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“A farewell to arms”, proceeded by a sidekick to one of the MI6 agents, then Bond’s escape. Great scene.
Admittedly License To Kill is in my top 5 Bond films list; it deviates from the Bond formula, but there’s still enough Bondian elements in the film itself.
Here are my 10 favorite moments of mine I’d like to add, but summarized with quotes:
1. “What did he promise you, his heart? Give her his heart.” (Robert Davi is ruthless and as cold as ice here)
2. “Let’s go fishing!” (Sanchez’ capture)
3. “You earned it, you keep it, old buddy.” (Bond’s start towards revenge after killing Killifer).
4. “Don’t worry. We gave her a nice honeymoooon.” (Dario is a real psychopath)
5. “A farewell to arms.” (Bond’s escape from the Hemingway House - brilliant)
5. “Make a sound and you’re dead.” (Bond with Lupe aboard Krest’s boat)
6. “More of a problem eliminator.” (Bond and Sanchez meet)
7. “Let’s make this a proper family reunion - give me your gun.”
8. “Launder it.” (Sanchez’ retort about the money to Braun after killing Krest - chilling, deadpan delivery)
9. “Watch the birdie you bastard.” (Bond’s assassination attempt on Sanchez).
10. “Do you want to know why?” (Sanchez goes up in flames)
I start to wonder if I should rank this movie higher. So many great moments!
Perhaps more than merely a moment or even just one scene, but if I were to break up all the material surrounding the casino at night into separate entries they would fill my top 5 and then some, so I'll gather them all here into what I'll call my favorite segment of Licence to Kill. Though broken up by Bond's return to the hotel where he and Pam discover Q, the stretch from when Bond starts cleaning up at the tables to when he's captured by the ninjas comprises all my favorite character and musical moments: playing cards with Lupe, Pam glumly ordering and downing the martini, Bond's interview with Sanchez, "only President for life," posing as a waiter and taking the lift up, abseiling down the facade and prepping the window, saying goodbye to Q, and finally sniping Sanchez when the ninjas attack. Kamen's music throughout is perfectly evocative of all the espionage, danger, and allure. Is this one night or two? I guess I never really considered the question. Just figured it all took place over the same long night. Like I said, more than a moment, but undoubtedly my favorite segment of the film.
2. The tanker chase
A climax the way they should be: big, thrilling, and barreling relentlessly toward the final standoff between Bond and villain. The chase is full of iconic long shots of the tankers maneuvering through the winding desert pass with Pam's biplane soaring over it all. That shot of the flaming pickup narrowly missing a midair collision with Pam is particularly memorable. Kamen's ferocious action music and guitar-powered James Bond theme fuel the thrills from Bond's first leap from plane to road vehicle to the moment the runaway tanker turns over down a hill with Bond and machete-wielding Sanchez grappling outside on its hitch. Dalton and Davi, dressed in tattered threads and streaming blood, play their final gasoline-soaked face-off particularly well.
3. Killing Krest
There's great suspense in watching Bond and Pam infiltrate the Wavekrest through its moon pool to plant Sanchez's money onboard. Dalton plays it particularly cold here. You have to love that moment when he backs away from the approaching voices, drawing his knife against two deckhands entering with semi-automatics. Krest's fate is more gruesome than typically found in Bond (somehow the existing PG-13 edit is the original R-rating, after all), but it's necessary to get the full impact of just how ruthless Sanchez can be and just how deep his paranoia runs.
4. Facility tour, fire, and conveyor belt
The build-up to the climax brings everything together in one hair-raising twist that just might spell 007's doom: his first act meeting with Dario at the Barrelhead suddenly colliding with his new role as Sanchez's righthand. Pretty nifty story construction there. Bond desperately trying to convince Sanchez that others have turned against him as he heads hand-tied down the conveyor accentuates the terror of his situation. (Amazingly, his ploy works as Sanchez shuts the machine down temporarily and moments later has Braun forklift Heller to death.) The part where Dario is crouched precariously on the guardrails, sawing through the rope that holds Bond above the gnashing teeth of the grinder, is about as close as it's ever come for 007, and there's something particularly twisted about hearing Dario scream not for his mother but for "Sanchez!" as he goes through the machine himself.
