Easily the most famous type of Bond villain, and probably the most prolific. The enemy is given countless henchmen, a huge concealed base and limitless money. Indeed, they often seem so successful that one wonders why theyve turned to crime in the first place. These are people who can afford to hollow out volcanoes and have hundreds of guards working for them, presumably with extremely strict non-disclosure agreements in effect. Its understandable in the case of those motivated by revenge, but you have to question the financial insight of those who are in it for the money. Why is this type the most prolific? Well, they automatically generate their own army of bad guys for Bond to take out, vehicles for him to play with, a captive girl for him to rescue they provide almost the entire set of ingredients for a Bond film just by being there. Theres also different ways to develop the character: Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies offered an example of a Media Megalomaniac, exploring everything that was bad about the press and its omnipotence. In the end, the Megalomaniac works because the casual cinema goer loves to hate him. The enemy is a huge corporate machine, an extremely rich and huge organisation figure-headed by an anonymous millionaire whos lost touch with humanity. The idea that one man can take such a powerful corporation down with nothing more than his charm, his trigger finger and an exploding pen is somehow empowering. Examples: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Auric Goldfinger, Hugo Drax.
Laurence Gardner was born in Canterbury, England. After moving around various cities during his childhood, and spending some time travelling in Europe and America, he studied English Literature at Oxford University. Since then, he’s been living abroad, teaching English, learning a range of languages, and writing in his free time. He can currently be found in Heidelberg, working as an English Tutor and Translator and studying at the University. If you liked this article, follow him on Twitter to get automatic updates on his work.
Easily the most famous type of Bond villain, and probably the most prolific. The enemy is given countless henchmen, a huge concealed base and limitless money. Indeed, they often seem so successful that one wonders why theyve turned to crime in the first place. These are people who can afford to hollow out volcanoes and have hundreds of guards working for them, presumably with extremely strict non-disclosure agreements in effect. Its understandable in the case of those motivated by revenge, but you have to question the financial insight of those who are in it for the money. 