"Conspiracy"

“We have nothing to declare. Except this cello!”
That’s right honky! #8 on the 007 countdown is 1987’s “The Living Daylights”. This would be the first of only two movies that would put Timothy Dalton at the helm of the franchise. It seems as I give more credit to this installment than a number of reviews I have read myself on the net. Oh well, I like it and it is my list after all. On with the show!
The film opens at a training facility for 00 agents. It is here that several unfortunate trainees meet their fate at the hands of Necros, an agent for the dreaded (and long unused villains of the Bond franchise) SMERSH.

James Bond becomes aware of these tragedies and goes after Necros. Unfortunately he is armed only with a paintball gun (now all you players “Goldeneye” know where the feature cheat comes from). He chases him out of the installation, and down a through a mountain resort area. Finally as his car goes over a cliff, 007 must make a DARING ESCAPE© landing on a boat out in the harbour.


This of course leads us into the opening credit sequence, this time performed by A-Ha, the Brit pop rock group best known for their song/video “Take on me”. The title song is actually pretty good. I of course own the “James Bond Movie Soundtrack” which does no include “D.A.D.” thankfully.

After the credits, we find our hero along with Saunders (another 00) at a orchestra concert. They are there to collect a Russian General Georgi Koskov, who wishes to defect to England. However, as they are escaping, a female sniper makes things a tad bit complicated for 007 as he refuses to kill her.

Once they have him back safely in custody at headquarters, Koskov tells of the treachery of one General Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies of LOTR and Indiana Jones fame). The Brits seem skeptical but anxious to believe Koskov at the same time. It is of course a ruse, as he is soon “captured” by Necros, who takes down several agents and proves to be a bad ass fighter in his own right. He even gets his own theme music ( a song done by the Pretenders for the movie).

Bond is relegated with the task of finding out the truth about the situation. He is sent to track down the female sniper and find out where Koskov is. He of course finds her, and discovers she is Kokovs girlfriend. Her name is Kara Milovy, played by actress Maryam d’Abo. She is being investigated by Russian authorities (oh fine, the KGB) which puts more doubts into Bonds mind that the defection might not have been legit. They have to escape from the KGB in the movies GREAT CAR CHASE SCENE ©, and then they escape in her cello case over the border


At this point, we go to General Pushkin who is at a remote location visiting arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker, who would later play in Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies as good guy Jack Wade - a replacement for Felix Leiter who lost his legs in “License to Kill” - he disagreed with something that ate him). Anyways... Whitaker is supplying Koskov with a massive supply of weapons for reasons unknown and Pushkin has come to put a stop to it. Bond finds this info out via Kara and THE RIGHT CHANNELS ™. They meet up with Pushkin and realize that the only way they are going to get to the bottom of the plot is if he dies. Bond “assassinates” Pushkin at a speech he is giving.

Afterwards, Bond meets up with Felix Leiter who is played by John Terry in this installment. Turns out the CIA has been working on this case as well, but they have been dealing in the tracking down of the illegal arms Whitaker is selling. The two men team up and form Two Cool Dudes
err...I mean

that’s more like it. Well, Bond gets back from this meeting, only to get drugged by Kara who has seemingly turned coat and joined forces with Koskov. He has duped her, and she believes that Bond was lying to her about Koskov. Turns out Koshov drugs her as well, and when they come to, they are in Afghanistan. Turns out they are in the right location at the right time for the trade off of diamonds for weapons. They get thrown in jail, but thankfully enough, Osama Bin Laden...I mean Kamran Shah is there to help them out, because he knows that the British will help him in liberating Afghanistan from the Russians.


“Bond of Arabia”

In the gripping finale, Bond must battle Koskov and Necros inside a plane delivering the diamonds (not to mention opium) to Whitaker for the weapons. Of course Bond handily defeats the villains, but now he must orchestrate a daring escape from the crashing plane.

Bond then tracks down Whitaker at his remote location and of course defeats him after some tense moments.

After which it is an extravaganza full of pomp! Where everyone is invited, even the nice Shah fella, who it turns out dresses very nicely now that his terrorist operation has obtained the diamonds (and opium) that have fallen from the plane

Of course they kiss, and the movie ends. Bonds is the kind of man after all to love and leave ‘em, a pity if it grieves them...
FINIS


~Oz