50 Greatest James Bond Moments Of All Time

47. Tomorrow Never Dies: Dr Kaufmann

The Spy Who Loved Me
MGM

With this terrific scene, Tomorrow Never Dies created what is arguably one of the best ever movie characters to only appear in one scene - James Bond or otherwise.

Here, Bond (Pierce Brosnan) discovers his love interest, Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher), has been murdered and then realizes he's trapped in the room with Dr Kauffmann (Vincent Schiavelli), a brilliant and evil assassin who's planning to kill Bond as well and make it look like a murder-suicide.

What follows is an absolutely palm-sweating sequence in which it's very hard to see how Bond will work his way out of this one - in fact, he only really survives because Kaufmann is interrupted by a phone call - and better still, this sequence is filled with absolutely phenomenal dialogue ("Believe me, Mr. Bond, I could shoot you from Stuttgart und still create ze proper effect.").

It's easily the best-written scene in the film and Kaufmann is established as one of the all-time greatest Bond henchmen with just a few minutes of screen-time, which is a testament to just how right they got this part.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.