9. Red Grant (From Russia With Love)
A masterpiece of realistic, visceral, hand-to-hand combat in a small claustrophobic environment which you can't often make nowadays without some overbearing or generic Hollywood soundtrack, the fight on the Orient Express between Bond and SPECTRE agent Red Grant, played with wonderful menace by the late Robert Shaw, is a standout moment from the series' second film. The dynamic between Bond and Grant has been wonderfully established up to this point, with Grant ominously stalking the Mi6 agent throughout his mission and even saving his life to ensure the success of SPECTRE's scheme. When Grant meets Bond on the Orient Express having assumed the identity of a fellow agent, the scenes that follow up until the eventual revelation are of unsurpassed tension. The fight marks probably the first occasion where Bond is pitted against a physically superior adversary whom he must rely on his ingenuity and resourcefulness to defeat, and where he first uses one of Q's gadgets to help him out in a sticky situation. Held helplessly at gunpoint by Grant, Bond tricks him into opening his attaché briefcase in the manner that will cause its tear gas cartridge to explode, thus giving him the window to attack and disarm Grant. The ensuing brawl spills over into both of Bond's train compartments, with the pair even colliding with the unconscious Tatiana. Grant finally gains the upper hand and attempts to strangle Bond with his garrotte wire, and Bond is barely able to retrieve the throwing knife from the case, using it to good effect however and turning the tables on the enemy agent. In a moment of poetic justice, Grant is ultimately dispatched using the same garrotte with which he had already laid so many others to rest in the film. A derogatory farewell of old man, Grant's favourite address whilst in his fellow-agent guise, is a suitably cold quip to end on. The fight set a real standard for the Bond franchise and Grant created a recognisable type of villain- tall, blond, physically superior- that would oft be repeated in later films, but never with the same impact.