It’s time to go rogue!
The Mission: Breaking from traditional Bond is not assigned an official case by MI6. Instead he’s out for revenge against drug dealer Sanchez who has murdered Felix Lieter’s bride on their wedding night and partially fed the CIA agent to a shark.
Locales: Beginning in Florida, USA, Bond moves to the Bahamas and the fictional Republic of Isthmus.
Gadgets: Although Bond is of duty Q still joins Bond in the field to supply him with Detonate toothpaste, an explosive alarm clock, a laser firing, x-ray taking Polaroid camera and a camera/sniper rifle that responds to his fingerprint. Also a cummerbund contains a high-tensile support rope.
Vehicles: The closest we come to a vehicle is a manta ray disguise.
Sidekicks: Q fills the role of sidekick more than usual after meeting Bond in the field. Pam Bouvier, who is possibly related to Marge Simpson, is an ex-CIA pilot who acts my as an ally than a straight up love interest. A charter boat owner named Sharky who becomes an early sacrifice.
The Girls: Although she brings the noise Bouvier does also function as a love interest. We also get Lupe Lamora, girlfriend of Sanchez, who becomes a rival for Bond’s affection.
The Enemy: Franz Sanchez, a South American drug baron.
Evil Plot: After escaping the CIA and feeding Felix to a shark Sanchez plans to expand his crime empire after developing a new method of transporting the goods by dissolving it in gasoline and extracting it at the end of the path.
Distinguishing Features: He’s very much the stereotypical South American drug baron (the skinny kind, not the fat mustache kind), complete with a pet iguana on his shoulder.
Secret Lair: He’s got a nice casino, and a drug factory hidden inside a meditation center. Got quite a legitimate front.
Henchmen: Dario is on hand to do most of the dirty work with his flick knife and his Benicio det Toroness. There’s also his drug business lakeys – Professor Joe Butcher is his public middle man, Milton Krest operates his business front and Truman-Lodge as his financial adviser.
Facts About the Movie
Politically Incorrect Behaviour: Pretty well behaved by this stage, although he does sleep with two women while justifying it as part of his job.
Notable Firsts: Nothing especially notable debuts, but it’s the last time we see Bond lighting up. After this film Bond is a non-smoker, and ironically it is the first film to feature a health warning about smoking in the credits.
Random Trivia: During the big tanker chase sequence at the end of the film the sounds of bullets hitting the trucks plays out the Bond theme.
Eric Clapton helped to rewrite the iconic Bond theme for this film, but the producers rejected it.
This is the first official Bond film not to take it’s title from an Ian Fleming novel. The next that would is Quantum of Solace.
James Bond’s much talked about defection from MI6 for this film was an easy way to get around the British Secret Service not having jurisdiction over Latin drug cartels.
