A hero is only as good as their villain, and it could be argued that James Bond has been entertaining audiences for 60 years and counting not just due to his own charm and panache, but because of the larger-than-life foes that he faces in each and every movie. Several of Bond’s nemeses have made as indelible an impact on pop culture as 007 himself, such as Blofeld or Goldfinger.
On the flipside, however, there are many Bond villains who unfairly haven’t lasted in the memories of the moviegoing public, or perhaps even in the core Bond fandom. Perhaps because they appeared in lesser entries in the character’s canon or because they were overshadowed by other antagonists, allies, or love interests in their respective films. Whatever the reason, there are various villains who deserve a spot in MI6’s Hall of Infamy.
A fair warning in advance, I am a James Bond fan who deeply believes the Pierce Brosnan era (beyond the already beloved GoldenEye) is in need of some serious critical reappraisal, so a few enemies of James No. 5 may pop up on this list. To begin, though, let’s start with a foe of Brosnan’s predecessor…
10. Necros (The Living Daylights)
The Living Daylights is a solid Bond film starring a brilliant Bond in newcomer Timothy Dalton, but it suffers from featuring two main villains you can hardly remember once the credits have rolled. At least it has Necros, then, an underrated entry in the grand tradition of fearsome Bond henchmen. Necros lacks a signature quirk or physical feature that marks out the most memorable Bond minions, which is a great shame as — combining the knack for disguise of Rosa Klebb with the brutality of Oddjob — he really should be stacked up there with the best of them.
9. Miranda Frost (Die Another Day)
Die Another Day is perhaps the most infamous Bond movie of them all because it’s a film of two halves — the first half is an engrossing, gritty thriller seeing Bond tortured in North Korea and the second is a gonzo sci-fi adventure involving space lasers and invisible cars. Rosamund Pike’s Miranda Frost has the misfortune of appearing in said second half, not to mention being saddled with some corny material, but she remains an underrated character thanks to bucking the trend of Bond “curing” a femme fatale by sleeping with her. In contrast, Frost seems like a classic secondary Bond girl only to be outed as the film’s secondary villain.
8. Renard (The World Is Not Enough)
Christopher Nolan has made no secret of how much his love of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service influenced Inception, but one day he should really admit to stealing from The World is Not Enough in The Dark Knight Rises. Like Tom Hardy’s Bane, Viktor Zokas aka “Renard” is a vicious bald bruiser with increased endurance and a lowered pain threshold pitched as the film’s main villain, only to be ultimately outed as the lovesick henchman of a secret female accomplice. Except here, the twist actually works, adding depth and humanity to Renard instead of costing him his credibility.
7. Fiona Volpe (Thunderball)
Even by Thunderball, only the fourth Bond film ever made, the franchise had built up a set of tropes, so Fiona Volpe deserves more clout for being perhaps the first instance of the series becoming self-aware. Like Tatiana Romanova and Pussy Galore before her, we might expect her to switch to Bond’s side once they sleep together but, no, just as she warns him, Fiona is evil through and through. As SPECTRE’s top assassin, she displays a total callous regard for human life. Plus, Bond throwing her in the path of a bullet meant for him remains one of the spy’s coldest moments, even if she maybe deserved it.
6. Franz Sanchez (License to Kill)
License to Kill has a reputation for being Bond’s poor attempt at aping the guns-blazing, gritty action craze of the late ’80s, but hardcore fans understand that it’s actually much more Bondian than it appears, with many of its concepts lifted straight from the Ian Fleming novels. Take Franz Sanchez, for example, an original creation from the screen but one who feels like he could’ve come from Fleming’s pen. With his ghoulish sense of humor — he feeds Bond’s friend Felix Leiter to sharks and leaves the note “He disagreed with something that ate him” — and quirky pet in the form of an iguana, Sanchez deserves more recognition.
5. Naomi (The Spy Who Loved Me)
The Spy Who Loved Me is such a classic of the Bond canon that everyone glosses over the fact that its central villain is so boring. Despite his plan literally being to destroy the world and rebuilt society under the sea, Karl Stromberg has very little personality on-screen. Thankfully, this is more than made up for by the icon that is Richard Kiel’s silent, steel-toothed Jaws. But let’s not forget Stromberg’s other lackey, Naomi, who sadly appears in the film all too briefly and yet still features in one of its standout set pieces — the epic chase between Naomi’s helicopter and Bond’s Lotus Esprit (y’know, the underwater car).
4. Elliot Carver (Tomorrow Never Dies)
These days, Bond movies seem hesitant to include antagonist with truly OTT schemes, which makes it all the more entertaining to revisit Tomorrow Never Dies nowadays and bask in the pure cartoonish villainy of Elliot Carver. A thinly veiled caricature of Rupert Murdoch, Carver is a media mogul willing to start World War Three just so he can win the ratings war. Not many villains have the chutzpah to admit in a live television broadcast to millions that they covet “world domination,” but that’s Carver for you. Jonathan Pryce delivers a wonderfully hammy performance as perhaps the last true Bond supervillain.
3. Mr. Big’s boys (Live and Let Die)
If they’re lucky, a Bond villain will have one memorable henchman in their employ, and in rare occasions maybe two. Mr. Big, aka Dr. Kananga, of Live and Let Die, however, is spoiled for choice by having not one or two, but three minions who all stick in the memory. There’s Tee-Hee, with his metal claw for a hand, the mostly silent Whisper, but most of all, there’s Baron Samedi. While Bond films frequently veer from spy-fi into sci-fi, Samedi’s ultimate resurrection confirms that he’s a genuine supernatural force. A shame we were denied a comeback for Geoffrey Holder’s scene-stealer.
2. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
Wait, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the most iconic Bond villain of them all, on a list of underrated Bond villains? Yes, just hear me out. While Donald Pleasence’s incarnation may be legendary, and Christoph Waltz’s version is familiar to modern audiences, Telly Savalas’ Blofeld from OHMSS is vastly underappreciated. In fact, he’s got to be the finest Blofeld of the lot. Thanks to his unique portrayal, the character is finally afforded some depth — Savalas’ villain is a jumped-up thug believing himself to be a gentleman criminal, perhaps the only Blofeld who can go toe-to-toe with Bond in a fight. Plus, he’s (indirectly) responsible for the series’ most tragic death, the murder of James’ wife, Tracey.
1. Elektra King (The World Is Not Enough)
Yes, I’m back on my “The World is Not Enough is actually great” soapbox. Just like Nolan replicated Renard with TDK‘s Bane, he also attempted to redo the arc of Elektra King with Talia al Ghul. But there’s no beating the original, as Sophie Marceau’s Elektra deserves to be remembered as one of the most duplicitous and charismatic villains in all of Bond. She’s not just the only main female villain in the entire franchise, but one that Bond falls in love with, making her ultimate betrayal all the more shocking. Her emotionally charged death, as Bond is forced to kill her in order to save the day, is 1000 times better than Talia’s infamous demise. One day we’ll get another female villain to rival Elektra, but until then she stands apart from the crowd. Yas, King.
