Cinema Paradiso has already marked the 60th anniversary of Goldfinger by looking back at the villains who confronted James Bond during the Sean Connery era. Now, to celebrate The Man With the Golden Gun turing 50, the focus falls on the villains whose ingenious schemes and sinister sidekicks proved crucial to the wit, suspense, and spectacle of Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton's outings as 007.
If the 25 films in the Eon series have taught us anything, it's that James Bond would be just another 00 without the various sociopaths, warmongers, megalomaniacs, and loose cannons he has prevented from achieving world domination. Among the rogues' gallery are mad scientists, double agents, drug lords, corrupt generals, media barons, financial tycoons, terrorists, and criminal masterminds. And that's before we've even mentioned SMERSH or SPECTRE.
Iconic heroes need hissable villains and - whether in the guise of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, or Daniel Craig - 007 has encountered numerous fiendish foes whose dastardly schemes have brought out the best (and occasionally the worst) in him. Invariably secreted in an elaborately futuristic lair, each Bond baddie has a way with words. They also deserve credit for their recruitment skills, as they have always had a small army of ruthlessly cunning sidekicks, murderously alluring femmes fatales, and blindly loyal henchlings at their disposal.
Although less dramatically than Doctor Who's, James Bond's personality changes with each new incumbency. Yet, despite the rumours surrounding Aaron Taylor-Johnson (among countless others), we still wait to see who will be next to brandish the trademark Walther P99. One thing is for sure, however, his nemesis will be larger than life, recklessly ambitious, criminously creative, and quick with a quip. For all the devastating brilliance of their outlandish plans, however, Bond villains always have a chink in their armour. And, when it comes to exploiting them, nobody does it better...
Live and Let Die (Guy Hamilton, 1973)
BOND: Roger Moore
VILLAIN: Mr Big (Yaphet Kotto)
BACKSTORY: In Ian Fleming's 1954 novel, Live and Let Die, which was the second in the series, Buonapart Ignace Gallia raised money for SMERSH by smuggling coins unearthed from the treasure trove buried in Jamaica by the 17th-century British pirate, Henry Morgan. The film is much more 1970s, however, as Dr Kananga, the dictator of the island of San Monique, uses his diplomatic status to smuggle drugs into the United States under the alias of Mr Big, who owns a chain of restaurants in New York and New Orleans.
FIENDISH PLAN: Having long exploited a fear of voodoo among San Monique's residents to coerce them into cultivating opium poppies in secret, Mr Big seeks to use his restaurant chain to get customers addicted to heroin. Having flooded the market with free supplies in order to put rival drug lords out of business, he then proposes to inflate prices and make a fortune from his monopoly.
HQ & QUIRKS: Fond of a trap door, whether in his Fillet of Soul restaurant in Harlem or his lair beneath a church cemetery on San Monique, Kananga wears a prosthetic face mask to prevent people from knowing that he and Mr Big are one and the same. Sounding a lot like a blaxploitation character in his second guise, he also has an inflated opinion of himself.
QUIPS: 'Tee-Hee, on the first wrong answer from Miss Solitaire, you will snip the little finger of Mr Bond's right hand. Starting with the second wrong answer, you will proceed to the more...vital... areas.'
SIDEKICKS: Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) - a master of voodoo who is known as 'the man who cannot die', he is ordered to execute Solitaire (Jane Seymour) when she loses her powers of prognostication; Tee Hee Johnson (Julius Harris) - the henchman with a clawed metal arm and a predilection for bending gun barrels, who knows the difference between crocodiles and alligators; Whisper (Earl Jolly Brown) - having failed to kill Bond by shooting his driver in New York, he tries again on San Monique with a poisonous snake and a pool full of sharks; Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) - a CIA double agent with a fear of scarecrows, who tries to seduce Bond and lead him into a trap on the island.
TRIVIA: Paul McCartney earned a second Oscar nomination for writing the theme for Roger Moore's first Bond movie. However, like Dusty Springfield's 'The Look of Love' (from Casino Royale, 1967), Sheena Easton's hit from For Your Eyes Only (1981), and Carly Simon's 'Nobody Does It Better' (from The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977), it failed to win the Academy Award. More recently, the franchise has scooped a hat-trick, courtesy of Adele's theme from Skyfall (2012), Sam Smith's 'Writing's on the Wall' from Spectre (2015), and Billie Eilish's title track from No Time to Die (2020), which made the American the first person born in the 21st century to win an Oscar.
