General Georgi Koskov
| The Living Daylights | |
|---|---|
British cinema poster for The Living Daylights, illustrated by Brian Bysouth
|
|
| Directed by | John Glen |
| Produced by |
Albert R. Broccoli Michael G. Wilson |
| Screenplay by |
Richard Maibaum Michael G. Wilson |
| Based on |
James Bond by Ian Fleming |
| Starring | |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Cinematography | Alec Mills |
| Edited by | John Grover Peter Davies |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by |
MGM/UA Communications Company (US) United International Pictures (International) |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
131 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million |
| Box office | $191.2 million |
The Living Daylights (1987) is the fifteenth entry in the James Bond film series and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story "The Living Daylights". It was the last film to use the title of an Ian Fleming story until the 2006 instalment Casino Royale.
The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli, his stepson Michael G. Wilson, and his daughter, Barbara Broccoli. The Living Daylights was generally well received by most critics and was also a financial success, grossing $191.2 million worldwide.
James Bond is assigned to aid the defection of a KGB officer, General Georgi Koskov, covering his escape from a concert hall in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia during intermission. During the mission, Bond notices that the KGB sniper assigned to prevent Koskov's escape is a female cellist from the orchestra. Disobeying his orders to kill the sniper, he instead shoots the rifle from her hands, then uses the Trans-Siberian Pipeline to smuggle Koskov across the border into Austria and then on to Britain.
In his post-defection debriefing, Koskov informs MI6 that the KGB's old policy of Smiert Spionam, meaning Death to Spies, has been revived by General Leonid Pushkin, the new head of the KGB. Koskov is later abducted from the safe-house and assumed to have been taken back to Moscow. Bond is directed to track down Pushkin in Tangier and kill him to forestall further killings of agents and escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West. Bond agrees to carry out the mission when he learns that the assassin who killed 004 (as depicted in the pre-title sequence) left a note bearing the same message, "Smiert Spionam".
...
Wikipedia