Auric Goldfinger. Lyutsifer Safin. Dr. Julius No. Elliott Carver. Mr. Big. Max Zorin. Raoul Silva. These are a few of the cunning primary villains that the British novelist Sir Ian Fleming’s iconic character, James Bond AKA 007, has had to face in over 25 movies since 1962. Besides their ruthlessness and ill motives, which vary from classic revenge to pure financial gain, the one thing those antagonists have in common is that they are men.
But what about the women in the franchise? The stunning so-called Bond Girls, such as Natalya Simonova, Paris Carver, Jinx Johnson, Anya Amasova, and Holly Goodhead, usually turn out to be valuable allies to the British secret agent. On the other hand, their deadliest counterparts don’t get enough credit; they are just as lethal as the aforementioned male antagonists, though some of them actually do end up bedding the charming agent, and switch over to his side.
Here is a list of some of the most unforgettable women baddies in the James Bond films.
10 Blofeld’s Angels of Death (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
The Angels of Death are 12 extremely attractive, wealthy, and sophisticated women who were selected by Irma Bunt (see below) from various countries to assist the Head of the crime organization SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), in contaminating, sterilizing, and eventually ransoming the world's food supply.
“TOTAL Infertility! In plants and animals. Not just disease in a few herds, Mr. Bond. Or the loss of a single crop. But the destruction of a whole strain. Forever! If my demands are not met, I shall proceed with the systematic extinction of whole species of cereals and livestock all over the world!” - Blofeld
Though a global threat, the ladies are actually regularly brainwashed and hypnotized, unbeknownst to them, thinking they are simply being treated for their specific food allergies in a luxurious Alpine facility.
9 Octopussy (Octopussy)
Octopussy: [Bond sneaks into her room] Good evening. I wondered when you might arrive.
Bond: So, you are the mysterious Octopussy.
Octopussy: And you are James Bond, 007, licensed to kill. Am l to be your target for tonight?
Bond: Oh no, not necessarily. Depends how much you tell me about jewelry smuggling. And why one of our agents was killed in East Berlin.
Maud Adams plays Octopussy, a powerful smuggler of rare jewels, and the leader of an ancient cult of lone, fierce, and heavily trained acrobats, all of them women, and living on a secluded island in India. Her associate is an exiled Afghan prince, Kamal Khan, who also has members of the Cult of Octopus among his servants. Octopussy will eventually join forces with Bond (Roger Moore) against her ally.
8 Pussy Galore (Goldfinger)
“We'll be landing in twenty minutes. Do you want to play it easy, or the hard way? And this isn't a tranquilizer gun.”
British actress and Judo professional Honor Blackman portrays the iconic Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, opposite Sean Connery as Bond. The one with the most suggestive name in the franchise, the acerbic Galore is the personal pilot of a psychopathic criminal obsessed with wealth and gold, called Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). Her other task is leading an all-female squad of bomber pilots, dubbed Pussy Galore's Flying Circus.
After kidnapping Bond for Goldfinger and engaging in a Judo duel with him, she switches sides and decides to help the U.S. government capture the criminal in action. Maybe she was no longer enthusiastic about killing thousands of people at a bank with nerve gas and a bomb, or perhaps it was because she was one of many to have been charmed by Bond. She is a worthy match, though, and is certainly more mature than most of the women he’s faced.
7 Irma Bunt (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
Portrayed by the German actress Ilse Steppat, Irma Bunt is the stern middle-aged subordinate of Blofeld’s who runs the “allergy institute” in the Swiss Alps, “helping” the ladies with their allergies by day, and brainwashing them in their sleep. When Bond (the underrated George Lazenby) checks into the facility as a patient, she thoroughly has his luggage inspected, and informs him she enforces strict rules on all guests, such as not disclosing last names or room numbers. But then, his cover is blown, and after a relentless car chase, there is a big explosion, causing Bond to believe Bunt is dead. However, she later turns up at his own wedding, and attempts to shoot him with an M16, but she kills his new bride instead
6 Rosa Klebb (From Russia with Love)
“You're NOT here to ask questions! You forget to whom you're speaking!”
