began in the Estudios Churubusco in Mexico which mostly doubled for the fictional Republic of Isthmus 24 6 locations in Mexico City included the Biblioteca del Banco de Mexico for the exterior of El Presidente Hotel and the Casino Espanol for the interior of Casino de Isthmus whilst the Teatro de la Ciudad was used for its exterior Villa Arabesque in Acapulco was used for Sanchez s lavish villa and the La Rumorosa Mountain Pass in Tecate was used as the filming site for the tanker chase during the climax of the film Sanchez s Olympiatec Meditation Institute was shot at the Otomi Ceremonial Center in Temoaya 25 Other underwater sequences were shot at the Isla Mujeres near Cancun 26 In August 1988 production moved to the Florida Keys notably Key West 6 Seven Mile Bridge towards Pigeon Key was used for the sequence in which the armoured truck transporting Sanchez following his arrest is driven off the edge Other locations there included Ernest Hemingway House Key West International Airport Mallory Square St Mary s Star of the Sea Church for Leiter s wedding and Stephano s House 707 South Street for his house and patio The US Coast Guard Pier was used to film Isthmus City harbour 25 As production moved back to Mexico City Broccoli became ill marking the first time during the James Bond film series where he was not present during filming 6 Seven Mile Bridge The scene where Sanchez s plane is hijacked was filmed on location in Florida with stuntman Jake Lombard jumping from a helicopter to a plane and Dalton himself being filmed atop the aircraft The plane towed by the helicopter was a life sized model created by special effects supervisor John Richardson After filming wide shots of David Hedison and Dalton parachuting closer shots were made near the church location 6 During one of the takes a malfunction of the harness equipment caused Hedison to fall on the pavement The injury made him limp for the remainder of filming 22 The aquatic battle between Bond and the henchmen required two separate units a surface one led by Arthur Wooster which used Dalton himself and an underwater one which involved experienced divers The barefoot waterskiing was done by world champion Dave Reinhart with some close ups using Dalton on a special rig 6 Milton Krest s death used a prosthetic head which was created by John Richardson s team based on a mould of Anthony Zerbe s face 27 The result was so gruesome that it was shortened and toned down to avoid censorship problems 13 For the climactic tanker chase the producers used an entire section of Mexican Federal Highway 2D in La Rumorosa Baja California which had been closed for safety reasons 24 Sixteen eighteen wheeler tankers were used 6 some with modifications made by manufacturer Kenworth at the request of driving stunts arranger Remy Julienne Most were given improvements to their engines to run faster while one model had an extra steering wheel on the back of the cabin so a hidden stuntman could drive while Carey Lowell was in the front and another received extra suspension on its back so it could lift its front wheels 6 28 Although a rig was constructed to help a rig tilt onto its side it was not necessary as Julienne was able to pull off the stunt without the aid of camera trickery 6 29 Music Main article Licence to Kill soundtrack Initially Vic Flick who had played lead guitar on Monty Norman s original 007 theme and Eric Clapton were asked to write and perform the theme song to Licence to Kill and they produced a theme to match Dalton s gritty performance but the producers turned it down 30 and instead Gladys Knight s song and performance was chosen The song was based on the horn line from Goldfinger seen as an homage to the film of the same name 30 which required royalty payments to the original writers 31 The song gave Knight her first British top ten hit since 1977 32 The end credits feature the Top 10 R amp B hit If You Asked Me To sung by Patti LaBelle 33 John Barry was originally intended to score but was not available at the time due to throat surgery after suffering a rupture of the esophagus in 1988 and it was considered unsafe to fly him from his home in New York to London to complete the score post production was extended to allow Barry time to recover 9 The soundtrack s score was composed and conducted by Michael Kamen who was known for scoring many action films at the time such as Lethal Weapon and Die Hard 34 Glen said he picked Kamen feeling he could give the closest thing to John Barry 11 ReleaseFilm ratings organisations had objections to the excessive and realistic violence with both the Motion Picture Association of America and the British Board of Film Classification requesting content adaptations 35 with the BBFC in particular demanding the cut of 36 seconds of film 26 Licence to Kill became the first Bond film to receive a PG 13 rating from the MPAA s ratings board a rating that has been applied to every Bond film since The 2006 Ultimate Edition DVD of