Every James Bond Villain Ranked Worst To Best

Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), who is the only female lead villain of a Bond film to date, is a brilliant character and the best femme fatale Bond has ever faced - it's not even close.

The daughter of a murdered oil tycoon, Elektra seems like a decent, troubled woman still recovering from a kidnapping by the film's other villain, Renard, at first, but that's before the film drops one of the best plot twists in Bond history: she's the big villain, not Renard. In fact, he's just working for her.

There are many things that make Elektra King so great. Her evil plan, which is to destroy Istanbul and some oil pipelines with a nuke in order to get a monopoly on the region's oil, is terrific, her relationship with Renard is always compelling and perhaps best of all, she's an exemplary femme fatale.

She's exactly the right mixture of charming and evil, making her a very frightening psychopath that fills all of her scenes with dread; much of this is thanks to Sophie Marceau's superb performance.

She deceives and tortures Bond, and therefore puts him through hell like few of the franchise's villains have. Therefore, like many of the great film villains, she truly challenges the hero, further cementing her as an all-timer Bond villain.