Although I’ve always loved the simplicity of Licence To Kill‘s drug-trafficking plot and commend Timothy Dalton’s gritty performance, I cannot help but wonder what the movie might have been with an even darker edge and some actual on-screen drug use. I understand the limitations of the PG-13 rating, but an R-rated version that leaned harder into the cocaine-fueled world of Franz Sanchez could have made for a fascinating experiment in tone and box office appeal.

Initially, I guess the R rating would have hurt its commercial prospects by inherently limiting moviegoers, but maybe marketing the movie toward an older audience could’ve made up the difference and broadened its appeal. Interestingly, plenty of characters already behave as though they are sampling Sanchez’s product anyway, with twitchy mannerisms, erratic movements and generally irrational decision-making that makes the whole operation feel chemically unbalanced. After all, Licence To Kill was released only six years after Scarface amongst a plethora of other kingpin movies, so the appetite for a more explicit depiction of the drug underworld certainly existed. A powder-covered Franz Sanchez going completely off the rails before meeting his fiery fate would have been quite the sight, although I’m not sure even that could improve upon the wonderfully brutal tanker truck finale.

Licence To Kill was already considered a dark Bond movie, so I wonder what it might have gained by treating cocaine less like Sanchez’s product and more like a deadly poison that fuels his empire and is the source of his cruelty.