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"Stuff my orders! I only kill professionals."
― James Bond to Saunders — (audio)Listen (file info)[src]

Commander James Bond is a Senior Operational Officer of the Double-O Section, an ultra-covert Black Ops unit within the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6). As an agent of MI6, Bond holds cryptonym "007". The '00' prefix indicates his discretionary licence to kill in the performance of his duties. He was invented and developed by British author and former naval intelligence officier Ian Fleming.

British actor Timothy Dalton took over the role from Roger Moore in 1987.[2] He appeared in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill (1989). While Dalton performed many of his own stunts, the character was also doubled by stuntmen Paul Weston, Simon Crane, BJ Worth, and Rémy Julienne.[3][4] Legal issues between the Bond producers and the studio over distribution rights resulted in the cancellation of a proposed third Dalton film scheduled for release in 1991[5] and put the series on a hiatus for several years.

Biography[]

Shared background[]

Although very little of James Bond's past is directly addressed in Timothy Dalton's films, it is assumed that his Bond continues to share the common background laid out by the Ian Fleming novels and preceding Bond films.

In the novels, James' parents (Andrew Bond of Scotland and Monique Delacroix Bond of Switzerland) were tragically killed during a climbing accident in the French Alps when he was eleven. He had acquired a first-class command of the French and German languages during his early education, which he received entirely abroad. After the death of his parents, Bond goes to live with his aunt, Miss Charmian Bond, where he completes his early education. Later, he briefly attends Eton College at "12 or thereabouts," but is removed after two halves because of girl trouble with a maid. After being sent down from Eton, Bond was sent to Fettes College in Scotland, his father's school.[6]

After leaving Fettes, earlier EON films note that Bond studied at Cambridge University.[7][8] There, he achieved a first in Oriental languages.[9] In Fleming's novels, Bond alluded to briefly attending the University of Geneva (as did Fleming), before being taught to ski in Kitzbühel.[10] Following his graduation, Bond joined the Ministry of Defence and became a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves, rising through the ranks to commander. Bond applied to M for a position within the "Secret Service", part of the Civil Service, and rose to the rank of principal officer.

The Living Daylights[]

James Bond is assigned to aid the defection of KGB officer, General Koskov, covering his escape from a concert hall in Bratislava during the orchestra's intermission. During the mission, Bond notices that the KGB sniper assigned to prevent Koskov's escape is a female cellist from the orchestra. He notices her holding a rilfe improperly and immediately thinks she's not a sniper. 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.

Bond returns to Bratislava to track down the cellist, Kara Milovy. He determines that Koskov's entire defection was staged and that Kara is actually Koskov's girlfriend. Bond convinces Kara that he is a friend of Koskov's and persuades her to accompany him to Vienna, supposedly to be reunited with him.

During his brief tryst with Kara in Vienna, Bond meets up with his MI6 ally, Saunders, who discovers a history of financial dealings between Koskov and arms dealer Brad Whitaker. As he leaves their meeting, Saunders is killed by assassin Necros, who leaves the message "Smiert Spionam".

Timothy-dalton-james-bond-3

Bond with his gun on Pushkin.

Bond and Milovy promptly leave for Tangier, where Bond confronts General Pushkin. Pushkin disavows any knowledge of "Smiert Spionam", and reveals that Koskov is evading arrest for the misusing of state funds. Bond and Pushkin then join forces and Bond fakes Pushkin's assassination, inducing Whitaker and Koskov to progress with their scheme. Meanwhile, Kara contacts Koskov, who tells her that Bond is actually a KGB agent and convinces her to drug him so he can be captured.

Koskov, Necros, Kara, and the captive Bond fly to a Soviet air base in Afghanistan (part of the Soviet war in Afghanistan) where Koskov betrays Kara and imprisons her along with Bond. The pair escape and in doing so free a condemned prisoner, Kamran Shah, leader of the local Afghan resistance, the Mujahideen. Bond and Kara discover that Koskov is using Soviet funds to buy a massive shipment of opium from the Mujahideen, intending to keep the profits with enough left over to supply the Soviets with their arms.