5. Bond interrogates Pam
A smaller moment but one worth highlighting. While playing Sanchez, Bond lets his own suspicions get the better of him and draws a gun on Pam. It's a surprising and tense moment well-played by both Dalton and Lowell. The humbling reveal that Bond had inadvertently interfered with a CIA operation that might have brought Sanchez down lends some perspective to how consumed he has become by his vendetta. Things turn around quickly, however, when Bond suggests something new, and it's great to hear him bring Q back into the fold for further help in the field.
Other highlights: discovering Leiter, Bond and M at Hemingway House, questioning Lupe and escape from Wavekrest, Barrelhead brawl and boat romance, Bond and Pam in elevator and Q picks beds, Heller rescues Bond from Fallon and Hong Kong Narcotics, hacienda pool ending
Anytime! It’s always nice to meet a new Bond fan around these parts!
Wow... After all these years I never looked at this scene in that context before! Gotta go back and watch it again now, haha.
5. Tanker Chase.
Destruction, fire, 2-wheel(or should that be 5-wheel?) action, wits and a Bond-theme played on the frame of a trailer by an Uzi, only Bond can take something so slow and make it so cool.
4. Bon Appetit.
When I read Live And Let Die for the first time, this is pretty much exactly what I pictured. The brooding atmosphere makes for some of Dalton´s best true spy work.
3. Watch the birdy, you ***. This is what I imagine Fleming would approve of. The meeting with Sanchez beforehand to check security and prepare, the abseiling to the window in a dinner jacket, "pasting" the explosives, and finally the personalized gun, everything is just pure Bond.
2. Compliments of sharkey.
Getting information from a lady, avenging the murder of a friend, hurting the main villain financially ánd escaping through a bad-ass stunt? Hell yeah. And that wry smile at the end, people say TimBond can't be fun...
1. Let's go fishing!
Oh man. I wasn't really a fan of LTK, but when I rewatched it for the first time in years recently, mán I enjoyed the PTS. Dalton is damn near perfect, the intriduction of Sanchez is both expertly shot and very well acted, and when Bond hangs out of a helicopter in morning dress to quite literally catch a plane with one of the most epic renditions of the Bond theme ever playing? Ooooooh yes, this is the stuff I love Bond for.
2. Bond catches Sanchez' airplane (and the entire PTS, actually)
3. Explosions at Sanchez' mountain base and everyone fleeing/driving off
4. First views of the mountain base
5. Bond and Felix attack Sanchez in the Bahamian forest
@MartinBond Thanks for participating. Interesting comments and I'm looking forward for more of your thoughts. There are still 16 more movies to celebrate.
Those are I think some of the best moments of the series—when you really aren't sure how Bond is going to get out of this one.
2. Wavekrest action (from Lupe to the seaplane: one long and great sequence)
3. Tanker chase (from start to burning Sanchez)
4. Night at the casino (as described by @Some_Kind_Of_Hero)
5. Coffee with Sanchez
Honourable mention: Every scene with Dario's evil grin, especially the moment he suddenly returns at the demonstration and we realize that Bond is in real troube now
1. Night at the casino (problem eliminator, abseiling...)
It was difficult to evaluate a winner. Some mentioned a specific short moment, others (often) wrote about a longer sequence which included the momen mentioned by others.
All these sequences got (almost) the same amount of points and share #2 to #6:
PTS (especially Sanchez introduction)
Bond infiltrates the Warehouse and ultimately kills Killifer.
Wavekrest action
Resignation at Hemingway House
Tanker chase
Let's go back 22 years more and celebrate the other movie where Bond is never seen in London nor in Europe at all!
The movie with the most (?) iconic villain's lair and that awesome airial shot filming the rooftop action in Kobe. Oh and there is Little Nellie! And hungry piranhas! And so much more to love:
Favourite Bond Moments - Round 9: YOLT - Part 1: Suggestions and discussion
1. Helga. ‘Mr Osato likes a healthy chest.’
2. The helpless astronaut drifting away into space in the PTS. The cutting out of his voice when his cable gets sliced is nicely eerie.
3. The fight between Bond and the Japanese heavy in Osato’s office, where they are throwing the furniture around. What is it about those 1960s fights that makes them so wonderful?
4. The women from the village diving for pearls. Looks and feels very idyllic.
5. Kobe docks fight long shot.
Special mention for the title sequence, which is great.
Bond escape from Mr Osato lair (include Safe cracking)
Magnet fish (Take the car and push them in the lake)
Bond's ''wife'' murdered in her sleep
Meeting Tiger (Very long scene include the fall, metrostation, the talk and tiger his girls)
Henderson and ''taxi'' ride.
