50 replies to this topic

[Iron K]

Greetings Not-so-Gentle-men and Oh-so-very-few-Ladies.

For pure fun, and in the hope of starting some interesting discussions, I have put together a couple of list's that I will be posting in this here thread.

As some of you may know, I have a quite big interest in movies, and specifically in the antagonists. These range from petty thieves to evil super geniuses. Always there to spoil the Heroes plans and to make his life as hard as humanly possible. What would the movies be without these bad guys?
For example, what would Batman be without the Joker? Just a mentally scarred grown man in a leather/latex outfit..
And we got enough of those already...

Antagonists in the movies can range from a strong individual with terrible powers, Sauron, to a faceless group that preform horrible acts, the Umbrella Corporation.
To cut down the range a bit, I have made quite specific lists. Why only top 5? Well, because of two things. First of, I don't really have the time to do a top 10, but there might be one coming if there is any interests. Second, I do believe that the majority of members of GothicWars lack the attention span to sit through any more than five..

Go ahead and feel free to discuss the lists, or make your own. These are just based on my opinion, and the experience I have had.

Let's get it started, shall we?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Top 5 Disney Villains

Walt Disney. Much can be said about the man, but we shall ignore him for now, and instead focus on the movies that his company has given us. I am sure that the majority of you, just like me, grew up with Disney movies such as The Little Mermaid, or The Lion King. But in these oh so child friendly movies, there hides some pretty damn evil villains.

I have chosen to list the top five villains of Disney's animated movies. Not computer animated, the old kind of animated.. Why? Because I have seen every single one of those, and therefore can say that I have thought of every single one of the villains. If you want a complete list, you can find it >> Here <<.

Moving on, here comes the list!

[spoiler=Number 5]



Name: Cruella De Vil
Appears In: One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
Motivation: I don't think this Lady needs any introduction. She joins the list for being a cold-hearted fashionista, that would kill and skin
99 puppies for the sake of one coat. Think about it. Would you be able to kill and skin a puppy?
The fact that she also have one of the most badass names in animated history (Cruel Devil for those of you that hasn't realized it yet...) secures her a place on the list.
A bonus is that she is hellbent on getting these puppies, so much that it is on the verge of true psychopath. Something that she basically turns into in the later part of the movie.

The reason why she has not gotten further than the fifth place is because she doesn't do anything that the clothing companies does every day. They breed, kill and skin animals as an industry for the sake of fur, and they also get extra points for using child labor.

Besides, she gets outwitted and defeated by animals.. Seriously...

But fifth place isn't to bad, now is it?
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 4]



Name: Scar
Appears In: The Lion King (1994)
Motivation: You know him, you love.. Or do you? Oh well..
A true mastermind with his eyes on the throne. He knows what he wants, and he knows how to get it. With the help of a group of easily manipulated hyenas, he performs a well planed Coupe d'état, killing his own brother, and tries to kill his nephew after blaming him for the death of his father. He successfully takes the throne, and rules like a true dictator, using fear, strength and a personal army. A personal army of hyenas, granted, but still a personal army.

But with all this, he still just reach the fourth position. If he could have done the job correctly, and killed the little prince with his own hands(or paws? Claws.? You know what I mean!), instead of sending a stupid trio to do the job, the movie would have ended in a completely different way. Now the little prince come back and takes back the throne from him. Scar then does the next stupid thing, and looses the control over the hyenas, which spells his doom. Not very bright..

In addition, his actions is nothing new. Things like these have been done in every monarchy and dictatorship that has existed in the world.. And it lies in a lions nature to take over control.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 3]



Name: Judge Claude Frollo
Appears In: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Motivation: Do I really need to motivate why he is on this list? Have you seen the movie?!

A judge, who acts more like an ancient JudgeDredd, or maybe as an Inquisitor, he wages a personal war on gypsies. He capture them, torture them, and who knows what else. If that is not enough, he raises a deformed child, and in the same process, brainwash it. He locks the child in a lonely tower, Josef Fritzl style, where it starts to make friends with the gargoyles, like a true madman. Of course, he comes to visit it, to bring food and/or whip it..

Moving on.

Frollo falls in love with a gypsy woman, and sees it as a test from the devil, and burns down a large part of Paris, looking for her. In the act, he also capture, and tortures, a whole lot of other gypsies. When he finds her, after fooling his "son" to find her for him, he gives her a choice. Be his, or burn. Quite understandably, she chooses to burn..
When finally his plans goes to hell, due to an intervention from his "son", he takes things in his own hands, and set out to kill them with a sword held in previously mentioned hand. Then he falls to his death.

