10 Awesome Movie Villains That Had Totally Lame Deaths

Mads Mikkelsen plays a great bad guy, and while none are quite as brilliant as his refreshing version of Hannibal Lecter - there is perhaps one exception.

In 2006, James Bond got a new face. Brosnan was out, deemed too weedy and too nineties, it was time to go back to basics. Carefully walking the fine line between self-parody and anachronism, Bond was back but this time he was muscular, cynical, vulnerable and usually drunk. This was the Bond we knew from Ian Flemming's source material, warts and all.

What was needed was an equally fresh counterpoint and Mikkelsen didn't disappoint. Modern, cruel and with a talent for making money, his Le Chiffre was a cool cat. With his de rigour Bond villain facial impediment of a bleeding glassy eye, Le Chiffre is an awesome villain.

In the penultimate act of Casino Royale, Bond finds himself in tight spot. Captured and badly wounded, Le Chiffre proceeds to torture Bond with a length of knotted rope (cross your legs, boys) right where it would hurt him the most. As Bond is forced to choose between his genitalia or Vespa's life, suddenly Mr. White appears and assassinates Le Chiffre in an instant. He rescues Bond and Vespa at the eleventh hour, only to be captured by Bond at the very end of the film.

As for Le Chiffre, an awesome bad guy for a new generation, his demise is abrupt, to say the least.