[Quick Summary: When a drug lord kills the bride and maims the groom (Leiter), groomsman Bond goes on an unsanctioned hunt for the villain.]
Pam, a CIA contract pilot and one of Leiter's informants, was to meet him at a bar. After Leiter is wounded, Bond decides to meet with her instead.
There's a shootout at the bar with drug lord's henchmen. Pam and Bond escape onto a cigarette boat (scene below).
So what is this scene about? A business deal. Even grudging admiration.
But ROMANCE? PASSION? Any HEAT whatsoever? Certainly not enough to justify twinkle in eye --> kiss --> kiss --> "presses her passionately" at the end.
There's no baiting of the hook, and tug of the line. Where's the fun if it's all one sided, no back-and-forth? How can I buy the romance if there's no chemistry?
INT. CIGARETTE COCKPIT PAM AND BOND
at the controls, working them he looks at dials.
INSERT GAS GAUGES
indicate empty.
BOND
He looks toward the shore, still irate.
BOND: They must have hit a fuel line.
PAM steps up next to him.
PAM: Out of gas? I haven't heard that one in a long time.
BOND (calming down): Take us a couple of hours to drift in. Look, I'm going to need your help. I want a complete rundown on Sanchez' operation...and a private charter to Isthmus City. No one must know I've left.
She looks at him steadily.
PAM: What do you want to go there for?
BOND: I'll pay you very well.
PAM: You're going after Sanchez, aren't you?
BOND: Will you help me?
PAM: How many men you got?
BOND: Just you and me.
PAM (a disbelieving laugh): You crazy? Sanchez has a whole army protecting him down there.
BOND: Then just drop me there and leave. Fifty thousand.
She steps between Bond and the dashboard of the boat. The wind blows her hair. She looks up at him, a twinkle in her eye.
PAM (ticking off on her fingers): It's not that easy. A false flight plan. I'll have to pay-off people at Isthmus City Airport...A job like that is going to cost at least a Hundred.
BOND: Alright. Sixty.
PAM: Ninety.
BOND: Seventy.
PAM: Eighty.
BOND: Seventy-five.
PAM: You pay the fuel?
BOND: We use your plane.
PAM: Deal.
She reaches up and kisses him fully on the lips to seal the bargain. They part.
BOND: Why don't you want 'til you're asked?
PAM: Why don't you ask me.
She kisses him again. He presses her passionately back against the wheel.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: In fly fishing circles, there's a saying, "The tug is the drug."
In this scene, the fisherman doesn't even have to cast a line out. Fish are throwing themselves into the boat. This is NOT romantic.
Licence to Kill (1988)(final draft)
by Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum
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