Which Villain gave Bond his toughest battle?

raptors_887raptors_887 CanadaPosts: 215MI6 Agent
I'm thinking maybe Alec Trevelyan from Goldeneye. He kicked Bond's a$$ pretty good and then had him dangling 500 feet in the air at one point. It was then that he made the mistake of climbing down the ladder after him when Bond was pretty much already toast.

There's been some good hard fought battles through-out the series though. Where do you think Bond met his match?
1: Casino Royale 2: Goldeneye 3: Skyfall 4: Octopussy 5: Goldfinger 6: Tomorrow Never Dies 7: The World Is Not Enough 8: The Living Daylights 9: From Russia With Love 10: The Spy Who Loved Me

Comments

  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
    'Red' Grant on the train with James Bond
    Alec Trevelyan with James Bond on satellite
    Max Zorin and James Bond on Golden Gate Bridge
    Franz Sanchez and James Bond on crashed tanker
    Dr No and James Bond in reactor coolant
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • JarvioJarvio EnglandPosts: 4,241MI6 Agent
    May be a surprise, but Kamal Khan - that plane flying upside-down with bond holding on was just ridiculous and really should have killed bond lol
    1 - LALD, 2 - AVTAK, 3 - LTK, 4 - OP, 5 - NTTD, 6 - FYEO, 7 - SF, 8 - DN, 9 - DAF, 10 - TSWLM, 11 - OHMSS, 12 - TMWTGG, 13 - GE, 14 - MR, 15 - TLD, 16 - YOLT, 17 - GF, 18 - DAD, 19 - TWINE, 20 - SP, 21 - TND, 22 - FRWL, 23 - TB, 24 - CR, 25 - QOS

    1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I'd go with "Red" Grant. He was up close and Personal.
    The "First Bullet won't kill you " speach is chilling. You know
    Bond is dealing with a Person who Loves to Kill and Torture.
    The following Fight on the train is Brutal, and Must of seemed
    even more violent in the 60's.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BlackleiterBlackleiter Washington, DCPosts: 5,615MI6 Agent
    Red Grant gets my vote as well for the reasons you cited. A close second would what Sanchez did to Bond in LTK.
    I'd go with "Red" Grant. He was up close and Personal.
    The "First Bullet won't kill you " speach is chilling. You know
    Bond is dealing with a Person who Loves to Kill and Torture.
    The following Fight on the train is Brutal, and Must of seemed
    even more violent in the 60's.
    "Felix Leiter, a brother from Langley."
  • Nick37Nick37 Posts: 270MI6 Agent
    For pure physicality, Definitely Red Grant, and Alec Trevelyan. The fight between Emilio Largo and Bond was also pretty vicious, and he almost had Bond dead until Domino harpooned him.

    For everything else, I'd say it goes to Franz Sanchez and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

    Blofeld had his wife killed and it took four films to finally get rid of him once and for all.

    Sanchez made Bond work. He emotionally damaged Bond by maiming Felix and killing Della. He was fighting him on his own turf, while very alone, He had to work hard to ingratiate himself to Sanchez, and then work hard to turn him against the people who worked for him. Plus, the mission changed and Bond had to go from solely concentrating on killing Sanchez to taking him out and destroying his operation, and he had to do it all on the fly. Some may say that the actual final battle between them is brief, but IMO, it has to be. After everything that's taken place between the tankers, explosions, and the fight on the back between them, these are two men who are shown, very realistically, barely able to stand up. Sanchez has the rage to fuel him long enough to nearly lop Bond's head off, But Bond has both the rage and resourcefulness to not only regain the upper hand, but dig deep enough to ask the one question he knows will distract Sanchez long enough to nail him.

    So I'd go:

    1. Sanchez

    2. Blofeld

    3. Red Grant

    4. Alec Trevelyan

    5. Emilio Largo

    I'd give honorable mention to Max Zorin, because chasing Bond with an axe is pretty epic.
    "I've had a few...Optional extras installed."
  • BlackleiterBlackleiter Washington, DCPosts: 5,615MI6 Agent
    Agreed, but it didn't seem so epic when Dominic Greene did it! :))
    Nick37 wrote:
    I'd give honorable mention to Max Zorin, because chasing Bond with an axe is pretty epic.
    "Felix Leiter, a brother from Langley."
  • LastRatStandingLastRatStanding ScotlandPosts: 296MI6 Agent
    Agreed, but it didn't seem so epic when Dominic Greene did it! :))
    Nick37 wrote:
    I'd give honorable mention to Max Zorin, because chasing Bond with an axe is pretty epic.

    I was more scared for Bond when Greene did it. He came across as a proper maniac!
    Now, they only eat rat.
  • Nick37Nick37 Posts: 270MI6 Agent
    "I was more scared for Bond when Greene did it. He came across as a proper maniac!"

    I was just never intimidated by Greene. The sequence was well-filmed, but Zorin seemed more of a threat. We needed a scene of a laughing Greene machine-gunning a bunch of unlucky suckers to really drive home his being a maniac.
    "I've had a few...Optional extras installed."
  • LastRatStandingLastRatStanding ScotlandPosts: 296MI6 Agent
    Nick37 wrote:
    "I was more scared for Bond when Greene did it. He came across as a proper maniac!"

    I was just never intimidated by Greene. The sequence was well-filmed, but Zorin seemed more of a threat. We needed a scene of a laughing Greene machine-gunning a bunch of unlucky suckers to really drive home his being a maniac.

    That's probably true! Zorin always seemed in control of his maniacal behaviour though, whereas Greene sort of just lost the plot at the end. Which is scarier, who knows!?
    Now, they only eat rat.
  • Nick37Nick37 Posts: 270MI6 Agent
    "Zorin always seemed in control of his maniacal behaviour though, whereas Greene sort of just lost the plot at the end."

