Trivia / Licence to Kill

• Actor-Inspired Element: Sanchez's love of cigars came from Robert Davi. He also suggested to Benicio del Toro that Dario be the closest to Sanchez, giving them a brotherly relationship. It was Davi who suggested to Del Toro that he call out Sanchez's name during his death scene.
• B-Team Sequel: John Barry was unable to score the film, as he was undergoing throat surgery.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: The closing theme "If You Asked Me To", sung by Patti LaBelle, which was later covered by Céline Dion, becoming one of her first English-language hits.
• California Doubling: Mexico largely served as set for the fictional Banana Republic of Isthmus. It would be twenty-six years till the country would be used as itself in the series, in Spectre.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Italy, the film was released as Vendetta Privata ("Personal Revenge" or "Private Revenge"), not following the translation, because Dr. No was titled Licenza di Uccidere, the translation of this film's title. Sweden had the same problem: Dr. No had been Agent 007 med rätt att döda ("Agent 007 with a licence to kill"), so Tid för hämnd ("Time for revenge") was used for this movie.
  • Other countries used Licence Revoked (Japan; the release there retained the working title); With A Right To Kill (Norway); Permission to Kill (Brazil). Hungary used a completely different title, James Bond: The Lone Agent. Finland, Croatia, Portugal, Spain and Latin America simply translated the actual title.
• Contest Winner Cameo: One of the extras during the wedding is Sandi Sentell, a gym teacher from Atlanta, Georgia, who won a MTV/VH1 competition to appear in the film.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • John Glen has said that the film "is among my best Bond films, if not the best".
  • Timothy Dalton thought it was the Bond script he had waited years to see, calling it "the best since Thunderball", although he would later admit that he preferred The Living Daylights as a film.
  • This was Desmond Llewelyn's favourite Bond film, due to his expanded role.
• Deleted Scene: A big pile of exposition scenes were cut for the sake of brevity:
  • A distressed Sharkey arriving at Leiter's house the morning after Sanchez's attack, and struggling to get past the local police.
  • Bond and Sharkey staking out the WaveKrest with binoculars on Sharkey's boat. Bond recognises Lupe on the boat from afar, and Krest's goons warn them off with a megaphone.
    • In the film proper, Sharkey is killed, his boat stolen and his body paraded by Krest's men, but it's not explained why, or how they knew who he was. This scene appears to explain that.
  • Bond hiring the boat he uses to go to the rendezvous with Pam at the Barrelhead Bar.
  • Bond and Pam's arrival at Isthmus airport, at the same time as Sanchez's Chinese investors. Pam fills Bond in on Truman Lodge and Heller's backgrounds - the former is wanted for insider dealing on Wall Street, while the latter is a disgraced Green Berets colonel. Meanwhile, M's agent Fallon smokes a cigarette and watches them from a distance.
  • At the Banco de Isthmus, just prior to his deposit, Bond accidentally brushes shoulders with an excited Sanchez, who is rushing to greet Truman Lodge and the Chinese investors. Bond is mortified, but Sanchez does not recognise him.
  • Bond in his hotel room in Isthmus, watching Sanchez & President Lopez belligerently being interviewed live on television. He readies his gun and lights a cigarette with Felix's lighter. It presumably takes place before he heads to the casino.
  • Bond returning to the casino to pick up Pam, after he left her to formally meet Sanchez upstairs.
  • An extended version of Bond's interrogation by Kwang's agents at the house, showing the ninjas dragging him out of a car boot and strapping him to a table. Loti also slaps Bond in the face when he refuses to answer Kwang's questions.
  • A short scene between Bond and Lupe on the beach, following his escape from Sanchez's villa, where Bond asks Lupe if she's in love with Sanchez. She flatly states that she hates him.
• Dyeing for Your Art: For her role, Carey Lowell "tried to exercise and be incredibly fit".
• Fake Nationality:
  • Queens-born Italian-American Robert Davi plays the Latin American villain Franz Sanchez.
  • Japanese-American Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Hong Kong narcotics agent Kwan.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The set for Paradise Island is the same location used for Sanchez's house.
