The Living Daylights is the fifteenth James Bond film made by EON Productions. It is the first of two portrayals for Timothy Dalton as the British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. Produced by Albert R Broccoli, his stepson Michael G Wilson, and his daughter Barbara Broccoli, it was released in 1987.

The film’s title is taken from Ian Fleming’s short story The Living Daylights, first published in The London Sunday Times colour section on February 4, 1962. The first American publication was in the June 1962 issue of Argosy under the title Berlin Escape. In 1966 it was the second story to be added to the short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights, published two years after Fleming’s death.

This was the last film to make use of an Ian Fleming story title until 2006’s Casino Royale.

Plot summary: In Bratislava, James Bond along with Saunders, another MI6 Agent, conducts the defection of a KGB officer, General Georgi Koskov, covering his intermission escape from a concert hall. He notices a sniper assigned to assassinate Koskov, who is actually a cellist named Kara Milovy. Suspecting that she is not an actual assassin, he shoots her sniper rifle out of her hands, instead of killing her, much to Saunders’s condemnation. Koskov is smuggled through the Russian gas pipeline into Austria and flown to England.

There, at a countryside manor (Blayden House), Koskov informs MI6 that the KGB’s old policy of Smert’ Spionam, meaning Death to Spies, has been revived by General Leonid Pushkin, the new head of the KGB (heir to General Gogol). He presents them a list of British and American targets of SMERSH. Milovy is immediately speculated as an assassin. The leaders of MI6 leave for London to convene, while Koskov stays at the manor. Some time later, an assassin named Necros infiltrates the building, burns the list of targets, and abducts Koskov, killing two staff members and sending another two to the hospital.

Bond travels to Bratislava to kill Pushkin but soon begins to suspect that Koskov staged his defection upon learning that the bullets were blanks, and that Milovy was the latter’s girlfriend, a fact that remains unknown to MI6. Bond travels to Bratislava to make contact with her and escapes with her into Austria. After a brief tryst with Kara in Vienna, he meets up his MI6 ally, Saunders, at the Wurstelprater amusement park. There, he reveals a link between Koskov and arms dealer, Brad Whitaker, whose offer to sell the KGB high-tech weapons in Tangier was declined. Saunders is killed by Necros, who is disguised as a balloon seller; he leaves a balloon marked “Smiert Spionam”.

Bond infiltrates Pushkin’s hotel room in Tangier at gun point. Pushkin reveals to Bond that contrary to Koskov’s explanation, he had actually been investigating Koskov himself for the embezzlement of government funds. Bond and Pushkin then join forces by Bond faking Pushkin’s assassination, allowing Whitaker and Koskov, who now believe Pushkin is dead, to progress with their scheme. Meanwhile, Milovy contacts Koskov, who convinces her that Bond is a KGB agent. Accordingly, she puts Bond to sleep with a spiked beverage and engenders his capture. They are flown to a Soviet air base in Afghanistan, where Koskov betrays Milovy and imprisons her along with Bond.

They escape from the air base’s prison, and in doing so free a condemned prisoner, Kamran Shah, leader of the local Mujahideen. Kamran leads Bond and Milovy to the Mujahideen’s base, where Bond informs Kamran of Whitaker’s plan to sell the Soviets weapons that could be used against the Afghan resistance. The next day, during a mission, Bond discovers that Whitaker and Koskov are paying diamonds for a large $500 million shipment of opium in order to turn a huge profit with enough left over to supply the Soviets with their arms.

The Mujahideen help Bond and Milovy to infiltrate the air base. Bond plants a bomb in the back of the cargo aeroplane transporting the opium, but Koskov recognises him just as he is leaving. Bond hijacks the plane, while the Mujahideen attack the airbase on horseback, killing many Soviets in the battle. Milovy joins Bond on a jeep in the back of the plane as they take off and later assumes the controls while Bond leaves to defuse his bomb. Necros, however, had stowed away on board and attacks Bond. Bond throws Necros to his death after a struggle and deactivates the bomb. Milovy flies over Kamran Shah’s Mujahideen, who are being pursued by two Soviet armored cars across a bridge. Bond drops his bomb onto the bridge, killing the Soviets and ending their pursuit of Kamran and his men. When their plane runs out of fuel, Bond and Milovy escape on the jeep, while the plane crashes into the hills.

Bond returns to Tangier and arrives at Whitaker’s residence as he is playing Pickett’s Charge on Little Round Top, fighting the Battle of Gettysburg on his terms. When Bond tells him that the opium has been burned, Whitaker takes out a submachine gun with a shield of bullet-proof glass. When Bond uses up all of his bullets, Whitaker fires. Bond hides behind a pillar with a bust of the Duke of Wellington, and inserts his explosive key chain on it while Whitaker taunts Bond on how Wellington had to hire German mercenaries to defeat Napoleon. Bond’s explosive key-chain, triggered by a wolf whistle, topples the bust onto Whitaker, who crashes onto a diorama of Waterloo, and, as Bond sums it up, “He [meets] his Waterloo.” At the same time Pushkin and his bodyguards arrive. Koskov is arrested and ordered to be flown back to Moscow in a “diplomatic bag”.

The final scene is of Milovy as lead cellist in a London recital, her musical future assured by the British and Soviets cooperating to provide her with travel visas allowing her to perform both behind the Iron Curtain and in the West. Told he is on assignment, Bond surprises her in her dressing room after the recital and together they celebrate their mutual success.

See also:

• Living Daylights, The: Film - Cast
• Living Daylights, The: Film - Crew
• Living Daylights, The: Film - Goofups
• Living Daylights, The: Film - Locations
• Living Daylights, The: Film - Soundtrack
• Living Daylights, The: Film - Trivia