James Bond: 10 Greatest Licensed Kills

Posted on 20 oktober 2015 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

In anticipation of SPECTRE, FilmDungeon.com editor Jeppe Kleyngeld lists his favourite things about the James Bond series in 12 unique features. Enjoy!

10. Fake Blofeld
Film: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
Kiss off line: ‘Wrong pussy’

Why Great? After Bond already supposedly killed his main adversary Blofeld in the pre-title sequence of the movie by drowning him in a pool of superheated mud, he is surprised to learn that he is still alive. Not only that, he has created another copy of himself. Bond has one hook in his climbing gun, so he can kill only one of them, but which one? Bond has an idea, he kicks Blofeld’s cat which jumps into the arms of one Blofeld who James then shoots and kills. Unfortunately another pussycats walks into the room… ‘Right idea Mr. Bond’, the real Blofeld remarks. ‘But wrong Pussy’, concludes Bond.

9. Emile Leopold Locque
Film: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
Kiss off line: ‘He had no head for heights’

Why Great? Bond kicks this bastard down a ravine for the murder of one of his colleagues. Roger Moore proves that his Bond can also be a cool killer when he needs to be.

8. Dario
Film: LICENCE TO KILL
Kiss off line: None

Why Great? The sadistic Dario ends up in the same cocaine grinder he wanted to put Bond in. This is a way too unpleasant death, even for him. A gruesome detail is that you can hear him cry his master’s name ‘Franz’ in a final call for help. A god awful, agonizing death.

7. Oddjob
Film: GOLDFINGER
Kiss off line: ‘He blew a fuse’

Why Great? Great because it’s his own deadly hat that becomes his undoing. Bond fries Oddjob when he reaches for his hat that is stuck between bars of the Fort Knox vault during their final fight. Oddjob was a toughie, so it is an impressive kill for the mighty James Bond.

6. Xenia Onatopp
Film: GOLDENEYE
Kiss off line: ‘She always did enjoy a good squeeze’

Why Great? In Xenia’s final encounter with Bond on Cuba, she ambushes him and his girl Natalya Simonova by rappelling from a helicopter and trying to squeeze him to death between her legs (she first takes out Natalya with a headbut). However, Bond is able to connect the rope she rappelled down with to her safety harness, grabs her AK-74 rifle, and shoots down the helicopter which then pulls Onatopp off Bond and sends her flying into the crotch of a tree, with her safety harness crushing her to death. How fitting.

5. Hugo Drax
Film: MOONRAKER
Kiss off line: ‘Take a giant step for mankind’

Why Great? He was another villain with a God complex, Drax wanted to wipe out the earth’s population and start a whole new race from space, with specimens he handpicked himself. But Bond ruins his plans and Drax wants to shoot him in revenge. But Bond shoots him first with a poison dart. Before Drax dies, Bond pushes him out of the airlock of his space station; a very suiting death for this space-obsessed lunatic. ‘He had to fly’, Bond later comments when asked what happened to Drax.

4. Franz Sanchez
Film: LICENCE TO KILL
Kiss off line: ‘Don’t you want to know why?’

Why Great? An unlicensed kill really, since Bond lost his licence earlier. Villain Sanchez – who Bond had been trying to extract vengeance upon for the torture of his friend Felix and death of Felix’s wife – is holding a machete to Bond’s head, preparing to slay him. Bond buys some time by explaining Sanchez why he wanted revenge on him. He does so by showing him the lighter Felix gave him as a wedding present. The inscription reads: ‘James. love always. Della and Felix’. Sanchez covered in petrol, realises who Bond is, but before he can respond, Bond sets him aflame. He dies screaming and 007 gets his deserved vengeance.

3. Alec Trevelyan
Film: GOLDENEYE
Kiss off line: ‘For me’

Why Great? Bond is a professional killer, but once in a while he makes a personal kill (Blofeld in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY for example). Killing Alec is probably the most personal kill in his career because Alec was his friend. He betrayed both James and England, and after almost killing Bond a few times, 007 manages to throw him down a mast, only holding him by his feet. ‘For England James?’, asks the defeated Trevelyan. ‘No, for me’, Bond replies and drops Alec to his death.

2. Dr. Kananga
Film: LIVE AND LET DIE
Kiss off line: ‘He always did have an inflated opinion of himself’

Why Great? Bond takes care of baddie Kananga by making him eat a compressed air pattern causing him to blow up like a balloon. This is the first time 007 commits a political assassination, Kananga being a head of state.

