The Living Daylights (1987)

James Bond 007 (Timothy Dalton) is assigned to assist the escape of a Soviet defector (Jeroen Krabbe) to the West. But shortly after his arrival in the West, Krabbe is kidnapped ..... seemingly by the Russians but 007 uncovers evidence to the contrary. The 15th entry in the James Bond franchise is a winner! Elegant and thrilling with just the right amount of polish, so good in fact that it's able to survive the fly in the ointment. Namely, Timothy Dalton in his debut as 007 replacing Roger Moore in the series. While not, perhaps, as weak as George Lazenby, Dalton is an anemic Bond. But the film contains some of the best moments in the Bond universe. Here, it's the Afghanistan section (handsomely shot by Alec Mills) which ranks with the best Bond sequences. This was the final Bond film to be scored by oo7's musical alter ego, John Barry but it's one of Barry's best Bond scores. The punchy title tune is sung by the Swedish group, a-ha. Maryam D'Abo makes for fetching Bond girl though she doesn't have much to do. Directed by John Glen. The rest of cast includes Joe Don Baker, Art Malik, John Rhys-Davies, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Gotell and Andreas Wisniewski.