In the middle of the 1980s, the tension between the Soviet Union and the Western world was a little bit better. A new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, was proving to be a more moderate and modernising leader. However, this situation was of no use to the makers of the James Bond series. As a result, the idea of a rogue Soviet spy, looking to defect to the west and provide some secrets, represented a story too good to be true. The Living Daylights was the last Bond film that featured a title by the character’s creator Ian Fleming. It was also the first film to feature the new Bond, Timothy Dalton, after about 20 years of Roger Moore in the role.
The action starts with the Double 0 agents all with their back to the camera. M is sending them on a training mission that involves scaling a mountainside. During the climb, one of the agents, 004, is attacked and killed by an unknown assailant. Bond escapes, landing in the boat of an attractive heiress (or something like that) and takes full advantage.
It turns out the KBG has decided to eliminate foreign spies when they can. The British find this out by smuggling a KGB defector out of Czechoslovakia. They do this using the vacuum conveyor Trans Siberian pipeline. It’s the kind of thing https://www.aptech.uk.com/pneumatic-conveying-systems/vacuum-conveying would look to provide.
With the agent safe in England Bond has to try and foil the KGB’s plans and save his colleagues.