Licence to Kill

John Glen’s film was the first Bond picture whose title came from no Ian Fleming story. It was Licence Revoked until American test screenings read that as the loss of a driving licence; Bob Peak’s teaser posters went with the name. When the 1988 writers strike stopped Richard Maibaum, Michael G. Wilson wrote the script alone. Wilson has said the idea of bringing the villain down from inside owes more to Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars than Fleming. Cost pushed the shoot out of Britain: interiors went up at Estudios Churubusco in Mexico, not Pinewood, with location work in Florida. The closing chase used a closed stretch of Baja California highway and 16 tanker rigs; one carried a second steering wheel behind the cab so a hidden driver could work while Carey Lowell sat in front. Bond is stripped of the institution: he refuses the Istanbul assignment and resigns, M suspends him and revokes his licence, Q helps without sanction. Krest’s death was trimmed for the censors, and the BBFC classified the film 15 in 1989. A good fit if you count it a gain that Timothy Dalton’s Bond trades the formula for sabotage from within. Not for anyone after the joking, gadget register; the film sets its tone by murdering Leiter’s wife.