Yeah. Pretty damn evil guy. I like to remind you that this is still a Disney movie..

But surly there can be no other Villain as despicable as him among the Disney movies, and he really deserves to be number one..?
The reason why he doesn't reach number one, is because he basically acts on religion, xenophobia, and prejudices. And it's not like Frollo is the most evil guy who has acted on these things..
And he is a judge. A corrupted one maybe, but still a judge that stands for right and justice. So his actions were pretty much approved by his religion, and the laws of the time.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 2]



Name: Ratigan
Appears In: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Motivation: Do you know Professor Moriarty? Well, this here is his rat counterpart. But for survivals sake, I don't think you should call him a rat..

Ratigan is a true evil genius. He has physical power, a great intellect and cunning, and a pet cat that eats anyone who annoys him (that is what the bell is for).. He handle himself as a well spoken, and well dressed gentleman, but is really a cold-hearted bastard. His plan is simple. He kidnaps a toy-maker, holding his daughter as a hostage, so that the toy-maker builds a steam powered clockwork droid that looks like the mouse queen. Then he capture the queen, and let the droid pronounce him the unchallenged ruler of the whole world! Well, the whole mouse world, that is. He even manages to capture the protagonist and leave him in an over complicated, and very deadly, trap.

It also helps his case that he looks like a frikking Rat Ogre in a suit.. A side of him that really appears in what I think is one of the most creepy scenes of all the Disney films, when he goes berserk(ratserk?) inside Big Ben, desperately trying to kill the hero at all costs, as can be seen in the image below.


But the fact is that he still doesn't reach number one. The reason is that his character is loosely built on the character Professor Moriarty, who is a much better villain. The other point is that he is pretty damn stupid leaving the hero in that death trap, believing that he would not survive. Standard villain mistake.. But the greatest weakness is his own rage, that proves to be his undoing.

So, with all these great villains, who is number one then? Well, you will just have to click the next spoiler to find out!
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 1]



Name: The Horned King
Appears In: The Black Cauldron (1985)
Motivation: Here he is. Our number one. This is what happens when Disney tries to act grown up..
I don't know about the rest of the world, but in Sweden, this is a movie very few have seen. So if you haven't seen it, do so!

Here we have a true villain. He is an evil master, a fearsome skeletal undead king(basically Thugren..).
He has all that a true villain needs. A horrible castle, a comical relief minion, a horde of barbarians that fears him, and follows his every command, and a plan for world domination. And what a plan! He's trying to find a magical cauldron so that he can raise an army of dead to conquer the world(again, like Thugren..)! But how to find it? Well, by kidnapping an oracular pig. That's right.. An oracular pig. It's still a children's movie you know..

The acts of violence his minions does in his name is quite extraordinary for being in a Disney movie, and they even had to cut out about 12 minutes from the film, taking away a big part of the violent scenes.

He is my number one for he is truly an evil being. He has no respect for life, and would do whatever it takes, and kill whoever he needs to get what he want. And he does. The only reason he falls in the end of the movie is that he underestimated a little fluffy sidekicks ability to do unselfish acts. Something anyone in his position would do..
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Honorable Mention]



Name: Hexxus
Appears In: FernGully (1992)
Motivation: A ancient spirit hellbent on destroying all life on the planet, that finds strength in pollution. Yeah, she would conquer the world pretty quick in this day and age...
But, sadly, not a Disney movie. Still a movie worth watching!
[/spoiler]



Well there you have it! Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think, and if you would want to see another Top 5 Villains list.
Until next time, do something evil, just for the feeling of it!

[SpecSlaughter22]

man i had nightmares of hexxus when i was a kid....him and chucky...like turn-off-the-light-get-into-bed-before-it-got-dark-scared.

[Armoured Priest]

It's been too long since I last watched Black cauldron, the Horned King was pretty much Disney's equivalent of Sauron. You got most of the villians I like, disney always had a smaller range of villians that I liked compared to other fields. I'm surprised you didn't mention Jafar from aladdin or Maleficent from sleeping beauty. (Although I am happy Hexxus got metioned. )

[Fuzzy]

The black couldren scared the shit out of me as a kid, I refused to ever watch it again after the first time I'd seen it.

[Authrix]

*Looks at Honourable mention*
*Sees dude* Wait...
Oh, that thing. I remember watching that in year 4, where half the class began singing the ghostbusters theme when it appeared. Good times...

