10 Most Badass James Bond Villain Lairs
3. Cuban Facility (GoldenEye, 1995)
One of the most essential qualities of a Bond villain lair is that it must be difficult to access. Obviously, villains don’t want any old bumpkin stumbling upon their top-secret hideout. That’s why Alec Trevelyan hides his giant satellite dish of a lair underneath a seemingly idyllic lake in Cuba.
It passes the first test of villainous hideaways; CIA dolt Jack Wade assures Bond that no such dish could possibly exist. It’s up to 007, therefore, to unearth the facility by flying overhead for a few moments (though he’s certainly helped by Trevelyan’s choice to fire some missiles directly from the base’s otherwise hidden location).
It’s got all your standard nefarious villain fare; overly large computers, towering screens, perilously stacked vats of liquid nitrogen… but also has the capability to raise its external sections high into the air.
This allows for a tremendous fist fight between Bond and Trevelyan first necessitated by climbing to the top of an antenna cradle and then dangling off a hanging ledge. Although Trevelyan somehow survives falling hundreds of feet and landing on the Uplink Dish, he’s later crushed by the falling debris of the disintegrating structure itself.
Thus, Trevelyan is in effect killed by his own lair. A unique feat that lands the Cuban Facility on the list.