12 Unforgettable 007 Death Scenes

James Bond's first onscreen nemesis met a most fitting death: in the film's final moments, he slips into his own reactor cooling vat, where he promptly boils to death. It's the death that prepared us for the series' future brutality. 

Daniel Craig plays a budding James Bond, and as a new Bond, he's only just earned his license to kill. This brutal, gritty murder in which James drowns Dryden's contact in a men's bathroom sink is the first step on his journey to super spy status. 

These were dire straights. James was backed into a corner, about to meet his doom at the hands of the 'Moonraker' villain, but at the last moment, Bond ejects Drax into space. How else should one dispatch a space-bound baddie?

James Bond isn't one to let anyone tell him what to do. Especially not a sexy temptress. Elektra assumes her sex appeal will save her from James' wrath, telling him "You couldn't kill me. You'd miss me." Spoiler: James does kill her, uttering the classic response, "I never miss."

Drug lord Franz Sanchez meets a fitting and brutal end when he gets into a film-ending gasoline fight with James. The real kicker comes when Bond finishes the villain off and avenges the death of his good friend Felix Leiter's new wife: James throws the lighter the Leiters gave him at Franz, burning him to a crisp. Payback really is a b**ch.

This death is a Bond-appropriate death because it's got all the badassery of James' beloved one-liners: it's half dad joke and half brutal killer. After James warns Goldfinger against firing a gun in an airplane, the baddie does it anyway and he's rewarded by being sucked out the airplane window. Toldja. 

Boris Grishenko was the worst. Computer hacker, narcissist, and misogynist extraordinaire, Boris was under the assumption he could outsmart anyone. It's fitting then that while he celebrates his "invincibility," a vat of liquid nitrogen explodes above his head, leaving him to die in the exact position that led to his demise. 

Goldfinger's right hand man had a strange way about him. This classic Bond villain henchman was a particularly stubborn adversary, so it's no wonder that when Bond finally rids himself of the pest, it happens in spectacular fashion: when James throws his classic metal rimmed hat, Oddjob dodges it and retrieves it from a fence. Just then, James connects a sparking wire to the fence, killing Oddjob with his own deadly hat. 

Much like when Daniel Craig's Bond dispatches Dryden's contact by brutally strangling him in a sink, Red Grant's death signals a new era of Bond. It's brutal killing, after tussling with Red on a train, James finally kills the baddie by strangling him to death with his own two hands. It was a whole new Bond.

While 007 lost his wife in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' in a tragic drive-by shooting, that loss didn't quite cut us up the way Vesper Lynd's death did. After falling in love, James finds that Vesper has betrayed him. He's angry, but when he learns she did it for love, part of him softens and forgives her. But it's too late. Her scheming lands her in an elevator in a collapsing Venice building. When Bond can't save her, he (and the audience) watch her die. James holds her lifeless body and becomes the Bond we've come to know as a result. 

Milton Krest's death isn't necessarily "awesome," but it's one your sure to never forget. Bond frames Krest by stealing money he's meant to give to the movie's big baddie, Franz Sanchez. When Franz discovers the missing money in a decompression chamber, he enacts his rage by throwing Milton into the chamber, cutting the pipes, and watching as the disloyal cohort's head explodes.