1. Elektra King
Film: THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
Kiss off line: ‘I never miss’

Why Great? This is the first time Bond kills a Bond Girl, who was a major love interest for him. Off course he has good reasons: she wanted to kill him and M after all. Still, it is a cold, professional move by Bond.

Read also:

James Bond: 10 Best Title Sequences

James Bond: 10 Finest Bond Girls

The James Bond Films Rated From Worst To Best (24-11)

James Bond: 10 Greatest Villains

Posted on 17 oktober 2015 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

In anticipation of SPECTRE, FilmDungeon.com editor Jeppe Kleyngeld lists his favourite things about the James Bond series in 12 unique features. Enjoy!

10. Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Films: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, THUNDERBALL, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
Played by: Anthony Dawson, Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, John Hollis, Max von Sydow
Quote: ‘Let his death be a particularly unpleasant and humiliating one’

Why memorable: Ernst Blofeld is the arch villain of the Bond series. As leader (Nr. 1) of SPECTRE, he is cunning and rotten to the core. He appears in seven Bond films and is finally killed by Bond (thrown in factory chimney by helicopter) in the pre-title sequence of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. This is Bond’s revenge for the death of his first and only wife at the hands of Blofeld in AT YOUR MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE. Blofeld is played by a different actor in almost each of the seven movies he appears in and they all have a slightly different interpretation of the role. My favourite interpretation of Blofeld is the one performed by Donald Pleasence in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (photo).

9. Francisco Scaramanga
Film: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
Played by: Christopher Lee
Quote: ‘My name is Scaramanga. Francisco Scaramanga. I feel I know you, although I never thought we should ever really meet’

Why memorable: An assassin with a golden gun who charges a million bucks per hit, but he is willing to do James Bond for free. It is all about the challenge for this pistol artist who grew up in a circus. Great portrayal by the dark and handsome Christopher Lee. He makes Scaramanga a truly dangerous and respectable opponent. Bond’s employer MI6 has evaluated Scaramanga as one of the finest shots in the world, and M authorizes Bond to assassinate the KGB-trained gunman – if he can.

8. Kananga
Film: LIVE AND LET DIE
Played by: Yaphet Kotto
Quote: ‘At any cost – any – Bond must die’

Why memorable: After Blofeld has been the villain for three Bond movies in a row, it was time for something else. Kananga is a power-hungry political baddy with a taste for voodoo and sadism. He is also a drug manufacturer. On his island San Monique he has thousands of acres of poppy (heroin) fields, protected by the Voodoo threat of Kananga’s accomplice Baron Samedi. Then there is Kananga’s alter ego, the New Orleans based Mr. Big, distributer and wholesaler of the product through his chain of Fillet of Soul restaurants. Kananga/Mr. Big is excellently portrayed by character actor Yaphet Kotto as a frustrated, angry, impatient and violent bully. Kananga is named after Ross Kananga, owner of the crocodile farm featured in the movie.

7. Maximilian Largo
Film: THUNDERBALL, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
Played by: Adolfo Celi, Klaus Maria Brandauer
Quote: ‘Do you lose as gracefully as you win?’

Why memorable: Icy villain that works for SPECTRE as head of its extortion operations, under the organization’s leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Appears in both THUNDERBALL and unofficial remake NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. I am personally more a fan of the second interpretation. Largo’s cover is that he is a well known millionaire and philanthropist. Largo’s two main headquarters are his super-yacht The Flying Saucer and a Moorish castle Palmyra located on the north coast of Africa. He seems very friendly and controlled, but all of a sudden he can get real psychopathic. A very scary acting job by Austrian character actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.

6. Alec Trevelyan
Film: GOLDENEYE
Played by: Sean Bean
Quote: ‘Why can’t you just be a good boy and die?’

Why memorable: Former colleague and friend of Bond who faked his own death and comes back nine years later to extract revenge on Britain for what happened to his parents in the war. This leader of the Janus Crime Syndicate is very angry and hateful making him an interesting antagonist. For James this is the first time he faces a former friend, but naturally he stays true to Britain. Sean Bean is excellent as the vengeful Trevelyan, whose face is scarred due to Bond, making him even more hungry for payback.

5. Elektra King
Film: THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
Played by: Sophie Marceau
Quote: ‘I always had a power over men. Nobody can resist me’

Why memorable: THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH is the first James Bond movie where the main villain is a woman. This is revealed later in the film when Elektra is already a major love interest for James. She turns out to be pretty cold. She murdered her own father because she felt he hadn’t helped her sufficiently when she was kidnapped. Now she wants revenge on M, who worked together with her father during the kidnapping. Elektra is very sexy, smart, manipulative and above all: deadly. In short, the perfect Bond villain.

