Licence To Kill is the sixteenth film in the James Bond film series made by EON Productions. Licence To Kill was the fifth and last Bond film to be directed by John Glen, the second and final film with Timothy Dalton portraying British Secret Service agent Commander James Bond, and the last Bond film for over six years, the longest interval in the history of the series; it has been argued that this film is the bloodiest in the James Bond series. It was also the final film to be produced by Albert R Broccoli, who was unavailable for 1995 GoldenEye due to his declining health. Since Dr No, Broccoli is credited with producing, with the exception of Thunderball, every official James Bond film.

This was the first EON Productions James Bond film to use a title not derived from either an Ian Fleming novel or a short story. It does, however, contain elements and characters from Fleming’s novel Live and Let Die and the short story The Hildebrand Rarity (from the collection entitled For Your Eyes Only). This would be the last James Bond film to make direct use of Ian Fleming’s concepts and characters until Casino Royale.

Plot summary: The story opens with Bond and his friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, on their way to Leiter’s wedding to Della Churchill. Meanwhile, DEA agents spot drug lord Franz Sanchez flying near the Bahamas, and a Coast Guard helicopter collects Leiter and Bond in an attempt to capture Sanchez. They capture Sanchez by attaching a hook and cord to Sanchez’s plane and pulling it out of the air with the helicopter. The two parachute to the wedding.

Later, bribed DEA agent Ed Killifer assists Sanchez in escaping. On their honeymoon night, Leiter and Della are captured by Sanchez’s henchmen; Leiter is fed to a shark as his wife is raped and killed. After hearing the news of Sanchez’s escape, Bond returns to Leiter’s house to find Della dead and Felix alive but severely injured.

Bond begins his revenge by killing Killifer, causing him to fall into the same tank with the shark that maimed Leiter. M meets Bond in Key West’s Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul, Turkey. Bond refuses the assignment and subsequently resigns. M refuses his resignation, saying, “We’re not a country club!” He suspends Bond and immediately revokes his licence to kill. Bond quickly escapes MI6 custody and becomes a rogue agent, bereft of official backing but later surreptitiously helped by armourer Q. Bond boards a ship run by Milton Krest, Sanchez’s key lieutenant, where he ruins Sanchez’s latest drug shipment and steals five million dollars. In Leiter’s records which were stored on a CD-ROM, Bond finds details of a rendezvous in Bimini with Pam Bouvier, an ex-CIA agent-pilot who he meets in a bar. Sanchez henchmen Dario and his team arrive at the bar and begin to hassle Bouvier. This causes a bar brawl to break out. Bond and Bouvier escape and he manages to recruit her into his mission.

Bond and Bouvier journey to the Latin American country of the “Republic of Isthmus” (a fictional country loosely based on Panama, which is known for its Isthmus of Panama), where he finds his way into Sanchez’s employ by posing as an assassin looking for work. Bond attempts to kill Sanchez from an abandoned building on a night out (using a sniper rifle and C4 supplied by Q). While peering through the telescopic sight, he observes Bouvier talking to Colonel Heller and handing him an envelope.

Carey Lowell, Timothy Dalton, Talisa Soto.

He detonates the charge, knocking the bulletproof window of Sanchez’s office. However, before he can shoot Sanchez, he is attacked and incapacitated by several agents in ninja garb. He awakens, tied to a table to find out his captors are, in fact, undercover Hong Kong narcotics agents trying to infiltrate Sanchez’s operation. He is about to be sent back to England in disgrace when Sanchez and his men raid the building and kill the agents. They find Bond unconscious and still securely tied to the table. Next morning Bond wakes up in Sanchez house where he informs Sanchez that those men were freelance assassins and were worried that Bond would’ve warned Sanchez of their plans.

Later, with the aid of Bouvier, Q, and Sanchez’s battered girlfriend Lupe Lamora, Bond manages to frame Krest, making him appear disloyal to Sanchez. Sanchez traps Krest in a hyperbaric chamber and then suddenly depressurises the chamber, causing Krest’s head to explode; meanwhile, for Bond’s perceived loyalty, Sanchez admits him into his inner circle.

After an overnight stay at his villa, Sanchez takes Bond to his base, which is disguised as a meditation retreat (not before Bond sleeps with Lupe). Bond learns that Sanchez’s scientists can dissolve cocaine in gasoline, and then sell it disguised as fuel to Asian drug dealers. The buying and selling are conducted via the American televangelist Professor Joe Butcher, working under orders from Sanchez’s business manager Truman-Lodge. The reintegration process will be available to those underworld clients who can pay Sanchez’s price. In addition, Sanchez has brokered a deal to buy Stinger missiles from the Contras, and has threatened to shoot down an American airliner if the DEA interferes in his operations.

During Sanchez’s presentation to potential Far Eastern customers, Bond is recognised by Dario, who met Bond in Bimini and knows Bond to be against Sanchez’s interests. Trying to escape, Bond starts a fire in the laboratory which spreads to the whole base; despite this, Bond is recaptured and placed on the conveyor belt that drops the brick-cocaine into a giant shredder. Bouvier arrives and helps Bond escape and kill Dario. The two flee the base as it explodes. Sanchez also escapes, with four tanker trucks full of the cocaine/gasoline mixture and his Stinger missiles, and Bond pursues them by plane with Bouvier at the controls.

In the course of a stunt-filled chase, Bond destroys three of the four trucks and kills many of Sanchez’ men. An irate Sanchez kills Truman-Lodge in exasperation. Bond and Sanchez fight aboard the final remaining tanker, which ends up out of control and then rolls down a hillside. Sanchez, soaked in gasoline, mocks Bond (who is wounded from the fall), telling him that he could have “had everything,” and prepares to kill him with a machete. Bond distracts him by asking him if he wants to know why he destroyed his drug empire. Bond produces his cigarette lighter – the Leiters’ gift for being the best man at their wedding – and sets the villain afire. Sanchez, burning alive, stumbles into the wrecked tanker truck’s cistern, causing its gasoline to ignite. Bond flees before the massive explosion. Pam arrives driving one of the two remaining trucks and drives them back to Isthmus City.

That night, a party is held at Sanchez’s former residence. Bond receives a call from Leiter telling him that M is offering him his job back. Later in the party, Bond chooses to reject Lupe’s advances, suggesting the country’s president as a better match, and romances Pam Bouvier instead.

See also:

• Licence to Kill: Film - Cast
• Licence to Kill: Film - Crew
• Licence to Kill: Film - Goofups
• Licence to Kill: Film - Locations
• Licence to Kill: Film - Soundtrack
• Licence to Kill: Film - Trivia