Big villain: Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Working for: SPECTRE
The plan: To spark a nuclear war between East and West.

He’s got great lines (“You only live twice, Mr. Bond”), his own piranha pond and a volcano to call home, but Ernst Stavro Blofeld just can’t keep his plan in his pants. Here he employs the first use of what we like to call the ‘Gold Class’ approach to Bond villainy, whereby Bond gets to watch his evil scheme come to fruition while scouring a surprisingly unguarded command centre for nobs to twiddle or important-looking devices to unplug. In this case, he leaps on the one marked “Open Crater” with ninja-ery consequences.

Giveaway speech: “As you see, I am about to inaugurate a little war. In a matter of hours when America and Russia have annihilated each other we shall see a new power rule the world.”

What he should have done: Shot him.