    I feel like Zorin's actions at the end on the bridge are the fracturing of the last strains keeping him holding it together. The plan is screwed up, Bond is still alive, and now they're stuck. If he'd been in control, he'd have taken Mortner's gun and wasted Bond, rather than getting into a fisticuffs with him. Even if he is a physical superior to Bond, it's a risk he didn't have to take and he paid for it dearly.

    Agreed though, Greene also totally loses it in the end. In a way, those Bond villains are the best. The ones that aren't in control are usually quite dangerous.
    "I've had a few...Optional extras installed."
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
    edited March 2013
    Agreed, but it didn't seem so epic when Dominic Greene did it! :))
    Nick37 wrote:
    I'd give honorable mention to Max Zorin, because chasing Bond with an axe is pretty epic.

    Yes, but I do think that this was the whole point of the thing in QoS - he was almost more dangerous with the axe as he was in no way a trained killer or fighter - much more the lordly amateur. This in a way made him come across as even more psychotic. This was one of the very underrated QoS's strengths IMHO. :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • RogueAgent007RogueAgent007 Corn-fed central USPosts: 154MI6 Agent
    I gotta go with the Sanchez crowd here. To this point in the series we had never seen Bond that bloodied. Grant gets second place because he had Bond cold. Only the tear gas grenade in the briefcase saved him. Third is Trevalyan. A fellow 00, equal training and skill. A true threat.

    With many of the villains, it boils down to just one mistake which Bond is able to exploit. Sanchez pauses, Grant's greed, Trevelyan's hubris, Blofeld's need for personal gratification in ending Bond's life, etc. LOVE IT!! :x
    Beg your pardon, forgot to knock...
  • BlackleiterBlackleiter Washington, DCPosts: 5,615MI6 Agent
    Very insightful - I like it! -{
    With many of the villains, it boils down to just one mistake which Bond is able to exploit. Sanchez pauses, Grant's greed, Trevelyan's hubris, Blofeld's need for personal gratification in ending Bond's life, etc. LOVE IT!!
    "Felix Leiter, a brother from Langley."
  • always shakenalways shaken LondonPosts: 6,287MI6 Agent
    Has to be Robert Shaws GRANT old man
    By the way, did I tell you, I was "Mad"?
  • BlackleiterBlackleiter Washington, DCPosts: 5,615MI6 Agent
    Red wine with fish? Preposterous! :))
    Has to be Robert Shaws GRANT old man
    "Felix Leiter, a brother from Langley."
  • Distorted HumorDistorted Humor Posts: 66MI6 Agent
    Agreed, but it didn't seem so epic when Dominic Greene did it! :))
    Nick37 wrote:
    I'd give honorable mention to Max Zorin, because chasing Bond with an axe is pretty epic.

    Yes, but I do think that this was the whole point of the thing in QoS - he was almost more dangerous with the axe as he was in no way a trained killer or fighter - much more the lordly amateur. This in a way made him come across as even more psychotic. This was one of the very underrated QoS's strengths IMHO. :)

    Great, another "homage" in QoS to other bond films. As you can guess, I felt it was uncreative.
    1 - GE, 2 - DN, 3 - CR, 4 - GF, 5 - FYEO, 6 - TLD, 7 - SF, 8 - FRWL, 9 - LALD, 10 - TSWLM, 11 - LTK, 12 - OP, 13 - YOLT, 14 - TB, 15 - MR, 16 - TWINE, 17 - OHMSS, 18 - TND, 19 - DAD, 20 - TMWTGG, 21 - AVTAK, 22 - DAF, 23 - QoS
  • FiremassFiremass AlaskaPosts: 1,910MI6 Agent
    Main villain or henchmen ? For example Zorin fighting Bond with an axe was obviously a last resort as Mayday was expected to take care of Bond. Same with Drax/Jaws, Goldfinger/Oddjob etc...
    My current 10 favorite:

    1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
  • Nick37Nick37 Posts: 270MI6 Agent
    I suppose we should add Silva to the list. While the actual final fight between them was practically nothing, he ran him through the ringer for quite awhile, and managed to off M.
    "I've had a few...Optional extras installed."
  • hehadlotsofgutshehadlotsofguts Durham England Posts: 2,112MI6 Agent
    are we including henchman in this? i thought Dario gave bond a tough battle as it looks like Bond doesn't know his next move as Dario is cutting the ties to bond's wrists so he falls in the grinder. The only thing that saved him was Pam showing up at the last second to distract Dario and shoot him allowing bond to pull him in the shredder. without Pam bond would've been dead
    Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"

    " I don't listen to hip hop!"
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
    I'd agree very much with always shaken on this one - it has to be Donald 'Red' Grant - what a fight scene on the Orient Express. :o
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • always shakenalways shaken LondonPosts: 6,287MI6 Agent
    I'd agree very much with always shaken on this one - it has to be Donald 'Red' Grant - what a fight scene on the Orient Express. :o

    yes just because he was he going to kill Bond slowly /painfully
    but he realy hated Bond by that stage ,he wanted Bond to beg for that cigarette
    and still kill him any way
    By the way, did I tell you, I was "Mad"?
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
    I'd agree very much with always shaken on this one - it has to be Donald 'Red' Grant - what a fight scene on the Orient Express. :o

    yes just because he was he going to kill Bond slowly /painfully
    but he realy hated Bond by that stage ,he wanted Bond to beg for that cigarette
    and still kill him any way

    Yes, Grant was a right sadistic psychopathic bastard in the film of FRWL - just like the early serial killer type in the FRWL novel from 1957.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
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