Besting James Bond is no cakewalk, be it physically or in a game of wits. However, some notorious baddies have had the luck of momentarily scoring one over 007. Though he gets himself out of trouble every time, Bond has often been stuck in pesky situations where escape seemed virtually impossible, from being held hostage in an abandoned ship to being tortured on a garrote or fighting a mercenary on top of a train.
There have been some seriously precarious situations faced by agent extraordinaire 007 where he was bested by the baddie.
Casino Royale: When Le Chiffre Leads Bond To A Cardiac Arrest
Fans had never even seen Bond fighting off a common cold, so it was quite a shock to them when they found out that Bond was in the middle of a full-blown cardiac arrest, that too in the middle of a very high stakes poker game in Casino Royale. The evil banker Le Chiffre arranges for his girlfriend to poison Bond’s martini with a digoxin which basically completely disorients Bond physically. He calls in the MI6 HQ where the medical team tells him that his heart will stop unless he self-defibrillates, and then of course, Vesper saves the day. But very few Bond villains had managed to so completely crush Bond’s chances like this premeditated assault by Le Chiffre.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: When Blofeld Kills Bond’s Wife
SPECTRE boss Ernst Stavro Blofeld is easily Bond’s biggest nemesis and historically speaking, is responsible for some of the biggest damages in his life. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond foils Blofeld’s outrageous plan of rendering all livestock and agriculture infertile around the globe.
In the explosive climax, Blofeld hurts his neck after he gets caught in a tree branch. But avenges this loss by killing Bond’s newly-wed wife Tracy (played by the late Diana Riggs) at a drive-by shooting, a few minutes after their wedding in Portugal. Though Bond survives the attack, this would go on to become one of the most heartbreaking and shocking moments in the franchise’s cinematic history.
Skyfall: When Raoul Tricks Bond Into Helping Him Set Up M’s Assassination
The wily cyber-terrorist Raoul Silva makes for an intimidating enemy for Bond because he’s the perfect baddie for the technology age where the threat is not just corporeal but a lot more advanced. In Skyfall, Silva did Bond dirty by tricking him into bringing him to the MI6 headquarters so he could get access to their servers (as Q tries to decrypt his laptop), which would in turn help him in his assassination attempt at M’s life. This was quite embarrassing for Bond, especially since his abilities as an agent were already being questioned by his superiors, and in hindsight, he really should have guessed that Silva gave up almost too easy in Macau.
The Man With The Golden Gun: When Bond Is Held Hostage By Nick Nack
Bond is a total pro with undercover assignments but things go awry for him in The Man With The Golden Gun when he is sent to track down the Solex Agitator, a powerful device that can harness the power of the sun. Bond meets the super rich Thai businessman Hai Fat in Bangkok and impersonates himself as the baddie Francisco Scaramanga.
What Bond does not know is that Scaramanga himself is working out of Fat's estate. Bond is caught in the lie and is taken hostage by Nick Nack, Scaramanga’s dwarf henchman. He is then placed at Fat's martial arts academy, where the baddies instruct the students to kill 007.
Tomorrow Never Dies: Basically Everything That Carver Did
The diabolical media mogul Elliot Carver is the most slippery Bond villain ever; every time Bond seemed to be closing in on him, he bested 007 and to counteracted his efforts. In Tomorrow Never Dies, Carver is married to Paris who is also Bond’s ex-girlfriend; Bond obviously tries to use her for intelligence, and when Carver finds out he orders his henchman to kill Paris, much to Bond’s shock. Throughout the film Carver manages to catch Bond unawares multiple times; 007 finds out that Carver is trying to wage war between China and the UK and captures Henry Gupta, Carver’s cyber-terrorist accomplice as leverage against him. But shocking Bond yet again, Carver kills Gupta, claiming he has ‘outlived his contract, foiling Bond's plans.’
Diamonds Are Forever: When Bond Mistakenly Thought Blofeld Is Dead
Within the first ten minutes of Diamonds Are Forever, Bond spots a facility where the big, bad terror boss Blofeld is creating his look-alikes. Bond kills a test subject and then who Bond was convinced was the real Blofeld. But audiences, of course, guessed that the real baddie can’t possibly die at the very beginning of the movie.
In Las Vegas, as Bond is trying to recover some diamonds he comes face-to-face with the real Blofeld who’s obviously alive, and that too when he was least expecting it. To make things worse, he is then knocked out with gas and left in a pipeline to die.
Casino Royale: When Mr. White Used Vesper Against Bond
Mr. White’s design against 007 was easily one of the most tragic and intricate schemes to have ever affected Bond’s life, it not only cost him the love of his life but gave him major trust issues. At the end of Casino Royale, Bond finds out that his girlfriend Vesper, who was the treasury agent protecting the buy-in money from Le Chiffre, is actually a double agent working for White who’s leading an international terror ring. While MI6 was setting up a plan to keep Le Chiffre from winning the poker game and funding terrorism, White had hired Vesper as a backup, to get his hands on the money. Vesper made a deal with White to spare Bond’s life and ended up taking her own life, possibly owing to her guilt of betraying her country, and of course, Bond.
Spectre: Bond Vs Patrice
The Istanbul train-top fight between Bond and Patrice is one of the most thrilling three minutes in Bond history. Patrice is a mercenary who is trying to get away after having stolen a hard drive containing the details of all undercover agents, so things are obviously desperate.
Moneypenny follows the action in a jeep and finally gets a clear shot from a distance as Bond and Patrice struggle on top of a moving train, although she tells M that she could hit Bond. M asks her to take the shot anyway and as luck would have it, she hits Bond and he falls off the train into a river as Patrice gets away.
Casino Royale: When He Gets Tortured By Le Chiffre
In hindsight, Casino Royale was a very rough ride for Bond, from a poison-induced heart attack, to being tortured to losing the woman he loves, it was a disaster. Things get really intense when Le Chiffre’s men kidnap Vesper after Bond’s win in the poker, and Bond tries to save her and gets captured by Le Chiffre. Bond is taken to an abandoned ship, stripped naked, and tortured by Le Chiffre who wants Bond to reveal the account number and password to the poker winnings.
The World Is Not Enough: When Elektra Deceives Bond And Tortures Him
Although Bond had his doubts about the oil heiress Elektra who was seemingly being hunted by assassins in the movie, he had no idea that she was the real baddie who conspiring with the ex-KGB agent Renard who seem to be planning a nuclear meltdown. Bond figures it out but before he could do anything about it he, along with Dr. Christmas Jones, is captured and taken to Elektra who tortures Bond on a garrote for a very painful three and half minutes. However, Bond’s biggest regret in this scenario is probably how he couldn’t figure out Elektra’s deception before things got so bad.