Every James Bond Villain Ranked Worst To Best
3. Raoul Silva - Skyfall
Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), a chilling, captivating and monumentally brilliant psychopath who will send shivers down your spine, is the greatest villain of the Daniel Craig era. There are many reasons for this.
He gets the greatest villain introduction in Bond history (a stunning and beautifully written monologue filmed with one static wide shot), all of his dialogue is terrific and Javier Bardem's wickedly evil yet haunted performance was deserving of an Oscar nomination, but the key to Silva's brilliance is in the characterisation.
A traitorous former MI6 agent on a revenge vendetta against M (Judi Dench) and MI6, he represents a devastating threat to everything Bond stands for and frequently comes across as a dark mirror to Bond himself.
This gives the two of them an absolutely fascinating dynamic and since he challenges Bond so much and since he ultimately wins - for, even though Bond kills him, Silva does end up killing M and breaks the hearts of Bond and millions of fans worldwide - he is an exceptionally well-written villain.
His plan to escape from MI6 custody was illogical and plot hole-filled but other than that, bravo.