20 Things You Didn't Know About Licence To Kill (1989)
17. “I’m A Professional!”
Carey Lowell’s ex-Army pilot, Pam Bouvier remains one of the most modern Bond Girls. The future Mrs Richard Gere was both gutsy and feminine in the mould of the stronger female film roles of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Although Lowell initially did not find the prospect of filming in Mexico to be very exotic, given that she was based in Los Angeles at the time, Licence to Kill was still a challenge for her.
In particular, even though her character is meant to have flown to some of the worst “hell holes” in South America, the actress would flinch when she fired a gun - a trait that was a focal point of her training for the film. Nevertheless, she still noticeably flinches in the sequence in which she shoots Sanchez’s sadistic henchman, Dario (Benicio del Toro) inside the drug baron’s exploding laboratory.
However, in a nice nod both to Ian Fleming’s 1957 novel, From Russia, With Love and its 1958 sequel, Dr. No, as well as to the film of Dr. No (1962), the Beretta that Pam is firing then jams, recalling Double-0 Seven’s own troubles with a Beretta...