The opening sequence for The Living Daylights (1987) is pretty underrated and has it all: a thrilling MI6 training exercise gone wrong and a daring 007 parachute escape from a falling/exploding munitions vehicle. It ends in true James Bond fashion, on a luxury yacht with a damsel (not in distress, mind you) yearning for a “real man.” Lucky for her Bond drops in (literally) and Timothy Dalton’s James Bond delivers his coolest moment, easily a contender for coolest James Bond moment of all time as well.
It’s a shame Dalton only had a chance to portray 007 twice on-screen. Surely one or two more films and he would be more widely considered the best James Bond actor (he is in the upper echelon for me!). That look alongside the champagne glass where you can literally see him decide between work or play and choosing at least a little more play is a perfect intro to a new James Bond and cemented Dalton’s portrayal from the start!
In Licence To Kill (1989) as Bond investigates Leiter’s shark attack at Milton Krest’s warehouse, 007 tosses a security guard into a fish food drawer to a seemingly horrifying death. “Food for the fish food.”
This scene has a particular significance for me, as it’s the earliest memory I have of watching a James Bond movie in my life. I can distinctly remember this scene during a live ABC or NBC broadcast of this movie in the early 1990s. I also distinctly remembering the pity I felt for the security guard, banished to die by tiny bites in a claustrophobic drawerful of menacing-looking fish food.
At the same time, I can remember wiggling and eventually pulling a tooth out of my mouth. I was six or seven years old.
