There are some constants you can count on in the world of James Bond. One of those constants is that the villain will give a speech at some point in the movie. It may be lengthy. It may be short. It may be eloquent and/or scary. Most of all, it will vary in terms of quality. Either way, there will be a bad guy monologue every audience will have to sit through.
Here, we have collected some of the best (and worst) villain speeches throughout the franchise. Being one of the longest and most successful franchises in entertainment history, there are sure to be plenty more of both to come.
10 Worst - Aristotle Kristatos
The villain in For Your Eyes Only, Aristotle Kristatos, may have not only been one of the worst villains in the history of the 007 franchise, but in cinematic history. Not only did he make the typical villain mistake of talking too much, but he also made the colossal mistake of doing so in front of a parrot.
So Kristatos is then thrown under the bus when the parrot reveals the final destination of his master villain plan. Kristatos really got the raw end of the deal here, as he didn't even get to talk himself into failing.
9 Best - Brad Whitaker
In The Living Daylights, villain Brad Whitaker is a West Point failure who funds his arms dealing with drug sales. Surprisingly, this particular bad guy lands on the best side of the list, but he is quite well-spoken. He doesn't fall into the trap of spilling all of his evil plans to Bond in his big moment because 007 has already foiled that plan when they are verbally sparring.
Spouting off revised views of battle history, playing with extremely high-tech (for the time) weaponry, and enticing everyone's favorite spy into a game of cat-and-mouse is only capped off when Whitaker coolly points out that Bond could have lived rich, but instead will die poor for destroying his investment of opium.
8 Worst - Franz Sanchez
The bad guy in Licence To Kill is unusually fond of brevity. Franz Sanchez is a big bad drug overlord, and he is not one to go in for long speeches that spill his entire history, nor his plans. Sanchez is a man that is used to acting, not talking. While that makes him an anomaly in the world of Bond villains, it will not land him on any best speeches list.
Even when Sanchez has Bond restrained on a conveyor belt, headed into a cocaine grinder, he doesn't fall into the usual trap of spilling his guts. He tells Bond how bad it will be and at what point he will beg to die. Great for cinema, not so great when it comes to the big villain monologue.
7 Best - Karl Stromberg
The inclusion of Karl Stromberg on this list's best side may be controversial to some in the 007 fandom. His speech in The Spy Who Loved Me is awfully similar to a villain's speech in the earlier film You Only Live Twice. Still, the delivery and personality of this megalomaniac are really what sells it.
When explaining his quest to destroy humanity and restart civilization in his preferred location— under the sea— Stromberg really tries to sell that he is doing this all because of the ugliness and depravity that is running rampant in humankind. He attempts to portray himself as a savior, the person who will be painted as a homicidal maniac to save the human race.cHis passion for his belief and eloquence of speech almost sell his point of view to the audience.
6 Worst - Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big
Also known as Mr. Big, Live and Let Die showcases Dr. Kananga as one of the more bizarre villains in the Bond franchise. A drug grower who wears a latex mask to sell the product as Mr. Big, therefore keeping control of all distribution factors, Kananga rules over his dark business with voodoo guidance.
However, when he explains his plans to Bond, telling him that he intends to give away the drugs, increasing the number of addicts in the United States by double, if not more. This will drive all other dealers out of business, leaving him as the sole drug source for all those addicts. He lays this out very coldly and business-like, almost as if he is giving a business presentation rather than a thrilling villain speech.
5 Best - Col. Tan-Sun Moon/Gustav Graves
Though the whole Moon becoming Graves through DNA replacement thing is odd, even for this franchise, he does have style. The Die Another Day villain goes so far as naming his satellite laser Icarus, which is pretty ingenious. When revealing himself for who he truly is to Bond, he insults Bond's ego, acting as though he has escaped that curse himself.
He modeled his new identity on everything he says he hates about Bond, unable to see he already shared those traits with him from the start. However, any villain that can relate his evil plan to Greek mythology likely will give a great speech, and Graves lives up to that expectation.
4 Worst - Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Diamonds Are Forever)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a favorite of the creative minds of the Bond franchise. He has been in multiple Bond films, always popping back to life to come up with some extravagant plot to get a big ransom, demand global domination, and try to kill Bond. They never work but are always varying degrees of interesting, from downright incomprehensible to sinister.
In Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld makes it onto the worst speech list— it's almost like he has stopped trying to be cagey at this point and gives his plan away by acting like he is not trying to give his plan outright away. It was one of his least pithy speeches and really barely entertaining.
3 Best - Ernst Stavro Blofeld (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
Being the most veteran Bond villain, it is no surprise that Blofeld is on here twice in a row on both sides of the fence. Blofeld is the villain in what is sometimes considered the best— certainly the most underrated— entry into the franchise, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. To have the world bend him to his will, Blofeld has gained control over a pharmaceutical company and has developed a biological weapon that can sterilize the entire world's crops if not pardoned for all his past crimes.
He gives a speech that is impassioned, but controlled, calculated, and just on the edge of madness and talks about making the world pay attention to him by having the most powerful scientific development at his fingertips. However, when Tracy Bond dies, he forever cements himself as one of the most hated villains in the fandom.
2 Worst - Auric Goldfinger
In Goldfinger, the titular villain is Auric Goldfinger, who, along with his assistant Pussy Galore, maybe two of the most famous and popular characters in the Bond film verse. Despite that standing, he is not long on creative and witty talk. He spills his plan out with little prompting and little alliteration.
He kind of knocks off the parts of his plan like checking off bullets on a list. Though a great villain— and no one can argue with his taste in assistants— he definitely could have tried harder to be more entertaining in his speeches.
1 Best - Raoul Silvia
Silvia is a former MI6 agent who was horribly disfigured when he attempted to use the cyanide pill implanted in his molar after being captured. In his villain turn during Skyfall, this is depicted as a standard implant for agents' molars to kill themselves if captured instead of being tortured for information.
Instead of killing him, the pill destroyed his gums, disfigured his face, and sent him on a path of revenge for the one he blamed for his capture: Olivia Mansfield, better known by her promoted designation of M. He goes in for revenge, and ultimately though he dies, he does kill her first, dying in Bond's arms. He is a masterful villain, and his speech on betrayal is moving and almost poetic.
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