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The Living Daylights (1987)
James Bond 007 at his most dangerous in The Living Daylights
The Living Daylights is a 1987 spy film and the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the first of two to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the film’s title is taken from Ian Fleming‘s short story “The Living Daylights“, the plot of which also forms the basis of the first act of the film. It was the last film to use the title of an Ian Fleming story until the 2006 installment Casino Royale.
The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli, his stepson Michael G. Wilson, and his daughter, Barbara Broccoli. The Living Daylights was generally well received by most critics and was also a financial success, grossing $191.2 million worldwide.
Cast
- Timothy Dalton as James Bond 007, an MI6 agent assigned to look into the deaths of several KGB defectors and conspiracies against several of his allies.
- Maryam d’Abo as Kara Milovy, Koskov’s girlfriend and later Bond’s love interest.
- Joe Don Baker as Brad Whitaker, an American arms dealer and self-styled general, who serves as Koskov’s primary ally. Baker called his character “a nut” who “thought he was Napoleon“.[3]
- Art Malik as Kamran Shah, a leader in the Afghan Mujahideen.
- John Rhys-Davies as General Leonid Pushkin, the new head of the KGB, replacing General Gogol.
- Jeroen Krabbé as General Georgi Koskov, a renegade Soviet general who attempts to manipulate the British government into assassinating his rival, General Pushkin.
- Andreas Wisniewski as Necros, Koskov’s henchman, who poses repeated threats to Bond.
- Thomas Wheatley as Saunders, Bond’s ally.
- Julie T. Wallace as Rosika Miklos, James Bond’s contact in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia who works at the TransSiberian Pipeline.
- Desmond Llewelyn as Q, MI6’s “quartermaster”, who supplies Bond with multi-purpose vehicles and gadgets useful in the latter’s mission.
- Robert Brown as M, the head of MI6 and Bond’s superior.
- Walter Gotell as General Anatol Gogol, the retired head of the KGB, now a diplomat shown in a cameo at the end of the film.
- Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny, M’s secretary.
- Geoffrey Keen as Frederick Gray (credited as Minister of Defence), the British Minister of Defence
- Virginia Hey as Rubavitch, General Leonid Pushkin’s mistress in Morocco
- John Terry as Felix Leiter: A CIA agent and ally to Bond.
- Nadim Sawalha cameos as a police chief in Tangier. Sawalha also appeared in a previous 007 film, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), as Aziz Fekkesh.
- John Bowe as Colonel Feyador, the leader of the Soviet air base in Afghanistan.