Line #24 Film/TheLivingDaylights


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/19_55.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[Music/AHa ♫ Hey driver, where we going?\
3	I swear, my nerves are showing... ♫]]'']]
4
5	->''"Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her."''
6	-->-- '''James Bond'''
7
8	%% The site owner himself has discussed The One With and said they should stay. Please leave them alone.
9	JustForFun/TheOneWith Bond going all ''Film/TheThirdMan''.
10	%% The site owner himself has discussed The One With and said they should stay. Please leave them alone.
11
12	''The Living Daylights'' is the fifteenth ''Film/JamesBond'' film by Creator/EonProductions, the fourth to be directed by Creator/JohnGlen and the first of the two starring Creator/TimothyDalton, premiering on June 29, 1987. The TitleThemeTune was performed by Music/{{Aha}}.
13
14	After a training exercise for Bond and the other 00-Agents in UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}} turns deadly for 004 and a few SAS guards the agents were sparring against, Bond is given his next mission: assist in the defection of a highly ranked Soviet general named Georgi Koskov (Creator/JeroenKrabbe) when he visits the Conservatoire in communist Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.[[note]] (nowadays the post-communist state of UsefulNotes/{{Slovakia}})[[/note]] The defection works out, but Bond suspects something's amiss when the sniper sent to kill Koskov was the pretty cellist (Creator/MaryamDabo) performing at the Conservatoire, who was clearly not a professional with a sniper rifle. Against orders, Bond merely wounds the woman, before helping Koskov get over the border to Austria via one of Q's contraptions.
15
16	Back in London, Koskov reveals that the new head of the KGB, General Pushkin (Creator/JohnRhysDavies), is starting up a ruthless counterintelligence operation called ''Smiert Spionom,'' Russian for "Death to Spies." Koskov fears that it will lead to retaliation from the British or Americans and possibly even lead to nuclear war. However, before further details can be gleaned from him, Koskov is snatched from the safe house he was being kept in, assumedly by the KGB. Bond thinks there's more to the story than meets the eye, but M is convinced enough to order that Pushkin be killed while at a trade convention in Tangiers, especially when 004's body is returned from Gibraltar with a found note reading ''Smiert Spionom.'' Bond accepts the assassination order reluctantly, but decides that there's enough time to investigate things in Bratislava, starting with that pretty cellist...
17
18	With the departure of Creator/RogerMoore and Creator/TimothyDalton taking over the role, the filmmakers decided to continue the trend that had started in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'' and return to a more serious and dangerous Bond, and to a more realistic and espionage atmosphere, with humour and fantasy being toned down.
19
20	''The Living Daylights'' is also [[EndOfAnAge the last film]]:
21
22	* To feature a blonde Bond Girl in a lead role, until Creator/LeaSeydoux as Madeleine Swann in ''Film/{{Spectre}}''.
23	* To feature the Soviet Union as a major player.[[note]]The last Bond film before the dissolution of the Soviet Union was ''Film/LicenceToKill'', but it takes place in the Americas and deals with UsefulNotes/TheWarOnDrugs, and since it's a personal revenge story for Bond, the USSR is not involved. The USSR makes its final Bond appearance in ''Film/GoldenEye'', with a brief prologue set nine years before the main action of the film. Most of the rest of the film is set in UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, and it's a sort of love letter to the "Soviet Union as major players" trope.[[/note]]
24	* To be based off a piece of Creator/IanFleming's original Bond fiction (in this case, [[Literature/OctopussyAndTheLivingDaylights a short story]]), until ''[[Film/CasinoRoyale2006 Casino Royale]]'' was finally made to reboot the franchise with Creator/DanielCraig as Bond.[[note]] The short story ''The Living Daylights'' comprises a good chunk of the first act of the film, and starts the plot rolling, though in the story, the escape attempt takes place in East Berlin, and the escapee is a [=MI6=] agent rather than a defecting Russian general. ''Film/LicenceToKill'' used elements of the novel ''Literature/LiveAndLetDie'', and featured a character from the short story "[[Literature/ForYourEyesOnly The Hildebrand Rarity]]", but was largely an original story.[[/note]]
25	* To feature the legendary Music/JohnBarry's music; he retired from the series after this film.[[note]]The James Bond Theme doesn't count as it is officially credited to Monty Norman.[[/note]]
26	* To receive a PG rating from the MPAA; the ''much'' [[DarkerAndGrittier grittier]] ''Licence to Kill'' would receive a [[MediaNotes/ParentsStronglyCautionedRating PG-13 rating]] and all subsequent films in the series would follow suit.
27	* To feature Walter Gotell and Geoffrey Keen in the recurring roles of KGB head General Gogol and UK Defence Minister Frederick Gray, respectively, after appearing in each film from ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'' through this.
28	* To have drawn artworks as posters. Since the following film, the series has solely used photographic montages of the actors.
29
30	Preceded by ''Film/AViewToAKill'' and followed by ''Film/LicenceToKill''.
31	----
32	!!This film contains examples of:
33	* TheEighties: While not as obvious as ''Film/AViewToAKill'', its still got Music/{{Aha}}, EightiesHair and, of course: the boom box with an integrated [[StuffBlowingUp missile launcher]] is called the Ghetto Blaster.
34	* AchillesPowerCord: Necros attempts to kill the BattleButler at the [=MI6=] safe house with an electric carving knife. The butler is able to hook his foot around the power cord and jerk it out of the plug.
35	* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: Pushkin meets with an arms dealer, Brad Whitaker, in Tangier, informing him that the KGB is cancelling an arms deal previously arranged between Koskov and Whitaker because they paid him 50 million for Western weapons but the money has been sitting in Whitaker's Swiss account for several months.
36	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Koskov finds Bond's insult quite amusing.
37	-->'''Koskov:''' James, for you I have great affection. But we have a saying, "Duty has no sweethearts".\
38	'''Bond:''' We have an old saying too, Georgi, and you're full of it.
39	* AdaptationExpansion: The [[Literature/OctopussyAndTheLivingDaylights original short story]] is only about the sniper mission at the beginning of the movie. It features Bond having to help a British agent escape East Berlin, by eliminating the opposing sniper. [[spoiler:When he recognises her as a beautiful woman he saw earlier, he merely elects to wound her and prevent her killing the agent. M is not happy, as Bond's delay caused by adjusting his aim nearly causes the mission to fail]].
40	* AdaptationalLocationChange: The original short story took place in Berlin. In the film, the relevant scene takes place in Bratislava.
41	* AdaptationalVillainy: In the original short story, the agent (Koskov) is someone Bond must help while the sniper (Kara) is the antagonist. In the film the roles are reversed, with Koskov revealed to be the mastermind, and Kara being an innocent girl he framed.
42	* AgeLift: Moneypenny is noticeably younger than in ''Film/AViewToAKill'', from 58 year old Creator/LoisMaxwell to 25 year old Creator/CarolineBliss.
43	* AintTooProudToBeg: Despite being a formidable henchman for the BigBad, Necros immediately starts pleading with Bond once he sees 007 cutting off his own boot, which is the only thing keeping Necros from falling to his death from the airplane.
44	* AlmightyJanitor: Green Four, the security guard/butler at the [=MI6=] safehouse qualifies. He's the first to discover Necros after he murders the chef; Green Four engages in a brutal, protracted hand-to-hand fight with Necros and very nearly defeats him, before Necros gets a lucky pot-shot in with a frying pan.
45	** Justified, in that all guards at the safehouse are highly trained Military Intelligence agents, as are all the household staff.
46	* AMFMCharacterization:
47	** Bond listens to a {{jazz}} station while driving from Bratislava to Vienna.
48	** Necros listens to "Where Has Everybody Gone?" by the Music/{{Pretenders}} on his walkman.
49	* ArmsDealer: Brad Whitaker used to provide weapons to the Soviets until General Pushkin came down to Tangiers and cut him off. Whitaker subsequently asked Koskov to kill Pushkin to provide coverage for his opium smuggling operations. This arms dealer is seen for a very short portion of the movie, instead acting as an armchair general who likes to play with toy soldiers.
50	* ArtisticLicenceGunSafety: During Q's briefing, the technician testing the Ghetto Blaster rocket launcher prepares to fire it before two other technicians have cleared the firing range. They have to scramble out of the way when they realize that the first technician is about to fire.
51	* ArtisticLicenseHistory[=/=]AlternateHistory: In-universe, Bond notes a flaw in Whitaker's Gettysburg reenactment:
52	-->'''Bond:''' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickett%27s_Charge Pickett's Charge]] was up Cemetery Ridge, not Little Round Top.\
53	'''Whitaker:''' I'm replaying the battle as ''I'' would have fought it!
54	* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
55	** Koskov's uniform is rather accurate, but has royal blue piping. While royal blue was the corps colour of the KGB, a generals' uniform would have common red piping instead.
