8 Lessons The Bond 24 Villain Must Learn So He Doesn't Fail Miserably

7. Hire Better Goons

Bond villain underlings are downright moronic - have any of them ever even had weapons training? Because they can't seem to hit a damn thing with their guns. The villain's right hand man is harder to kill, but these chaps are more often than not undone by their own hubris. It's what spelled the end of Emile Locque in For Your Eyes Only, the evil hired killer that Bond kicked off of a Greek cliff after Locque got too confident in his manhunting abilities. Such professional arrogance is also what led Red Grant to an end in From Russia With Love €“ never has a Bond villain been so cocky as Grant, and it was this very cockiness that led Bond to get the better of him towards the end of the film, getting close enough to take him out in hand-to-hand combat. Another thing that can't be stressed enough is how the side-villain hiring system needs to lose the emphasis on eccentricity or bizarre appearance and put a focus on practicality and basic intelligence. Diminutive personal assistant Nick Nack couldn't have been the most promising candidate on Scaramanga's hiring list, surely? And let's not forget about Jaws - a human giant with metal teeth might have been battle-effective back in Medieval times, but in the age of explosives and long range weaponry, he's very much an analogue baddie in a digital world; one well-placed bullet to the chest couldn't be stopped by all the metal gumshields in the world.