This scene from Licence To Kill (1989) is easily the most bizarre and awkward of the Dalton era. On Della and Felix Leiter’s wedding day, Bond and Della cavort around the wedding reception in a drunken stupor, almost as if they’re the betrothed themselves.
It starts off innocently enough with them falling into the room with the wedding cake, but their subsequent kisses are most definitely *not* innocuous and not innocent pecks on the cheek. I’d argue they are almost passionate. Did Bond and Della have a previous fling?
Although I wasn’t married in the 1980’s when this movie was released, I’m a married American and I’ve never heard of the “custom” where the bride kisses the best man. Did I miss the memo on that? This does not sound like a great custom. Just weird.
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Dalton’s Bond from Licence To Kill (1989) says COME ON aboard and vote!
Hector Lopez for President sign in Licence To Kill (1989)
No, not for Hector Lopez for President campaign from Licence To Kill (1989).
VOTE!
Hector Lopez for President sign in Licence To Kill (1989)
Here are the dorkiest moments of each Bond actor’s career:
Sean Connery tries to pull of the pink tie in Diamonds Are Forever (1971)…and fails. DORK!
George Lazenby’s Scottish get-up in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) screamed “dork.”
Roger Moore’s clown costume in Octopussy (1983) takes the cake…the ultimate dorkiest Bond moment!
Timothy Dalton’s “look” prior to fishing Franz Sanchez out of the sky in Licence To Kill (1989).
Sorry James, but not even Pierce Brosnan in The World Is Not Enough (1999) can pull off purple glasses (even x-ray ones).
Daniel Craig needed a shave and a shower as a hungover mess in Skyfall (2012)
Timothy Dalton as James Bond in The Living Daylights (1987)
Pam Bouvier has that effect on a secret agent – from Licence To Kill (1989)
This scene from The Living Daylights (1987) is how I like my Timothy Dalton James Bond: rough around the edges and disgruntled with superiors – has his own disagreeable opinions and agendas but in the end always wants to get the job done, and does.
This scene takes place in M’s office with M, Bond and Frederick Gray, the Minister of Defense assessing the catastrophic event that just occurred, where a defected Georgi Koskov was re-captured by the KGB and MI6 made a “laughingstock” in the intelligence community as a results, as relayed by Gray.
I like this scene so much because everyone expresses their own frustrations in unique ways. M grumpily cleaning out his pipe, Gray begrudgingly leaving to meet the Prime Minister evoking his disdain, and Bond defiantly bending to M’s orders to take out Pushkin. This is a relatively rare direct “termination order” issued by M to Bond in his office, and although Bond has a license to kill, in this case Bond is skeptical that Pushkin could be behind the plot. M senses his defiance instantly (you can sense this isn’t the first time this has happened between the two) and his “What? Do you think I don’t?” is expertly delivered as a “STFU, obey my orders” declaration to Bond.
M, Bond and Frederick Gray meeting in M’s office in The Living Daylights (1987)
Despite Bond’s pleas, M demurs and tells him to either do the job or leave for a fortnight and 008 will do it – since 008 will follow “orders, not instincts.” I always love when other double-oh agents are mentioned in Bond movies. 🙂 And it happens doubly so here, since 004 was killed in the Gibraltar training exercise at the start of the movie, as a result of the Smernt Spionom (Death to Spies) agenda that has commenced. So even though M attempts to allay Bond’s hesitations, Bond still relents and says he would like to delay the operation to obtain more information. M’s job transfer threat is all Bond needs to hear, and he takes the mission.
Knowing this James Bond, however, we know that his agenda will come before MI6’s, for better or worse.
I remember watching Licence To Kill on TV when I lost my first tooth. The above GIF was the first scene I remember watching from a James Bond movie!