Licence to Kill marked the first release of the film without cuts 36 It remains the only Bond movie to be originally rated 15 by the BBFC Licence to Kill premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on 13 June 1989 37 raising 200 000 529 354 in 2023 pounds 38 for The Prince s Trust on the night 37 There were also issues with the promotion of the film promotional material in the form of teaser posters created by Bob Peak based on the Licence Revoked title and commissioned by Albert Broccoli had been produced but MGM decided against using them 39 after American test screenings showed Licence Revoked to be a common American phrase for the withdrawal of a driving licence 10 The delayed updated advertising by Steven Chorney in the traditional style limited the film s pre release screenings 6 MGM also discarded a campaign created by advertising executive Don Smolen who had worked in the publicity campaign for eight previous Bond films emphasising the rougher content of the film 40 41 ReceptionBox office At the box office Licence to Kill grossed 156 2 million 373 3 million in 2022 dollars on its budget of 32 million 78 9 million in 2022 dollars grossing an inflation adjusted profit of 287 2 million making it the twelfth biggest box office draw of the year 42 43 44 The film grossed a total of 7 5 million 20 million in 2023 pounds 38 in the United Kingdom 45 making it the seventh most successful film of the year 46 despite the 15 certificate which cut down audience numbers 47 In the US and Canada it grossed 34 6 million 48 making Licence to Kill the least financially successful James Bond film in the US when accounting for inflation 49 A factor suggested for the poor takings was fierce competition at the cinema with Licence to Kill released alongside Lethal Weapon 2 Ghostbusters II Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade starring former Bond Sean Connery and Batman 32 Other large international grosses include 14 2 million in Germany 12 4 million in France 8 8 million in Japan 8 7 million in the Netherlands and 8 6 million in Sweden 50 Despite grossing more than 4 3 times its budget Licence to Kill has made the lowest inflation adjusted box office return as well as having the lowest profit margin out of all 25 of the official Bond films as of 2022 Interestingly the only other Bond movie with Kill in the title A View To a Kill which was also directed by John Glen has the second lowest inflation adjusted return of any Bond movie However Licence to Kill s return ratio of 4 3 ranks it 18th out of the 25 official film entries from the series Contemporary reviews Derek Malcolm in The Guardian was broadly approving of Licence to Kill liking the harder edge of the earlier Bonds that the film emulated but wishing that it was written and directed with a bit more flair 51 Malcolm praised the way the film attempted to tell a story rather than use one for the decorative purposes of endless spectacular tropes 51 Writing in The Guardian s sister paper The Observer Philip French noted that despite the playful sparkle in his eyes Timothy Dalton s Bond is serious here 52 Overall French called Licence to Kill an entertaining untaxing film 52 Ian Christie in the Daily Express excoriated the film saying that the plot was absurd but fundamentally dull 53 a further problem being that as there isn t a coherent storyline to link the stunts they eventually become tiresome 53 Hilary Mantel in The Spectator dismissed the film It is a very noisy film There is a weary and repetitive note to the frenzy The sex is low key and off screen but there is a smirking perverse undertow which makes the film more disagreeable than a slasher movie 54 David Robinson writing in The Times observed that Licence to Kill will probably neither disappoint nor surprise the great faithful audience 55 but bemoaned the fact that over the years the plots have become less ambitious 55 Robinson thought that Dalton s Bond has more class 55 than the previous Bonds and was a warmer personality 55 Iain Johnstone of The Sunday Times pointed out that any vestiges of the gentleman spy by Ian Fleming have now gone 56 and in its place is a Bond that is remarkably close both in deed and action to the eponymous hero of the Batman film 56 that was released at the same time as Licence to Kill Adam Mars Jones of The Independent gave the film a mixed review pointing out that it took out some of the more dated ideas from the Fleming novels such as imperialism he wrote that the writers were trying in effect to reproduce the recipe while leaving out ingredients that would now seem distasteful 57 Overall Mars Jones thought that James Bond is more like a low tar cigarette than anything else less stimulating than the throat curdling gaspers of yesteryear but still naggingly implicated in unhealthiness a feeble bad habit without the kick of a vice 57 For the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail Rick Groen wrote that in Licence to Kill they ve excised