YMMV / The Living Daylights

• Aluminium Christmas Trees:
  • Most fans assumed the scene with Bond and Kara using her cello case to slide down the mountain like a bobsled was done via special effects, thinking that was absurd; actually, it was a simple stunt that both Timothy Dalton and Maryam d'Abo did themselves, actually using it as such. (It took quite a few takes, however.)
  • The rocket-powered Aston Martin car was based on an actual late-1960s contraption, the rocket-turbine axle patented by Turbonique. It worked in Real Life just like in the film◊, the turbine powered the car's differential while the jet-exhaust helped with an extra push after the car gained speed. It had been designed specifically for truck-axles with leaf springs, could not fit in original form on the De Dion axle of an Aston Martin, but it was plausible.
• Awesome Music: The last Bond film to have a soundtrack written by legendary composer John Barry, the soundtrack also sports one of the better Bond themes of The '80s courtesy of a-ha, and two tracks by Pretenders.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Some might see the final battle between Bond and Whittaker as this, with Bond defeating him by dropping a bust on him despite being outmatched in a tight space by both superior armour and firepower.
  • Koskov himself, who relies more on Necros and his soldiers to take care of Bond at the airbase, before being easily nabbed by Pushkin when he returns to Tangier.
  • Funnily enough, both 002 and 004, the first being taken down by the SAS (non-lethally of course, with a paintball gun) mere moments after landing while the latter is seen falling to his death by an assassin immediately after.
• Badass Decay: Necros is established as being a brutal and effective hitman. He defeats Green Four in a vicious fight and captures Koskov completely on his own during his attack in England. When he fights against Bond outside the plane during the climax he heavily kicks Bond at the start and that's about all he does. After that he repeatedly gets punched by Bond, misses his knife attack, has to grab his enemy's boot for stability and eventually falls to his death. To his defense, their fight was an Interesting Situation Duel on a cargo net outside a flying plane which he probably never experienced before, unlike Bond.
• Base-Breaking Character: Fans were divided over Timothy Dalton's take. Some loved his hard-edged portrayal of Bond; others agreed with Roger Moore's assessment that the role was too preposterous to be taken seriously. In hindsight, Dalton's portrayal was merely 20 years early for the role; Daniel Craig has since taken the Darker and Edgier factor and run with it.
• Character Perception Evolution: Timothy Dalton's taciturn, violent portrayal of Bond is now considered to be almost prophetic, as it heralded Daniel Craig's rendition of the character by nearly twenty years. At the time, most viewers had grown comfortable with Roger Moore's lighthearted Bond.
• Common Knowledge: In post-9/11 hindsight, a casual observer can be forgiven for thinking Bond teaming up with the Afghani Mujahideen as a Harsher in Hindsight, in part because of an incorrect belief that the Mujahideen became the Taliban and, thus, the enemies of the West in The War on Terror. The Taliban was a radical student movement (the name comes from the Arabic "talib" which means "student") that took over Afghanistan, after the Soviets were kicked out and also after the Mujahideen began fighting amongst themselves for control of the country, although many Taliban members, including its founder Mullah Omar, served in various Mujahideen factions against the Soviets. In other words, not all Mujahideen are allies with the Taliban, and many in fact joined the Northern Alliance that fought with the Americans against the Taliban. Kamran Shah in particular, being an Oxford-educated Mujahideen fighter who casually teams up with a British spy, would probably be marked for death as soon as they took power; if anything, the real Harsher in Hindsight aspect is that the character of Kamran Shah, if he didn't flee the country, was most likely murdered off-screen at some point after the movie, like what happened to Ahmad Shah Massoud in Real Life (who was killed a mere two days before 9/11).
• Ending Fatigue: The final confrontation between Bond and Whittaker can be seen as this, being a short gunfight between England's greatest super-spy and a pudgy arms dealer with delusions of grandeur. Despite Whittaker's exotic weaponry, it just comes across as a way for the writers to quickly get rid of the main villain after the climactic battle with Necros.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Necros. He's the best of the Red Grant clones, gets two sweet-ass fight scenes, has his own theme song and gadgets, and is probably the most competent and ruthless of the villains. As a result, he's very well-regarded by Bond fans.
  • Green Four, the surprisingly badass MI6 Red Shirt who has a brutal, protracted fight with Necros in the safehouse kitchen, is very popular with the fanbase.
• Genius Bonus: Whitaker's pantheon of great military commanders includes a wax statue of Hitler who was widely known as a terrible military leader whose early successes were largely due to a combination of luck and overwhelming force; this merely led to him developing an overinflated view of his prowess and making serious tactical errors as a result. The fact that Whitaker sees him as worthy of admiration makes sense since Whitaker is nothing more than a failed soldier who thinks he's an expert.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Less than a year after the release of the film, the Soviets began withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, and several years later, the country descended into civil war with the Taliban ultimately winning and taking control of the country by 1996. However, it is worth noting that not all Mujaheddin factions are aligned with the Taliban, see "Common Knowledge" above.
  • In the denouement, the Mujaheddin (in the same full desert dress and carrying *bandoliers*) burst into the room where Bond and the others are celebrating saying, "Sorry we're late. We had a little trouble at the airport."
  • When Khan says “women” in exasperation over Kara’s determination to rescue James it’s played for laughs. But given that the Mujahadeen would evolve into the Taliban, who are certainly massive oppressors of women, it becomes a lot less funny.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In a case of accidental foreshadowing, while showing Bond profiles of KGB assassins, Q describes one whose method is strangulation with her thighs. Ms. Moneypenny even quips to Bond that "she's just your type". (There might have been some connection, had said assassin not been a Brawn Hilda.)
