Movies - Licence to Kill

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	Movies - Licence to Kill

Licence to Kill (released in the United States as License to Kill, but sold in the U.S. home video market with the British spelling) is the sixteenth film in the James Bond film series made by EON Productions. Released in the United Kingdom on 13 June, 1989, Licence to Kill is the fifth and last Bond film to be directed by John Glen, and the second and final film with Timothy Dalton portraying British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. It is also the final film to be produced by Albert R. Broccoli, who was unavailable for 1995s GoldenEye
due to his declining health. Since Dr. No
(1962) Broccoli is credited with producing, with the exception of Thunderball
(1965), every official James Bond film.

This was the first EON Productions James Bond film to use a title not derived from either an Ian Fleming novel or a short story. It does, however, contain elements and characters from Fleming's novel Live and Let Die
and the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity" (from the For Your Eyes Only
collection). This would be the last James Bond film to make direct use of Ian Fleming's concepts and characters until Die Another Day
(2002).

Plot summary

The story opens with Bond and his friend, DEA agent Felix Leiter (previously of the CIA), on their way to Leiter's wedding. Meanwhile, DEA agents spot drug lord Franz Sanchez flying into Cray Key, Florida, where he catches his mistress in bed with another man; in retaliation for her infidelity, he has his henchmen cut out the man's heart while he brutally whips his mistress. The DEA dispatches a helicopter to collect Leiter and Bond in an attempt to capture Sanchez as he tries to escape. The pair successfully capture Sanchez by pulling his plane out of the air with a Coast Guard helicopter and then parachute down to Leiter's wedding.

Later that same day, DEA agent Killifer assists Sanchez in escaping federal custody, lured by Sanchez's promise of two million dollars for whoever aids him in escaping. On their honeymoon night, Leiter and his new wife, Della, are captured by Sanchez's lieutenant Dario and several of Sanchez's henchmen. In retaliation for Sanchez's capture and imprisonment, Leiter is bound and lowered into a shark tank; the shark bites off the lower half of one of his legs. After hearing the news of Sanchez's escape, Bond returns to Leiter's house to find Della in her wedding dress, dead (dialogue by Dario later in the film strongly implies she was raped before being killed). In the study, Bond finds Felix, maimed but still alive, bearing a note from Sanchez: "He disagreed with something that ate him." Apart from giving Felix a wife, this portion of the film is closely modeled on a previously unfilmed chapter of Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die
novel, down to a furious James Bond who almost immediately sets out to hunt and kill those involved in his friends' torture and mutilation.

Bond begins his revenge by killing Killifer, causing him to fall into the same tank with the shark which maimed Felix; he then ruins Sanchez's latest drug shipment and steals five million dollars from Sanchez to finance his exploits. Under pressure from the DEA to rein in his agent, M meets Bond in Key West's Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul, Turkey. Bond refuses, but M insists that Bond take the Turkey mission, claiming that Bond's vendetta could easily compromise the British government. Refusing to let the matter go, Bond subsequently resigns and M orders his resignation effective immediately, revoking his licence to kill. Bond then escapes MI6 custody and becomes a rogue agent, bereft of official backing (but later surreptitiously helped by MI6 armourer Q, who voluntarily joins Bond while pretending to be on leave).

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