The Man With the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974)
BOND: Roger Moore
VILLAIN: Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee)
BACKSTORY: Born in a travelling circus to a Cuban ringmaster father and a snake charmer mother, Scaramanga performed a sharpshooting act from the age of 10. However, having enjoyed killing the trainer who had mistreated his favourite elephant, he became an assassin-for-hire at 15. After a stint with the KGB, Scaramanga resumed his freelance career, charging $1 million per hit, with a single-bullet golden gun, which is assembled from a golden cigarette case, lighter, fountain pen, and cufflink.
FIENDISH PLAN: Having assassinated the British scientist responsible for creating a device that could solve the world's energy problems, Scaramanga steals the solex agitator and debates whether to sell it to the highest bidder or keep it for himself to power his solar laser cannon.
HQ & QUIRKS: Scaramanga lives in a complex on his own private island off the south-eastern coast of China. As well as housing his collection of hi-tec gadgets, the base also has its own solar power plant and a funhouse, in which Scaramanga hones his skills by fighting duels to the death in a labyrinth of glass walls and warping mirrors. Although no photographs of the British national exist, it is known that he has a third nipple.
QUIPS: 'At a million dollars a contract I can afford to [live well], Mr Bond. You work for peanuts, a hearty well done from Her Majesty the Queen and a pittance of a pension. Apart from that we are the same. To us, Mr Bond, we are the best.'
SIDEKICKS: Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize) - valet, chef, trickster, and thief, the 3ft 11in henchman manages Scaramanga's operation. He is set to inherit the estate and tries to kill Bond and Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland) for destroying it; Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) - Scaramanga's lover, who collects his custom 4.2 mm golden cartridges from a gun maker in Macau before turning against him.
TRIVIA: Christopher Lee was Ian Fleming's step-cousin. They worked together during the Second World War and Lee, who had become famous for playing the count in Hammer's Dracula (1958) and The Brides of Dracula (1960) was the writer's first choice to play the villain in the first Bond movie, Terence Young's Dr No (1962).
The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 1977)
BOND: Roger Moore
VILLAIN: Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens)
BACKSTORY: Seemingly Swedish by birth, Karl Stromberg is one of the world's richest men. The pride of his shipping fleet is Liparus, a giant tanker that roves the oceans with which Stromberg is fixated. He has an affinity for marine life and is exasperated by the space programme when 70% of Earth is covered by seas whose depths have barely been explored.
FIENDISH PLAN: Having commissioned two scientists to create a tracking device that enables Liparus to capture the missiles aboard a British (HMS Ranger) and a Soviet (Potemkin) submarine, the misanthropic Stromberg seeks to attack New York and Moscow and provoke a nuclear conflagration that will obliterate humankind. He then plans to rule over a new civilisation centred on his underwater facility.
HQ & QUIRKS: Located off the coast of Sardinia, Atlantis is tantamount to an underwater city. Perched on four legs, it has a ranine appearance that reflects the webbing between Stromberg's fingers. Capable of submerging to avoid detection, it boasts a state-of-the-art laboratory, as well as palatial domed living quarters for Stromberg and functional accommodation for his henchlings. In addition to a large aquarium, Atlantis also has a shark pool that is accessed via a drop-floor elevator and a service tunnel that is connected to the submersible bay.
QUIPS: 'Mr Bond, I'm not interested in extortion. I intend to change the face of history...By "creating" a world, a new and beautiful world beneath the sea. Today's civilisation, as we know it, is corrupt and decedent. Inevitably, it will destroy itself. I'm merely - accelerating the process.'
SIDEKICKS: Jaws (Richard Kiel) - standing 7ft tall, weighing in at over 300lbs, and possessing a fearsome set of steel dentures, Jaws is the more ferocious henchman in the entire franchise. He doesn't say much, but he gives Bond and Soviet major, Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), plenty to talk about; Professor Markovitz (Milo Sperber) and Dr Bechmann (Cyril Shaps) - the boffins who create the tracking device key to Stromberg's scheme, who mistakenly think they are being allowed to leave Atlantis by helicopter; Naomi (Caroline Munro) - Stromberg's personal pilot and part-time assassin (who was voiced by Barbara Jefford, who had also dubbed Daniela Bianchi in From Russia With Love, 1963).
