The big screen isn’t the only place where James Bond villains have met their demise, they’ve also perished on the smaller screen or more precisely in video games. While the quality of Bond games can often vary from good to bad, the deaths of 007’s adversaries are usually the biggest highlight of the game.
For this list I will be ranking these entries on how effective and badass the villains in question met their makers; I’m also including those deaths that aren’t necessarily caused by James Bond himself and finally, the deaths of henchmen in the 007 video games are also included.
#10. Bernin | James Bond 007: Blood Stone (2010)
Let’s start with the demise of a minor character from the often-overlooked 2010 James Bond game, Blood Stone.
Whilst looking for the missing Dr. Malcolm Tedworth in Turkey, 007 discovers that the scientist was tortured and killed after revealing some very important information to a gangster by name of Bernin.
This leads to James Bond gunning down many of Bernin’s men leading to a car chase after the assailant through the streets of Istanbul. After passing on the information to a helicopter pilot in the area, Bernin gets interrogated by Bond in order to find out who the gangster is working for and it is soon revealed that the name of his employer: Stefan Pomerov.
As Bond turns his attention away to grab a cell phone that’s ringing on the ground, the gangster pulls out a gun and attempts to kill him only for 007 to shoot the gun out of his hands; Bernin then pleads to Bond to let him go as his no longer any use to him, to which the M16 agent responds “You got that right” and kicks the gangster off the ledge where he plummets to his death…a badass kill that feels right up 007 alley.
#9. Arkady Yayakov | James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004)
A Russian war criminal who’s armed with a prosthetic robot hand, Arkady Yayakov is seen as the owner of the Kiss Kiss nightclub and a henchman working for the game’s main bad guy, Nikolai Diavolo.
When NSA agent and Bond ally Mya Sterling is discovered to be working uncover at the villain’s night club, Yayakov kidnaps her and asks one of his goons to take care of her and 007. As expected he is quite unsuccessful when dealing with Britain’s number one spy.
Eventually, Bond finds the criminal inside his laboratory in the bayous of Louisiana before a massive gunfight ensues resulting in parts of the lab collapsing and killing him in the process. While the character didn’t have much screen time in the video game, his death was memorable enough to make it onto this list.
#8. Rafael Drake | James Bond 007: Nightfire (2002)
James Bond has taken on a slew of insane tycoons and businessmen over the years and Nightfire’s main antagonist, Rafael Drake is no exception.
The head of Phoenix International, Drake becomes a crusader against nuclear weapons and pushes for environmental causes but in reality, he takes many of these nuclear weapons as part of his master plan nicknamed: Nightfire.
Similar to Hugo Drax from Moonraker, Drake’s plan centres around eradicating much of mankind from the comfort of a space station and reshaping it in his own image something he refers to as a “Corporate Takeover” among other business-related terms.
In the final mission of the game, Bond foils Rafael’s plan of using ballistic missiles on Earth and after causing the space station to go critical, Drake has a boss fight with 007 outside of the exploding station but much like Hugo Drax before him, Rafael is shot by Bond as his body ends up flying away into the cold, dark void of space… never to be seen again.
#7. Auric Goldfinger | GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004)
Everyone remembers how the gold-obsessed businessman meets his end in the 1964 classic, but few are aware of how he dies in the spinoff (or cash grab depending on who you ask) video game known as Goldeneye: Rogue Agent.
The game sees you playing a disgraced former double ‘O’ agent who is now under the service of Auric Goldfinger. Your mission is to execute tasks for him during his rivalry with SPECTRE agent, Dr. Julius No who is also the person responsible for your character getting one of his eyes shot out and replacing it with a new golden one.
After killing Dr. No in a boss fight, Goldfinger calls to inform you that you’ve outgrown your usefulness. The rest of the game sees you tearing through enemies until you encounter your former boss who traps you inside a glass chamber before monologuing about his plans to use his new weapon: the Organic Mass Energy Neutralizer aka the OMEN.
However, unbeknownst to Goldfinger, your character has uploaded a virus that activates the OMEN resulting in the businessman and his goons getting vaporized all while your character smiles from the comfort of his chamber. While this game is often considered the worse 007 video game of all time, the death of Auric Goldfinger is at the very least one of its redeeming qualities.
#6. Carla the Jackal | James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire (2001)
A notorious assassin whose background is as shadowy as her assignments. Carla the Jackal is first seen in the 2001 video game ‘Agent Under Fire’ attempting an assassination plot on 007 who had previously stolen some important vials from Carla’s employer.
It isn’t until later on in the game that you reencounter Carla in the level known as “The Night of the Jackal”. This sees the assassin and a group of thugs break into the British Embassy in Romania while holding many of the occupants inside hostage.
After dispatching many of Carla’s goons, you then head into a warehouse where you confront the Jackal in a final showdown. Here you have two options either shoot her down with your gun or in a more satisfying way end the assassin’s life, you can operate a nearby crane and knock Carla off her platform as she falls into a large fan where she gets ground into green dust and meets her demise.
Of course, as crazy as that was, Carla isn’t the only villain who suffers an over-the-top death in this game.
#5. Nigel Bloch | James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire (2001)
During Bond’s mission on the Cyclops Oil Facility in the Red China Sea, he encounters Nigel Bloch who is the head of Identicon Corporations and right-hand man to the game’s main antagonist, Adrian Malprave.
After falling off the top of a tower in the facility, you then chase after Bloch whilst riding a monorail inside an underwater laboratory. Next, you get to engage in a run-and-gun fight with him inside the base’s reactor core ending with Bloch falling into a pit of lava.