[xxxblackspider]

Is it just me or... does it scare anyone else that they are all from disney movies except for the Horny King

Edit: just realized that the Black Cauldron is a disney movie XD

[Iron K]

man i had nightmares of hexxus when i was a kid....him and chucky...like turn-off-the-light-get-into-bed-before-it-got-dark-scared.

Oh good.. Then I wasn't the only one..

It's been too long since I last watched Black cauldron, the Horned King was pretty much Disney's equivalent of Sauron. You got most of the villians I like, disney always had a smaller range of villians that I liked compared to other fields. I'm surprised you didn't mention Jafar from aladdin or Maleficent from sleeping beauty. (Although I am happy Hexxus got metioned. )

Glad you liked it.
Both Jafar and Maleficent was good candidates for the list, but in the end they didn't have what it takes in my eyes.

Jafar may be an evil adviser, a very sly one also, with his eyes on the throne and almighty powers. But he couldn't do anything by himself, and needed the help of the protagonist. And in the end he was fooled by a very simple child tricks..

I had a hard time with Maleficent. First of, she has an awesome name, and second, she can turn into a dragon! But in the end, she is just a fairy that got ticked off because she wasn't invited to a kids birthday party, and therefore curses the kid to die two decades later. And, in a very strange way must I say..

But as I said, this is just my personal opinion, and my experience of said characters..

[Authrix]

Hades from Hercules?

[Iron K]

Hades from Hercules?

Also a good candidate. But he is just too damn comical for me to take him seriously..
And he failed in the majority of things he tried. Failed horribly..

[Authrix]

What's disappointing is that soon you'll have to consider Darth Vader for this...

[Iron K]

What's disappointing is that soon you'll have to consider Darth Vader for this...

The horror.. The Horror! >.<

[CruciasNZ]

Hmm

1) Joker (Heath Ledger nailed it right on the spot didnt he?)
2) Bane

[Authrix]

1: the shark from finding nemo

[Iron K]

Hmm

1) Joker (Heath Ledger nailed it right on the spot didnt he?)
2) Bane

Well, I wouldn't count out Jack Nicholson that easy. I, for one, really liked Tim Burtons version of the Joker, and I think Jack really captured the him as a fun loving madman, while Ledger went with a pure psychopath instead.

1: the shark from finding nemo

He did have an Australian accsent, which is pretty evil. But he did wove not to eat any living creature. Except dolphins. Apparently dolphins are assholes..

[Paladin Xenos]

Very interesting list iron k. but I must try to change your ways and make you have tzeentch on there

Spoiler

See what I did there

[Brother Agatone]

Who was the villain from the recent captain America movie. That guy would be good, but I can't remember his name.

[Armoured Priest]

Who was the villain from the recent captain America movie. That guy would be good, but I can't remember his name.

His name is Red skull.
I almost forgot disney bought up marvel.

[Iron K]

Well, it does seem that the list got a good review, so I might just continue.
If it will please you all, I'm working on the next list, and it will be posted soon!

[Iron K]

Top 5 'James Bond' Villains

Everyone's favorite spy(Played by Sir Thomas Sean Connery of course.. (At least if you ask me.. )) have had a great number of opponents during the year, all of them evil geniuses with with world domination on their minds, or the like. So of course these villains deserve to have a list of their own!
I have below listed the top 5 villains from all James Bond movies!

But first, a mini list:
[spoiler=Top 5 Classic Mistakes Bond Villains Do]
5. Think that they themselves, or their plan, is unstoppable.
4. When first meeting the hero, instead of killing him directly, have dinner with him and talk about the weather.
3. Trust that their beautiful female assistant/henchwomen/significant other will take care of the Hero, and won't fall for him and help him out.. Which we all know will happen.
2. When captured the hero, invent an over complicated way of killing him. Best done in a closed room without any guards and a way to escape, followed by the belief that the hero is now dead without any form of confirmation...
1. Before they leave the hero in the room with the over complicated way of killing him(mentioned in number 2), they explain/brag about their plan, in great detail, and basically tells the hero how to stop it all...
[/spoiler]

Moving on, here comes the list. Enjoy!