Bond from the Bond flicks they ve turned James into Jimmy strong and silent and roll over Britannia downright American 58 resulting in a Bond film that is essentially Bond less 58 Summing up Groen thought Actually that dialogue ain t bad The silence looks good on Timothy Dalton 58 Gary Arnold of The Washington Times wrote that a number of factors fail to prevent the finished product from jamming and misfiring with disillusioning frequency 59 Arnold opined that demanding that he Dalton play Bond s wrathfulness in a transparently seething and hotheaded manner 59 means that Dalton seems to waste away on this second outing as Bond 59 Overall Arnold sees that there is a failure to recognize that Bond productions are simply too extravagant to permit an uncompromised return to first principles 59 The critic for The New York Times Caryn James thought Dalton was the first James Bond with angst a moody spy for the fin de siecle 60 and that Licence to Kill retains its familiar effective mix of despicably powerful villains suspiciously tantalizing women and ever wilder special effects 60 but was impressed that Dalton s glowering presence adds a darker tone 60 James concluded that for all its clever updatings stylish action and witty escapism Licence to Kill is still a little too much by the book 60 Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun Times gave the film 31 2 stars out of 4 saying the stunts all look convincing and the effect of the closing sequence is exhilarating Licence to Kill is one of the best of the recent Bonds 61 Jack Kroll writing in Newsweek described Licence to Kill as a pure rousingly entertaining action movie 62 Kroll was mixed in his appraisal of Dalton calling him a fine actor who hasn t yet stamped Bond with his own personality 62 observing Director John Glen is the Busby Berkeley of action flicks and his chorus line is the legendary team of Bond stunt persons who are at their death defying best here 62 For Time magazine Richard Corliss bemoaned that although the truck stunts were good it was a pity nobody not writers Michael G Wilson and Richard Maibaum nor director John Glen thought to give the humans anything very clever to do 63 Corliss found Dalton misused in the film adding that for every plausible reason he looks as bored in his second Bond film as Sean Connery did in his sixth 63 Retrospective reviews Opinion on Licence to Kill has changed with the passing of time some reviews are still mixed though film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes lists the film with a positive 79 rating from 62 reviews 64 Tom Hibbert of Empire gives the film only two of a possible five stars observing that Dalton is really quite hopeless 65 Hibbert concluded that he may look the part but Timothy Dalton fails the boots the scuba gear or the automobiles left him by Moore and Connery 65 In 2006 IGN ranked Licence to Kill fifteenth out of the then 21 Bond films claiming it is too grim and had strayed too far from the Bond formula 66 Norman Wilner of MSN considered Licence to Kill the second worst Bond film above only A View to a Kill but defended Dalton saying he got a raw deal The actor who could have been the definitive 007 had the bad luck to inherit the role just as the series was at its weakest struggling to cope with its general creative decline and the end of the Cold War 67 In October 2008 Time Out re issued a review of Licence to Kill and also thought that Dalton was unfortunate saying one has to feel for Dalton who was never given a fair shake by either of the films in which he appeared 68 Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the film Esquire s Bob Sassone urged readers to give it a second look 69 High Def Digest awarded it four out of five stars when re released on Blu ray 70 British GQ considered it the most underrated in the series thinking the change in tone caused upset among fans 71 Digital Spy called Dalton the best Bond of the six actors praising his depth 72 terming Licence to Kill a violently enjoyable 007 detour 73 Some critics such as James Berardinelli saw a fundamental weakness in the film the overemphasis on story may be a mistake because there are times when Licence to Kill s narrative bogs down 74 Berardinelli gave the film three out of a possible four stars adding Licence to Kill may be taut and gripping but it s not traditional Bond and that as much as any other reason may explain the public s rejection of this reasonably well constructed picture 74 Raymond Benson the author of nine Bond novels said of the film It boggles my mind that Licence to Kill is so controversial There s really more of a true Ian Fleming story in that script than in most of the post 60s Bond movies 75 John Glen has said Licence to Kill is among my best Bond films if not the best 6 Appearances in other media 1989 British Coronet Books paperback edition The Licence to Kill screenplay was novelised by the then novelist of the Bond series John Gardner It was the first Bond