History Film / TheLivingDaylights

* 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.

* BadassBystander: Kamran Shah appears to be one of these as well during his first appearance, but he turns out to be quite important indeed.

* 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.

** Necros gets "Where Has Everybody Gone?" by The Pretenders as one. It's most notable in the music for the final fight between him and Bond.

* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Bond forces Pushkin's mistress to become this in order to surprise and distract the incoming KGB agent.

** 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 which causes complications.

* CoolGuns:
** Bond's cool but unusual [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Walther_WA_2000 Walther WA 2000]]. Only 176 were ever made.
*** Notably, an actual [=WA2000=] seems to have been used as a prop for close-ups, as the Walther logo is very prominent. Which makes sense, given that James Bond's use of the Walther PPK is essentially the best marketing a firearms maker can hope for.
** Brad Whitaker briefly uses a Mini-Uzi.

* TranquilFury: Bond is beyond angry after [[Saunders']] demise but besides destroying the "Smiert spionem" balloon he keeps his composure. When Kara asks for Koskov's whereabouts and if they can stay longer in Vienna Bond rudely dismisses her request without raising his voice.

* BondVillainStupidity: {{Averted|Trope}}. Koskov's whole plan hinges on Bond killing Genera 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.

* 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]].

* ArtisticLicenceHistory[=/=]AlternateHistory: In-universe, Bond notes a flaw in Whitaker's Gettysburg reenactment:

* ArtisticLicenceMilitary:

** 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 execptional bravery on the battlefield. Needless to say, Koskov didn't fit the criteria.

* [[ArtisticLicenceMusic Artistic Licence – Music]]: 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.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler: Koskov and Whitaker]].

** [[spoiler: Necros also utters one just before he falls off the plane to his death.]]

** "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.]]

** Bond's "and you're full of it" statement [[spoiler: to Koskov]] is similar to the one he gave Scaramanga in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun.''

* EveryoneHasStandards: Bond will do a lot of things in pursuit of his duty and to fulfil 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]].

* 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.]]

-->'''Kara:''' You dumb, stubborn, stupid... ''[She beats Bond up with a pillow]'' ''[[GratuitousRussian Zadnyaya chast' loshadi!]]''
-->'''Bond:''' ''[stops Kara]'' What's that supposed to mean?
-->'''Kara:''' Back end of horse!
-->'''Bond:''' Are you calling me a horse's arse?

--->'''Q''': It's something we're making for the Americans.

* 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.

** 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's hit list in any case.

* 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.]]

* 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.

* 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.

** Bond narrowly avoids being shot in the crotch early on in the film.

* IResembleThatRemark: This film has this exchange:
-->'''Kara:''' You dumb, stubborn, stupid... ''[She beats Bond up with a pillow]'' ''[[GratuitousRussian Zadnyaya chast' loshadi!]]''
-->'''Bond:''' ''[stops Kara]'' What's that supposed to mean?
-->'''Kara:''' Back end of horse!
-->'''Bond:''' Are you calling me a horse's arse?

* PaintballEpisode: In the opening 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.

** This was the first Bond film to have the word "fuck" in it, albeit inaudible (Bond is clearly mouthing it when trying to talk to Kara from the plane).

* 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.

* To receive a PG rating from the MPAA; the ''much'' [[DarkerAndGrittier grittier]] ''Licence to Kill'' would receive a [[UsefulNotes/ParentsStronglyCautionedRating PG-13 rating]] and all subsequent films in the series would follow suit.