James Bond in 1989's Licence to Kill as Bond works to infiltrate and take down a criminal organization run by Central American drug baron Franz Sanchez.
Recurring Bond ally Felix Leiter, previously of the CIA, makes an appearance as a DEA agent whom Sanchez leaves for dead after murdering Leiter's wife on their wedding night. The sixteenth Eon produced Bond film features some of the most graphic violence to date, including brutal tortures and gruesome deaths. After the MPAA added its PG-13 rating in 1984 Licence to Kill was the first James Bond film to receive a PG-13 rating, setting a precedent all subsequent Bond films to date have followed. Although the uncut version of Licence to Kill was released in some countries, changes had to be made to avoid the harsher R rating for the US theatrical release as it would have limited the film's box office success and given the franchise a darker reputation. Here are all six scenes that were changed to give Licence to Kill its PG-13 rating.
6 Sanchez Feeds Felix Leiter To A Shark
At the start of Licence to Kill, James Bond assists his friend Felix Leiter and the DEA in capturing Franz Sanchez off the coast of Key West, Florida. Sanchez later escapes federal custody with the help of DEA agent Ed Killifer. In retaliation for his imprisonment, Sanchez lowers a bound Leiter into a shark tank where a tiger shark bites off part of Leiter’s left leg. The PG-13 version leaves Leiter's mutilation largely to the imagination of the audience, only showing the shark collide into his body underwater. The R-rated version, however, shows the bloody stump of Leiter's left leg as the shark swims past.
5 Heller Kills Loti
With his license to kill revoked, James Bond travels to the Republic of Isthmus in Latin America where he gets close to Franz Sanchez by posing as an assassin for hire. Two Hong Kong narcotics agents, ed by an MI6 agent sent to apprehend Bond, foil 007’s plan and take him to an abounded warehouse. Sanchez’s head of security, Colonel Heller, leads a team to rescue Bond, shooting and killing the Hong Kong agent Loti in the process. Heller fires three shots into Loti's chest, and while the R rated version is more violent, the difference between the two despitictions is barely noticeable.
4 Krest’s Head Explodes
Before gaining an audience with Sanchez in Isthmus, Bond intercepts one of the drug baron's shipments and takes five million dollars. Later, Bond frames one of Sanchez’s associates, Milton Krest, by planting the stolen money in a decompression chamber aboard Krest’s ship Wavecrest. As punishment for what he perceives to be Krest's disloyalty, Sanchez throws Krest into the chamber, cranks up the compression, then cuts the oxygen cord, causing Krest’s head to rapidly inflate and then explode.
In the R-rated version of Timothy Dalton's Bond film Licence to Kill, Krest's head inflates a bit longer before exploding on camera, painting the chamber’s porthole red. The edited version gives slightly less screen time to the head inflating and cuts to an onlooker’s reaction as the explosion occurs off-screen. The blood-red porthole is still shown, but only from a distance after the explosion.
3 Dario Gets Shredded
Believing Bond to have proved his loyalty, Sanchez accepts Bond into his inner circle and takes him to his base of operations. Bond learns Sanchez’s scientists are disguising cocaine by dissolving it in petrol to sell to Asian drug dealers. Bond’s cover is soon blown, and Sanchez’s henchman Dario places the captured 007 on a conveyor belt leading to a giant grinder that shreds blocks of cocaine. CIA informant Pam Bouvier, the movie's main Bond girl, shoots Dario, allowing Bond time to pull the henchman down into the grinder. A shot from below the grinder reveals bloody powder violently shooting through the blades. This shot is held a few frames longer in the R-rated version, revealing more blood and bits of Dario’s flesh hitting the camera lens.
2 Heller Is Impaled By A Forklift
James Bond sets the chemical lab on fire inside Sanchez's processing plant. As Bond and Bouvier attempt to escape the flames, they are interrupted by a forklift plowing through an interior wall. Impaled on the forklift is Colonel Heller. In one of the less noticeable edits, only a few frames are altered from Heller’s death. This change amounts to a negligible difference between the PG-13 and R-rated versions.
1 Bond Sets Sanchez On Fire
Bond villain Franz Sanchez flees the incineration of his cocaine processing plant, taking four tankers full of the cocaine and petrol mix with him. Bond pursues the tankers by plane with Bouvier at the controls. After destroying three of the tankers and killing several of Sanchez’s men, Bond boards the final tanker where Sanchez attacks him with a machete. The tanker veers off the road and crashes down a hillside. A petrol-soaked Sanchez emerges from the wreckage, machete in hand. Before Sanchez can deliver the fatal blow, Bond reveals a cigarette lighter, a gift from the Leiters at their wedding, and uses it to set Sanchez on fire.
The amount of time Sanchez writhes in agony while ablaze is edited down for the PG-13 version, showing just the final moments as he hits the ground before the adjacent tanker blows. Still, this Licence to Kill scene remains one of the most classic and gruesome deaths of any Bond villain.
