In the prologue, three skydiving 00 agents are tasked with penetrating radar installations atop the Rock of Gibraltar as part of a Ministry of Defence training exercise, but the exercise turns deadly when an assassin cuts 004's climbing rope, sending the spy to his death.

"The Living Daylights" remains one of A-ha's most played songs in live concerts and has often been extended into a "sing-along" with the audience, as featured on the live album How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head. In 2006, guitarist Paul Waaktaar complimented Bond composer John Barry's contributions: "I loved the stuff he added to the track, I mean it gave it this really cool string arrangement. That's when for me it started to sound like a Bond thing".

Bond's assignment is to aid in KGB officer Georgi Koskov's defection, covering his escape during intermission of a symphony in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.

Bond points out a blonde female cellist, to which his contact, Saunders, replies, "Forget the ladies for once, Bond."

SAUNDERS: I'm reporting to M that you deliberately missed. Your orders were to kill that sniper.
BOND: Stuff my orders. I only kill professionals. That girl didn't know one end of a rifle from the other.

He smuggles Koskov across the border in a scouring plug used to clean the Trans-Siberian Pipeline.

Q section demonstrates a rocket-launching boombox. "Something we're making for the Americans," Q explains. "It's called a ghetto blaster."

Director John Glen decided to include the macaw from For Your Eyes Only. It can be seen squawking in the kitchen of Blayden House when Necros attacks the cook and security officer.

Disguised as a milkman, Necros gains access to the safe-house where Koskov is being held by the British Secret Service. He then radios in a report of a major gas leak within the building, which causes confusion and allows him to escape with General Koskov.

Although she starts out as the girlfriend of rogue Soviet General Georgi Koskov, Kara later becomes Bond's love interest.