Similar to the portrayal of Bond and the plots of the films, the villains of the Warrior Era can be subcategorized into two common fears of the 80s populous: the reignition of the cold war and success of the era of excess.

Cold War Rogues

The villains of the Cold Warrior era thrillers are depictions of the growing conflict between the US, UK and the USSR in the face of the failure of detente. Previously, the Bond films had expressed the fear of a future conflict through the terrorist group SPECTRE. SPECTRE acted as a third party for the British, Americans, and Soviets to defeat together. This addition of a separate enemy allowed Bond to comment on the fear of the people without engaging too politically.

This method of misdirection became impossible as the nationalistic foreign policies of the 80s administrations forced the cold war to the forefront of conversation (‘Cold War’). No longer could a veiled third organization stand in for the current real organizations that occupied the seats of political power. The Cold War had reignited and needed to be realized on screen.

This created an issue. Addressing the USSR as evil would create a political divide unwelcome in the entertainment business, but ignoring the interests of the public betrays the identity of James Bond. The solution resulted in the Warrior era Bonds fighting enemies that are only tangentially related to the larger threat of the real world.

For Your Eyes Only’s villain, Kristatos, is a prime example of a stooge. He is working for the Soviet Union to steal a piece of defense technology from the British. This is the most direct involvement the Soviet Union eve hasr in a Bond film. Kristatos is defeated when Bond destroys the technology by throwing it off a cliff. Bond then casually quips, underlining the fragility of the current geopolitical landscape:

General Orlov of Octopussy is actually a Soviet general, but his plan involves disregarding direct orders and going AWOL. Orlov plans to stage an accidental nuclear explosion at a US airbase to cause the disarmament of the West. Conversations of nuclear disarmament had consumed Britain and America in the 1980s. Thatcher publicly stated in a letter, “If Britain were to abandon its nuclear deterrent, it would be a reckless gamble with the peace and security of future generations.”

The final villains of the Cold War Rogues gallery are General Koskov of the Soviets and Arms-dealer Brad Whitaker of the Americans. These villains hope to get rich by supplying weapons to both American soldiers and Afghanistan insurgents. Their scheme is similar to the Iran-Contra affair of 1986 and Film Professor James Chapman even comments, “It is tempting to see the character of Whitaker….as a thinly veiled representation of Colonel Oliver North, the officer most closely implicated in the Iran-Contra dealings.” These villains eschew the traditional role of Bond Villain to present parallels between the conventional “good” of America and “bad” of the USSR.

The Cold War Rogues symbolize the nationalistic fervor experienced by the world during the 80s and comment on the lack of a moral compass in the political landscape.

Excessive and Extreme

The remaining films of the Warrior era comment on the current cultural trends seeping into pop culture and the era of excess consuming the youth.

Max Zorin of A View to a Kill is a charismatic silicon valley mogul with plans on domination…..of the computer chip market. He plans to do this by sinking all of Silicon Valley with a man-made earthquake. Despite Zorin’s background as a soviet agent, the film emphasizes the separation between Zorin and the USSR. At one point, Zorin verbally denounces his past with the soviets, stating, “I admit no association. I no longer consider myself a KGB agent.” His plan to destroy silicon valley is only one of greed, paralleling the corporate excess boom and the tech boom of the 1980s (Fishman).

His main henchman, May Day, gives insight into the excessive fashion trends of the 1980s.

Her use of color, geometry and bizarre accessories are prime examples of the fashion trends of the later 80s (Frisa).

The 80s excess is then fully personified in the villain of Licence to Kill, Sanchez. Every aspect of the excessive nature of the late 80s, Sanchez embodies. His fashion sense is inspired by the South Beach Style of the 80s. He engages in ruthless levels of violence, including rape and murder. His drug organization is run akin similar to the businesses engaging in corporate excess. Sanchez even represents the growing BDSM movement of the late 80s, as he engages in acts of sexual sadism (Chapman).

The villains during the era of excess represented the social fears associated with excess. The tech and fashion worlds were viewed as possible avenues towards counter-culture and drugs. Bond stood as the stalwart conservative protecting the masses from the dangers of music, sex and clothing.