56	** Koskov also has an impressive ChestOfMedals, including awards like Order of Suvorov that was given to the top level commanders for successfully planned and executed army operations; and the Order of Glory, that was given to soldiers and NCO for exceptional bravery on the battlefield. Needless to say, Koskov didn't fit the criteria.
57	** Justified with Whitaker, who is a self-styled general with phony awards.
58	* ArtisticLicenseMusic: The bullet hole in Kara's cello is there for the below-mentioned BrickJoke, but in RealLife, it would likely ruin the instrument's acoustics and render it unplayable.
59	* AsYouKnow: Done by having Saunders being overtly patronizing towards Bond.
60	-->'''Saunders:''' Now let's understand each other, Bond. General Koskov is a top KGB mastermind. His defection is ''my'' baby. He contacted ''me''. I've planned this out to the last detail.
61	* AtTheOperaTonight: Bond meets his contact Saunders during a concert in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. He is assigned to aid the defection of a KGB officer, General Koskov, covering his escape from the concert hall during the orchestra's intermission.
62	* AutomaticDoorMalfunction: After making contact with James Bond at an amusement park, Saunders gets killed when Necros rigs an automatic door to close extremely fast when the former walks through it.
63	* BadassAdorable: While the adorable and PluckyGirl Kara Milovy (Creator/MaryamDabo) isn't much of an ActionGirl, she still charges head on on her horse to help Bond during the showdown on the Soviet airfield in Afghanistan, inspiring the Mujahideen to do the same, and she also drives a jeep under fire.
64	* BadassBystander: Green Four, a random security guard at the [=MI6=] safe house, gives [[TheDragon Necros]] a ''serious'' fight when he catches him hiding a body, and very nearly wins.
65	** Kamran Shah appears to be a regular bystander in his first appearance, but he turns out to be quite badass indeed.
66	* BalloonOfDoom: In Vienna, [[TheBrute Necros]] is disguised as a balloon salesman at a carnival, where he [[spoiler:kills Saunders with rigged sliding doors]]. He leaves a balloon with the words 'Smiert Spionam' written on it floating next to the body for Bond to find.
67	* BathroomBreakOut: General Koskov ditches his KGB bodyguard/minder via the restroom stall window.
68	* BatmanGambit: General Koskov has a lot on his plate: a phony KGB defection, two fake assassination attempts (one carried out by his girlfriend), a couple of kidnappings, a few ''real'' assassinations, and a weapons-for-opium smuggling operation. All of which would have left [=MI6=] looking like idiots, his rival in the Soviet military dead and discredited, his girlfriend StuffedInTheFridge and himself very, very rich, if it wasn't for that meddling 007....
69	* BattleButler: At the safehouse where Koskov is being debriefed, everyone from gardeners to butlers is shown to be a guard, except the stenographer, who's a stenographer. One of them (callsign Green Four) actually puts up a good fight against Necros.
70	* BeatStillMyHeart: The bad guys successfully transport diamonds across borders, mixed with ice in a medical cooler containing a beating (animal) heart - even in this clinical state, it gets hastily waved through by squicked-out officials.
71	* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Koskov and Whitaker]].
72	* BigBeautifulWoman: Rosika, the Czechoslovak pipeline worker who's actually working for [=MI6=]. Makes [[IHaveBoobsYouMustObey good use of her assets]] to distract the foreman for long enough to enable Bond to ensure that Koskov gets away.
73	* BigDamnHeroes: See under ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind.
74	* BigNo:
75	** The first Double 0 as his rope is cut.
76	** [[spoiler:Necros also utters one just before he falls off the plane to his death.]]
77	* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Notably, Kara ''is'' injured, but the wound is not serious. The rifle itself is also shown to be damaged. Bond later uses his knowledge of the wound (and its source) to get her to trust him. In this case, he justifies wounding as "I only kill professionals. That woman didn't know one end of rifle from another."
78	* BlatantLies: When Bond and Kara are trying to leave Bratislava in his tricked-out car, while he's still trying to keep her from learning he's a British spy, he claims atmospheric interference when she realizes that he's picking up the police band on the car radio, and after cutting a police car in half with a laser claims it must have been suffering from salt corrosion.
79	* BlindIdiotTranslation: The assassin known only by his codename of "Necros". His name is probably meant to mean "death", but actually means "dead", as in the adjective, in Greek. The proper word would be ''Thanatos''. Considering it's literally just one word, this seems like a pretty ''JustForFun/{{Egregious}}'' mistake.
80	* BloodKnight: Brad Whitaker is somewhat of a slight subversion: He's obsessed with warfare and weaponry, his house practically a museum full of the stuff, is the leader of a mercenary company, and calls himself a "soldier". However, he was kicked out of West Point for cheating, and in general is really only bumming around in Tangier.
81	* BondOneLiner: This film has significantly fewer than previous Bond films, in keeping with the shift to a more serious tone. Nonetheless, there are still a few:
82	** "He got the boot." [[spoiler:Necros fell out the back of the open cargo bay door of a plane in flight by Bond cutting the laces of his own shoe, which Necros was hanging on to.]]
83	** "He met his Waterloo." [[spoiler:Bond had set off a small explosion that toppled a statue of the Duke of Wellington onto Whitaker.]]
84	* BondVillainStupidity: {{Averted\|Trope}}. Koskov's whole plan hinges on Bond killing General Pushkin on his say so and his own ability to look like the victim and/or hero. He does miss a good opportunity to kill Bond late in the film, but it's because he thinks sending Bond to jail will be better for his cover - which he'd be right about, if Bond hadn't already outsmarted him a few scenes before.
85	** Played straight, ironically, by Bond himself in the final shootout with Whittaker. Instead of trying to shoot his torso, he wastes all eight of his bullets firing at the shield that Whittaker is using to protect (only) his head.
86	* BrawnHilda: A stocky Czechoslovak woman does a fairly good job at distracting her supervisor while Bond helps Koskov defect to the West.
87	* BrickJoke:
88	** Bond overrides Saunders' plan to smuggle Koskov out in the boot of the car because that's the first place any border guards would think to look. When they reach the border after smuggling Koskov out through a different route, we see a shot of the border guards... checking out the boot of the car. Saunders looks a bit put-out.
89	** In reference to Bond's new ride, Q makes an offhand statement: "We've just winterized it." We find out later what that really means.
90	** During the escape to Austria via Cello case, the actual cello gets struck by a bullet with Bond saying a simple "Sorry" to Kara. In the finale, Kara is seen playing the same cello with special focus on the bullet hole in its woodwork.
91	* BriefAccentImitation: Necros uses this trope to advantage, switching effortlessly when posing as an American jogger, a British delivery driver and a (public school accent) guard, then a FakeRussian accent when doing the actual kidnapping so people will think the KGB is involved.
92	* BriefcaseBlaster: Q showcases a ''rocket launcher'' concealed within a stereo. Q says that it was designed for the CIA and agents assigned to North America, and says it's called "The Ghetto Blaster".
93	* TheBrute: Necros is a very cunning and intelligent example of this.
94	* CallBack:
95	** [[Film/ForYourEyesOnly Bond again identifies raw opium by taste]].
96	** Bond realizes he's been drugged with chloral hydrate, which Red Grant also used to drug Tatiana Romanova in ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove''.
97	** Bond's "and you're full of it" statement [[spoiler:to Koskov]] is similar to the one he gave Scaramanga in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun.''
98	** In ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' Tiger Tanaka remarks that Bond will "get into a car with ''anyone''!" He does it again here.
99	* CallingCard: ''Smiert Spionom,'' which is written near every spy [[spoiler:Koskov]] has assassinated.
100	* TheCameo:
101	** Max the Macaw from ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', now living in the kitchen of [=MI6=]'s country safehouse.
102	** Also General Gogol, now a diplomat, after his role was taken up by the character of General Pushkin. Creator/WalterGotell was (at the time) in poor health.
103	* CatScare: As Bond is investigating 004's body in Gibraltar, not with a cat but with one of the local monkeys that bounds past screeching.
104	* ChairmanOfTheBrawl: Bond smashes a chair over the jailer as he is escaping from the Soviet airbase.
105	* ChangeTheUncomfortableSubject: Bond's reaction to Koskov asking him about the female sniper he just shot. Koskov naturally assumes Bond didn't like killing a woman, when he's actually concealing that fact that he didn't kill her at all.
106	* CharacterDevelopment: Bond refuses to kill someone who isn't a professional killer like himself and states he'll resign if they try and make him.
107	* CharacterWitness: When Bond and Kara are thrown in a prison in Afghanistan, they quickly beat up their guards and escape. On a whim, they free the prisoner in the next cell, who quickly proves to be a valuable ally as [[spoiler:he's a leader of the Afghan Resistance]].
