Pam Bouvier’s above warning cuts through Bond’s tunnel vision in his mission to avenge Della Leiter’s death. Colonel Heller’s arrangement is a hard pill to swallow, but it’s pragmatic. Trading immunity for the return of the Stinger missiles Sanchez stole and threatened to shoot down an airliner prioritizes public safety over Bond’s personal satisfaction, a distinction Bond is in no mood to appreciate in Licence to Kill.

This tension carries forward into Bond’s unlikely reception by Sanchez. From Sanchez’s perspective, Bond looks less like an adversary and more like a rogue operator who just disrupted a DEA-aligned operation and showed a willingness to operate outside official channels. That’s not an enemy you eliminate outright, it’s one you size up and perhaps even recruit.