TRIVIA: Fittingly, given the name of the toothsome henchman, Steven Spielberg was keen to direct The Spy Who Loved Me after the success of Jaws (1975). However, the job had already been offered to Guy Hamilton, only for him to jump ship to direct Superman (1978). He would be supplanted by Richard Donner, leaving Lewis Gilbert to return to the Bond fold after making You Only Live Twice (1967).
Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979)
BOND: Roger Moore
VILLAIN: Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale)
BACKSTORY: Although the 1955 source novel contains details about Graf Hugo von der Drache's associations with the Nazis and his insistence that he was a red-haired, scar-faced Liverpool docker before the war, the film contents itself with positioning Hugo Drax as the megalomaniac billionaire owner of Drax Industries, which has a lucrative contract for building Space Shuttles for NASA.
FIENDISH PLAN: Disgusted by the inferiority of the bulk of humankind, Drax plans to use 50 globes stationed around the world to disseminate a deadly nerve agent made from the rare South American black orchid. Along with the cream of his species, Drax would monitor the state of the people-free planet from an orbiting space station and, once it becomes re-inhabitable, return by a fleet of six shuttles to build a new civilisation.
HQ & QUIRKS: Drax's home is a French chateau that he had moved stone by stone to the Californian countryside. Despite claims to be its official owner, he has been unable to obtain a permit to move the Eiffel Tower to his estate. Drax also has a research facility nestling in the Amazon Rainforest, which includes a domed control room and a vast, rock-hewn reception area with its own waterfall. Fond of game shooting, Drax is a fine pianist, who insists on treating guests to his rendition of Chopin's 'Prelude No.15 in D-flat major (Opus 28) ', which is better known as the 'Raindrop Prelude'.
QUIPS: 'First there was the dream, now there is reality. Here in the untainted cradle of the heavens will be created a new super race, a race of perfect physical specimens. You have been selected as its progenitors. Like gods, your offspring will return to Earth and shape it in their image. You have all served in public capacities in my terrestrial empire. Your seed, like yourselves, will pay deference to the ultimate dynasty which I alone have created. From their first day on Earth they will be able to look up and know that there is law and order in the heavens.'
SIDEKICKS: Chang (Toshiro Suga) - a server of tea and a keeper of dobermann pinschers, he twice tries to kill Bond, by speeding up the centrifuge at Drax's laboratory and by ambushing him at the Museum of Antique Glass in Venice; Jaws (Richard Kiel) - the metal-mouthed menace returns as Chang's replacement, only to switch sides after Bond reveals that he and girlfriend, Dolly (Blanche Ravalec), are not on Drax's exclusive list;
Corinne Dufour (Corinne Cléey) - Drax's personal pilot, who also has a conflict of loyalty on encountering 007, as does senior scientist, Dr Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles).
TRIVIA: In 2004, a film historian claimed to have stumbled upon an aborted 1956 adaptation of Moonraker. Producer Dayton Mace had cast Dirk Bogarde as Bond, Orson Welles as Drax, and Peter Lorre as his henchman, Krebs. Stanley Baker and Patrick McGoohan had been lined up for supporting roles, while Welles was also slated to direct. But the production ran into difficulty when Mace insisted on a nude sunbathing scene between 007 and Gala Brand, who was to have been played by Mace's ex-stripper mistress, Brenda Bright. What a shame it was all a hoax!
For Your Eyes Only (John Glen, 1981)
BOND: Roger Moore
VILLAIN: Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover)
BACKSTORY: Hailing from the island of Kefalonia, Aris Kristatos was feted for his courage during the Second World War and the Greek Civil War that followed it. In fact, despite being awarded the King's Medal by the British, he was a treacherous double agent in each conflict. Similarly, while he appears to be a respectable entrepreneur, he is a covert Soviet agent who uses his contacts with exiled Nazis to smuggle drugs, gold, and weapons. His activities, however, have earned him the enmity of his former partner, Milos Columbo (Chaim Topol).
FIENDISH PLAN: KGB chief, General Anatoly Gogol (Walter Gotell), hires Kristatos to steal the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC) used by the Royal Navy to co-ordinate its Polaris submarines. In order to throw 007 off the trail, Kristatos pretends to inform on Columbo and blames him for a spate of attempts on Bond's life, so that he can eradicate his foe and find the ATAC lost in the Ionian Sea unhindered.