However, by the third act of the game, you learn that the Bloch you killed at the underwater lab was a clone and you now have to fight the real one, who’s equipped with a jetpack and a grenade launcher. Once inside you realise Malprave’s headquarters is rigged to self-destruct. It all ends with James Bond shooting Bloch through a stained glass window in Malprave’s office and escaping on a well-timed jet as the main baddie and her base blows up.
#4. Xenia Onatopp | GoldenEye 007: Reloaded (2010)
While the character in this game isn’t voiced by actress Famke Janssen and doesn’t show off her ability to kill people with her thighs much like in the movie. Xenia Onatopp from Goldeneye 007 Reloaded is still a good antagonist for parts of the game.
You first encounter Xenia as an undercover waitress working for Russian gangster and nightclub owner, Valentin Zukovsky. She shoots him dead with your previously confiscated gun and frames you for his murder.
Throughout the game, Onatopp continues to kill many of your allies and even one of her own before you finally have a boss battle with her in the third act of the game. This culminates in 007 firing a missile at a helicopter that Xenia is connected to via a harness and rappeling cable.
She’s then dragged away off the platform you’re both standing on but not before Bond delivers a nice quip at Xenia as she lands in the flaming helicopter before it explodes killing her in the process.
#3. Nikolai Diavolo | James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2004)
Portrayed by the legendary Willem Dafoe, Nikolai Diavolo is a notorious Russian Industrialist/former KGB agent who looks to create a mechanised army and use some redesigned nanobot technology that’ll eat through all metal (except for platinum). This is in order to create a new world order while also getting revenge on James Bond after killing Diavolo’s mentor, Max Zorin all those years ago.
A more fleshed-out villain compared to some of the other antagonists in the 007 video games, Diavolo proves himself to be nefarious as well as egotistical. This is seen in a moment when a 60-foot tall platinum statue of himself is being lowered in the middle of Moscow after believing that his nanobots have eaten away most of the metal in Russia.
Upon breaking into his facility and causing the place to blow up (as only 007 can do), Bond gets into a boss fight with Diavolo and his female assistant inside a jet. It appears that the villains have met their doom, except Nikolai manages to escape the jet by way of an ejector seat.
In the final level of the game, Bond heads to the surface of the facility where he sees Diavolo activating a missile that contains some of his nanobots which will be heading to London. This is when another boss battle ensures, but this time there’s no escape for the former Russian agent as he falls off his control tower, landing inside the rocket silo as it prepares to take off, killing the bad guy almost instantly.
#2. Makiko ‘Kiko’ Hayashi | James Bond 007: Nightfire (2002)
During your investigation in the second level of this game, you’ll first encounter this mysterious woman who claims that she’s waiting for someone. It’s not until you head to Japan that you discover that her name is Kiko and that she’s the bodyguard for Alexander Mayhew, a former employee of the space-obsessed industrialist, Rafael Drake.
After an assault on Mayhew’s Japanese estate which sees him perishing at the end, Bond breaks into the Phoenix International building where he acquires some information on Drake’s plans. This is when he reencounters Kiko again enroute to escaping the building, however, it’s soon revealed that she’s a double agent working for the rich egomaniac. During your face-to-face meeting with Drake on the roof of the Phoenix building, Kiko kicks your ally and fellow agent, Dominque Paradis, off the building leading to her death.
In the second to last mission of the game, Bond rushes onto one of the launch silos inside Drake’s control base. This is where Kiko deactivates the platform sending Bond right near the blast chambers of a shuttle that’s about to take off but thankfully you manage to escape.
The same can’t be said for Kiko, as 007 leaves her stuck in the same situation he was in previously after deactivating the landing platform near a shuttle that’s about to take off. Kiko rushes to hide inside a room that’ll protect her from the blast but she’s too late and ends up getting incinerated upon the shuttle’s ignition thus Bond gets revenge over Dominque’s death and gives this treacherous agent a taste of her own medicine.
#1. Donald ‘Red’ Grant | From Russia with Love (2005)
In this video game adaptation of the famous bond movie of the same name, James Bond has to deal with everything from espionage to shadowy characters to an enemy organization with a long-abbreviated name. This includs that organization’s bleach-blonde agent of death, Red Grant.
Similar to the film, Grant pretends to be an agent working for MI6 when he encounters James Bond on the Orient Express. Unlike the film, Grant doesn’t keep the facade on for too long as he engages in a brawl with 007 on the train before making his getaway.
During a firefight at the train station, Grant mentions how he previously killed Bond’s ally, Karim Bay on the Orient Express. Bond shoots at Grant leading to him falling onto the train tracks and meeting his presumed demise.
Of course, Grant survives the previous ordeal and returns in the final level of the game to get another pop at Bond in a boss fight that sees the player taking on the SPECTRE agent inside a mechanical octopus-like thing before it’s completely destroyed.
Bond then passes the flaming wreckage to find a snarling Grant laying on the floor believing that Bond doesn’t have what it takes to kill him. However just as Grant reaches for his gun to have one final shot, Bond fires a shot right at Grant…killing him before quipping with the line: “That was for Karim”.
A kill that is just as cold-blooded as it is well deserved. Red Grant’s death in this game is my pick for the most satisfying villain death in a James Bond video game.
What do you think was the most satisfying death for a bond villain in a video game and what was your favourite 007 video game growing up? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section and click the website link below for more content just like this:
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