108	* CheckpointCharlie: Bond arranges for a defector to cross the Czechoslovakian border twice — first by being shunted through a pipeline and on the second occasion by WeaponisedCar. And a cello.
109	* ChekhovsGun:
110	** Kara's injury from Bond [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands shooting the rifle out of her hands]]. It allows Bond to find her again by looking for a news report about an injured cellist, and later lets him demonstrate his good will toward her by explaining how he knows about the injury and why she's only injured not dead.
111	** When Pushkin goes to see Whitaker early in the film, Whitaker demonstrates the hidden drawers that pop out at the press of a button to display his sample weapons. During the confrontation at the end of the film, Whitaker distracts Bond by popping the drawers out while Bond is standing right next to one, and then grabs one of the sample weapons out of the nearest drawer and starts shooting at Bond with it.
112	* ChekhovsGunman: The American jogger running past the safe house resurfaces a few minutes later as the assassin Necros.
113	* ChekhovsBoomerang: Kara's Cello. While it becomes useful in the escape to Austria, what is more important is HOW the cello was obtained by Kara as it was originally purchased by Whitaker.
114	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Koskov betrays the KGB, British intelligence, Bond, his lover, and Pushkin. [[ImpliedDeathThreat Pushkin has none of it in the]] {{Denouement}}.
115	* ClassifiedInformation: Saunders runs the old "need to know basis" on Bond; Bond throws it back in his face with his own.
116	* ClickHello: Pushkin arrives at his hotel room for a romantic evening, only to find Bond waiting for him behind the door, gun in hand.
117	* CompanionCube: Kara Milovy's prized instrument is almost a character itself. When Bond and Kara leave Czechoslovakia, he initially didn't want her to bring the cello since lugging it around would be a waste of time and space, but she insisted. But when the pair have to ditch their car, the cello comes in handy in the film's most memorable scene, where Bond and Kara enter Austria by sledding through the mountains in the cello case while being chased by guards. The cello even takes a bullet, and the hole is still there when Kara performs at the end of the movie.
118	-->'''Bond:''' ''[sledding past an Austrian guard post]'' We've nothing to declare!\
119	'''Kara:''' Just a cello! ''[echoes in the background]''
120	* ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination: Bond shoots General Pushkin during a conference, in full view of everybody, including the Russian authorities. Of course, [[StagedShooting that's exactly the point.]]
121	* ConstructionVehicleRampage: In the raid on the Soviet compound, one of the Muhajideen comandeers a front-end loader to smash through the barbed wire fence, using the steel bucket to block gunfire aimed at the Mujahideen troops coming in behind him, and when the Soviet soldier toss grenades, he scoops them up in the bucket and rams the bucket into a sandbagged machine gun emplacement.
122	* ContinuityNod:
123	** Smiert Spionom (SMERSH) makes a reappearance after last being heard in ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove''.
124	** After a rather pompous, self-serving speech from Koskov after he's revealed he's the bad guy, Bond quips that the British have a particular (unstated) saying, "and you're full of it." Presumably this saying also involves [[Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun a certain useful four-letter word that Bond also thought applied to Scaramanga]].
125	* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: From the side, to be exact. General Pushkin arrives out of nowhere and shoots Sergeant Stagg when the latter has Bond at gunpoint after the final climax.
126	* CoolCar: Bond's Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Naturally, it ends up destroyed.
127	* CountingBullets: "You've had your eight, now have my eighty".
128	* CoversAlwaysLie: One of the film's posters shows the gunbarrel with Timothy Dalton aiming at a woman who from behind looks like Maryam D'Abo in a sheer diaphanous white dress, who carries a silenced gun. No such scene appears in the film, and the blonde woman is apparently not supposed to represent Kara Milovy.
129	* CrashingThroughTheHarem: Nearly happens, but Bond stays on the rooftop. However, it being Tangier, the harem girls still get to ogle him from where they're sitting.
130	* CreatorCameo:
131	** Stunt coordinator Paul Weston is the training exercise guard who shoots Bond in the opening sequence.
132	--->''"Hold on, you're dead!"''
133	** Near the end of the film, Music/JohnBarry appears in a cameo as an orchestra conductor.
134	* CurbStompBattle: The fight between [[TheDragon Necros]] and [[BattleButler Green Four]] is an EstablishingCharacterMoment for the former who heavily dominates the fight and ends it with several brutal kicks and hitting the latter with a [[FryingPanOfDoom frying pan]] to the face.
135	** CurbStompCushion: However, Green Four doesn't go down easily and manages to free himself out of several dangerous situations, such as removing the power cord for the electric knife Necros uses against him with his feet or using baking powder as an ImprovisedWeapon when Necros burns his face on the grill.
136	* CuteAndPsycho: One of the female KGB assassins Q pulls up a dossier on [[TheFakeCutie specialises in child impersonation]] and kills with [[KillerTeddyBear explosive teddy bears]].
137	* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to previous Bond movies, at least. Bond as played by Dalton is more grim and cynical than Moore's Bond had been and the plot is comparatively more down to earth, revolving around arms dealing, the opium trade and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, with no super-weapons or the like (although some of Whitaker's advanced pieces of weaponry and body armour might straddle the line).
138	* DeadlyDelivery: Necros disguises himself as a milkman and a balloon salesman. Both times he kills his targets by strangling them with the cords of his headphones. In the case of his milkman role, he also uses ''explosive milk bottles''.
139	* DefectorFromCommieLand: General Koskov, and later Kara Milovy. The former gets the latter (his girlfriend) to pose as a KGB sniper to make his defection look real, with every intention of having her killed by James Bond. Bond notes that she's an amateur and merely shoots the rifle from her hands. [[TitleDrop "I must have scared the living daylights out of her."]]
140	* DeliveryGuyInfiltration: The kidnapping of General Koskov is initiated by Necros who does a KillAndReplace on a milkman to enter the [=MI6=] safehouse. The guard is suspicious enough to search him but finds nothing (as he's got bombs hidden in the milk bottles).
141	* DiabolicalMastermind: [[spoiler:Koskov and Whitaker, a KGB chieftain and a crooked arms dealer respectively, who plan to have Bond murder the former KGB superior to cover up their ring of embezzlement, drug running and diamond smuggling]].
142	* DisneyVillainDeath:
143	** An assassin cuts 004's rock-climbing rope at the start.
144	** Toward the end, Bond tosses Necros out of a plane.
145	* DistractedByTheSexy:
146	** To distract Pushkin's bodyguard after an alarm is sounded, Bond forcibly strips Pushkin's girlfriend to her waist and has her stand topless facing the door as the guard enters. The guard walks in on the now topless woman, allowing Bond to get the drop on him and disable him.
147	** Played for laughs with [[MarshmallowHell Rosika Miklos]] and [[TheSchlubPubSeductionDeduction her boss.]]
148	* DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent: Koskov is a {{downplayed\|Trope}} version of this. By the end of the film, his loyalties have mostly been clarified; he was using the British to eliminate General Pushkin who was about to have him arrested for corruption, but earlier in the film he bounces back and forth.
149	* TheDragon: Necros.
150	* DrivingIntoATruck: A jeep evades pursuers by driving onto the extended rear hatch of a taxiing C-130.
151	* ElegantClassicalMusician: Kara
152	* EndOfAnAge: The last Bond film to feature the Soviet Union as the driving force (''Film/GoldenEye'' is more about how Russia pivots after the bloc collapsed, but features the USSR in the prologue from years before the main action) and have the score composed by Music/JohnBarry (and some would consider the score to be some of his finest work).
153	* EndingTheme: "If There Was a Man" by the Music/{{Pretenders}}.
154	* EnsignNewbie: Saunders is a pretty high-ranking station chief who has become so at a reasonably young age, but when it comes to running Koskov's defection clearly has little clue what he's doing. Bond essentially scraps Saunders' original plans and takes over.
155	* EveryCarIsAPinto: The exploding jeep that went off a cliff. The explosives contained in the rear are on fire.
156	* EveryoneHasStandards: Bond will do a lot of things in pursuit of his duty and to fulfill his orders, [[spoiler:but he won't kill innocent people who clearly aren't part of the spy business. The fact that this one's also a pretty lady clearly doesn't hurt.]] He's also not overly thrilled about helping the Mujahedin [[spoiler:smuggle opium, even if it's going to Soviet cities]].
157	* EveryoneIsArmed: All the servants, kitchen staff and groundskeepers at the [=MI6=] Safe House are armed guards. That doesn't stop Necros from tearing through them, though Green Four gives him some trouble before he's subdued.
158	* EvilPlan: Koskov and Whitaker plan to get ludicrously rich using the profits from a large shipment of opium paid for using diamonds, and to repay the loan from the Russkies they took and are a bit late in returning. As well as pitting the British against the KGB chief who is on to them by framing him for murdering British agents.
