Licence to Kill

Licence to Kill
Theatrical release poster by Robin Behling
Directed by	John Glen
Written by	Michael G. Wilson Richard Maibaum
Based on	James Bond by Ian Fleming
Produced by	Albert R. Broccoli Michael G. Wilson
Starring	Timothy Dalton Carey Lowell Robert Davi Talisa Soto Anthony Zerbe
Cinematography	Alec Mills
Edited by	John Grover
Music by	Michael Kamen
Production companies	Eon Productions United Artists
Distributed by	MGM/UA Communications Co. (United States) United International Pictures (International)
Release dates	13 June 1989 (1989-06-13) (London) 10 July 1989 (1989-07-10) (United Kingdom) 14 July 1989 (1989-07-14) (United States)
Running time	133 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom[1] United States[2]
Language	English
Budget	$32 million
Box office	$156.1 million

Licence to Kill is a 1989 action thriller film, the sixteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond. In the film, Bond resigns from MI6 in order to take revenge against the drug lord Franz Sanchez, who ordered an attack against Bond's CIA friend Felix Leiter and the murder of Felix's wife after their wedding.

Licence to Kill was the fifth and final Bond film directed by John Glen, the last to feature Robert Brown as M and Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny. It was also the last to feature the work of the screenwriter Richard Maibaum, the title designer Maurice Binder and the producer Albert R. Broccoli, all of whom died in the following years.

Licence to Kill was the first Bond film to not use the title of an Ian Fleming story. Originally titled Licence Revoked, the name was changed during post-production due to American test audiences associating the term with driver's licence. Although its plot is largely original, it contains elements of the Fleming novel Live and Let Die and the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity", interwoven with a sabotage premise influenced by Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo.

For budget reasons, Licence to Kill became the first Bond film shot entirely outside the United Kingdom: principal photography took place on location in Mexico and the US, while interiors were filmed at Estudios Churubusco instead of Pinewood Studios. The film earned over $156 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews, with praise for the stunts, but received criticism for the darker tone.