The James Bond series has showcased many evil geniuses over the course of its history. But are all James Bond villains created equal? Yes, really. What we know about Bond The James Bond films ranked from worst to best. James Bond theme songs ranked from worst to best. Rumour has it the role was offered to Anthony Hopkins first, who certainly would have been a better fit. The best Bond foes may be bad, but they also have pin-sharp intellects.
Eschewing the larger-than-life adversaries of his previous films, For Your Eyes Only pits Bond against… a smuggler. On paper, Rami Malek's Lyutsifer Safin had impeccable tough guy credentials — he was smart and ruthless, and ultimately got the better of Bond in the end — but the idea of linking disability with evil was something the series should have grown out of by then.
An example of when the villain outshines the movie around him. Often the best Bond villains are played by actors that, in another universe, could have been cast as themselves. Sean Bean was not just another actor who could have played Bond, he was actively considered for the part after Timothy Dalton handed in his Walther PPK. GoldenEye marked the first time Bond was pitted against a fellow Double-O agent, one with an almost identical skillset.
An exquisitely tailored member of SPECTRE, with prosthetic metal hands, he was brought to life by Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman, who plays the character with an air of supercilious disdain. In fact, Christopher Lee is such a charisma-bomb in the movie that he constantly threatens to outshine Roger Moore. A new kind of Bond film called for a new kind of Bond villain, certainly of a more vicious flavour than the ones Pierce Brosnan had been used to.
But apart from his more brutal qualities, Le Chiffre was also a refreshingly flawed villain, what with his ever-present inhaler. The Bond series had been teasing the cat-stroking boss of SPECTRE for three films before we finally got to see him in all his scarred, psychotic glory.