HQ & QUIRKS: Although his opium is processed in large warehouses in Albania, Kristatos is based in the abandoned Greek Orthodox monastery of St Cyril's, where he and Columbo had once been brothers in arms. Perched atop an outcrop over 1300ft high, the medieval eyrie is accessible only by a basket cable. When not engaged in misdeeds, Kristatos dotes on Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), a promising figure skater who unknowingly leads Bond in traps on a biathlon course and at the ice rink.
QUIPS: 'I wish you luck, my friend. But I must warn you: stopping Columbo will be difficult. He has important connections. You cannot just...arrest him. You must find a different way. You may have to kill him.'
SIDEKICKS: Emile Leopold Locque (Michael Gothard) - sporting octagonal-rimmed glasses, this convicted Belgian assassin slays Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno) and Lisl von Schlaf (Cassandra Harris) because of their connections to 007, while also working in cahoots with Claus (Charles Dance) and East German biathlete Eric Kriegler (John Wyman) to kill Bond on a ski slope, a beach, and a cliff.
TRIVIA: While filming at the 14th-century Holy Trinity monastery at Meteora, the producers upset the monks at a neighbouring sanctuary. They had not been informed that a local bishop had granted permission to work in the Peneas Valley and took the case to the Greek Supreme Court to block the production's access. When the judges ruled that the monks couldn't prevent the crew from filming exterior views, they sought to sabotage the shoot by hanging their washing out of windows, festooning the walls with bunting, and using oil drums to block the production's helicopter landing pad. Ultimately, first-time director John Glen and his crew got round the problem by using long shots of a nearby monastery, matte paintings, and interiors mocked-up on a Pinewood soundstage.
Octopussy (John Glen, 1983)
BOND: Roger Moore
VILLAIN: Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan)
BACKSTORY: An exiled Afghan prince, Kamal Khan makes his money from counterfeiting and cheating. His penchant for playing backgammon with loaded dice reflects the love of games that prompted him to open a sports club with facilities for cricket, tennis, polo, and big game hunting. Khan also has a taste for the finer things in life and his interest in a Fabergé egg up for auction in London brings him to the attention of James Bond.
FIENDISH PLAN: Khan is in league with General Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a KGB renegade who wants to detonate a nuclear device at a US airbase in West Germany in the hope that the 'accident' will convince NATO leaders to disarm and leave them powerless against his marauding forces. In return for a cache of jewels stolen from the Kremlin, Khan agrees to dupe his lover, Octopussy (Maud Adams), into unwittingly transporting the warhead across Europe with her circus troupe.
HQ & QUIRKS: Located in the hills of Udaipur, the Monsoon Palace is one of the most luxurious of all Bond hideaways. Octopussy also has a floating island palace of her own, but the marble in the expansive living and dining areas gives Khan the nod. He is also sartorially superior to most Bond villains, as he wears tailor-made suits and evening jackets, with silk ties and handmade shoes. Khan also an olive safari suit that puts Bond's tan suit in the shade.
QUIPS: 'Mr Bond is indeed of a very rare breed...soon to be made extinct.'
SIDEKICKS: Magda (Kristina Wayborn) - a confidante of both Octopussy and Khan, she sleeps with Bond in an attempt to steal the Fabergé egg and later dons a top hat and a magician's outfit to act as ringmaster when the circus plays in Karl-Marx-Stadt in East Germany; Gobinda (Kabir Bedi) - Khan's loyal factotum, who chases Bond through Agra on a tuk-tuk, strives to kill him on a train, and later fights him on the in-flight fuselage of his master's plane; Mischka and Grischka (David and Anthony Meyer) - twin assassins who also have a knife-throwing act in the circus.
TRIVIA: Sean Connery's return to 007 duty in Never Say Never Again (1983) convinced Roger Moore to retain his licence to kill after his threats to quit had caused EON to consider alternatives. Lewis Collins, Timothy Dalton, Michael Billington, Oliver Tobias, and American James Brolin were mentioned in dispatches, while Sybil Danning, Faye Dunaway, Persis Khambatta, Susie Coelho, Barbara Parkins, and Kathleen Turner were linked with the title role (which Barbara Carrera seemingly turned down in order to play Fatima Blush opposite Connery). Blaxploitation superstar Pam Grier also declined to get involved.