159	* FakeAssassination: Bond is ordered to assassinate General Pushkin, the head of the KGB, after Pushkin allegedly instigates a new "death to spies" policy. Bond suspects the policy is bogus and fakes the assassination with Pushkin's help. He's right: Pushkin is being set up by the BigBad.
160	* FakeDefector: General Koskov pretends to defect to the West. Turns out he's playing both sides against the middle and used the defection as an opportunity to get his girlfriend offed by James Bond (who doesn't actually do it and ends up taking off her clothes later in the movie).
161	* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Bond helps Pushkin to fake his death at the former's hands to find out what Koskov and Whitaker are up to. This may have inadvertently saved Pushkin's life as Necros was in the rafters ready to kill him as well.]]
162	* FalseFlagOperation: Koskov and Whitaker [[spoiler:stage what appear to be KGB assassinations of several Western agents, in order to trick [=MI6=] into eliminating the new KGB director for them before he can have them arrested for corruption]].
163	* FalseReassurance:
164	** Played with; when shooing Koskov into the pipeline capsule, Bond offers soothing reassurance about how long their technicians have been working on the device... but then, when Koskov is all strapped in and is about to be locked into the device, mischievously pulls the rug from under him by pointing out that Koskov is the first person to actually use it.
165	** Played straight with the Russian gaoler. "You will not be hanged in the morning. [[BaitAndSwitch You will be shot!]]"
166	* FamousNamedForeigner: Russian Generals Pushkin and Gogol were named after famous Russian authors.
167	* FatalFlaw: [[RenegadeRussian Georgi Koskov]] and his ChronicBackstabbingDisorder. A corrupt and two-timing Russian general, he first backstabs his fellow countrymen by falsely blaming KGB head Pushkin as the mastermind of a plot to kill off American and British spies, knowing that the setup will lead to Pushkin's death, with Bond as the assassin. With Pushkin out of the way, he will then engage in a three-way arms deal with Brad Whitaker and Colonel Feyador in Afghanistan to obtain valuable opium. Once the deal ends, Koskov will return to Russia with arms from the deal that gave them the payoff for the opium, a promise that the defection was an undercover assignment from Pushkin, and with Bond in tow, it's implied that he'll seize control of the KGB. He also fools the British into thinking he's defecting to the West, tries to manipulate Kara Milovy into distrusting Bond, and even tried to pin the blame on Whitaker when all things went south. [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty But by then]], nobody's buying his lies, and Pushkin promptly has him arrested to be sent back to Moscow, where he will be executed for his treachery. He also ''very'' much wanted to be a MagnificentBastard and SmugSnake, but doesn't make the cut.
168	* FerrisWheelDateMoment: Bond bribes the operator to stall the Ferris Wheel to give him and Kara added time alone.
169	* FingertipDrugAnalysis: As in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Bond is able to identify raw opium by taste.
170	* FriendlyEnemy: Bond and Pushkin appear to have, at the very least, a healthy mutual respect for each other. Upon receiving his orders to assassinate Pushkin, Bond protests that he can hardly believe that Pushkin is the murderous hardliner that Koskov has painted him as, only to reluctantly relent when M offers / threatens to send another agent to do the job instead ("If it ''must'' be done, I'll do it."). At the end, Pushkin returns the favour by acting as a BigDamnHero in the final confrontation with Whitaker. This is likely a remnant of the fact that in earlier drafts the target was to be General Gogol, who had appeared in previous Bond movies with such a rapport being established with Bond, but by the time the movie was made his actor was too sick to appear beyond a cameo.
171	* ForeignCussWord: Albeit translated.
172	-->'''Kara:''' You dumb, stubborn, stupid... ''[She beats Bond up with a pillow]'' ''[[GratuitousRussian Zadnyaya chast' loshadi!]]''\
173	'''Bond:''' ''[stops Kara]'' What's that supposed to mean?\
174	'''Kara:''' Back end of horse!\
175	'''Bond:''' Are you calling me a horse's arse?
176	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
177	** Bond tells Saunders to turn off the light when he enters the room he plans to shoot from. When Kara is setting up her shot she leaves the light on exposing herself to any countersniper, an indication that she's an amateur.
178	** After the sniper sequence in Vienna, when told that he disobeyed orders Bond snarls that if M wants him to resign, he'll welcome it. The very next movie, [[Film/LicenceToKill M revokes his licence to kill]].
179	** In the prologue, Bond uses a parachute to exit a Land Rover full of explosives (and a soon-to-be-dead mook) that's been driven off a cliff. Later on, he and Kara use a parachute (plus Jeep) to exit a cargo plane that's run out of fuel and is about to crash.
180	* FruitCart: The jeep chase in the opening sequence includes a moment where the jeep veers off the road and ploughs through a roadside kiosk.
181	* FryingPanOfDoom: Used during the kitchen fight, both a straight example and a variant; a thrown saucepan full of boiling water.
182	* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
183	** When Saunders starts to explain the plan to Bond during the concert, another audience member shushes him.
184	** When Bond arrives in Tangiers to follow Pushkin, he bumps into a pedestrian who is on the very edge of the curb he parks next to, who hastily moves away as Bond honks his horn. It is unknown if this was intentional or not.
185	* GeneralFailure: Brad Whitaker is explicitly mentioned as being such, or rather is mentioned as having failed to achieve any true military rank within the U.S. Armed Forces due to having cheated while studying at West Point. So instead, he resorted to arms smuggling across the world's war-torn regions, making a fortune through his dealings and becoming a self-styled general of sorts, even entering a partnership with the Soviets to supply their war in Afghanistan. However, for all of his fascination with military power, those who know better of his military service rarely hesitate to point out that his rank is in truth self-appointed.
186	* GeniusBruiser: Necros.
187	* GilliganCut:
188	** Bond informs Kara there is absolutely ''no way'' they can take the risk to go back for her cello. Immediate cut to: Bond, sitting in the parked Aston Martin, smoking a cigarette and looking extremely impatient and pissed off as he waits for Kara. He later discovers that it's not an ordinary replaceable cello, but a Stradivarius, making it much more clear why she refused to leave it behind.
189	--->'''Bond:''' Why couldn't you have learned the violin?
190	** Gets a CallBack not long after.
191	--->'''Bond:''' [[GladIThoughtOfIt Glad I insisted]] [[HypocriticalHumor you brought that cello]]!
192	* GivingThemTheStrip: Necros grabs hold of Bond's boot while they are fighting on the cargo net dangling out the back of the plane. Bond gets rid of him by cutting the laces on his boot, causing Necros to fall to his death still clutching the boot.
193	* GladIThoughtOfIt: Bond and Kara are escaping when she insists that they go back for her cello. Bond is adamant that they can't risk it, but she gets her way. Later, when they need an improvised sled, Bond has the temerity to take credit for them bringing it along:
194	-->'''Bond:''' Glad I insisted you brought that cello!
195	* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Bond has ''binocular'' shades. They look a bit odd, though.
196	* GrandRomanticGesture: Bond sneaks off a mission precisely to hear Kara's first concert after she has escaped to the West, and later sneaks into her dressing room in order to surprise her with drinks and a romantic evening.
197	* GroinAttack:
198	** Bond narrowly avoids being shot in the crotch early on in the film, when he's clinging to the top of the Land Rover and the assassin is shooting through the roof at him.
199	** During the fight in the Afghan cell block, Bond kicks his opponent between the legs at one point.
200	* GunAccessories:
201	** Bond uses a Walther [=WA2000=] equipped with a rather large night vision scope and his own hand-loaded ammunition.
202	** Whitaker shows off a collection of firearms with silly Hollywood embellishments such as mini-missile launchers, and in the final confrontation pulls out a Colt Commando carbine fitted with a transparent gun shield.
203	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Although we, thankfully, never see the actual aftermath of it, this is heavily implied to what happened to Saunders after being the victim of a booby-trapped sliding glass door by Necros. Well, in addition to other things.
204	* HappyDance: Koskov's {{Narm}}-inducing dance in a ''fabulous'' sunhat and bathrobe once he learns that he's successfully manipulated the British government into using 007 to kill General Pushkin.
205	* HeroAntagonist: Several and interestingly because of that the reason why Bond doesn't use lethal force against them.
206	** [[spoiler:Pushkin]] and his goons before TheReveal.
207	** On another note, the Czechoslovakian police and army hunting Bond because they think he's a criminal helping a defecting agent.
208	* HeroOfAnotherStory: 008 is said to "obey orders, not instincts", in contrast with the more headstrong Bond. We see two other double-O agents, who just happen to bear a passing resemblance to ex-Bonds Creator/RogerMoore and Creator/GeorgeLazenby, being picked off in a training exercise, which teases the identity of the newly-recast Bond.