[spoiler=Number 5]


Name: Dr. Julius No
Appears In: Dr. No (From 1962)
Played By: Jospeh Wiseman
Motivation: The very first evil genius, Dr No set the standard for every other villain coming after him. He had a private island of Jamaica's coast, guarded by a legendary Dragon(that turned out to be a painted tank with a dual mounted flamethrowers.. Still pretty awesome though!), a bunch of minions that did his bidding and was ready to take their own life if needed(By the use of cyanide-embedded cigarettes if I don't remember wrong..), and a trio of assassins called "The Three Blind Mice".

His plan was to disrupt the Project Mercury space launch, with his atomic powered radio beam. Don't really seem that evil, and it doesn't really give him world domination, but then again, he was a member of SPECTRE(SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion), so there could be another part of the plan we are not aware of.

Mistakes: His first mistake is to kill the British Intelligence Station Chief. The mistake was to kill him in a way so that they sent James Bond to investigate.. After that, he tries to take care of Bond in different ways, for example by using a tarantula, which is pure stupid. A tarantula could never kill a man. But who knows, maybe it was a genetically enhanced tarantula?

Anyways, moving on. He manages to capture Bond with the use of his Dragon Tank. The trouble is instead of killing him with said "Dragon", he invites him to dinner, explaining his plan and his connection to SPECTRE, before he locks him inside a cell(Plus point for the rough up by the guards on the way, and the electric grid over the ventilation though..)
Needless to say, Bond escapes and ruins his plan.

So in the end, when you put his strengths against his weaknesses, he barley makes the list.
But as always, number five is not so bad spot!
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 4]


Name: Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Appears In: From Russia with Love*(1963), Thunderball*(1965), You Only Live Twice(1967), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service(1969), Diamonds are Forever(1971), For Your Eyes Only(1981), and Never say Never Again**(1983)
*= No real appearance
**= Non-Eon Production.
Played By: Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, John Hollis, and Max von Sydow.
Motivation: Blofeld is the longest surviving villain in the whole Bond series. He has had a whole lot of plans, and made even more mistakes... So to do this easy, I will only go after Blofed's first personal appearance, in You Only Live Twice played by Donald Pleasence.

Here we have the true image of an evil genius. A scared face, secret base in a volcano, and a fetish for petting cats. He is the leader of the earlier mentioned SPECTRE, with the title of Nr. 1. His plan is quite interesting. Through the use of a unique space craft, he hijacks space shuttles from America and Russia during the Cold War, trying to entice a new world war, that would be very profitable for him and his organisation.
As I said earlier, he has a hollowed out volcano in Japan as his secret base, with a bunch of neat gadgets, like a space rocket launch pad, monorails, a self-destruction button for both the space craft AND the secret base(Remember that one..), and a trapdoor to a piranha pool. The later is used to punish a underling after she "let" Bond escape.

Mistakes: And then we have the mistakes.. And Blofeld has had time to make a huge amount of mistakes...
But as I said, I will concentrate on this one movie.

First of, if you want your secret base to remain secret, a good way to not draw attention to it is to refrain from attacking everything that comes into the vicinity of it with attack helicopters! Usually a dead give away that something strange is going on. Then again, how secret can a base be when it regularly launch and lands space crafts from it.. Sure, Blofeld made sure to tie up every loose end, killing off tourists who took the wrong picture, assassinating local MI6 agents, and so on. But it's really not that discrete is it? Leaving a trail of bodies that lead straight to your "secret" operation?

But the worst part: Blofeld is intelligent enough to spot Bond as he infiltrates his "secret" base, but stupid enough not to kill him, instead explaining his plan, and keeping Bond a prisoner. Not in a cell, or locked room filled with guards, but in the control room, close to self-destruction buttons and the master control to the base.. Yeah, not that big of a genius if you ask me.

Summing it up, he did quite well, but not enough to climb the list any further. To tell the truth, he basically made the list because he is the iconic image of a evil genius, cat and all.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 3]



Name: Colonel Tan-Sun Moon / Gustav Graves
Appears In: Die Another Day (2002)
Played By: Will Jun Lee / Toby Stephens
Motivation: If you haven't seen the movie, no it is not a tied place for third. They are the same person. (Sorry for the spoiler to those few who hasn't seen it..)

Quite an interesting guy, this one. He starts of as a Colonel in a North Korea, where his dealing with African Conflict Diamonds(Blood Diamonds) to get advanced weaponry so that he can unite South and North Korea with force. Right from the start, he shows that he is a badass martial artists and a cruel leader, a kind of guy that would kill his own father if he stood in his way(actually does exactly that!).. When Bond comes sneaking, his Head Henchman is actually smart enough to figure out that Bond is a enemy. Well Tan-Sun tries to run away, driving a hovercraft over a large minefield. The hunt ends with his apparent death.
End of story? I think not..

