8 / 10
Licence to Kill is the Bond film that goes properly dark. Felix Leiter is lowered into a shark tank on his wedding day and his wife is murdered, and Bond resigns, loses his licence and goes after the man who ordered it with no backup and no rules.
John Glen directed it in 1989. It was Timothy Dalton’s second and last, and it’s an 8.
The Personal Vendetta
This is the only Bond film where the whole plot is revenge and the service is against him. M revokes his licence in Hemingway’s house in Key West and Bond runs. What follows is closer to a hard-edged eighties action film than a spy story: he burns money, sets up a drug lord’s people to turn on each other and kills without one-liners.
The Davi Antagonist
Robert Davi plays Franz Sanchez, and he’s one of the best Bond villains because he’s plausible. He’s a Latin American cartel boss who values loyalty above everything, and Bond’s whole plan is to make him think his own men are betraying him. Benicio del Toro, very young, plays his knife-happy henchman.
The Violence
A man is fed to a shark. Another is exploded in a decompression chamber. Someone goes through an industrial grinder. It got the series its toughest certificate to that point, and audiences in 1989 found it a shock after Roger Moore. Dalton is completely convincing in it.
The Rest of the Cast
Carey Lowell’s Pam Bouvier is a CIA pilot who’s more competent than most Bond allies. Desmond Llewelyn gets his largest role ever, going into the field with Bond and plainly enjoying himself. The tanker chase in the closing act, with rigs tipping onto two wheels, is a superb piece of stunt work.
The Production Aftermath
It underperformed in America, opening against Batman and Indiana Jones, and legal trouble at MGM shut the series down for six years. When Bond came back it was GoldenEye with Brosnan, and Dalton was gone. He got two films and deserved more.
Craft Note
Craft Note
Licence to Kill wins by turning the villain’s strength against him. Sanchez’s obsession with loyalty is the lever, and Bond spends the film pulling it instead of shooting his way in.
Look for the trait your antagonist is proudest of. That’s usually where the story’s weapon is.
Is Licence to Kill worth watching?
Yes. It’s an 8, the toughest Bond film of the old era, and it’s aged better than almost anything around it. Watch it with The Living Daylights.
Frequently Asked Questions
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