209	* HeyWait: As Bond sneaks onto Koskov's plane disguised as one of the workers loading sacks of opium, Necros stops him. The moment is drawn out with tense reaction shots from Bond and also from Kara and Kamran, who are watching from a distance. It turns out Necros had just happened to pick the sack Bond is carrying for a spot check to make sure it's really got opium in; he never even looks at Bond's face. Unfortunately Bond forgets to cover his face with his keffiyeh after dropping off the opium and runs right into Koskov as he's exiting the plane.
210	* HollywoodSilencer: {{Averted}}. Bond can hear the silenced pistol of the assassin in the ActionPrologue from several yards away.
211	* HollywoodTactics:
212	** The training exercise has the Double-0's HALO jumping onto Gibralter in broad daylight, instead of [[DressingAsTheEnemy infiltrating via other means]] like proper spies. Their opponents are the Special Air Service, elite special forces who are [[OddlyOvertrainedSecurity not wasted on mundane guard duties]] (indeed the ''actual'' British army guard reacts more appropriately to the assassin than the SAS trooper).
213	** Naturally [[RuleOfDrama the producers can't resist]] a scene where Mujahideen mounted on horses do a cavalry charge into the middle of a Soviet airbase.
214	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: During the rescue sequence, Bond gets a little help from this trope; his BigBeautifulWoman helper on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain distracts an engineer by unveiling her assets. When last seen, the distracted party is planted face-first in them while the defector escapes.
215	* IfIWantedYouDead: Bond has been sent to assassinate General Pushkin based on information given by Georgi Koskov and the latter's subsequent kidnapping. When Bond confronts Pushkin at gunpoint in his hotel room, Pushkin gives a different side of the story and tells Bond that it all comes down to who he trusts - Koskov, or him.
216	-->'''Bond:''' If I trusted Koskov, we wouldn't be talking.
217	* ImpairmentShot: Bond gets poisoned and the camera collapses to the floor and goes all blurry just as Necros marches in.
218	* ImprovisedWeapon: A whole pile of kitchen implements are appropriated in the fight between Necros and Green Four, including a red hot grill. [[spoiler:The fight ends when Necros smashes Green Four upside the head with a frying pan.]]
219	** Necros' headphone cables he uses to strangle his victims also count.
220	* InadvertentEntranceCue: The bored girl on the yacht expresses her longing for a real man over the phone. Enter 007, by way of a parachute.
221	* InterestingSituationDuel: The fistfight while hanging out the back of the cargo plane. In ''mid-flight''. With a bomb about to go off.
222	* IronicEcho: "Sorry, old man: section five, paragraph eight. Need to know. I'm sure you understand."[[note]]The first time, Saunders delivers this as a rather pompous reply when Bond asks what the escape route for Koskov's defection is. The second time, after Bond has unilaterally scrubbed Saunders's clearly doomed escape route and implemented one of his own, Saunders demands to know what Bond's route is, only to be met with the same response.[[/note]]
223	* JustPlaneWrong: The American C-130 being used as a Soviet transport. At first, one could be forgiven for thinking its one of Whitaker's planes...until you see shots of the control panel and notice the wording is in Cyrillic. And it appears the labels have been taped on. Equally jarring is the presence of an American OV-10 Bronco among the assortment of Soviet aircraft on the airstrip in Afghanistan. A possible explanation could be that Whitaker sold those and they were modified by the Soviets afterwards.
224	* KidnappedByAnAlly: Bond is brought to someone at gunpoint. A villain? No, it's his old friend Felix Leiter, who just wants to ask what's going on. Justified this time, as 007 had just shot a senior KGB official in front of several dozen witnesses and Leiter had no way of knowing it was being staged.
225	* KillAndReplace: Necros strangles a milkman to death and takes his uniform and milk float so he can infiltrate the safehouse.
226	* KitchenChase: One scene involves a full-on fight between a British intelligence {{Redshirt}} known only by his codename (Green Four) and Necros in the kitchen of an [=MI6=] safehouse.
227	* LabcoatOfScienceAndMedicine: Necros infiltrates an SIS safehouse disguised as a milkman. He gets out by hanging a stethoscope around his neck, so with his white clothes he now looks like a doctor evacuating a wounded man.
228	* {{Leitmotif}}:
229	** Necros gets "Where Has Everybody Gone?" by The Pretenders as one. He hears the original song on his walkman while an orchestrated version is heard during his actions scenes.
230	** In addition to his usual Bond theme motif, Bond's action scenes, particularly in Afghanistan, are paired with an orchestral version of the Living Daylights theme.
231	** Scenes that feature Kara use an orchestral version of "If There Was A Man" by the Pretenders.
232	* LingerieScene: Pushkin's mistress is only wearing some panties and stockings after Bond forcefully removes her robe, in order to distract one of Pushkin's guards.
233	* LiteralMetaphor: Bond's pipeline to the West is... an actual gas pipeline.
234	* LosingAShoeInTheStruggle: The final fight between Bond and Necros ends with both of them clinging on the back of a plane, which is flying over an Afghan valley. Necros managed to grab hold of Bond's shoe, but Bond cuts his shoelaces, resulting in Necros getting thrown to his death while holding Bond's shoe.
235	* MajoredInWesternHypocrisy: Bond and Kara are locked up in a Russian jail in Afghanistan next to an unfortunate Afghan peasant scheduled to be shot for getting too close to the base. They help each other escape and when Bond and Kara are nearly captured and killed by the Mujahideen, the Afghan resistance, the peasant speaks up for them... and soon after reveals that he is actually Kamran Shah, the deputy leader of the resistance in the region, and an Oxford educated CulturedBadass.
236	* MarshmallowHell: Rosika does this to a pipeline operator as part of a ShowSomeLeg distraction ploy.
237	* MeaningfulName: Necros' name is from the Greek prefix meaning death.
238	* MilesGloriosus: Koskov implies Whitaker is one of these. Pushkin does more than imply, he goes into extremely unimpressed detail about the multiple ways that Whitaker fails to live up to the image he tries to present.
239	* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Faked sniping attack on a fleeing general → attacks on British agents and an illegal weapons smuggling network in the middle of the war between U.S.S.R. and Afghanistan.
240	* MissedHimByThatMuch: In the workprint cut, Bond, M and Frederick Grey drive past Necros in his milk float just as he arrives at the safe house.
241	* MoodWhiplash: Versus Roger Moore's previous take. A lot of the Moore-era puns and silliness are there, but Dalton's presence generally gives the film a much darker atmosphere.
242	* MoreDakka: After Bond empties his PPK's magazine at Whitaker, who was hiding behind facial body armour, the bad guy says "You've had your eight! Now have my EIGHTY!" Shortly afterwards, he proceeds to unload his assault rifle's magazine on full-auto in Bond's general direction.
243	* TheMountainsOfIllinois: Bond and Kara escape from Bratislava by going over wintery mountains covered in deep snow and frozen lakes and soon after arrive in Vienna where it is apparently late spring. Bratislava actually sits right on the Austrian border and lies in the same Danube plain as Vienna, which is only 60 km away.
244	* MuggedForDisguise: Necros strangles (with his earphones' cable) a milkman to steal his uniform and get into the [=MI6=] safehouse. The milkman isn't the enemy; he just had the right outfit.
245	* MurderousThighs: One female Russian assassin, who looks like a BrawnHilda, is said to murder her targets with her thighs. Moneypenny quips that it sounds like the perfect date for Bond, which given [[Film/GoldenEye what came out eight years later]], it's quite ironic.
246	* MusicalTrigger: The stun-gas key-ring is set off by whistling. {{Justified\|Trope}}, it's disguised as a whistle-activated key-ring finder. It will also respond to a wolf call by exploding.
247	* MythologyGag:
248	** The two other Double-0 agents in the opening teaser resemble Creator/RogerMoore and Creator/GeorgeLazenby.
249	** In [[Literature/JamesBond the books]], Smiert Spionom (SMERSH) were a constant rival to Bond. Their role was mostly assumed by SPECTRE in the film series.
250	** Whitaker, just before letting loose with a volley of weapons fire: "You've had your eight, now have my eighty!", calling back to Bond's final words before shooting Prof. Dent in ''Film/DrNo''.
251	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: During the Mujahideen assault on the airbase, when the guerrillas use a front-end loader to knock down the bathhouse as they plow through the base.
252	* NeutralFemale: Played with. During Bond's fight against the Soviet jail warden Kara just stands there and watches even when Bond gets strangled. However, when the unconcious guard to her feet begins to regain his senses she hits him with a metal bucket, knocking him out again.
253	* NeverTrustATrailer: The blonde girl on the original movie poster (not the picture above featured in this article) is neither Maryam D'abo, nor is she supposed to represent her character from the film (according to the producers). It's all just a big coincidence.