Enter Gustav Graves. You see, after his death Tan-Sun changes his appearance with help of DNA restructuring, something that he uses to the full, and for once it's the villain who's fooling Mr Bond, and not the other way around.. Anyways.
His face is not the only thing that is new. With the use of Gustav Graves he has launched a super laser that concentrates the suns rays into space! The plan is to use the laser to enable North Korea to invade the South, then moving on to the rest of the world.
Among his henchmen, we have his right hand Zao, aka "The Guy with Very Expensive Acne", a henchwoman named Frost, who would rather kill Bond than sleep with him(actually does the later to do the first), and some sort of long haired assistant/technician who is not worth mentioning... But of course we need to mention the many awesome gadgets he possess, as the "dream machine", lasers, weapons and one awesomely custom-built Jaguar XKR...

Mistakes: Okay, let's start with the biggest.. It's time to kill 007. How to do it? Well, why don't we lock him inside the ice hotel, and then hit it with the laser? Yeah, that's a great idea! He could never escape from a melting ice hotel, right?
.....
........
WRONG!!! >.<

He has enough money to buy a frikking orbital laser, AND an ice hotel, but not enough for a gun and ONE bullet!? F-ing moron..
And even though his henchmen is a little bit above average, they still leave a trail of breadcrumbs leading right up to him, and even with his changed face, it doesn't take a genius to connect the dots. Regarding the changed face, though I like that he fools Bond like no other before him, he still takes it too far. By the time Bond is on to him, and starts ruining his plans, he could have killed him ten times over, with everything from poisoned martinis to a damn spoon!

I like this guy. I really do. But he could have done things so much better! So it's with mixed feelings of disappointment and righteousness I place him at the third place of this list.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 2]


Name: Hugo Drax
Appears In: Moonraker(1979)
Played By: Michael Lonsdale
Motivation: Now this guys is loaded! He actually bought the Eiffel Tower, but couldn't export it..
I really like this guy. Unlike the other villains, his plan is pretty damn evil. Sure, world domination in all it's glory, or starting a world war for profit is not bad. But exterminate the human race on earth, so that he can repopulate it with the help of "genetically perfect" men and women, so that he can create a "new master race". That's frikking Adolf Hitler evil! But at the same time he's Greenpeace good, because the toxin that he uses only harms humans, leaving animals and plants unharmed. To achieve this, Drax has created a secret space station, that is kept a secret with the help of a cloaking device, where he will watch the planets inhabitants die together with his "genetically perfect" crew.

Speaking about his crew, what would a evil villain be without his henchmen? Drax has, among others, a little angry Asian guy who, if you ask me, screams a little to much to be an assassin. Then we have the legendary giant with the nice smile, known as Jaws. I don't know if it counts as a henchman, but he has a Anaconda/really big snake that guards his secret base in the Amazon jungle.
What I like the best with Drax, is the way he makes Bond look like a complete jackass in front of his superiors, when he barges in to a secret laboratory in Venice, only to find the laboratory gone, and Drax sitting there and eating dinner in a fancy dining room. BURN!

Mistakes: Well this is the tough part.. Not to find mistakes(there's plenty), but to actually admit this guy made really stupid, classic mistakes. Because even if he is super evil/rich/intelligent, he still won't reach place number one because of the mistakes he makes... First off, he actually steals his own space shuttle, attracting the interest of the British Secret Service, and James Bond. If he's so f-ing rich, why can't he just make another one?! Or buy back that one?? Dumbass..

Moving on. Enter James Bond. What does Drax do? Eat dinner with him. Understandable, because he don't want to attract more attention to himself, or his actions. But what does he do next? He sends multiple assassins after Bond, blowing his own cover! The first assassin even tries to strike while Bond is still in the company of Drax, with the cover of "Hunting Accident".. Yeah, pure genius.. And for every failed assassination attempt, Bond gets closer to the truth.
It is with assassinations, as it is with allot of other things: Quality over quantity!!!
When we're speaking about personal issues, we must mention his personal pilot, that ends up assisting Bond in his investigation. Okay, he kills her when he finds out, but that problem would not have been if he was better at finding good people...

