20 Things You Didn't Know About Licence To Kill (1989)
9. He Lost His Head
When the Bond films are reviewed for their violence, the focus is usually on the number of characters who are killed in them rather than the manner in which those deaths happen. For instance, both Thunderball and, surprisingly, Moonraker are often named as the most violent James Bond films, completely overlooking the “15” certificates that were given both to Licence to Kill and to GoldenEye.
Licence to Kill certainly has some of the most shocking and upsetting scenes in the franchise, including the maiming of Felix Leiter, the torture and murder of his new wife Della, and numerous other acts of violence. One of these is Sanchez’s memorable murder of his own business partner, Milton Krest, whom Bond has implicated in a non-existent scheme against the drug baron.
After finding his stolen money hidden aboard the Wavekrest, Sanchez traps his drunken associate inside a decompression chamber and turns up the pressure before cracking an air valve, causing the hapless Krest’s head to expand and explode.
This scene was heavily trimmed prior to its release, as Krest's demise was both more graphic and convincing in the original cuts of the film. Even though the edited version is still intense enough, some fans continue to search for the unedited version.