The Living Daylights (1987) on Netflix
PG19872h 10mActionAdventureThriller
James Bond helps General Georgi Koskov defect to the West, covering his escape from a Bratislava concert hall. Sent to kill KGB chief Leonid Pushkin, Bond traces the cellist Kara Milovy.
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- IMDb6.7/10115,872 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
During a training exercise in Gibraltar, an assassin kills MI6 agent 004, and James Bond chases the gunman. Later, Bond is posted to Bratislava as a counter-sniper, covering the defection of KGB General Georgi Koskov from a concert hall. The rifle in the hall belongs to a cellist from the orchestra, Kara Milovy, and Bond shoots the weapon from her hands rather than killing her, then brings Koskov west through the Trans-Siberian Pipeline. In his debriefing, Koskov says the KGB has revived Smert Shpionam, Death to Spies, under its new head, General Leonid Pushkin, and Bond is ordered to find Pushkin in Tangier. When Koskov is seized from a safe house, Bond goes back to Bratislava to look for Kara.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Living Daylights (1987)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Pierce Brosnan was offered James Bond after a three-day screen test, but the publicity revived interest in his canceled series Remington Steele, and NBC exercised a 60-day option for another season. Albert Broccoli then withdrew the offer, refusing to tie 007 to a current television show.
- Michael G. Wilson, John Glen and Dana and Barbara Broccoli pushed for Sam Neill, but Albert Broccoli was unconvinced, and Neill said in 2022 he had never wanted the job. MGM/UA chairman Jerry Weintraub proposed Mel Gibson on a two-picture deal worth $10 million; Broccoli was not interested.
- The KGB general framed by Koskov was written as General Gogol, but Walter Gotell was too ill for a large part, so Leonid Pushkin was invented instead and Gogol was cut back to a brief closing appearance, his last in any Bond film.
- The Blayden House fight between Andreas Wisniewski and stunt man Bill Weston took three days to film, and it hurt: Weston fractured a finger and Wisniewski knocked him out cold once during the shooting.
- The Land Rover chase that seems to career down the whole Rock of Gibraltar was shot almost entirely on one short stretch of road at the very top, filmed from many different angles, and the beach defenses at the foot of the Rock were built for the film alone.
- Koskov and Whitaker move their drugs in vehicles and packets marked with the Red Cross, which drew protest letters from several Red Cross societies. The British Red Cross tried to prosecute the filmmakers and distributors, although no legal action followed.
- John Barry and a-ha got on so badly over the title song, co-written with the band's Pål Waaktaar, that two versions exist: Barry's film mix on the soundtrack, and the band's preferred take, which they put on their 1988 album Stay on These Roads.