The bulky and ruthless red-haired Russian Colonel Rosa Klebb AKA Number 3, portrayed by Austrian singer and actress Lotte Lenya, betrayed her country of origin, Ukraine, to become a board member of the criminal organization SPECTRE. Her main mission in From Russia with Love is to select the right people to exact revenge on Bond for the killing of Dr. Julius No (Joseph Wiseman). She picks Red Grant (Robert Shaw), after hitting him in the stomach with a knuckle duster to assess his strength, and Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), who is beautiful and intelligent enough to seduce Bond (Sean Connery).
Klebb disguises herself as a maid to access Bond and Romanova’s hotel room, and tries to kill the former with a poison blade in her shoe, but she is shot and killed by the agent.
Although she doen't have much screen time in the movie, Klebb is considered the very first main female antagonist in the franchise.
5 Elektra King (The World Is Not Enough)
“Let's keep it simple. One card. High draw. A million dollars.”
Played by French actress Sophie Marceau, Elektra King is the daughter of a wealthy oil magnate, and a criminal leader allied with the terrorist Viktor Zokas AKA Renard. Together, they plan to monopolize the oil market by any means necessary, and scheme to extort money from her family. She becomes Bond’s (Pierce Brosnan) lover to distract him, then kidnaps him and M., and later tortures him in an Antique chair recovered from Istanbul. In the end, right after stating that Bond wouldn’t kill her, “not in cold blood,” because she was his lover, he shoots her without hesitation.
4 Miranda Frost (Die Another Day)
“I know all about you, 007. Sex for dinner, death for breakfast. Well, it's not going to work with me.”
Played by British actress Rosamund Pike, Miranda Frost is an Olympic fencer and a Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6) agent who is actually working for the diamond tycoon Gustav Graves. When Bond (Brosnan) is tasked with eliminating a North Korean colonel, Miranda reveals his identity and motives to the latter’s right hand, which leads to his long-term capture.
When Bond later faces both Graves and Miranda, he realizes that his gun was emptied by her when they were in bed together. In the end, the arrogant femme fatale is killed by Bond’s ally, the American operative Jinx Johnson (Halle Berry), in a memorable sword duel.
3 May Day (A View to a Kill)
Portrayed by model, singer, and actress Grace Jones, May Day is the fierce and incredibly strong lover and bodyguard of the German KGB operative-turned-billionaire industrialist Max Zorin. She is also responsible for selecting and training all his female guards, and assassinating anyone he deems a threat, whether via strangulation, a poisoned stage prop, drowning, or defenestration.
After being betrayed by Zorin, she joins forces with Bond (Moore), but is killed by an explosion. Her dying wish from Bond is, “Get Zarin for me!”.
Jones’ portrayal is so on-point that, according to her autobiography, even Moore himself was afraid of her on set.
2 Xenia Onatopp (GoldenEye)
Colonel Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp (Famke Janssen) is an ex-Soviet pilot, a sadistic assassin, and a prolific martial artist, now working for the Janus syndicate and its leader, former MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan. She is renowned for only enjoying intercourse while slowly killing her partner, preferably by crushing them to death between her muscled thighs. You can’t get more femme fatale that this.
“This time, Mr. Bond, the pleasure will be all mine.”
She dies after being thrown off a helicopter, crushed between two branches, which prompts Bond (Brosnan) to declare, “She always did enjoy a good squeeze.”
1 Fiona Volpe (Thunderball)
SPECTRE’s skilled assassin Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) is tasked with seducing and killing a French Air Force pilot, and helps a fellow enforcer surgically alter his face to resemble the victim and take his place. Their plan is to steal a nuclear bomber armed with two warheads. After seducing and making fun of 007 (Connery), she holds him captive with the help of two other agents, but he manages to escape. Later, she catches on with him at a club, and attempts to distract him with slow-dancing, while her henchman fires at him from behind a curtain. But Bond spins her around just enough for her to be the bullet’s recipient.
“I forgot your ego, Mr. Bond. James Bond, who only has to make love to a woman, and she stars to hear heavenly choirs singing. She repents, then immediately returns to the side of right and virtue... but not this one!”
Volpe is the ultimate female villain because she is one of the few who are immune to 007’s charm. One of her most memorable scenes include her firing missiles at a car she’s pursuing on her motorcycle.
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