  • When it was clear that Roger Moore was serious about retiring, it was briefly decided to make the next film a prequel showing James Bond as a young man. Cubby Broccoli shot this down, because he thought no-one would be interested in seeing 007 as a rookie. Flash forward twenty years..., albeit the intention was for the prequel to tie into Dr. No rather than be a reboot.
  • This would not be the last film where Joe Don Baker is interested in acquiring diamonds.
  • This also wouldn't be the last time a villain's henchman masqueraded as a milkman and tried to kill people with bombs disguised as milk bottles.
  • Necros' tactics of incapacitating people, stealing their clothes to use as a disguise, imitating their voices and assassinating targets via strangulation with a wire became the standard operating procedure of Agent 47 from the Hitman franchise. The murder of Saunders, via sabotaged door while Necros is dressed as a balloon salesman, is even a perfect example of how the game would present an "Accident Kill". This goes further in that the developers of the Hitman games, IO Interactive, obtained the rights to develop James Bond games in 2020.
• Magnificent Bastard: Necros is General Georgi Koskov's second in command and easily the most dangerous member of his criminal ring. When Koskov is brought to England as part of his fake defection Necros, through a combination of disguises, hidden weapons, and combat prowess, stages a one man rescue mission and successfully extracts Koskov despite him being guarded by dozens of British Agents. Necros later uses another disguise to rig a trap to murder an MI6 Agent as part of Koskov's plan to trick Bond into killing Leonid Pushkin. When Bond hijacks Koskov’s plane Necro gets aboard and ambushes Bond, nearly killing him in the ensuing fight.
• Once Original, Now Common: With the Daniel Craig Bond films, it's harder to appreciate Timothy Dalton's portrayal of Bond in this film and Licence to Kill, where the producers were specifically trying to create a darker Bond to differentiate from the often-comical Roger Moore films. The difference between Craig and Dalton is that Craig's Bond completely breaks the formula, whereas Dalton's tries to recreate Ian Fleming's Bond within the established Bond movie formula. Ironically, Dalton's more grim and cynical Bond ("If he fires me, I'll thank him for it!") was one of the things that most divided fans of the franchise at the time. In this sense, Dalton's Bond to some degree has been re-evaluated as being somewhat ahead of its time.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Julie T. Wallace as Rosika Miklos, the saucy, seductive pipeline control room operator.
  • The agent only known as Green Four, who puts up a strong defence against the murderous Necros in the MI6 safehouse kitchen.
• Questionable Casting: The original script refers to Necros as a "Greek terrorist assassin", and one would thus expect him to look Mediterranean, but he's played by the very Aryan Andreas Wisniewski. Either there were some changes between the script and the final film, or it's this.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Christian Shepard as Felix.
  • Two movies later, Whittaker's actor, Joe Don Baker, would appear as one of Bond's allies, Jack Wade.
  • Liz is played by Catherine Rabett, who would later be best known for playing Cissy Meldrum in You Rang, M'Lord?.
• Song Association: You will never listen to "Where Has Everybody Gone" by Pretenders in the same way again after hearing it as Necros' leitmotif.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Damn near everyone considers this film an improvement on A View to a Kill.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The plot of the film involves the two main villains manipulating MI6 and framing General Pushkin, a person with whom Bond has a Friendly Rivalry. Bond refuses to believe that he is committing the murders because they have known each other for years, and decides to go against the orders of his superiors. The problem is that Pushkin is a new character introduced in this film. Many fans believe that the plot would have worked better if it had been General Gogol instead of Pushkin, as Gogol appeared in the previous five films and his dynamic with Bond was already established. Though there's an element of Real Life Writes the Plot, as Walter Gotell's health was failing by the time the movie was made, meaning that he was capable of little more than the cameo appearance he makes towards the end. Had he been healthier and stronger, this may indeed have been the intention.
  • General Pushkin was supposed to be a recurring character upon replacing General Gogol, in the wake of actor Walter Gotell's failing health. Sadly, this did not come to pass, despite the standout performance of John Rhys-Davies in this film. In defence of the producers, this was partly because by the time Russia was again the central focus of a James Bond movie, Russia was no longer an obvious antagonist.
• Vindicated by History: Initially, this film became dated very quickly due to the Soviet collapse. Today, however, it is looked back upon as an interesting Cold War spy story.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The shot of the truck going off the cliff in the pre-titles sequence was acheived with a miniature model and an air cannon.
• Win Back the Crowd: After the negative reception of A View to a Kill, and in time for the series' 25th anniversary, this film gave as a much more serious, back-to-basics film that was a welcome relief following the lighter nature of the Roger Moore era.
• The Woobie: Kara. She has her arm injured as she pretends to be a sniper to aid her Big Bad Friend Koskov's plan to fake his defection (with Koskov fully intending that she be killed by Bond during it), is arrested by the KGB, has her apartment and all her possessions (save for her cello) destroyed, and is duped into believing Bond was faking all the incredibly nice things he'd done for her to betray her to the KGB and aiding Koskov in capturing Bond by drugging him. Then she finds out that Bond was the one who gave her the arm injury, that he actually meant the incredibly nice things he did, and that Koskov lied to her. THEN, Koskov betrays her *again*, outright tells her she's heading to a Fate Worse than Death (by exile to Siberia). Honestly, you want to hug her by the time you get to the last third of the movie. Oh, and her Stradivarius cello was shot.

---