2. Helga fed to piranhas.
3. Kobe dock sequence
4. Aki’s death.
5. Bond’s fake death followed by Maurice Binder’s stunning title sequence.
- Fake funeral
- Meeting with Henderson
- Body Double + Siamese wodka
- Introducing Tanaka
- "Mr. Osato beliefs in a healthy chest."
- Car chase (is that Toyota the most beautiful Japanese car ever?)
- Soviet capsule capture
- Kobe docks
- Ning Po
- Helga Brandt and the piranha fish
- Aki's death
- Gas! Over the side!
- Volcano lair finale
- "They will never find us", and up comes the submarine
2. Bond pours a drink at Osato's bar, then cracks the safe while guards patrol
3. Little Nellie action sequence
4. ninja assassin poisons Aki
5. Bond and Kissy discover the crater lake is not water
So many great moments, love the Kobe docks and Helga 'enjoying herself'.
As a Cold War sci-fi adventure, it's an excellent watch. And sometimes I'm really yearning for that too. You can't be all OHMSS's.
The whole film then ;)
I definitely prefer OHMSS but you nailed it.
He he. Good point. You know what I mean, though.
Me too, but I do still love this one too ;)
The Kobe rooftop scene is great, I always admire the cinematography of that, pre-drone days! I also have a fun chuckle at the choreography, the go-slow assailants who walk, even saunter at times to make sure they don't catch up with Bond too soon. But that's not a criticism, it's part of the charm of the scene and why I love it! Also enjoy the moment when Bond's stuntman does the jump and disappears, ready for Sean to re-appear in shot a moment later!
The sumo wrestling match is great as well, I love the whole setup of that, having learnt a bit about the fascinating art of sumo, and Aki looks great in the scene as well.
The meeting with Henderson is great, Charlie boy does a nice little 'English fish out of water' act, and there's not many actors can sport a kimono the way that guy can. If you've got it, flaunt it!
Donald is my Blofeld, so I love the scenes with him in, especially the anxiety-ridden cat he strokes and attempts to keep under control, and the first appearance of Bond meeting him as he peers around that rather funky chair he has.
Bond and Tiger having their bath has something for everyone to enjoy I would imagine! Certainly Mai Ling is something for me to enjoy (her acting skills that is!)
The soundtrack ... I mean, what a soundtrack!
Agree with all the other suggestions made, YOLT is one of those Bond's I'm always in the mood to watch.
And finally basically ANY, literally ANY scene with Kissy in. In fact, just count every second of Kissy on-screen for me. Yes, I do mean Kissy, not Aki - sorry but that's the way it goes!
Among my favs:
1.US Spacecraft gets kidnapped in space (to John Barry’s “Capsule in Space”)
2.“….very best duck…”
3.Title sequence and Nancy Sinatra’s theme song
4.Moneypenny grills Bond (“We tried to think of something that you wouldn’t forget….”)
5.Fight at Osato Chemicals
6.Bond meets Tanaka (“….you will get into anything, with any girl……”) 😊
7.“…Mr. Osato believes in a heathy chest…..”
8.The camera “zoom-out” for the Kobe Dock fight (plus Barry’s score – yet again)
9.“….The things I do for England….”
10.Little Nellie defends her honor
11.Aki’s death
12.The full relevel of Blofeld’s lair (Ken Adam’s work here alone puts him in my Hall of
Fame)
13.Blofeld’s “extortion is my business gentlemen” line (well at-least he’s honest!!)
14.The hold Walter PPK scene (“…only one man that we know uses this gun…”). Note the
reaction of Helga when she realizes that it is James Bond (“…it was in all of the
papers…”), and of course her being fed to the piranha, followed by the classic “…kill
Bond, NOW….”
15.Kissy and Bond realize that the volcano isn’t what it appears to be.
16.Blofeld’s reveal (“…allow me to introduce myself….”)
17.The ninja assault on Blofeld’s lair
18.The “exploder button”
@Max_The_Parrot.
Given that you seem to love Mie Hama, you may want to seek out a Japanese movie called “IronFinger” (1965 aka “100 shots, 100 Kills”). A James Bond like movie, Ms. Hama spends the later third of the film running around in a red bikini (instead of YOLT’s white one).
But as many others have stated, the fight at the Kobe docks, the space shuttle captures, Helga’s death by piranha, the Osato office fight, and especially the ninja volcano raid are all standouts. Hey, that’s probably my five right there.