4. Max Zorin
Film: A VIEW TO A KILL
Played by: Christopher Walken
Quote: ‘Intuitive improvisation is the secret of genius’

Why memorable: A mad evil doctor did experiments on pregnant woman during the Second World War to enhance the intelligence of babies. Most of the women had miscarriages, but Max Zorin is one of the doctor’s success stories. He is extremely intelligent, but the treatment had a side effect: he is utterly psychotic as well. Zorin was trained by and long-affiliated with the KGB. Then he became a successful business man, first in oil, then in microchips. Zorin forms a plan to destroy his only competition in Silicon Valley by triggering a massive earthquake in the San Andreas Fault at high tide, causing the valley to flood. Zorin is completely ruthless and displays a total lack of loyalty towards his own men, as shown when he mows down hundreds of his own mine workers with a machine gun, laughing psychotically while doing it. He even betrays his own right hand woman May Day. Besides killing, he also has a strong passion for horse racing.

3. Karl Stromberg
Film: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
Played by: Curt Jurgens
Quote: ‘Cancel transfer of 20 million dollars. Inform next of kin that a tragic accident has resulted in the deaths of Professor Markovitz and Dr. Bechmann. The funeral was at sea’

Why memorable: Shipping tycoon Karl Stromberg is, along with Hugo Drax in the follow-up MOONRAKER, the most ambitious Bond villain and among the most rich and powerful (and crazy). His masterplan is to destroy the world via a nuclear war and create a new civilisation under the sea. He can best be characterised as insane maniac who thinks he is God. Stromberg reclusively lives in his sea station ‘Atlantis’ that has a spectacularly beautiful aquarium that contains several rare species, but also sharks that he uses to feed his disloyal underlings to. Prefers not to shake hands.

2. Franz Sanchez
Film: LICENCE TO KILL
Played by: Robert Davi
Quote: ‘I just want you to know that this is nothing personal. It’s purely business’

Why memorable: Robert Davi plays the role of a lifetime as Franz Sanchez, a ruthless druglord who is completely believable in his cruel practices. From the moment he is introduced, he is evil and menacing. His first acts shown to us are whipping his girlfriend for cheating and having her lover’s heart cut out. Soon after, he throws Bond’s best friend Felix Leiter to the sharks. When LICENCE TO KILL came out, newspapers were full of cocaine kings like Sanchez, making him a very current villain at the time.

1. Auric Goldfinger
Film: GOLDFINGER
Played by: Gert Fröbe
Quote: ‘No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!’

Why memorable: Industrial tycoon and criminal mastermind that wants to increase the value of his gold supply (approx. 10 times) by blowing a nuclear bomb in the vault of Fort Knox, making the entire gold supply of the United States radioactive for 60 years. His plan is so ambitious that he must be a lunatic. He is, but still comes pretty close to achieve his operation Grand Slam, killing many people along the way, including the turned Jill Masterson, who is found covered in gold paint. ‘It’s the kiss of death…’. What makes Goldfinger so intriguing – apart from his brilliant name – is his love for gold. ‘All my life, I’ve been in love with its colour, brilliance and divine heaviness.’ He dies by getting sucked out of an airplane cabin through a window that Bond has shot.

Read also:

James Bond: Top 10 Gadgets

The James Bond Films Rated From Worst To Best (24-11)

The James Bond Films Rated From Worst To Best (Top 10)

James Bond: 10 Greatest Henchmen

Posted on 15 oktober 2015 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

In anticipation of SPECTRE, FilmDungeon.com editor Jeppe Kleyngeld lists his favourite things about the James Bond series in 12 unique features. Enjoy!

10. Zao
Film: DIE ANOTHER DAY
Played by: Rick Yune
Quote: ‘How’s that for a punch line?’

Why memorable: This Korean version of pinhead has business with 007 for messing up his face. In DIE ANOTHER DAY, he forms a very strong and fierce opponent for Bond. Finally gets impaled by a falling chandelier in the main villain’s ice palace.

9. Gobinda
Film: OCTOPUSSY
Played by: Kabir Bedi
Quote: ‘The Englishman has escaped!’ [he doesn’t talk very much]

Why memorable: A tall, strong and tough, but silent Sikh. He is the loyal servant and assassin of baddie Kamal Khan in OCTOPUSSY. He performs various duties at Khan’s Monsoon palace, as well as dealing with his master’s enemies, including Bond. Not an easy opponent -obviously- due to his sheer strength and brutal personality.