254	* NewspaperThinDisguise: Bond hides behind a newspaper while sitting in his car observing Pushkin leave the trade conference.
255	* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: General Georgi Koskov survives a head-on collision with a plane which is followed by a massive explosion, yet he climbs out of the Jeep he drove with only some minor burn scars on his face. He's implied to have been executed offscreen when he was captured by Pushkin at Whitaker's mansion however.
256	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Jeroen Krabbé as Koskov doesn't sound remotely Russian, choosing to lean more into a British/Dutch accent.
257	* NobodyHereButUsStatues: PlayedWith with Whitaker standing amongst a line of statues of famous historic military figures, initially unresponsive until the camera stops on him for a few seconds. It was more to impress Pushkin than to hide though — it doesn't impress him in the slightest.
258	* ObfuscatingStupidity:
259	** How Koskov deceives Bond and the rest of [=MI6=].
260	** Kamran Shah also does this to fool the Russian prison guards.
261	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Averted with Saunders. He seems to be set up this way at the beginning of the movie, but is far more helpful when he works with Bond again later in the movie, even bending the rules to help him. Since he's an actual spy and not an assassin, his poor performance the first time around can probably be put down to having little previous exposure to Bond's line of work. (And Bond's flexible attitude towards orders, rules, and plans).
262	* OhCrap: Koskov's reaction to Pushkin's "diplomatic bag" line.
263	** Bond's reaction after dealing with Necros and realizes that after leaving Kara at the controls, she's been distracted and the plane is about to fly into a mountain.
264	** Also Bond's reaction after [[DoubleTake fully realizing]] that Whitaker is activating a cannon via remote control during their shoot-out.
265	** A milder version occurs later. After dropping the bomb he intended to use to blow up the plane and the opium shipment before Bond and Kara had to comandeer it for their escape, and successfully aiding the Afghans against the Russians, Bond and Kara settle back in their seats, the battle seemingly over... and then the plane's low fuel sensor goes off.
266	* OutfitDecoy: Combined with VehicleVanish. A KGB agent is watching Kara from across the street as she enters a phone booth. A trolley car rumbles past, blocking his view of the booth. As it passes, he sees a black Aston-Martin driving away, and Kara still in the booth. After watching the booth for a while longer, he gets suspicious and goes and opens the booth. Inside is Kara's hat and coat hanging over her cello case, with her having pulled the switch and jumped into Bond's car while the trolley was passing.
267	* OutsideRide: During the opening sequence, Bond leaps onto the roof of the assassin's getaway vehicle and rides along on top until he manages to cut through the roof and climb down inside.
268	* PaintballEpisode: In the ActionPrologue Double-O Agents try to parachute and infiltrate the British radar station at Gibraltar as part of a war game exercise. SAS troops try to stop them by shooting them with paintballs. One shoots a black-clad figure and chortles, "You're dead!" only for him to draw a silenced pistol and put a bullet in the trooper's heart.
269	* ParachuteInATree: This happens to one of the Double-O agents in the opening sequence training exercise, slowing him down enough for one of the opposing SAS men to reach his landing zone and make him the first "casualty".
270	* PhonyVeteran: 'General' Brad Whitaker. General Pushkin gives a scathing rundown of his actual military record, which begins with expulsion from West Point for cheating and goes down from there.
271	* PistolWhipping: While "kidnapping" Koskov, Necros strikes him hard over the head with his pistol to make it look like he needs medical attention.
272	* PlayingBothSides: Georgi Koskov's plan is to get the British and Soviet intelligence agencies to duke it out while he gets away with his embezzlement of Soviet government funds.
273	* PopTheTyres: While driving his Aston Martin across a frozen lake, an exploding rifle grenade bursts Bond's tyre. He uses the rim as an improvised cutter to cut a large hole in the ice, sinking the vehicle chasing him, then presses a button to deploy some skis and SpikedWheels.
274	* PragmaticAdaptation: In the original story, Bond shoots the rifle from the sniper's hands because he's reluctant to kill a woman. Because [[ValuesDissonance that wouldn't make sense to a contemporary audience]], he refuses to shoot her because she's an obvious amateur instead of the professional KGB sniper he'd been briefed to expect.
275	* PrecisionFStrike:
276	** This was the first Bond film to have the word "fuck" in it, albeit inaudible (Bond is clearly MouthingTheProfanity when trying to talk to Kara from the plane).
277	** Q can be heard muttering "Ah shit" when he hits his head on the Vantage's roof.
278	* PreventTheWar: The villains are provoking the British and Soviets into a confrontation with each other; however, they're not trying to provoke a war, just trick the British into eliminating General Pushkin before he can bring them down. Ironically, they do this by trying to convince the British that he might provoke a world war, being a homicidal maniac who's targeting Western intelligence officers for elimination in a policy that might easily escalate into nuclear war. Bond thinks it's preposterous, but [=MI6=] forces his hand by insisting there will be an assassination, Bond's help or no.
279	* ProductPlacement:
280	** Bond is sent to pack up a food hamper from Harrods. Koskov is delighted, calling Harrods a godsend.
281	** Bond also found the champagne on the list questionable, so he takes the liberty of choosing a Bollinger RD instead, much to M's outrage.
282	** Both the whistle-activated key fob and Bond’s car stereo show off the Phillips logo prominently when they’re onscreen.
283	* ProsceniumReveal: M is apparently in an office briefing the Double-0 section for a training exercise. We then see the agents are dressed in HALO gear and they're standing in the cargo area of an RAF transport aircraft. The loading ramp lowers so the agents can parachute out and M has to rush to stop the papers on his desk from blowing away.
284	* PsychopathicManChild: Brad Whitaker laughs like a child while fighting with Bond. Joe Don Baker called his character a delusional nut who fancied himself a military leader.
285	* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Abstract example during the battle with Whitaker: Bond shoots his 8 bullets at Whitaker, just for all of them to be deflected by Whitaker's body armour. Whitaker then takes out a machine gun and rips apart the room.
286	* PunkInTheTrunk: Saunders plans to smuggle Koskov over the border this way, but Bond overrules him. "That's the first place they'd look." Indeed, Saunders is later seen looking on in exasperation as the border guards search the trunk of his car.
287	* RampJump: Bond performs a car jump (assisted by his car's rocket booster) to escape some pursuing Czech guards, some of whom try and fail to emulate the jump in order to follow him.
288	* RansackedRoom: Bond walks in on Kara Milovy trying to tidy her room, which was thoroughly ransacked by the KGB.
289	* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
290	** Bond was meant to be after General Gogol, the recurring KGB head played by Creator/WalterGotell in every Bond movie since ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''. However, Creator/WalterGotell was ill at the time, and thus unable to commit to the film. So it was written that General Pushkin became head of the KGB as Gogol became a diplomat. By the time Gotell was well enough, he essentially makes a cameo as Gogol in the end.
291	** Timothy Dalton revealed in a 2007 interview that his Bond was not allowed to have too much sex, because his films were released at the height of the AIDS epidemic. To this end, besides the woman in the pre-credits sequence, Kara is the only Bond Girl of the film (and whatever kind of intercourse he had with both happens entirely off-screen).
292	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Pushkin gives a short but brutal one to Whitaker when he tries to appeal to him "from one old soldier to another." Whitaker weakly claims Pushkin is spouting lies that were made up by Whitaker's competitors in black market arms dealing, but it's clear Pushkin has done his homework.
293	-->'''Pushkin:''' Spare me your military pretensions. What army did you serve in? You were expelled from West Point for cheating. A short stint as a mercenary in the Belgian Congo. Later, you worked with various criminal organizations that helped finance your first arms deals.
294	* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: [[JustifiedTrope Justified.]] Bond forces Pushkin's mistress to become this in order to surprise and distract the incoming KGB agent.
295	* RenegadeRussian: Koskov's actions are motivated by a combination of greed and the need to cover up his misappropriation of state funds for personal gain before Pushkin can have him arrested.
296	* RevealingInjury: Bond is able to prove to Kara that he knows she was the sniper, and is therefore working with Koskov, by pulling up her sleeve to reveal the scar she received when [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands the rifle was shot out of her hands]]. Bond knows about the wound because he was the one who gave it to her.
297	* {{Roofhopping}}: Bond makes a rooftop escape from the police in Tangier.
298	* RuleOfPool: In the scene where Koskov is hanging out by Whitaker's pool with a gaggle of young women, one of the young women winds up getting pushed into the pool.
299	* SatchelCharge: In order to foil Koskov's and Whitaker's Evil Plan, Bond, with the help of his Mujahideen allies, attempts to plant a satchel charge disguised as a bag of opium onto Koskov's cargo plane, which is carrying the opium he intends to use to make millions of dollars in profit. Ultimately, thanks to circumstances beyond the heroes' control, Bond instead uses it as an Improvised Weapon against an important bridge that Koskov's forces were using to rout the Mujahideen.