film novelisation since James Bond and Moonraker in 1979 76 Licence to Kill was also adapted as a forty four page colour graphic novel by writer and artist Mike Grell also author of original story Bond comic books published by Eclipse Comics and ACME Press in hardcover and trade editions in 1989 77 The adaptation closely follows the film story although the ending is briefer and James Bond is not drawn to resemble Timothy Dalton after Dalton refused to allow his likeness to be licensed 78 Domark also published a video game adaptation 007 Licence to Kill to various personal computers 79 The 2012 video game 007 Legends features a level based on Licence to Kill with Carey Lowell reprising her role by providing the voice for the Pam Bouvier character Awards and nominations1990 Edgar Allan Poe Award Best Motion Picture nomination for Michael G Wilson and Richard Maibaum 80 1989 MPSE Golden Reel Outstanding Sound Mixing nomination for Graham Hartstone 81 See also Film portal 1980s portalList of drug films Outline of James BondCitations Licence to Kill Lumiere European Audiovisual Observatory Archived from the original on 12 October 2020 Retrieved 9 October 2020 AFI Catalog Black 2005 p 152 Chapman 2007 p 206 Licence To Kill film locations Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations 2014 Archived from the original on 31 January 2010 Retrieved 26 July 2015 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cork John 1999 Inside Licence to Kill DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM a b c d e f Barnes amp Hearn 2001 p 176 a b c d e Cork amp Stutz 2007 p 300 a b c Field Matthew 2015 Some kind of hero 007 the remarkable story of the James Bond films Ajay Chowdhury Stroud Gloucestershire ISBN 978 0 7509 6421 0 OCLC 930556527 a b Smith 2002 p 239 a b c d e Robert Davi 1999 Audio commentary DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM Smith 2002 p 234 a b c John Cork 1999 Audio commentary DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM a b c Smith 2002 p 235 Smith 2002 p 225 Smith 2002 p 236 Harmetz Aljean 9 July 1989 Creating a Thriller Their Words Are Their Bond The New York Times Johnston Sheila 16 June 1989 A cleaner harder 007 The Independent Smith 2002 pp 236 7 Carey Lowell 1999 Audio commentary DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM Paul 2007 p 58 a b David Hedison Interview Mi6 HQ com 24 June 2005 Archived from the original on 10 October 2012 Retrieved 28 August 2011 Cork John 1999 Inside From Russia with Love DVD From Russia with Love Ultimate Edition MGM a b Licence to Kill catalog afi com Retrieved 9 June 2021 a b Cork John 1999 Exotic Locations DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM a b Barnes amp Hearn 2001 p 185 John Richardson 1999 Audio commentary DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM Cork John 2006 Kenworth Stunt Trucks DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM Cork John 2006 On Set with John Glen DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM a b Rogers Jude 31 October 2008 Film amp Music Music For your ears only The Guardian Walden Narada Michael 2006 James Bond s Greatest Hits Television UK North One Television a b Barnes amp Hearn 2001 p 179 Dingwall John 12 July 2002 DVD Reviews Daily Record Smith 2002 pp 231 2 Chapman 2007 p 245 Licence To Kill Uncut Mi6 HQ com 16 May 2006 Archived from the original on 10 October 2012 Retrieved 28 August 2011 a b Leask Annie 14 June 1989 Bond s night on the town Daily Express a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark Gregory 2017 The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain 1209 to Present New Series MeasuringWorth Retrieved 11 June 2022 Pfeiffer amp Worrall 1998 p 167 Rebello Stephen July 1989 Selling Bond Cinefantastique 19 5 126 Archived from the original on 10 April 2005 Don Smolen 1999 Audio commentary DVD Licence to Kill Ultimate Edition MGM 1989 Yearly Box office result Box Office Mojo Archived from the original on 2 September 2019 Retrieved 29 August 2011 Licence to Kill Box Office Mojo Retrieved 5 August 2022 Inflation Calculator Find US Dollar s Value from 1913 2022 www usinflationcalculator com Retrieved 5 August 2022 Wickham amp Mettler 2005 p 25 1989 Rank British Film Institute the25thframe Archived from the original on 31 March 2012 Retrieved 29 August 2011 Smith 2002 p 238 Licence to Kill The Numbers Nash Information Services LLC Archived from the original on 13 March 2012 Retrieved 24 August 2011 Franchises James Bond Box Office Mojo IMDb com Inc Archived from the original on 12 May 2016 Retrieved 4 April 2012 Estimated gross of the last five Bond films in 15 selected international territories Screen International 5 December 1997 p 22 a b Malcolm Derek 15 June 1989 James the Sixteenth Bond is back The Guardian a b French Philip 18 June 1989 Bond number comes up CINEMA The Observer a b Christie Ian 14 June 1989 Grim Tim is just no joke as James Daily Express Mantel Hilary 1 July 1989 Minimalist