8. Tee Hee
Film: LIVE AND LET DIE
Played by: Julius W. Harris
Quote: ‘There are two ways to disable a crocodile you know. One way is to take a pencil, and jam it into the pressure hole behind his eye. Oh the other’s twice as simple. You just put your hand in his mouth… and pull his teeth out! Heh, heh’

Why memorable: He is two metres tall, smiles a lot, has a hook for hand… Oh, and he is a big crocodile fan. Tee Hee is the perfect bad guy. His hook is unfortunately also his downfall. Bond disables it when Tee Hee attacks him in the train in the final scene and kicks him out of the window.

7. Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint
Film: DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
Played by: Putter Smith and Bruce Glover
Quote: Mr. Kidd: ‘If god had wanted man to fly…’ Mr. Wint: ‘…he would have given him wings, Mr. Kidd’

Why memorable: This homosexual couple takes sardonic pleasure at murdering anybody their employer wants dead. Their methods vary from slipping a scorpion down their victim’s neck to blowing their helicopter out of the sky. They get awfully close to killing Bond a few times (especially when they put him in an incinerator), but the problem is they are too sadistic to just simply shoot James, giving him opportunities to escape.

6. Dario
Film: LICENCE TO KILL
Played by: Benicio Del Toro
Quote: ‘Don’t worry. We gave her a nice Honeymooooon…’

Why memorable: Benicio Del Toro, one of the greatest Latino actors around, plays Dario, a real sick puppy who works for drug dealer Sanchez. Dario was with the Contras revolutionaries before finding employment within Sanchez’s cocaine empire, a job that perfectly suits his sadistic needs. Del Toro was only 21 when he portrayed this stiletto wielding sicko. It is a great performance; every line that comes out of his mouth has real venom in it. Dario is a truly scary opponent for 007.

5. Xenia Onatopp
Film: GOLDENEYE
Played by: Famke Janssen
Quote: ‘Enjoy it while it lasts’

Why memorable: Dutch actress Famke Janssen portrays the woman with the meanest thighs in cinema history. She uses them to give opponents of her employer – the Janus Syndicate – the finest death imaginable. Nearly gets an orgasm from shooting a bunch of Russian computer programmers. This tough former fighter pilot is hard to defeat, but eventually gets strangled herself when Bond shoots down the helicopter she is attached to by wire.

4. Fatima Blush
Film: NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN
Played by: Barbara Carrera
Quote: [holding Bond at gun point] ‘You’re quite a man, Mr. James Bond, but I am a superior woman. Guess where you get the first one?’

Why memorable: Femme fatales are pretty rare in the Bond universe and Fatima Blush is a particularly delicious one, so she deserves a strong position here. Fatima dresses in black and red, is sexy and beautiful, keeps a snake for company and is violently and psychotically crazy. Vanity is her fatal flaw; she forces Bond to confess on paper that she gave him the finest sexual experience of his life, providing him with the golden opportunity to kill her.

3. Donald Grant
Film: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Played by: Robert Shaw
Quote: ‘You may know the right wines, but you’re the one on your knees’

Why memorable: Donald Grant, convicted murderer. Escaped Dartmoor Prison in 1960. Recruited by SPECTRE in Tangiers in 1962. Grant is an excellent killer and a worthy opponent for Bond. A real übermensch; blonde, athletic, strong and emotionless. His fatal flaw is talking too much rather than just shooting his target.

2. Oddjob
Film: GOLDFINGER
Played by: Harold Sakata
Quote: ‘Urchhh’

Why memorable: ‘He is an admirable manservant but mute. And not a very good caddy.’ That is Auric Goldfinger’s description of his Korean henchman Oddjob. We would describe him as a near indestructible brute who can wield his razor-sharp hat like a lethal weapon. ‘Remarkable’, says Bond, when Oddjob decapitates a statue at the golf club. ‘But what does the club secretary have to say?’

1. Jaws
Film: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and MOONRAKER
Played by: Richard Kiel
Quote: ‘Well, here’s to us’ [in MOONRAKER, his only line in the movies.]

Why memorable: Indestructible, steel-mouthed brute who can bite his way through metal as easy as flesh. Works as a hitman for whoever wants to hire him. Basically survives anything, including a dive of a cliff, an explosion and a swim with a lethal shark (he bites the shark to death instead of the other way around). Jaws is the only henchman that appears in more than one movie. Halfway through his second appearance in MOONRAKER, he switches sides when he falls in love with a girl. Still the greatest henchman ever.

Read also:

James Bond: 10 Best Pre-Credit Scenes

James Bond: 10 Greatest Licensed Kills

James Bond: Top 10 Gadgets

James Bond: Top 10 Vehicles

Posted on 11 oktober 2015 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

In anticipation of SPECTRE, FilmDungeon.com editor Jeppe Kleyngeld lists his favourite things about the James Bond series in 12 unique features. Enjoy!

