The Living Daylights opens with James Bond and two other 00 agents parachuting to a training exercise on Gibraltar. They’re all wearing black skydiving jumpsuits, commando boots and parachute packs on their backs. Bond’s jumpsuit is probably made out of polyester. It has a zip front, a ribbed tall collar and ribbed cuffs. There is a flapped patch pocket on the upper part of each sleeve and a flapped patch pocket on the front of the upper thigh of each leg. The pocket flaps most likely stay closed with velcro. Bond wears the legs of his jumpsuit tucked into his boots.
Under the jumpsuit, Bond wears a black crew-neck T-shirt. The black leather commando boots have a plain toe, and closed lacing with five pairs of metal reinforced eyelets and five pairs of speed hooks above the eyelets. Bond and the other 00 agents skydive with a black helmet and goggles.
Director John Glen thought this jumpsuit was very “masculine”.
I have often wondered whether the parachute that Bond uses to escape from the land rover is his original chute re-packed or just the reserve chute. We do see him seemingly folding up his parachute in one high angle shot.
No, I believe it’s the backup parachute.
A script writer for live and let die Mr.Tom said it best when he said “Timothy has a face that you dont know what he is capable of doing.” He just might be my favorite james bond….
Too bad he left too soon….
a farewell to arms…
Wow! I am really beside myself. I just didn’t know that James Bond was a polyester type of guy. Army combat uniforms are 50% nylon and 50% cotton. I thought he would have something more rugged.
It could possibly be nylon. I know little about skydiving jumpsuits.
Perfect clothing for the near-perfect opening of The Living Daylights.
Awesome opening for the living Daylight!!! really liked the way bond wear the jumpsuits, commando boots and parachute packs on their backs. Thanks for sharing this…
A script writer for live and let die Mr.Tom said it best when he said “Timothy has a face that you dont know what he is capable of doing.” He just might be my favorite james bond….
Too bad he left too soon….
Like a few others who have left comments, Timothy Dalton was a favorite of mine, particularly at the time when his Bond films were released. Mind you I had nothing against Roger Moore’s Bond, but I felt that a return to the literary Bond, a reboot if you will, was needed. In my case, I was active in the military as a contractor back then and watched the film Bond become more and more a caricature of what Fleming had created. With all of the espionage literature of the time, John Le Carre, Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum all seemed to have brought some reality to the table, and the film Bond kept straying further and further into near parody.
Despite the Dalton era Bond trying to ground the character, which was not terribly successful at the box office, I suppose the 1980s wasn’t the time for a grittier Bond just then, though as we all know, that time was coming with Daniel Craig.
Apparently even Dalton’s wardrobe wasn’t satisfying for some in the audience, I thought it was fine and reflected a more grounded in reality effect. I mean, even James Bond cannot wear bloody tuxedos all of the time! The khaki coloured clothing was absolutely appropriate for desert wear, at least in my mind. I’m not sure how many others reading this have spent time in the Middle East, I can say as a Veteran of that area during that era, khaki clothing is perfectly balanced and might just help you blend into the desert enough to have someone miss you with an AK-47, which is always a good idea. Those 7.62 x 39 mm rounds are quite enough to keep you down and out, particularly with the lack of medical assistance that always accompanied the time spent there.
Also, having earned my Master Parachutist’s wings, I can say that I thought the skydiving stunts in The Living Daylights were quite good, especially for the 1980s. So, to each their own but Timothy Dalton’s Bond was just what I was hoping for; I liked the Aston Martin V-8 Vantage in TLD, I liked Dalton’s take on Bond and I really liked the character of Kara Milovy. D’Abo’s Bond girl wasn’t totally helpless and had some guts and brains, which presented a nice update to some of the prior Bond girls.
I enjoyed the article Matt! Spasibo!
Fellow graduate of Middle Eastern Studies with an emphasis in door kicking, I too have a soft spot for Dalton’s Bond. The black jumpsuit here is definetly channelling the 1980 raid on the Embassy in London. His training exercise with the SAS here is nearly a direct link to that though they are in essentially class B uniform as it would be known in the states. His all tan sports wear is very desert apropos. His car coat and his off duty look in Bratislava are among my favorites from the film as well as the gun club check sports coat. Dalton’s Bond masters looking like he knows what he is doing in a subtle way, not over the top with kit other than the odd gadget, which other than the car TLD was light on. Even poking light fun with the ghetto blaster at the Q shop of the Moore era.
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I have been obsessed with his boots from this scene since I saw it as a child; there’s an awesome shot of them from overhead as he descends toward the yacht. I have some reason to believe they may have used two different pairs of boots: the ones shown on Dalton himself on this page when he is on the roof the (Land Rover?) and the other being the ones I mentioned first when the stuntman is descending onto the yacht. My reason for saying this is that I believe I have identified the ones Dalton is wearing, which I believe are Paraboot Para Saut ‘Delta’ models. I have been researching endlessly and these boots are the closest I could find and I actually found some on my size. They are very similar to the ones shown over the yacht, yet different enough to make me think they are a different model and perhaps manufacturer as well. They seem decidedly stouter in construction with a wide protective toe cap compared to the Paraboot Delta’s. I am pretty confident that Dalton wears Paraboot deltas because of the sole, the strip of leather going from sole to eyelets mid boot, and the five eyelet, five speed hook design. I would be so happy to know which boots are featured in the scene above the yacht, any info would be extremely appreciated!
Thank You for an amazing article, it was really helpful for me and loved to read this.
I have two pairs of these overalls and the rope that the tag was dropped down saying death to spy’s.
I’m going to dig out the overalls now I’m interested to see what material they are