With the Mujahideen's help, Bond plants a bomb aboard the cargo plane carrying the opium, but is spotted and has no choice but to barricade himself in the plane. Meanwhile, the Mujahideen attack the air base on horseback and engage the Soviets in a gun battle. Kara drives a jeep into the back of the plane as Bond takes off, and Necros also leaps aboard at the last second. After a struggle, Bond throws Necros to his death and deactivates the bomb. Bond then notices Shah and his men being pursued by Soviet forces. He re-activates the bomb and drops it out of the plane and onto a bridge, blowing it up and helping Shah and his men gain an important victory over the Soviets. Bond returns to Tangier to kill Whitaker, as Pushkin arrests Koskov, sending him back to Moscow.

Bond is later waiting in Kara's dressing room after she performed at a concert in front of M and General Gogol.

Licence to Kill[]

DEA agents collect Bond and Felix Leiter, on their way to Leiter's wedding, to assist in capturing powerful drug lord Franz Sanchez. Bond and Leiter capture Sanchez by attaching a hook and cord to Sanchez's plane in flight near The Bahamas and pulling it out of the air with a Coast Guard helicopter. Afterward, Bond and Leiter parachute down to the church in time for the ceremony.

When Bond learns Sanchez has escaped, he returns to Leiter's house to find his wife Della dead and Felix alive, but seriously wounded; Bond swears to take his revenge on Sanchez. As the DEA refuses to help because Sanchez is out of their jurisdiction, Bond, with Felix's friend Sharkey, start their own investigation into what happened to Felix. The pair discovers a marine research center run by Milton Krest, one of Sanchez's associates.

After Bond kills Ed Killifer by pushing him into the tank with the shark that maimed Leiter, M meets Bond in Key West's Hemingway House and orders him to an assignment in Istanbul, Turkey. Bond resigns after turning down the assignment, but M suspends Bond instead and immediately revokes his licence to kill. Bond flees from MI6 custody and becomes a rogue agent, bereft of official backing but later surreptitiously helped by Miss Moneypenny and MI6 armourer Q.

Bond boards the Wavekrest — a ship run by Milton Krest — and foils Sanchez's latest drug shipment, stealing five million dollars in the process, but later discovers that Sharkey had been killed by one of Krest's divers. Bond recruits Pam Bouvier, an ex-CIA agent and pilot whom he rescues from Dario, Sanchez's main enforcer, at the Barrelhead Bar, and journeys with her to the Republic of Isthmus. In Isthmus City, Bond begins gambling at the Casino de Isthmus, and is met by Q at the Hotel Mary Tierra. He finds his way into Sanchez's employment by posing as an assassin looking for work. Two Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau officers foil Bond's attempt to assassinate Sanchez and take him to an abandoned warehouse. They are joined by Fallon, an MI6 agent who was sent by M to apprehend Bond either dead or alive. Bond is about to be sedated via injection and sent back to the United Kingdom in disgrace when Sanchez's men rescue Bond and kill the officers, believing them to be the assassins.

DaltonBondUsingSniperRifle

Bond prepares to shoot Franz Sanchez

Later, with the aid of Bouvier, Q and Sanchez's girlfriend Lupe Lamora, Bond frames Krest by placing the five million dollars he had stolen into the hyperbaric chamber on board the Wavekrest. An angry Sanchez traps Krest in the chamber and then rapidly depressurises it, killing him; meanwhile, for Bond's perceived loyalty, Sanchez admits him into his inner circle.

Sanchez takes Bond to his base, which is disguised as a meditation retreat. Bond learns that Sanchez's scientists can dissolve cocaine in petrol and then sell it disguised as fuel to Asian drug dealers. During Sanchez's presentation to potential Asian customers, Dario discovers Bond and reveals him to Sanchez. Bond starts a fire in the laboratory and attempts to flee, but is captured again and placed on the conveyor belt that drops the brick-cocaine into a giant shredder. Bouvier arrives and distracts Dario, allowing Bond to pull Dario into the shredder, killing him.

