Licence to Kill is a 1989 James Bond film directed by John Glen and the second and final outing with Timothy Dalton as 007. Instead of sending Bond on a conventional government mission, the film pushes the character into far more personal territory after Felix Leiter is brutally attacked and Bond goes rogue to hunt drug lord Franz Sanchez. That gives the film a harder, more vengeful tone than most earlier Bond entries, with the series moving closer to a revenge thriller than a traditional Cold War spy adventure.
The film was shot entirely outside the United Kingdom, making it the first Bond film not to use Britain for principal photography. Much of the production was based in Mexico, where Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City handled the main interiors and also helped create the fictional Republic of Isthmus. Mexican locations included the Banco de México Library building for the exterior of the El Presidente Hotel, the Casino Español for the casino interiors, Villa Arabesque in Acapulco for Sanchez’s villa, the Otomí Ceremonial Center in Temoaya for the Olympiatec Meditation Institute, Isla Mujeres near Cancún for underwater material, and the La Rumorosa mountain pass in Baja California for the tanker chase finale. The Florida Keys supplied the opening and Key West material, including Seven Mile Bridge, the Ernest Hemingway House, Key West International Airport, Mallory Square and St. Mary Star of the Sea Church. Altogether, the film moves through tropical harbours, luxury villas, desert highways and coastal Florida settings in a way that gives it a distinctly sun-blasted and late-1980s narcotics-thriller atmosphere.
Key West Lighthouse
Key West Lighthouse is most closely connected to "Licence to Kill" (1989), where it appears during the Key West section of the James Bond film.
Otomi Ceremonial Center
The Otomi Ceremonial Center served as the filming location for Franz Sanchez’s drug factory/laboratory in the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill.
Teatro de la Ciudad
Teatro de la Ciudad is used in Licence to Kill, where Mexico City stands in for the fictional Isthmus City. Several real locations in the capital are used.
The Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea
The Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea is best known to film fans from Licence to Kill, where it appears during the opening section of the James Bond film.
The Ernest Hemingway Home
The Ernest Hemingway Home has appeared in films including "Licence to Kill" (1989) and "The Leisure Seeker" (2017).
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