Fast forward to secret launch facility in the Amazon jungle. He has captured Bond. Want to guess what he does..? Of course, he explains the plan, and then leave Bond in a closed room, without any surveillance, to get killed by the start rockets of the launching space shuttle.. Why..? He had Jaws right there! Let him omnomnom Bond, end of story! But NoOoo..
But the biggest mistake, and I mean HUGE, was when he gets tricked by Bond to brag about his plan, speaking loudly about how every human being not measuring up to his physical standards would get killed. Don't sound so bad? Well, he spouts out this in front of a 2.1 m tall henchmen and is 1.5 m girlfriend... Needless to say, Jaws turns against Drax, helping Bond destroy everything.

So even though Drax had all the components of a great villain, which earns him great points in my book, he makes so many, and so very big mistakes that he fails on the finishing line.. Second place is just the first looser. But who holds the first place on My list?
Well, don't just sit there, click the next spoiler!
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Number 1]


Name: Auric Goldfinger
Appears In: Goldfinger (1964)
Played By: Gert Fröbe
Motivation: Here we have him. The greatest Evil Villain of all Bond Villains!

This guy is just brilliant, and his affection to gold is legendary. He actually kills someone by painting them with gold paint(skin suffocation)! Right under Mr Bond's nose! HA!

Anyways, Goldfinger has a plan. And what a plan! Working together with some Asians(actually the majority of his employees are Asian, which shows that he is well aware of their efficiency.. ), he has bought a Dirty A-Bomb with smuggled gold. The gold has been transported in his car, or to be precise, the car was made of gold so that he could take it over the borders undiscovered.

The plan is to blow the bomb at Fort Knox, after that the entire force at the military base has been killed by an airborne toxin. The bomb would make the National Gold Reserve radioactive, and thus unusable, for 50-ish years. Now why would he do that? Well, it would put the American economy to hell, to his Asians partners advantage, and it would double the value of his own gold by about twelve times!
To help him complete his plan, he has his faithful mute hat-throwing manservant, Oddjob(Awesomest Henchmen ever!) and his personal pilot, the leader of a all woman flying circus, and a black belt karate user, *CENSORED* Galore(Oh yeah.. Forgot that her name would be censored.. Well, those of you that have seen the movie knows who I'm talking about, and those of you who haven't, google it.. ).

So, how does this antagonistic(Villain) handle the protagonist(007)? Bond gets on Goldfingers trail when the CIA asks him to check him out. He seduces Auric's personal secretary, and makes him loose a small fortune in Gin Rummy. Goldfingers response to this is to knock Bond out, and kill the secretary by skin suffocation(as mentioned earlier). When James tries to infiltrate Goldfingers base, he quickly get captured(twice).

So now 007 is in the hands of Auric Goldfinger. Does he make the same mistake that every other villain has done? NO! He actually does it right! Sure, he places Bond in a overly complicated way of killing him, but he does so in a room full with people, and no way of escape. Does he explain in great detail what his plan is? NO! Bond actually has to do some investigative work for once! The only reason that 007 survives, is because Auric realizes that Bond is more worth alive than dead. Something he uses to lure the CIA away.
The best part of this scene is the monologue between Bond and Auric:
Bond: "Do you expect me to talk?!?"
Auric: "No Mr Bond! I expect you to die.."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQwKe0lggw


Mistakes: Even though Goldfinger does so many things right, there is two mistakes that spoil his plans(of course, because otherwise the movie would have ended very differently..). The first is that he underestimates James Bond, not as much as other Villains have done, but still enough to give Bond an edge enough to ruin everything. The second, and greatest mistake, is to believe that his female henchwoman would remain loyal. Come on, how could a woman with the name like Galore's resist the charm of the Casanova known as James Bond..?
Anyways, after Galore has rolled around in the hay with 007, she switches sides and helps Bond by sending a message to the CIA and takes away the air born toxic, thus ruining the whole plan.

But compared to all the other mistakes done by every other Villain, these are fairly small. And when we line up his strengths against his weaknesses, it is clear that Auric Goldfinger is not only the greatest of Villains, but also the most successful! At least on my list!


Well, there you have my Top 5 James Bond list! It took a while longer and what I thought it would, but I finally finished it! I have one more list for you, and I do think you will like it!
Until that one is finished, feel free to share your thoughts about this list!
[/spoiler]

[DTdante2787]

The Bond villains list was rather fascinating & entertaining...well written Iron What's next?

What's disappointing is that soon you'll have to consider Darth Vader for this...

Vader would only really qualify in a "most badass dad" list (which I may write one of these days, if Iron doesn't beat me to it )

[EDIT] That's my idea Iron, so just gimme a day to write it out