Let’s Talk Villain Deaths

Whether they are trying to start World War III, or create financial crisis, or just steal water from Bolivia, Bond villains usually have a righteous kill coming their way. Sometimes they even survive to live to die another day. Let’s take a look at each Bond villain’s demise.

• Dr. No has an ironic death. His metal hands can’t grasp the metal railing after Bond overloads the reactor and knocks Dr. No into the reactor pool. His death looks extremely painful. I give his death a 006 out of 007.
• Rosa Klebb certainly had her kicks in From Russia With Love. In a climactic fight with Bond, she tries to kick him with her poisoned switchblade shoe, but Bond girl Tatiana takes her sweet time in deciding to shoot Klebb. I like her death strictly for actress Lotte Lenya’s nearly orgasmic last gasp and pose. I give her death a 005 out of 007.
• Shouldn’t Goldfinger have died in some manner involving gold? Goldfinger is sucked out of the cabin of a plane through a ruptured window. I’m gonna just come out and say it. He was too fat for that tiny window. I give his death a 002 out of 007.
• In Thunderball, Bond is fighting Largo on board his yacht, and Largo is about to shoot Bond when Bond girl Domino shoots him with a harpoon gun. I like a good revenge killing. After all, Largo did have Domino’s brother killed. I give his death a 004 out of 007.
• You Only Live Twice, but for Blofeld he goes on and on and on. He escapes, via an Epcot-like ride, after Bond pal Tiger Tanaka throws a ninja star at his wrist.  No death, so this gets a 000 out of 007.
• New Blofeld, same result in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Blofeld survives a bobsled fight with Bond, although he does appear to have broken his neck. He definitely is a pain in Bond’s neck. We see Blofeld wearing a neck brace driving his right-hand woman Irma Bunt. She opens fire on Bond and his new wife Tracy. Bond survives, but Tracy is shot in the head. No death, so this gets a 000 out of 007.
• Will somebody please kill Blofeld?! In Diamonds Are Forever we have the same villain now thrice. Oh and three different actors each time. Blofeld tries to escape at the end in his tiny submarine, but Bond gains control of the launch crane and crashes the sub into the control room. We don’t see him live or die. No visible death, so this gets a 000 out of 007.
• Live And Let Die gives us the villain Kananga and the most ludicrous death in the history of James Bond movies. Bond fights him and they both fall into a shark pool and Bond forces Kananga to swallow a compressed-gas pellet, causing his body to inflate and explode. No, really. I’m serious. His death gets a 001 out of 007.

• Francisco Scaramanga is The Man With The Golden Gun. The world’s deadliest assassin challenges Bond to a duel. Bond stands in the place of a mannequin of himself that Scaramanga kept around and when he walks by it, Bond turns to fire and kills him. Pretty clever. How did Bond have time to change into the mannequin’s clothes? I give his death a 005 out of 007.
• Karl Stromberg is a poor man’s Blofeld in The Spy Who Loved Me. His death might be one of the most vicious in the franchise, especially coming from Roger Moore. He shoots Stromberg in cold blood a few times. Including in the groin. I give his death a 005 out of 007.
• Hugo Drax takes a giant leap for mankind in Moonraker, after Bond shoots his heart with a poison-tipped dart. Bond then escorts him out the space station and Drax is last seen floating off into space. A very cold death. I give his death a 005 out of 007.
• Aristotle Kristatos is the main villain of For Your Eyes Only and it isn’t Bond who does him in. Bond ally Columbo throws a knife into the back of the double-crossing Kristatos. A boring death for a dull villain. I give his death a 002 out of 007.
• Octopussy villain Kamal Khan dies in a plane crash. This far too dull for a flashy enemy of Bond. Especially for as fun and wacky a movie as Octopussy is. I give his death a 002 out of 007.
• Max Zorin has the most fun dying out of any other Bond villain, in the film A View To A Kill. Zorin, before plunging to his death from high atop the Golden Gate Bridge, lets out a self-amusing laugh. Typical Walken. That’s a 006 out of 007.
• Triple-crossing Soviet General Koskov, from The Living Daylights, looked like he was about to die when his jeep collided with a plane. But nope, he survived. He is later arrested and sent back to Moscow. That’s a 000 for 007.
• Robert Davi plays drug lord Franz Sanchez in License To Kill. Lets just say he is a real “hot head”. Sanchez killed Bond’s pal Felix Leiter’s bride. He also took Leiter’s leg! Bond shows Sanchez his cigarette lighter. A gift for being the best man at the couple’s wedding. Sanchez, covered in gasoline after his fight with Bond, is set a blaze. He stumbles into a wrecked tanker, blowing it up and killing himself. Great death. But did he ever really have time to read the inscription on the lighter and understand why Bond wanted revenge? Still, a great death. I give his death a 007 out of 007.
• Alec Trevelyan is 006 and he is a very bad dude in Goldeneye. Faked his own death, wants to destroy Britain’s economy. After a brutal fight on top of a gigantic satellite dish, Bond catches and releases Trevelyan, who plummets to a backbreaking death. I give his death a 007 out of 007.
• Elliot Carver is the Rupert Murdoch-type of villain in Tomorrow Never Dies. Bond kills Carver with his own sea drill after both actors deliver some cringe-worthy lines. I give his death a 002 out of 007.
• Bond doesn’t really want to kill The World Is Not Enough villain Elektra King, but she gives him no choice. After taunting him that he can’t kill her because he will miss her too much, Bond shoots her in the heart and says, “I never miss.” This death gets a 006 out of 007.
• Of course Die Another Day would have a bizarre villain death. Former Korean, Gustav Graves, attempts to escape by parachute but Bond opens the parachute which causes Graves to be sucked out of the plane and into one of its engines. All of this is going on while Graves is wearing an electric suit of armor. I give his death a 003 out of 007.
• It’s time to get serious in Casino Royale.  Le Chiffre isn’t even killed by Bond. He’s taken out by his higher-up, Mr. White. Le Chiffre gambled away too much of their client’s money. I give his death a 002 out of 007.
• Even though Bond doesn’t technically kill Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace, it’s still a brutal way to go. Or should I say, another way to die? Bond captures Greene and interrogates him about his evil organization, leaving him stranded in the desert with only a can of motor oil to drink. Later, M tells Bond that Greene was found dead in the middle of the desert, shot twice and with engine oil in his stomach. I give this death a 007 out of 007, even if Bond didn’t actually do the deed.
• A thrown knife in the back is the way the flamboyant Silva dies in Skyfall. He even has time to slowly walk up to Bond and give him about five different emotions before finally calling it a life. I give his death a 005 out of 007.
• We meet again Mr. Blofeld. In Spectre, we learn Bond and Blofeld are foster brothers. Forgetting about this silly plot point, Bond finally has a chance to murder Blofeld but doesn’t because Bond has “found love” with his latest lady. As Blofeld crawls from his helicopter wreckage, Bond confronts him but empties his gun and leaves him to be arrested. Yawn. It gets a 000 out of 007.