20 Things You Didn’t Know About The Living Daylights (1987)

16. Better Red Than Dead

The Living Daylights Timothy Dalton
MGM/UA

James Bond and Kara Milovy originally used Kara’s bra to snag the jailer’s (Ken Sharrock’s) keys to escape from the Soviet air base in Afghanistan.

The prisoner that Double-0 Seven aided, Ranjit Khan (who later became Kamran Shah, portrayed by Art Malik) would have taken the couple to a massive arms bazaar at Landī Kōtal in the Khyber Pass, Pakistan, pursued by the air base guards. Pitching one of the guards into a vat filled with yarn dye, turning him red, Double-0 Seven quipped “Better red than dead”, referencing a famous anti-Communist slogan.

The remaining guards then chased him into a warehouse filled with fireworks, falling prey to Bond's exploding keyring finder.

These scenes were discarded for time and budgetary reasons, although the arms bazaar idea was adapted for Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).

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