Sanchez flees as fire consumes his base, taking with him four articulated tankers full of the cocaine and petrol mixture. Bond pursues them by plane, with Bouvier at the controls. During the course of a stunt-filled chase through the desert, three of the four tankers are destroyed and Bond kills many of Sanchez's men. Sanchez attacks Bond with a machete aboard the final remaining tanker, which loses control and crashes down a hillside. Soaked in petrol from the leaking tanker, Sanchez attempts to kill Bond with his machete. Bond then reveals his cigarette lighter – the Leiters' gift for being the best man at their wedding – and sets fire to Sanchez, taking revenge for Felix and Della. Sanchez stumbles into the wrecked tanker, blowing it up and killing himself. Bouvier, driving the tractor from one of the destroyed tankers, rescues Bond.

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Bond and Pam Bouvier reconciling.

Later, a party is held at Sanchez's former residence. Bond speaks to Leiter on a telephone informing him of his now stable condition and telling him that he had heard from M, who is offering him his job at MI6 back. He then hangs up and is prompted by his hostess for a one on one chat where she kisses him. Seeing this, Pam runs off which Bond notices. He rejects Lupe's advances and sets her up with Hector Lopez, President of Isthmus. He opts to romance Pam instead, jumping off the balcony into the pool below, pulling her in as well.

Behind the scenes[]

Timothy Dalton had been approached to play Bond several times before finally signing a three-film contract on 30 July 1986 following Roger Moore's retirement from the role. Dalton took the Bond character away from the light-hearted playboy of Moore, harking back to the gritty realism of Ian Fleming's novels instead of fantasy plots and humour. Dalton stated in a 1989 interview:

"I think Roger was fine as Bond, but the films had become too much techno-pop and had lost track of their sense of story. I mean, every film seemed to have a villain who had to rule or destroy the world. If you want to believe in the fantasy on screen, then you have to believe in the characters and use them as a stepping-stone to lead you into this fantasy world. That's a demand I made, and Albert Broccoli agreed with me."
Timothy Dalton.

Dalton approached the role closer to the original character described by Ian Fleming and was often seen reading the books on set. His 007 was a more reluctant and questioning hero who did not always enjoy the assignments he was given, something only seen on screen before, albeit obliquely, in George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In The Living Daylights, for example, Bond tells a critical colleague, "Stuff my orders! ... Tell M what you want. If he fires me, I'll thank him for it." In Licence to Kill, he resigns from the Secret Service in order to pursue his own agenda of revenge. Steven Jay Rubin writes in The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia(1995):

"Unlike Moore, who always seems to be in command, Dalton's Bond sometimes looks like a candidate for the psychiatrist's couch – a burned-out killer who may have just enough energy left for one final mission. That was Fleming's Bond – a man who drank to diminish the poison in his system, the poison of a violent world with impossible demands.... [H]is is the suffering Bond."
― Steven Jay Rubin.[src]

Dalton was contracted for three Bond films,[11] and the pre-production of his third film, produced under the working title Bond 17, began in 1990, with a projected release date in 1991. Early screenplays reveal a story which would deal with the destruction of a chemical weapons laboratory in Scotland, robotics, and events which would take place in London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. However, the film was cancelled due to legal issues between UA/MGM and EON Productions, which lasted for four years.[12] Upon legalities ending in 1993, Dalton was expected to return as Bond for the next Bond film, which later became GoldenEye. Despite his contract having expired, negotiations with him to renew it took place.[13] In an interview with the Daily Mail in August 1993, Dalton indicated that Michael France was writing the screenplay for the new film, and the production was to begin in January or February 1994. Notably, an early first draft of GoldenEye by France dated January 1994 confirms close continuity with Dalton's tenure as 007, re-introducing characters such as the Minister of Defence, and KGB head General Leonid Pushkin, both last seen in The Living Daylights.[14] When the deadline was not met, Dalton surprised everyone on 12 April 1994 with the announcement that he declined to return as Bond. The announcement for the new Bond came two months later, with Pierce Brosnan inheriting the role. In the mid-1990's, Kevin McClory announced he intended to yet again remake Thunderball using his ownership of the screenplay. The film was to be titled Warhead 2000 and Dalton was eyed to reprise the character of Bond. However, the film failed to materialise. In 2007 Dalton reflected.

