Episode 17 - James Bond - License To Kill - “The Pineapple-Truck Trope” - a podcast by Spectre Etc

Welcome to SPECTRE etc. This is the James Bond podcast where we discuss the ins and the outs of each film. In this episode, Timothy Dalton does his damnedest to compete with all those great 1980s action films. The angry chief at our precinct demands results and has given us 48 hours to go rogue with a ”License to Kill”.

* The pre-titles sequence has Bond warming the bench while Felix attends to a pre-wedding mission to apprehend Sanchez. Bond suits up and catches the drug baron. The titles sequence follows, featuring Gladys Knight’s space-filling song.
* Sanchez escapes custody by bribing CIA Agent Killifer - but Felix’s wedding means no-one seems to notice. This wedding looks like it will lead to a longer marriage than Bond’s wedding in OHMSS did. Sanchez has his henchman Dario kidnap Felix and murder the new bride, so Felix’s honeymoon lasts no longer than Bond’s did.
* Sanchez sends a warning by having some sharks (real sharks, not Felix’s best friend Sharkey) ensure Felix is one leg lighter. Sharkey and Bond sneak into Milton Krest’s shark warehouse and throw some money at Killifer.
* MI6 is using the Hemingway House - a bustling tourist attraction - as a safehouse. Bond is dragged there because M wants the CIA to handle Sanchez. Bond realises it is the 1980s, so his only option is to go rogue!
* Bond sneaks on to Krest’s boat to find Sharkey dead, so Felix is now one friend lighter. James is nearly caught, but escapes a scuba fight by barefoot skiing behind a plane!
* James breaks into Felix’s office to track down Pam Bouvier. He agrees to meet this informant at a local bar filled with dancing girls and brawling boys. As Bond and Bouvier escape, Dario shoots Pam right in the bullet-proof vest. She has no such protection for the projectile Bond soon sends her way.
* Bond and Bouvier head to Isthmus to find Sanchez. Bond greases the wheels by throwing a briefcase full of cash at some Bank Manager. Cleverly, Sanchez is running his drug empire via a televangelist; stupidly, Sanchez is wearing a dead lizard on his shoulder.
* Uncle Q pops into Isthmus, and he has brought gifts! Once Bond has checked if Sanchez has a skeleton, he will be able to use explosive toothpaste to assassinate him! Ninjas come out of nowhere to thwart this plan. Turns out these are MI6 ninjas, here to orient 007 toward London!
* Sanchez saves Bond and brings him back to the lair, where Bond earns his trust. James joins a tour of the televangelist’s “Meditation and Wellness Center” (that Sanchez uses to package and ship cocaine) and puts flammable items right next to inflammable materials.
* Bond ends up on a conveyer belt, but an angelic Pam distracts Dario with her halo. The Wellness Center is burning down, but Bond gets things back on truck by hijacking a fuel tanker. As usual, a pineapple truck slows him down, and then a stinger missile forces Bond to get that 18-wheeler up onto 5 wheels.
* Bond and Sanchez fight on a tanker that rolls down a hill. Then they dust themselves off for a quick showdown.
* The film ends with Bond inviting Felix fishing (to seek revenge on the marine world) and then having to choose between the two ladies. Lupe loses, because Bond bags Bouvier.

And of course, keep checking back for a link to our petition to have Benicio Del Toro listed as the best henchman yet!

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