Bond The Spectator Archived from the original on 8 May 2021 Retrieved 6 November 2020 a b c d Robinson David 15 June 1989 Business as usual Cinema The Times a b Johnstone Iain 18 June 1989 Bond flies in like a bat out of hell Arts The Sunday Times a b Mars Jones Adam 15 June 1989 Low tar espionage Licence to Kill The Independent a b c Groen Rick 14 July 1989 Licence to Kill The Globe and Mail a b c d Arnold Gary 14 July 1989 Let Dalton play Bond as debonair but dangerous The Washington Times a b c d James Caryn 14 July 1989 Dalton as a Brooding Bond In License to Kill The New York Times Archived from the original on 30 May 2013 Retrieved 26 September 2011 Ebert Roger 14 July 1989 Licence To Kill Chicago Sun Times Archived from the original on 6 June 2011 Retrieved 24 August 2011 a b c Kroll Jack 17 July 1989 Ka boom Ka bam Ka Bond Newsweek a b Corliss Richard 24 July 1989 Cinema We Don t Need Another Heroid Time Archived from the original on 22 December 2011 Retrieved 23 August 2011 Licence to Kill Rotten Tomatoes Archived from the original on 23 October 2012 Retrieved 30 October 2012 a b Hibbert Tom Licence to Kill Empire Archived from the original on 20 October 2012 Retrieved 23 August 2011 James Bond s Top 20 IGN 17 November 2006 Archived from the original on 5 March 2009 Retrieved 23 August 2011 Norman Wilner Rating the Spy Game MSN Archived from the original on 19 January 2008 Retrieved 23 August 2011 Lee Davies Adam Licence to Kill revisited Time Out Archived from the original on 1 August 2011 Retrieved 23 August 2011 Sassone Bob 14 July 2014 The Most Underrated Bond Movie Esquire Zyber Joshua 10 December 2012 Bond 50 Licence To Kill High Def Digest Williams David 11 September 2015 The GQ Guide to James Bond Licence to Kill British GQ Retrieved 22 September 2022 Hugh Armitage and Morgan Jeffery James Bond actors ranked Who wore the tux best Digital Spy 2017 Reynolds Simon 27 October 2018 Which Bond movie is best The definitive 007 film ranking from awful to awesome Digital Spy Archived from the original on 8 May 2021 Retrieved 22 August 2020 a b Berardinelli James 1996 Licence to Kill ReelViews Archived from the original on 8 May 2021 Retrieved 23 August 2011 Cox John 31 March 2004 The Raymond Benson CBn Interview Part I The Raymond Benson CBn Interview CommanderBond net Archived from the original on 12 July 2012 Retrieved 23 August 2011 Pukas Anna 6 July 2002 Writer who took on the Bond mission Daily Express Conroy 2004 p 293 Bond Violence Gets Artistic Licence The Palm Beach Post 28 July 1989 Lindner 2009 p 317 Cozy Mystery Com Edgar Award Best Motion Picture Cozy Mystery Com Archived from the original on 19 October 2013 Retrieved 19 October 2013 Directory Graham V Hartstone The Association of Motion Picture Sound Archived from the original on 15 August 2014 Retrieved 19 October 2013 General and cited sourcesBarnes Alan Hearn Marcus 2001 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang The Unofficial James Bond Film Companion Batsford Books ISBN 978 0 7134 8182 2 Black Jeremy 2005 The Politics of James Bond From Fleming s Novel to the Big Screen University of Nebraska Press ISBN 978 0 8032 6240 9 Archived from the original on 8 May 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2020 Chapman James 2007 Licence to Thrill A Cultural History of the James Bond Films London New York City I B Tauris ISBN 978 1 84511 515 9 Conroy Mike 2004 500 Great Comicbook Action Heroes London Chrysalis Books Group ISBN 978 1 84411 004 9 Archived from the original on 8 May 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2020 Cork John Stutz Collin 2007 James Bond Encyclopedia London Dorling Kindersley ISBN 978 1 4053 3427 3 Lindner Christoph 2009 The James Bond Phenomenon A Critical Reader 2nd ed Manchester University Press ISBN 978 0 7190 8095 1 Archived from the original on 31 March 2019 Retrieved 24 September 2016 Paul Louis 2007 Tales from the cult film trenches interviews with 36 actors from horror science fiction and exploitation cinema Jefferson NC McFarland amp Company ISBN 978 0 7864 2994 3 Archived from the original on 8 May 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2020 Pfeiffer Lee Worrall Dave 1998 The Essential Bond London Boxtree Ltd ISBN 978 0 7522 2477 0 Smith Jim 2002 Bond Films London Virgin Books ISBN 978 0 7535 0709 4 Wickham Phil Mettler Erinna 2005 Back to the Future The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s PDF London BFI Information Services ISBN 1 84457 108 4 Archived PDF from the original on 12 September 2015 Retrieved 15 August 2014 External links Wikiquote has quotations related to Licence to Kill Licence to Kill at IMDb Licence to Kill at AllMovie Licence to Kill at Rotten Tomatoes Licence to Kill at Box Office Mojo MGM s official Licence to Kill website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Licence to Kill amp oldid 1152973769, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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