"I was supposed to make one more but it was cancelled because MGM and the film's producers got into a lawsuit which lasted for five years. After that, I didn't want to do it any more."
Timothy Dalton

Gallery[]

James Bond (Timothy Dalton)/Gallery

Trivia[]

  • Bond's passport lists his birthplace as London, England, lists his height as 6'3" (making him the tallest Bond), and gives him a birthdate of November 10, 1948, making him 38 or 39 in The Living Daylights and 40 or 41 in Licence to Kill.
  • Dalton's Bond is the only Bond to have played all his appearances alongside Felix Leiter while as Daniel Craig's version of Bond has only three times with Leiter out of his five planned appearances.
  • Timothy Dalton's likeness was used for Bond for the final time in the 1993 video game James Bond 007: The Duel, (both on the box art and the in-game menu screen) four years after his last film as Bond.
  • Timothy Dalton is the first Bond who wore formal suits more than twice in each of his Bond films. George Lazenby also wore such suits more than twice but he only appeared in one Bond film.
  • Dalton's Bond is the last Bond to smoke cigarettes on screen, lighting two on each film. However, he is not the last to smoke overall since Brosnan's Bond briefly smoked a cigar in Die Another Day.
  • Dalton's Bond is the first one who has never encountered or explicitly mentioned Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his SPECTRE organization. The only other Bond to follow this suit is Pierce Brosnan's version. However, the death of Bond's newly wedded wife Tracy Bond (appeared previously in On Her Majesty's Secret Service) in the hands of Blofeld and Irma Bunt is still referenced in Licence to Kill and GoldenEye, respectively starring Dalton and Brosnan as 007.
  • Dalton's Bond is the first one to headbutt his fighting opponents.
  • Dalton's Bond is the first one to use a palm-print reading firearm. In Licence to Kill, Q provides a reluctant and vengeful Bond with a signature sniper's rifle with such feature, assembled from parts of a sophisticated camera with red laser. The only other Bond to also use the same feature is Daniel Craig, where in Skyfall, Q hands him the Walther PPK/S with a palm-print scanner.
  • Dalton's dark and gritty performance seems to have been the model for Daniel Craig's Bond.
  • Dalton's Bond is the first one who is never seen playing Baccarat in a casino. Instead, he played Blackjack and became the first Bond to do so onscreen. (In the cold open of Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery's Bond is shown punching a SPECTRE agent who is playing a Blackjack in a Cairo casino, but it is unclear whether Bond is also playing one at the moment).

See also[]

External links[]

References[]

  1. Gardner, John [1989]. in Orion: Licence to Kill (in English). Kent: Coronet. ISBN 1409135764. 
  2. James Brady (columnist). "In step with Timothy Dalton", 13 November 1994, p. 24. 
  3. Double-0 Stuntmen. The Man With the Golden Gun (Blu-Ray Edition): MGM Home Entertainment.
  4. English Commentary. The Living Daylights: Blu-ray Edition: MGM Home Entertainment.
  5. Chapman, James (2000). Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films. New York City: Columbia University Press, 247. ISBN 9780231120487. 
  6. (2004) You Only Live Twice. Kent, England: Penguin Books, pp.200-202. ISBN 978-0-1411-8754-9. 
  7. (1967). You Only Live Twice [Motion Picture]. United Artists.
  8. (1977). The Spy Who Loved Me [Motion Picture]. United Artists.
  9. (1967). You Only Live Twice [Motion Picture]. United Artists.
  10. (2006) Octopussy and The Living Daylights. Kent, England: Penguin Books, p.35. ISBN 978-0-1411-8874-4. 
  11. "60 Seconds: Timothy Dalton", An interview in Metro Newspaper by Andrew Williams, 15 February 2007. 
  12. MI6 :: The Home of James Bond.
  13. James Bond 007 :: MI6 - the Home of James Bond.
  14. (1994) GOLDENEYE: 1-94 FIRST DRAFT, pp.25, 34. 

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