The Living Daylights
After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West.
Trailer
Director
John Glen
Writer
Michael G. Wilson, Richard Maibaum, Ian Fleming
Studio
EON Productions, United Artists
Release
1987-06-29
Runtime
2h 10m
Genres
Action, Adventure, Thriller
Cast & Characters
James Bond
Timothy Dalton
Kara Milovy
Maryam D'Abo
Brad Whitaker
Joe Don Baker
Kamran Shah
Art Malik
General Leonid Pushkin
John Rhys-Davies
General Georgi Koskov
Jeroen Krabbé
Necros
Andreas Wisniewski
Saunders
Thomas Wheatley
Did You Know?
Critical Assessment
The Living Daylights holds 6.7/10 on IMDb (115K votes), 73% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 66% audience score.
Critics and audiences are broadly aligned on this one.
Ratings as of August 3, 2026
AI Verdict
AI-generatedThe Living Daylights's 6.7 IMDb average and 73% Rotten Tomatoes score place it solidly mid-pack in the 60-plus-year Bond franchise.
Fan & Critic Buzz
Most people view "The Living Daylights" as a solid, if not exceptional, Bond film, marking a good debut for Timothy Dalton as 007. Some find the movie entertaining and appreciate Dalton's portrayal of a more cold-blooded assassin. However, it is rarely cited among the best films in the series.
Reviews
_**Solid Bond film with Timothy Dalton taking over as 007**_ "The Living Daylights" was the first of two James Bond films featuring Timothy Dalton as 007. It's a solid Bond flick, but rarely cited when the best films of the franchise are discussed. The "problem" isn't Dalton beca
Wuchak · 6/10Great entry into the series and wonderful debut for Dalton who was charming, and for me far and away better than any of Roger Moore's movies (though found some of his to be entertaining enough). Not all that fond of this theme song but still catchy enough I suppose. Also features
JPV852 · 8/10So Roger Moore has handed the baton of Ian Fleming's "007" to Timothy Dalton and this first outing is not at all bad. The story is, perhaps, not the best but this is still an action packed adventure with loads of pyrotechnics and daft gadgets that really does move along swiftly f
CinemaSerf · 7/10I don't understand all the hate on Dalton as 007, I actually thought he was a decent Bond, I thought he brought back some of the cold blooded assassin that personified the first of the Connery Era films. And I think he was a much needed change of pace away from Moore's silliness.
GenerationofSwine · 10/10The last of the very good 007 films. The last of the fun 007 films for sure. Here, Bond is supposed to stop an assassination of a Russian VIP defecting to the West, but Bond senses something, and instead of killing the assassin (a shapely female violinist), he shoots the weapon f
drystyx · 8/10I also use to not like this that much and again I like it now but I do prefer Licence to Kill.
tmdb93836550 · 8/10