300	* TheSchlubPubSeductionDeduction: A humorous scene involves Bond enlisting the aid of a husky Slav woman, Rosika Miklos, who works on the Trans-Siberian pipeline he's using to smuggle General Koskov across the border from Czechoslovakia to Austria. Her role is to distract the on-duty technician, which she accomplishes by unzipping her jumpsuit and shoving the man's face into her generous bosom. Once Bond is safely away and the technician's board stops lighting up like a Christmas tree with the travel capsule passing through the pipeline, Rosika throws the technician back and slaps him soundly across the face, snapping, "What kind of girl do you think I am?!"
301	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: The reason why Bond didn't kill the female sniper (Kara), although Saunders and M think it's because Bond WouldntHitAGirl.
302	-->'''Bond:''' Stuff my orders, I only kill professionals. That girl didn't know one end of a rifle from the other.
303	* SealedWithAKiss: It's a ''Bond'' film, so of course it ends with an "Oh, ''James''..."
304	* SenselessViolins:
305	** Kara Milovy conceals a sniper rifle in her cello case. It also comes in handy as a makeshift sled.
306	** This is also the movie where Q creates the "Ghetto Blaster" —- a rocket launcher disguised as a boom box.
307	--->'''Q:''' It's something we're making for the Americans.
308	* {{Sexophone}}: Bond hitches a ride with some attractive CIA agents who take him to Felix Leiter after pretending to kidnap him. Cue the sexy sax.
309	* ShamefulStrip:
310	** After Bond has confronted Pushkin, an alarm is sounded, and Bond forces Pushkin's girlfriend Kata to take her top off, but not because he has anything against her — he has her face the door so that when a bodyguard charges in, he's distracted by the now-topless girl, so he can ambush the guard. (Once he does that, he throws her a towel and tells her to lock herself in the bathroom so he and Pushkin can have words.)
311	** Later in the movie, a prison guard orders Kara to strip (after saying he hasn't had a female prisoner in a long time) but Bond intervenes before he can force her to do so.
312	* ShouldersUpNudity: Bond rips the top off General Pushkin's mistress to distract a bodyguard entering the room. The bodyguard's POV is shown as a shoulders-up shot of the mistress. This is followed by a ToplessnessFromTheBack shot to imply her naked chest without actually showing it, although the viewer does get to see some SideBoob.
313	* ShoutOut:
314	** Pushkin, like his predecessor Gogol, was named after a famous 19th Century Russian novelist.
315	** Two to ''Film/TheThirdMan'' (on which Creator/JohnGlen had worked as assistant sound editor), also set in Vienna: Bond and Kara ride on the Ferris wheel in the Prater, and just before, Necros (posing as a balloon salesman) asks Bond "Ballon, mein Herr?", words spoken by an insistent elderly man to Sgt Paine in the older film. Sgt Paine is played by none other than Creator/BernardLee, the original M.
316	* ShowSomeLeg:
317	** Bond, knowing that a guard is coming he turns to a girl, tears her bathrobe off as she screams, and then has her face the door, distracting the guard for a few seconds when he enters.
318	** Played with in that instead of the usual slim gorgeous Bond Girl, a [[BrawnHilda husky Slavic woman]] provides the distraction via MarshmallowHell so Koskov can defect.
319	* ShrineToSelf: Brad Whitaker has had waxwork figures of himself dressed as various military leaders dotted around his mansion. Including one of himself as Adolf Hitler. Needless to say, Pushkin is visibly unimpressed by this.
320	* SkeletonKey: Bond has a set of these helpfully provided by Q. He uses it to escape out of a pair of handcuffs.
321	* SlippingAMickey: Kara gives James Bond a martini laced with chloral hydrate.
322	* SmugSnake:
323	** [[spoiler:General Koskov, an effective and rather affable villain who so very much wants to be a MagnificentBastard, but doesn't quite make it. In his favour, though, he does come equipped with one of the best {{Evil Plan}}s in Bond movie history. Against him, however, is his rather goofy HappyDance when things are going his way.]]
324	** Whitaker is a better example, priding himself as a military genius, even though he's a disgraced student of West Point.
325	* SniperDuel: The film opens with one, but Bond quickly realises that the girl on the other side isn't a sniper at all - barely knowing one end of a rifle from the other - and refuses to kill her. He instead shoots the rifle out of her hands.
326	* SouthernFriedGenius: Brad Whitaker is something of a whiz at both history and military technology.
327	* SuspiciousSpending: Koskov's luxury tastes are already noticeable when Bond brings him some foods and liquor at the safehouse but the fact [[spoiler:he bought a Stradivarius cello to Kara is definitely abnormal. This is the lead that allows Bond to find out about his ties with Whitaker.]]
328	** [[spoiler:Before his defection, he was about to be arrested for "misusing state funds".]]
329	* SpannerInTheWorks: Happens a few times with Koskov and Whitaker's plan.
330	** First, they figured Bond would kill Kara to better sell Koskov's "defection." They didn't count on Bond recognizing the girl was an amateur and spare her life. Had he killed her they would have won.
331	** Then, they figure the British will kill Pushkin easily, not considering Bond, suspecting something up, would cook up the fake shooting.
332	** But then Bond is hit with it as he doesn't expect Kara to tell Koskov about his involvement and get him captured.
333	* SpikedWheels: Bond uses a LaserCutter in the same spot on his Aston Martin [=V8=] Vantage, which has the effect of cutting the passenger compartment of a pursuing Czechoslovakian police Lada 1500 off from its chassis. If that wasn't enough, the Vantage's tyres also have retractable spikes for grip on snow and ice.
334	* StagedShooting: Bond's fake assassination of General Pushkin, although what is really happening is hinted at beforehand and it is likely that the audience is not supposed to be fooled.
335	* StockScream:
336	** A butchered Wilhelm Scream can be heard when one of Koskov's mooks is about to be blown up after his flaming van falls off a cliff in Gibraltar near the start of the film.
337	** It's faint, but you can hear the Wilhelm Scream on the outside after the third bottle bomb goes off.
338	** Another faint and butchered Wilhelm Scream is heard near the end when Necros falls to his death from the C-130 plane. For now at least, this remains the last use of James Bond's variant of the Wilhelm Scream.
339	* StockingFiller: Worn by Pushkin's mistress. Bond rips her dress off to provide a distraction when Pushkin's bodyguard crashes into the room and it does the job quite nicely.
340	* StukaScream: The C-130 Hercules makes this sound just before crashing at the end after Bond and Kara eject from it in a jeep.
341	* SueDonym: When the villains are taking the drugged Bond out of the country disguised as a patient in a coma, they show the border officials documentation claiming that his name is "Jerzy Bondov".
342	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: General Pushkin replaces General Gogol as head of the KGB, and fills the same FriendlyEnemy role as his predecessor. Both have to deal with {{renegade\|Russian}} Russian generals, and both have mistresses in private. Indeed, in the initial draft, Gogol was supposed to fill Pushkin's role in the story. This was because Walter Gotel's health precluded him from playing a major part in the film, though he still appeared in a cameo as a retired-from-the-KGB Gogol.
343	* SwissBankAccount: Whitaker has one that the money for the Russian arms deal was paid into. Pushkin demonstrates that he knows what money has moved in and out of it, so either it isn't one of the famous Secret Swiss Bank Accounts or Pushkin's investigators are just that good.
344	* SwissCheeseSecurity: An enemy agent walks through the front gate of the [=MI6=] safehouse by pretending to be a substitute milkman. The gate guard makes no attempt to verify his story, arrange an escort or investigate the interrupted call of another guard who gets in a fight with said agent. Later he succeeds in kidnapping defected KGB agent Koskov. The fact that [[spoiler:Koskov wasn't really defecting]] doesn't excuse the lax security. The incident is subsequently mentioned to have made [=MI6=] the laughing stock of the international intelligence community.
345	* TaeKwonDoor: Saunders is killed when Necros uses a small explosive charge to propel a sliding glass door into him at lethal velocity.
346	* TakeThat: A debatable example; the other two Double-0 agents in the pre-credits teaser resemble Creator/RogerMoore and Creator/GeorgeLazenby. The Moore look-alike simply gets hit with a couple of paintballs to be taken out of the war games, but the Lazenby expy gets dropped off a cliff to his death. Given Lazenby's infamous bridge-burning departure from the franchise after [[Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService only one movie]], you can't help but wonder...
347	* TamerAndChaster: While still there, the {{Fanservice}} moments are drastically reduced in comparison to the earlier films with no onscreen sex scenes and a main [[GirlOfTheWeek Bond Girl]] that's not sexualized.
348	* TemptingFate:
349	** "That it, mate. You're ''dead''." Note, this is said by a guard who thinks the real assassin is involved in the paintball test mission.
