FAQ for
Licence to Kill (1989) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Licence to Kill can be found here.

Licence to Kill is the 16th film in the EON Bond franchise and the second and last to feature Timothy Dalton as James Bond, 007.

All of the James Bond movies from 1962 until 1990, and again from 2006 onward, are based, in some part, upon novels or stories by British author Ian Fleming [1908-1964]. Although Licence to Kill is the first Bond film not to take its title or overall storyline from an original James Bond story, there are some elements of Fleming's works in the movie. The scenes with Felix Leiter (David Hedison) being fed to a shark and Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) and his minions hiding smuggled drugs inside fish tanks were taken from the original novel of Live And Let Die (1954). In the book, however, Leiter loses his arm as well as parts of his leg, and in subsequent books, he has a prosthesis. Also, in the original novel the villain is smuggling recovered pirate treasure instead of drugs. The character of Milton Krest (Anthony Zerbe) and his yacht the Wavekrest was featured in "The Hildebrand Rarity", a short story in For Your Eyes Only (1960), a collection of five James Bond short stories. Krest's weapon of choice - a stingray tail used as a whip - was given to the film's villain, Sanchez. The remainder of the film is from an original screenplay crafted by American screenwriters Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum. The screenplay was subsequently novelized by John Gardner.

The title song, Licence to Kill, is performed by American soul singer Gladys Knight. The song that plays during the closing credits is If You Asked Me To, performed by American R&B singer Patti LaBelle.

The movie starts with Bond, Felix Leiter, and Sharkey (Frank McRae) driving across Hwy 1 from the Florida mainland to the West Keys where Bond is going to be best man at Felix's wedding to Della Churchill (Priscilla Barnes). After Felix is severely wounded by drug runner Franz Sanchez, Bond vows to avenge him. His vendetta takes him to the Bahamas, first to Cay Sal Bank where he boards the Wavekrest looking for Sanchez, then to the Barrelhead Bar on the island of Bimini where he links up with Felix's informant Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell). From there, Bond and Pam travel to the fictitious Isthmus City (said to be patterned after Panama) where they wreck havoc on Sanchez's drug trade.

Earlier in the movie, during the wedding scenes, Felix asks Bond to hand him Della's framed photo. As Bond watches, Felix slips the disk behind it.

Bond and Sharkey visit every shipping firm in the Keys. At the firm run by Milton Krest, he notices flowers from Felix's wedding lying on the floor.

At the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Bond married Tracy Di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg), but she was shot by Blofeld as they were driving along the highway on their way to their honeymoon.

Felix Leiter, who once worked for the CIA, now works for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a component of the US Department of Justice.

The Olympatec Meditation Institute (OMI), a cover for Sanchez's cocaine manufacturing plant.

Bond and Pam escape from the burning OMI and use Pam's plane to catch up with Sanchez and the four gas tankers transporting the cocaine. With Sanchez shooting at him, Bond drops from the plane onto one of the tankers, kicks the driver from the cab, and runs one of the other trucks off the road. Sanchez fires off one of his Stinger missiles, but Bond tips his truck to run on the left tires only, and the missile passes under him, blowing up the truck that he just ran off the road. With bullets flying everywhere, some of them hit the tires on Bond's truck, causing it to slide over the edge of a cliff. Bond releases his tanker from the cab, and his tanker slides down the hill and rams into another tanker, causing a huge explosion. Truman-Lodge (Anthony Starke) starts complaining about the money they are losing, so Sanchez decides to start cutting overhead and shoots Truman-Lodge. With Sanchez's henchmen hot on his heels and the two burning tankers ahead of him, Bond does a wheelie with his cab and makes it through the fire. The henchmen's pickup does not. Bond drives his cab right up behind the tanker in which Sanchez is riding, places the cab in cruise, and climbs onto Sanchez's truck just as another pickup truck full of henchmen comes up behind him. Bond releases the tanker's load of gasoline, which spills all over the road, and the pickup catches fire and goes over a cliff. Sanchez loads up his other Stinger, fires it at Bond, but hits the tail fin on Pam's plane instead. As Bond and Sanchez battle it out on the tanker, it runs off the road and overturns, injuring both Bond and Sanchez. Bond crawls away from the truck, but Sanchez stops him, machete in hand. As Sanchez is about to swing the machete, Bond asks, "Dont you want to know why?" and shows him the engraved cigarette lighter presented to him by Felix and Della on their wedding day. He flicks the lighter toward Sanchez, and the flame ignites Sanchez's gasoline-soaked clothes. Meanwhile, Pam has landed her plane and found Bond's abandoned cab, which had come to a rolling stop. She drives by and picks up Bond. Days later, Bond, Q, and Pam are in attendance at a party being thrown by Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto), Sanchez's ex-girlfriend (who appears to have taken up with el presidente de Isthmus). Pam sees Lupe kissing Bond and runs off alone. Bond finds her by the pool, jumps in, and pulls Pam in after him.

To obtain a PG-13 rating some scenes of Licence to Kill had been altered. This version was later on published on VHS as well and you couldn't find an uncensored version of this movie. Even the first DVD editions were cut and for years, only some LaserDisc releases were completely uncensored. With the Ultimate Edition reissues on DVD the uncut version finally made its way to DVD as well. A detailed comparison between both versions can be found here.