# Bond's "license to Kill" What does it really mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 16, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171 "2019-07-16T15:32:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/21 "2019-07-17T10:06:38Z")
It’s a medical joke… ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/22 "2019-07-17T10:24:04Z")
Also “From a View to a Kill”: Fleming wrote some short stories after writing (most of?) the novels. A guy shoots at Bond, which was not unexpected, and Bond kills him. I say “not unexpected”, but he hadn’t discussed it with anybody or been targeted: he was just on a job, and killing somebody was what he was doing at that stage of the job. Fleming got a bit looser with his characters as time went on. I’ve got just a vague suspicion that at the same time the British government was getting a bit looser with it’s characters. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/23 "2019-07-17T16:59:31Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Did Fleming really write that? I thought that sense of “hardly” was archaic. I don’t think it’s archaic in British usage, or at least it wasn’t 50 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/24 "2019-07-17T17:19:07Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > In the first book, “Casino Royale”, Bond describes how he got his Double 0 number and what it means: I like how they handle it in the Casino Royale movie: > [@](#): > > [Dryden, an MOD director, comes into his office late at night. After sitting at his desk, he finds James Bond sitting in the shadows] > > James Bond: M doesn’t mind you earning a little money on the side, Dryden. She’d just prefer it if it wasn’t selling secrets. > > Dryden: If the theatrics are supposed to scare me, you have the wrong man, Bond. If M was so sure that I was bent, she’d have sent a 00. Benefits of being section chief, I’d know if anyone had been promoted to 00 status, wouldn’t I? Your file shows no kills, and it takes… > > James Bond: Two. > > Dryden: [pulls a gun and points it at Bond] Shame… we barely got to know each other. > > [pulls the trigger, but nothing happens] > > James Bond: [holds up the clip from Dryden’s pistol] I know where you keep your gun. I suppose that’s something. > > Dryden: [lowers his gun] True. How did he die? > > James Bond: Your contact? Not well. > > [cut to a scene of Bond savagely beating a man to death in a bathroom] > > Dryden: Made you feel it, did he? Well, you needn’t worry. The second is… > > [Bond pulls his gun and kills Dryden] > > James Bond: Yes… considerably ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/25 "2019-07-17T20:09:30Z")
[This article](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/05/james_bond_007_career_path/) is a pretty interesting read - it discusses what a real-world 007 career path might look like (and touches on the question about the “license to kill”. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/26 "2019-07-17T20:15:50Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I like how they handle it in the Casino Royale movie: I guess I’ve watched Bond since I was so young I didn’t “get” what was going on, how the world worked. But I just accepted it. And never considered the implications, the mechanics, of it. I guess I just figured shooting double agents or assassinating spies was just “another day at the office”. MI-6 would just “clean up the mess” and Bond would continue on. It’s just housecleaning. Why would the police care? They might not even know. It never occurred to me that THAT is what a license to kill meant. not that the police department would let you go when you showed them your double-naught card, so much that your boss would smooth things over. It’s not the killing that needs the “license”, it’s the aftermath. Though now I’m wondering what happened after a lot of scenes in the movies. Dead guys in hotel rooms, bodies in trees, guys that fell through roofs from airplanes. Do the police ever figure out what happened? Or are there tons of unsolved homicides in Bond’s wake, clogging the open case files? There was a news item several years back about a van with four people that crashed and all were killed. None had IDs, and as far as I know, nothing ever came from it. AFAIK, they were never identified, no arrests made. They could have been undocumented aliens, most likely, but part of me thinks they were henchmen, killed in the middle of some real-life Bond movie, and us civilians none the wiser. Could be! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/27 "2019-07-17T20:56:38Z")
Man, that’s arrogant of Dryden, to assume that if the boss was on to him, she’d let him know about the guy coming to kill him. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/28 "2019-07-17T21:32:30Z")
He doesn’t think that. It’s just that he already knows Bond, and knows that Bond has never killed before. He therefore assumes that Bond isn’t about to kill him. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/29 "2019-07-17T23:39:54Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Do you have to start with a learners permit to maim? _Mad_ magazine claimed he had a license to kill, “but only a learner’s permit to make out”, because “the English don’t mind violence, but they’re a little stuffy about sex”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/30 "2019-07-18T00:58:30Z")
But he also assumes that if Bond had killed, he’d have found out about that. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/31 "2019-07-18T05:52:31Z")
The UK release of \*\*License to Kill \*\*was **Licence Revoked** , so yeah, there’s a provision to limit his reckless behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/32 "2019-07-18T06:11:06Z")
Not quite, \*\*License Revoked \*\*was the working title during early development. By the time they started shooting, it had been renamed as **License to Kill** , and was released as such in all English-speaking markets. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/33 "2019-07-18T09:29:37Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I don’t think it’s archaic in British usage, or at least it wasn’t 50 years ago. The OED has it marked as obsolete, and I’m pretty sure it would have been at least obsolescent when Dr No was written. Certainly not usual, or capable of being used without likely being misunderstood. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171/34 "2019-07-18T11:51:41Z")
I remember that I found it jarring when I read it over 30 years ago. Certainly not standard British usage then or now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bonds-license-to-kill-what-does-it-really-mean/837171.md?page=1)