The Living Daylights (1987)
d. John Glen

Linda (Kell Tyler)

With the exception of this brief fling, the new James Bond (Timothy Dalton) was basically monogamous throughout the entire film, with the sole other Bond girl Kara (see below).

At the end of the exciting pre-title credits sequence, Bond parachuted with his reserve chute to safety from the Rock of Gibraltar (and from the top of an out-of-control Land Rover carrying an assassin), onto the luxury yacht of a short-haired, bikini-wearing brunette named Linda (Kell Tyler).

She was bored with life, complaining on her phone to girlfriend Margo about the availability of real males: "There's nothing but playboys and tennis pros." She wished: "If only I could find a real man."

Her request was granted when Bond landed in front of her. With an extended glass of champagne, she asked: "Won't you join me?"

On the phone, Bond told his superior officer that he would be delayed an extra hour in filing his report.

The Living Daylights (1987)

Miss Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss)

After 14 films over a period of 25 years, there was a change in the actress playing the role of love-starved secretary Miss Moneypenny. For the next two films, Miss Moneypenny was played, in a very minor role, by Caroline Bliss.

At Universal Exports headquarters in London, Bond (Dalton) requested that pretty bespectacled secretary Miss Moneypenny ask that Records monitor all Czech publication and news services for mention of a conservatoire female cellist in Bratislava. Miss Moneypenny vainly proposed that "music-lover" Bond stop by to listen to her Barry Manilow collection.

Later, Bond was told that the blonde cellist in Bratislava was Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo) - "talented scholarship cellist whose arm was injured in a minor accident during an intermission last week." Bond asked Miss Moneypenny to provide travel documents to detour through Bratislava, Czechoslovakia on his way to Tangier, Morocco, assuring Moneypenny: "My interest in her is purely professional."

The Living Daylights (1987)

Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo)

In the film's opening scene set in a symphonic concert hall in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, Bond (Dalton) noticed on stage the expert, cute blonde cellist Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo) through his pocket mini-binoculars: "Lovely girl with the cello." His mission was to protect KGB mastermind General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) as he defected to the West during the concert's intermission.

Across the street in a second-floor bedroom, equipped with a hefty Walther WA-2000 sniper's rifle (with infra-red scope), Bond was shocked to sight the cellist in his telescopic lens, poised at a window with a sniper's rifle in her hand, aimed at Koskov during his escape. He sensed instinctually that she wasn't an assassin, so he spared her by only shooting the rifle from her hand, disobeying orders from MI6 agent Saunders (Thomas Wheatley).

Later, Bond explained his instinctual sense: "I only kill professionals. That girl didn't know one end of her rifle from the other...Whoever she was, I must've scared the living daylights out of her."

On his way to Tangier, in a mission to terminate the new KGB head General Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies) after the ruthless and charming rogue Koskov had persuasively convinced British intelligence that Pushkin must be terminated (due to his new policy of assassinating British and American agents, dubbed "Smiert Spionom"), Bond detoured to Bratislava to learn more about Kara's identity. After learning that Kara's sniper rifle only fired blanks (Koskov's defection was a fake setup), and that the KGB was tailing the naive female, he convinced her that he was a friend of her boyfriend Koskov, and that they could meet up with him in Vienna, Austria.

They evaded massive police activity on a mountain road, an ice-covered lake, and a snowy slope (using her cello case as a toboggan sled to careen downhill) to reach the border. In Vienna, she expressed her love for Koskov: "I owe him everything. My scholarship at the conservatoire, my Strad." She was referring to her famous Stradivarius cello, "The Lady Rose," bought for her at auction in New York (for $150,000). She had aspirations to play one day at NY's Carnegie Hall.

During attendance at the Viennese opera, Bond told CIA Agent Saunders (Thomas Wheatley): "That girl's our only chance of getting Koskov back." Romance developed later that evening as they enjoyed carnival rides together in the Vienna fun-fair. Atop the stalled ferris wheel, Kara told Bond about her unlikely, fast-developing love for him: "It's impossible. Knowing you only two days, and all I can think of is how we would be together." He caressed her face: "Don't think. Just let it happen" before they kissed.

When Saunders told Bond, in the park's cafe, that Kara's Stradivarius was purchased for $150,000 in New York by American arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker), it established a link between Koskov and the corrupt Whitaker. Saunders was murdered as he left the cafe, another example of "Smiert Spionom." When Bond returned to Kara after the tragic "accident," he angrily replied that he had heard from Koskov: "Yes, I got the message. He's with Whitaker in Tangier." She knew that Whitaker was "a patron of the arts" willing to help her. He stressed they must travel to Tangier immediately, where Koskov was waiting for her.

While Bond was away, plotting with Pushkin to create a 'fake' assassination in order to cause Koskov and Whitaker to proceed with their schemes, Kara had phoned Whitaker and spoken to Koskov. After the gullible Kara was convinced that Bond was a KGB agent, she agreed to drug Bond's drink with chloral hydrate to facilitate his capture. She also expressed her anger that Bond had pretended to love her, and was using her to locate Koskov and kill him. As he became dizzy and unconscious, Bond convinced her that he was on her side - and that Koskov had expected her to die during his defection, but he had saved her.

As they were flown to a Soviet airbase in Afghanistan, with a medical organ transplant container holding an animal's beating heart - surrounded by diamonds hidden in the ice, she realized that she had been betrayed by Koskov, and confided in Bond: "I've been such a fool." She became Bond's helpful partner after Koskov jilted her (in Afghanistan, he claimed she was a defector) and they were jailed together.

They escaped by deploying Bond's key-finder (the whistling of Rule Britannia tune emitted a cloud of stun gas) and fighting off the jailers (with her help). She was overjoyed: "You were fantastic. We're free!...At least we're together."

When they were captured together by the Afghan resistance movement of Mujahideen battling Soviet troops, led by educated commander Kamran Shah (Art Malik), she professed her concerned worry about Bond's obsession to go after Koskov: "You dumb, stubborn, stupid...back end of horse...I might never see you again." He assured her - with a kiss, and they spent the night together.

The next day after a drug-deal in the desert with the tribesmen, in which Koskov used Soviet down-payment money for an arms deal to finance the purchase of opium (to be profitably sold on the streets of the US) with Netherlands' diamonds, she courageously encouraged the Mujahideen to launch a full-scale attack on the airbase and foil Koskov's scheme.

She joined Bond in a large transport plane carrying the bags of opium, helping to save their lives when she piloted the plane while he fought off a deadly assassin.

After their successful ventures, she was granted asylum in the West, where her musical talents were universally recognized - she was featured as a cello soloist during a successful concert performance in Europe, part of a victorious world concert tour, attended by General Gogol (Walter Gotell) and Bond's boss M (Robert Brown). The General, now with the Foreign Service, had arranged for an immigration visa for her to freely perform in Moscow.

Kamran and some of his tribesmen had missed her concert due to delays at the airport. Bond also hadn't attended, due to being on "assignment abroad."

When she retreated to her star dressing room, she was clearly pleased that Bond hadn't missed. He had set out two glasses of champagne to celebrate, telling her: "You didn't think I'd miss this performance, did you?" - they kissed. She sighed, "Oh, James" as they sank behind her dressing room divider.