• Hey, It's That Sound!:
  • Benny the Cab's revving and skidding sounds were used for this film's cars.
  • Roger Rabbit's scream can be faintly heard once when a truck drives away during the truck chase.
• Method Acting: Robert Davi stayed in character even when the cameras weren't rolling.
• No Stunt Double: According to Michael G. Wilson, that really is Timothy Dalton running from the exploding tanker and not a stunt double.
• On-Set Injury: Benicio del Toro accidentally cut Timothy Dalton's hand.
  Benicio Del Toro cut off my finger. It wasn't really his fault, but we were doing the scene where I'm hanging over a meat-grinder and he's cutting away at the wires holding me and something went wrong. Come to think of it, we probably shouldn't have had a sharp knife.
• The Original Darrin: John Terry, who had played Felix Leiter in the previous film The Living Daylights, was replaced by David Hedison - who had played Leiter all the way back in Live and Let Die sixteen years prior. It was felt that an actor who had previously played the role should be in this one, for a better emotional reaction to what happens to him. Hedison thus became the first actor to play Leiter more than once until Jeffrey Wright in the Daniel Craig era.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Benicio del Toro was a 007 fan.
  I grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In my room, I had a lobby card of Thunderball, so I grew up liking James Bond. I met Cubby Broccoli. The experience was fantastic.
  • Wayne Newton got the role of Professor Joe Butcher after sending a letter to the producers expressing interest in a cameo because he always wanted to be in a Bond film.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Carey Lowell had naturally short hair at the time, so she wore a wig in all scenes prior to her haircut.
• Reality Subtext: Kind of inverted when Sanchez's actor, Robert Davi was taken by a number of thugs while on vacation in South America to an actual drug lord after the film was made. The man enjoyed his portrayal of a drug lord. Davi later revealed in 2016 interviews that said drug lord was none other than Pablo Escobar, who had provided some inspiration for the role of Franz Sanchez.:
• Role Reprise: David Hedison played Felix Leiter in Live and Let Die in 1973, and reprised the role for Licence to Kill sixteen years later even though Leiter had just appeared in The Living Daylights played by John Terry. Apparently, it happened because producer Albert R. Broccoli thought a familiar face was needed for Leiter given his prominence in the plot.
• Those Two Actors: Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush had appeared together in the previous year's Die Hard, as FBI Agents "Big" Johnson and "Little" Johnson respectively.
• Throw It In!:
  • Robert Davi improvised the line where Sanchez tells Killifer, "Loyalty is more important to me than money."
  • Also the shot of Q throwing the rake-radio into the bushes was simply Desmond Llewellyn putting it out of shot for the next scene, however the sight of Q abusing a gadget the way he always complains about Bond doing was too good to lose.
• Troubled Production:
  • The film was hit by a writer's strike, tax issues meaning it was unaffordable to film in the UK and severe heat while filming in Mexico.
  • The supernatural impression the filming crew had of the highway was confirmed, at least in John Glen's mind, when he saw a set photo of the explosion that kills Sanchez featuring an eerie flaming hand.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: Wayne Newton spent a week filming his part in Mexico. According to Michael G. Wilson, "he said it was like having a vacation".
• Wag the Director: Costume designer Jodie Tillen, who worked on Miami Vice, wanted Bond to wear pastels, but Timothy Dalton argued in favour of a more casual look.
• What Could Have Been: Enough for its own page.
• Working Title: Licence Revoked. Among the reasons for changing the title was to avoid confusion with the 1981 James Bond novel, Licence Renewed, written by John Gardner (who ended up writing a novel based on this film as well). Licence Renewed means the exact opposite of Licence Revoked. Another reason for the change was that "license revoked" denotes losing one's driving privileges in the USA.
• You Sound Familiar:
  • The French voice of Franz Sanchez, Gérard Hernandez, voiced Hector Gonzales in For Your Eyes Only.
  • The French voice of Felix Leiter in this film, Daniel Russo, voiced Kamran Shah in the previous film, The Living Daylights.

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