A View to a Kill (John Glen, 1987)
BOND: Roger Moore
VILLAIN: Max Zorin (Christopher Walken)
BACKSTORY: Born in Dresden towards the end of the Second World War, Zorin was part of an experiment conducted by Dr Hans Glaub (Willoughby Gray) to inject pregnant women with steroids in the hope of creating a race of super-children. As Glaub was smuggled to the Soviet Union, where he adopted the alias Carl Mortner, it's implied that he raised Zorin as his own son and had him trained by the KGB. As an adult, Zorin made a fortune in the energy business before switching savvily to microchips and becoming a key figure behind the scenes in French politics.
FIENDISH PLAN: In an effort to eliminate competition from Silicon Valley, Zorin concocts Project Mainstrike. This involves using oil wells to filter water beneath the San Andreas and Hayward Faults and, thus, cause a super-earthquake that would render the area uninhabitable.
HQ & QUIRKS: Although the Nazi experiment gave Zorin a ferocious intellect, it also made him psychotic. This means he has an utter disregard for human life and no sense of loyalty towards his minions. He also revels in cheating by having his thoroughbred racehorses injected with steroids that are untraceable during testing. As a megalomaniac, Zorin also ideas above his station, literally in the case of the Skyship 500 and Skyship 6000 dirigibles. The latter has four engines and a double-decked gondola that has room for a large boardroom that is connected to the lower level by a collapsible staircase. It also has a concealed hatch for jettisoning failed sidekicks and unwanted intruders.
QUIPS: 'If you're the best they've got, they're more likely to try and cover up your embarrassing incompetence.'
SIDEKICKS: Scarpine (Patrick Bauchau) - first seen using the pseudonym, St John Smythe, Scarpine is Zorin's most trusted aide, who accompanies him to San Francisco in the bid to destroy Silicon Valley; May Day (Grace Jones) - Zorin's lover and bodyguard, who kills horse-owing MI6 agent, Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Macnee), and French detective, Achille Aubergine (Jean Rougerie), before changing sides when Zorin kills mining engineer Bob Conley (Manning Redwood), and her friends, Jenny Flex (Alison Doody) and Pan Ho (Papillon Soo Soo), as part of his masterplan.
TRIVIA: David Bowie rejected the chance to co-star in 57 year-old Roger Moore's seventh and final Bond movie because he didn't want to 'spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs'. Sting and Rutger Hauer were considered before Christopher Walken was cast opposite Tanya Roberts, who got the role of geologist Stacey Sutton because Priscilla Presley couldn't get out of her Dallas (1978-91) contract. Barbara Bach (who had recommended Grace Jones to Eon) declined to reprise the role of Anya Amasova, so Fiona Fullerton stepped into the breach as Pola Ivanova.
The Living Daylights (John Glen, 1989)
BOND: Timothy Dalton
VILLAIN: General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé)
BACKSTORY: Supposedly unhappy with the 'Smiert Shpionam' (or 'Death to Spies') policy introduced by new KGB chief, General Leonid Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies), Georgi Koskov makes it known that he wants to defect to the West. Bond is sent to the Czech city of Bratislava to help him pass through the Iron Curtain into Austria.
FIENDISH PLAN: Koskov hopes that his entirely fictitious revelations about Pushkin will make him a target for MI6 and the CIA. In fact, he has exploited Cold War tensions to get out of the USSR so that he can broker an arms deal with self-styled five-star American general, Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker), and Colonel Feyador (John Bowe), the commander of the Soviet air base in Afghanistan. A large consignment of raw opium from the Snow Leopard Brotherhood is part of the exchange and Koskov intends to sell this to enrich himself before returning to Moscow with his weapons to stage a KGB coup.
HQ & QUIRKS: As Koskov is in exile, he doesn't have a lair and the Afghan airbase isn't up to much by Bond villain standards. Abutting the single runway are an array of wooden and concrete buildings, with the facility being surrounded by an electrified fence. Far more impressive is Whitaker's villa in Tangier, which greets visitors with a hall dedicated to such 'great military commanders' as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler, who were 'surgeons who removed society's dead flesh'. Each bust resembles Whitaker, who also has a room dedicated to weapons and the collection miniature soldiers with which he re-fights epic battles like Agincourt, Waterloo, and Gettysburg.
QUIPS: 'I'm sorry, James. For you I have great affection, but we have an old saying: duty has no sweethearts.'