10. BMW Z3

Film: GOLDENEYE
Why Great? Who can explain it better than Q? Agile, five forward gears, all-point radar. Self-destruct system. And, naturally, all the usual refinements. Behind the headlights, Stinger missiles. It is a shame that this blue beauty is mostly driven by Bond’s CIA-buddy Jack Wade, and 007 told him ‘not to touch any buttons.’

9. British Balloon

Film: OCTOPUSSY
Why Great? This balloon is used to attack villain Kamal Khan’s hideout. Why is it great? We get to see Q in action for one thing. And it has her majesty’s flag, which is the best flag in the world, so thumbs up for this one, Q.

8. BMW 750iL

Film: TOMORROW NEVER DIES
Why Great? The look of the 750 is not the best BMW ever came up with, but the gadgetry Q came up with is. All the usual refinements – machine guns, a roof-mounted rocket launcher, self-sealing and re-inflating tires, a cable cutting device in the front hood emblem and a caltrop dispenser – are there. Add to that a GPS-tracking system with remote control. Bond uses it during a chase sequence in the Atlantic Hotel parking garage. Despite its armour that can easily withstand sledgehammer blows, the car sadly doesn’t make it to the end of the film.

7. Q’s Fishing Boat

Film: THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
Why Great? Hey, it’s Q’s boat, need we say more? Well it’s green for one thing, and it can achieve 80mph on the water. During the making of THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, it was discovered only by accident that its 350 horsepower engines could literally force the bow of the boat under water. The move was subsequently written into the film.

6. Acrostar Jet

Film: OCTOPUSSY
Why Great? The Acrostar Jet, also known as BD-5 Micro, is the world’s lightest jet aircraft. It has remarkable speed and Bond does the handling fantastically in the opening sequence of OCTOPUSSY. He manages to outmanoeuvre a heat seeking missile that he then uses to destroy the enemy base. He then takes it to the gas station. ‘Fill her up, please.’ Now, that’s James Bond.

5. Lotus Esprit

Film: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
Why Great? Another great car with a few amazing accessories, very suitable for this marine oriented entry in the Bond series. It is a small submarine as well as a super fast sports car. And naturally, it is loaded with missiles for uninvited guests.

4. Aston Martin Vanquish

Film: DIE ANOTHER DAY
Why Great? Bond’s favourite car now has adaptive camouflage. Tiny camera’s on all sides project the image they see onto a light-emitting polymer skin on the opposite side. Furthermore is has all the usual features PLUS added target seeking shotguns. Not bad for a new Q (John Cleese took over from Desmond Llewelyn in this movie).

3. Jetpack

Film: THUNDERBALL
Why Great? Bond uses the jetpack during an escape from gunmen in the pre-credit sequence of THUNDERBALL. It just comes so unexpected, which makes it surprising besides spectacular. The Jetpack is actually a Bell Aerosystems Rocketbelt model, a fully functional rocket pack device. It was designed for use in the army, but was rejected because of its short flying time of approximately 21 seconds. Powered by hydrogen peroxide, it could fly about 250 meters and reach a maximum altitude of 18 meters, going 55 kilometres an hour and providing 1000 brake horsepower. Despite its impracticality in the real world, the Jetpack makes a spectacular debut in THUNDERBALL.

2. Little Nellie

Film: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
Why Great? Little Nellie and her father Q arrive in Japan halfway YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE to aid Bond in his mission. Once Little Nellie is put together, it appears to be a toy helicopter, but it’s certainly not. She is equipped with two machine guns, two rockets launchers that fire heat seeking air-to-air missiles, two flame throwers firing astern, two smoke ejectors and a bunch of aerial mines, only to use directly above target. Little Nellie is ready for action and she gets some soon after. Nice.

1. Aston Martin DB5

Films: GOLDFINGER, THUNDERBALL, GOLDENEYE, TOMMOROW NEVER DIES, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH, CASINO ROYALE, SKYFALL

Why Great? The Aston Martin is perhaps Bond’s most famous ride. It is just a fine and classy automobile. Off course, Bond’s model usually features some Q modifications. As described in GOLDFINGER: Windscreen bulletproof, as are the side and rear windows. Revolving number plates valid in all countries. A tracking device. Smoke screen, oil slick and left and right front wing machine guns. The highlight according to ‘Q’: The passenger ejector seat, which Bond puts to good use in GOLDFINGER. The car gets an occasional upgrade in later films.