History Awesome / TheLivingDaylights

* Bond having a fistfight with [[TheDragon Necros]] while hanging out the back of a cargo plane in midflight. ''While a time bomb is counting down.'' Yikes.

* Kamran Shah and his followers' [[BigDamnHeroes all-out assault on the Soviet airbase]] would be awesome... except that they're [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of ''[[LaResistance the Taliban]]''. How... very awkward.
** Except not. The Taliban weren't militarily active until the early 1990s.
*** The Taliban are an offshoot of the Mujahideen from the movie, and the two groups were at odds in the 90s - so much so that the remaining Mujahideen groups allied themselves with the US to get rid of the Taliban. So yeah, unfortunate, but not as bad as you might think.
*** The Taliban did not exist until 1994. The Mujahadeen can hardly be expies.

* The Gilbraltar training exercise that opens the film. One of the most action-packed openings of a Bond movie ever (and one of the few to directly tie into the plot of the movie), culminating in Bond driving an explosives-laden Land Rover off the mountainside (with screaming Mook left inside), [[OutRunTheFireBall parachuting out before it explodes]], and then landing his parachute on top of a passing yacht where a bored sexy heiress yearning to bump into a "Real Man" is waiting with a chilled bottle of champagne.

* The fact that Creator/TimothyDalton did some of his own stunts (hanging onto the roof of a truck, sledging down on a cello case, etc).

* [[TheDragon Necros]] successfully infiltrates an [=MI5=] safehouse by dressing up as a milkman. He proceeds to have a ''brutal'' fight with an [=MI5=] RedShirt, then uses a radio handset, adjusting his voice subtly, to warn everybody outside of a (false) gas leak. With the help of milk bottle grenades, he effortlessly kidnaps the target and escapes in plain sight by slightly changing his outfit to resemble a paramedic. All while his theme music triumphantly blares in the background. Magnificent.

*** Before that, during the prison fight, Kara mostly hangs (which is sensible given she's been firmly established as a non-combatant) back from the fight until she notices one guard knocked out early stir back to consciousness... at which point she tears off his helmet and whacks him upside the head with a steel bucket sending him back to la-la land and proving that she is not, in fact, a NeutralFemale, just one who can pick her battles.

* The Gilbraltar training exercise that opens the film. One of the most action-packed openings of a Bond movie ever (and of the few to directly tie into the plot of the movie), culminating in Bond driving an explosives-laden Land Rover off the mountainside (with screaming Mook left inside), [[OutRunTheFireBall parachuting out before it explodes]], and then landing his parachute on top of a passing yacht where a bored sexy heiress yearning to bump into a "Real Man" is waiting with a chilled bottle of champagne.

** The [[CoolCar Aston Martin V8]] that Bond drives in this film is awesome in a meta sense as well as its general appearance - it was the first Aston Martin that Bond had driven on screen since Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService. Also, the original car - not the "winterised" version - was owned by the man who secured the new endorsement deal: Victor Gauntlett, then-CEO of Aston Martin Lagonda.

** That RedShirt himself is a Crowning Moment Of Awesome. A somewhat unimposing-looking, skinny middle-aged chap (presumably played by a veteran stuntman) who nonetheless almost succeeds in fighting the much younger, bigger and stronger TheDragon to a standstill. Hell, from the looks of things, Necros didn't even manage to kill the guy. Give that guy his own movie series!

* [[TheDragon Necros]] successfully infiltrates an [=MI5=] safehouse by dressing up as a milkman. He proceeds to have a ''brutal'' fight with an [=MI5=] RedShirt, then uses a radio handset, adjusting his voice subtly, to warn everybody outside of a (false) gas leak. With the help of milk bottle grenades, he effortlessly kidnaps the target and escapes in plain sight by slightly changing his outfit to resemble a paramedic. Magnificent. While his theme music triumphantly blares in the background.

** The [[CoolCar Aston Martin V8]] that Bond drives in this film is awesome in a meta sense as well as its general appearance - it was the first Aston Martin that Bond had driven on screen since Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService.

* Pushkin gets one of his own at the end, when he tells Koskov he's going to be sent back to Russia. Koskov is pleased, til Pushkin growls, "[[DeadlyEuphemish In the diplomatic bag.]]"

* Pushkin gets one of his own at the end, when he tells Koskov he's going to be sent back to Russia. Koskov is pleased, til Pushkin growls, "In a diplomatic bag."

* Bond and Kara crossing the Austrian border in a ''cello case''.

** The [[CoolCar Aston Martin V8]] that Bond drives in this film is awesome in a meta sense as well as its general appearance - it was the first Aston Martin that Bond had driven on screen since Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService.

* The CarChase. Every time a Bond film does a gadget-laden car chase right, it is awesome. This is one of those times.

* Pushkin gets one of his own at the end, when he tells Koskov he's going to be sent back to Russia. Koskov is pleased, til Pushkin growls, "In a diplomatic bag."

* The Gilbraltar training exercise that opens the film. One of the most action-packed openings of a Bond movie ever (and of the few to directly tie into the plot of the movie), culminating in Bond driving an explosives-laden Land Rover off the mountainside (with screaming Mook left inside), [[BeyondTheImpossible parachuting out before it explodes]], and then landing his parachute on top of a passing yacht where a bored sexy heiress yearning to bump into a "Real Man" is waiting with a chilled bottle of champagne.

** Made even better by the fact that it's only one part of one of the best {{EvilPlan}}s in Bond movie history.

** That RedShirt himself is a Crowning Moment Of Awesome. A somewhat unimposing-looking, skinny middle-aged chap (presumably played by a veteran stuntman) who nonetheless almost succeeds in fighting the much younger, bigger and stronger TheDragon to a standstill. Give that guy his own movie series!

** Made even better by the fact that it's only one part of one of the best [[XanatosGambit Xanatos Gambits]] in Bond movie history.

* Necros's final battle against Bond.

* Bond having a fistfight with TheDragon while hanging out the back of a cargo plane in midflight. ''While a time bomb is counting down.'' Yikes.

* [[TheDragon Necros]]'s "kidnapping" of Koskov.

* Both played straight and averted, thanks to HarsherInHindsight. Bond and Kara crossing the Austrian border in a ''cello case'', [[TheDragon Necros]]'s "kidnapping" of Koskov and his final battle against Bond are made of undisputed win. Kamran Shah and his followers' [[BigDamnHeroes all-out assault on the Soviet airbase]] would be awesome... except that they're [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of ''[[LaResistance the Taliban]]''. How... very awkward.

** The Gilbraltar training exercise that opens the film. One of the most action-packed openings of a Bond movie ever (and of the few to directly tie into the plot of the movie), culminating in Bond driving an explosives-laden Land Rover off the mountainside (with screaming Mook left inside), [[BeyondTheImpossible parachuting out before it explodes]], and then landing his parachute on top of a passing yacht where a bored sexy heiress yearning to bump into a "Real Man" is waiting with a chilled bottle of champagne.

** Pushkin gets one of his own at the end, when he tells Koskov he's going to be sent back to Russia. Koskov is pleased, til Pushkin growls, "In a diplomatic bag."