SIDEKICKS: Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) - more an associate than a sidekick, the American was expelled from West Point for cheating and served as a mercenary in the Belgian Congo before becoming an arms dealer; Necros (Andreas Wisniewski, voiced by John Shale) - a former KGB agent, Koskov's assassin is a master of disguise who poses as a milkman to gain access the safe house in the English countryside in which his boss is staying. Forever listening to The Pretenders on his headphones, he also kills Saunders (Thomas Wheatley), Bond's contact in Vienna, while disguised as a balloon seller; Kara Milovy (Maryam D'Abo) - a cellist and reluctant sniper, who is Koskov's lover until she and 007 take an unconventional sled ride on her cello case.
TRIVIA: Aussies Sam Neill, Mel Gibson, Bryan Brown, Andrew Clarke, and Finlay Light were all considered to replace Roger Moore, as was American Michael Nader. But it was Irishman Pierce Brosnan who was cast, only for NBC to impose an extension to his Remington Steele (1982-87) contract that caused Cubby Broccoli to withdraw the offer. When Timothy Dalton distanced himself from the role, Robert Bathurst was auditioned in what the actor considered a ruse to convince the Welshman to become the new James Bond.
Licence to Kill (John Glen, 1989)
BOND: Timothy Dalton
VILLAIN: Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi)
BACKSTORY: Based in the Republic of Isthmus, Colombian drug baron Franz Sanchez is prepared to use bribery and violence to attain his ends. However, while in the Bahamas to check up on wayward paramour, Lupe Lamora (Taliso Soto), Sanchez is captured in a DEA sting monitored by Bond and ex-CIA buddy, Felix Leiter (David Hedison). Having offered DEA agent Ed Killifer (Everett McGill) a $2 million pay-off to ensure he escapes en route to Quantico, Sanchez exacts his revenge on Leiter by killing his bride, Della Churchill (Priscilla Barnes), on their wedding day and dangling Leiter's legs into the shark pool at the Ocean Exotica warehouse.
FIENDISH PLAN: Not content with having televangelist, Professor Joe Butcher (Wayne Newton). use his TV broadcasts for the Olimpatec Meditation Institute to corner the American market, Sanchez seeks to expand into Asia. He invites five drug lords to Isthmus to show them how his tame chemist, Honorato (Honorato Magaloni), has perfected a process to dissolve cocaine in petrol so that it can be transported without detection.
HQ & QUIRKS: As befitting a villain with a global reach, Sanchez has a range of imposing properties at his disposal. His business base is a tower block in Isthmus City, where he also has a hotel, warehouses, and a casino. In addition to his beachfront villa, Sanchez also has an underground bunker beneath the Olimpatec Meditation Institute, while he also has the run of the Key West laboratory of Wavekrest Marine Research, the company run by his longtime associate, Milton Krest (Anthony Zerbe). Despite being all-powerful and quite prepared to use the sea spine and shark's teeth whip he calls 'the corrector', Sanchez is paranoid and constantly questions the loyalty of even his most trusted lieutenants.
QUIPS: 'Señor Bond, you got big cojones. You come here, to my place, without references, carrying a piece, throwing around a lot of money...but you should know something: nobody saw you come in, so nobody has to see you go out.'
SIDEKICKS: Milton Krest (Anthony Zerbe) - a marine researcher gone bad, Krest has become an alcoholic from the strain of allowing Sanchez to use his Key West facilities; Truman-Lodge (Anthony Starke) - fleeing Wall Street for insider trading, he handles Sanchez's money matters and comes to regret carping about 'another $80 million write-off'; Dario (Benecio Del Toro) - a former Nicaraguan Contra who removes the heart of Lupe's lover, carries out the wedding day massacre with Perez (Alejandro Bacho) and Braun (Guy De St Cyr), and attempts to kill Bond (who has quit MI6 to avenge Leiter) and informant/pilot Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) at the Barrelhead Bar.
TRIVIA: Vic Flick, the John Barry Seven guitarist who had originally played Monty Norman's James Bond theme, was invited to record a new version for Licence to Kill with Eric Clapton. However, presiding over his final 007 adventure, Cubby Broccoli rejected the reboot (which can be found online) and, after Michael Kamen and B.A. Robertson had taken a crack at penning a tune, he commissioned a new song. Recorded by Gladys Knight and riffing on the horn motif from 'Goldfinger', this remains the longest Bond song to date. Daniel Kleinman, who directed the promo video, would take over the 007 credit sequences after the death in 1991 of American Maurice Binder, who had worked on 16 entries in the series since creating the famous gun-barrel sequence for Dr No back in 1962.