350	** Saunders, when he agrees to bend the rules to help Bond, remarks that the worst that can happen is that he loses his pension over it. Instead, he winds up dead. Although, to be fair, there's a good chance he would have been on Necros' hit list in any case.
351	* TelevisionGeography:
352	** The landscape of the Austrian-Slovak border is wildly inaccurate, but justified by RuleOfCool because of HOW it was crossed.
353	** Earlier in the film, Bond evacuates Koskov from Bratislava to the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasometer,_Vienna Gasometer of Vienna]] via pipeline, from where he's packed into a Harrier jet bound for England, while the Czechoslovak border guards watch on helplessly. While Bratislava and Vienna are remarkably close to each other (60 kilometres, or 37 miles), the Gasometer can't actually be seen from anywhere in Czechoslovakia.
354	* ThisIsMynameOnForeign: The false Soviet passport Koskov and Whitaker to smuggle James Bond out of Tangier bears the name "Jerzy Bondov".
355	* ThrowEmToTheWolves: James Bond hands General Koskov over to the Russians he defected from originally.
356	-->'''Pushkin:''' Send him back to Moscow. [beat] In the diplomatic bag.
357	* TitleDrop: Bond about shooting Kara's sniper rifle: "It must have scared the living daylights out of her."
358	* TookALevelInBadass: Kara, who takes it upon herself to rescue Bond from the Soviet airbase when Kamran initially says the risk in attacking is too great.
359	* TranquilFury: Bond is beyond angry after [[spoiler: Saunders']] demise but besides destroying the "Smiert spionem" balloon he keeps his composure. Immediately afterwards when Kara asks for Koskov's whereabouts and if they can stay longer in Vienna Bond rudely and bluntly dismisses her request without raising his voice.
360	* TrojanAmbulance: A variant involving an air ambulance. After infiltrating the [=MI6=] safehouse by disguising himself as a milkman, Necros radios in a report of a major gas leak within the building. This causes security to order an immediate evacuation. In the confusion, he abducts Koskov and -- changing his disguise to a doctor by taking off his apron and cap and placing a stethoscope round his neck -- he takes him out on to the lawn. A helicopter marked with medical insignia lands and Necros loads Koskov on board and they fly out right under the eyes of [=MI6=].
361	* TruthInTelevision: Bond hesitates to assassinate General Pushkin, head of the KGB, because he doesn't believe Pushkin would do something like resurrect the Smiert Spionom assassination program. This is, for the most part, how professional spy agencies really work. You can hurt the traitors within you, but you generally leave the opposition's case officers alone.
362	* TubeTravel: Koskov is smuggled from Czechoslovakia to Austria this way, in a capsule shuttled through a gas pipeline across the border.
363	* VehicleVanish: A KGB agent has Kara under surveillance. He watches her enter a phone booth, then, after a streetcar lumbers by between them, a black Aston-Martin parked nearby drives off. It takes the agent a short while to realize she'd [[SleepingDummy put her hat and coat over a cello case]] in the booth and gotten away with Bond in the car.
364	* VillainousFriendship: General Koskov and Colonel Feyador.
365	* VillainsOutShopping: One scene shows [[TheDragon Necros]] and [[BigBad Koskov]] enjoying their time at a pool only to soon have a talk with [[BigBadDuumvirate Whitaker]] who's eating a lobster meanwhile.
366	* VillainSong: Although he doesn't sing it himself, Necros gets "Where Has Everybody Gone?" It's always playing on his Walkman when he's about to strangle people with the headphone wires. And his {{Leitmotif}} is the instrumental version of the song. The song fulfills the criteria of the VillainSong, in that while the BigBad is a fairly low-key SmugSnake, Necros is the main physical danger to Bond throughout the movie, manages to get away with a surprising amount of successful assassinations for a Bond Villain, and gets a spectacular, over-the-top final fight/death scene.
367	* VisualPun:
368	** [=MI6=] has a pipeline to the West. No, ''really'', an actual pipeline. That was initially built by the Russians.
369	** Q shows off a boom box with an integrated missile launcher. "Something we're making for the Americans," he quips. "It's called a ''ghetto blaster''."
370	* WakingUpElsewhere: Bond is drugged in Tangier and wakes up on a plane bound for Afghanistan.
371	* WarForFunAndProfit: [[spoiler:Koskov and Whitaker are trading diamonds to the Afghans for opium. The Afghans use the diamonds to buy weapons, and then Whitaker sells the opium and uses some of the profits to buy guns that Koskov purchases for the Russian Army. Since the diamonds were purchased using the down payment Koskov paid for the guns the Russians are getting, they're essentially trying to arm both sides on the USSR's dime and profit immensely from it.]]
372	* WatchThePaintJob: When Bond checks out the latest CoolCar from Q Branch, Q says to be careful with it, as it'd just been repainted. The car is inevitably destroyed.
373	* WeaponizedCar: Bond's [[CoolCar Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante]].
374	* WeHardlyKnewYe: 002 and 004; the former is outed from the training run almost immediately and not seen again. The latter is murdered by an assassin shortly thereafter.
375	* WhatTheHellHero: Bond lashes out at Kamran Shah for drug dealing. His weak response is Russians doing drugs or shooting Russians, what's the difference?[[note]]There's a major difference, of course, since not all Russians are soldiers, and drug addiction is long-lasting and affects more than just the user.[[/note]]
376	* WhereItAllBegan: The film begins in Gibraltar and after much business in Czechoslovakia, Austria, England, Afghanistan and Pakistan ends in Tangier, just three dozen miles southwest.
377	* WholePlotReference:
378	** To ''Film/TheThirdMan'' (you know, an Anglo-Saxon macho falls in love with a Bohemian performer and escapee who is trailed by the KGB and both then roam Vienna and especially the Great Ferris Wheel on the Wurstelprater, and [[spoiler:the supposed best friend and most trusted ally turns out to be anything but]] ''[[spoiler:unavailable]]''. [[spoiler:[[BigBadFriend Oh yeah, and he coldly betrayed his girlfriend — the same one who ended up with the protagonist - by delivering her to the Soviets because she knew too much]]]]) Right down to 'Balloon, Mein Herr'. Not a coincidence — director John Glen's first job on a film was on ''Film/TheThirdMan'', and he explicitly mentions adding various style and plot references in the DVD commentary.
379	** The film seems to reuse a lot of the elements of ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''. The plot moves along through the use of two 00-agents (both of whom are eliminated at some point); is set at one point in Eastern Europe, then crosses the Iron Curtain (Czechoslovakia to Austria for this film, East Berlin to West Berlin for that); involves a BigBad who in both films is a rogue Russian general, and uses a SmugSnake to further his ultimate goals. Both films have the reasonable head of the KGB (Gogol in ''Octopussy'' and Pushkin in ''The Living Daylights'') trying to preserve the Status Quo against these rogue elements. Smuggling is an activity conducted/mentioned in both films. Both films have TheDragon played as KGB agents who murder Bond's ally. In this film Saunders gets chopped up by a glass door, in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' Vijay gets chopped up by the Saw/Yo-Yo thingee. Both films wind up in or near Afghanistan and both films end with a climactic air battle with Bond disposing of TheDragon using the trope of a DisneyVillainDeath. Bond and the BondGirl escape from the aforementioned plane at the last moment before it crashes in both films.
380	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], because Koskov needs Bond alive for his story once he accomplishes his plan.
381	* WickedCultured: General Koskov enjoys classical music and luxuries like high-end caviar and champagne. Necros though likes cheesy pop music.
382	* WinHerAPrize: When they are at the Wurstelprater amusement park in Vienna, Bond easily wins a big plush at a shooting gallery with his aiming skills and gives it to Kara.
383	* WorthyOpponent: Central to the plot. Bond has dealt with General Pushkin before and respects him as a dangerous but professional opponent. Because of this, he is dubious of Koskov's portrayal of Pushkin as a KnightTemplar who's declared war on the Western intelligence services. [[spoiler:Correctly, as it turns out]].
384	* WouldntHitAGirl: Played straight in the original story, but as Bond has averted this trope in past movies it's made a JustifiedTrope. In the movie, Bond is accused of this after his decision to not actually shoot the sniper ''apparently'' risks the defection. Bond counters that [[WouldHitAGirl it's not beautiful women that's the problem]], it's [[WouldNotShootACivilian people who aren't part of the spy business]]. Bond could see from the way she was handling the gun that she ''wasn't'' experienced with a rifle, and so couldn't be a KGB sniper.
385	* WrenchWhack: Used for a BaitAndSwitch. Rosika tells James Bond she's going to take care of the supervisor while hefting her wrench significantly, but she uses MarshmallowHell tactics instead.
386	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Whitaker freely offers to give Koskov to Bond once he receives the opium shipment, only to learn it was destroyed.

Context Film / TheLivingDaylights