List of James Bond henchmen in Tomorrow Never Dies

A list of henchmen from the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies from the List of James Bond henchmen

Mr. Stamper

Mr. Stamper is a villain in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. He was played by Götz Otto.

Stamper is a henchman of Elliot Carver and the protégé of Dr. Kaufman, a professional assassin. Kaufman trained him in the many methods of torture, particularly chakra torture, which attempts to inflict the maximum amount of pain on the body's most vital areas while leaving the victim alive as long as possible. A towering presence at 201 cm (6 feet 7 inches), his shoe size at 18, respectively, is enough alone to send fear into the hearts of any of his unfortunate victims. His charming good looks and size made him the perfect fit for a villain of James Bond. The film's novelization reveals him to be a sadomasochist, taking pleasure in pain and fond of torturing and raping his victims, whose pleasure-pain senses have been 'rewired' so that what would cause pain in a normal person causes Stamper pleasure, and vice-versa. This makes Stamper a truly formidable foe, since he will simply feel pleasure, instead of pain, from Bond's blows. Kaufman is "like a father" to Stamper, who served as his protege in the field of torture, so after Bond kills Kaufman, Stamper determines to avenge his death. But before he can try to break his mentor's 52-hour record of torture, 007 and Wai Lin escape from Carver with Bond burying a Chakra blade deep into Stamper's thigh.

Stamper is the only villain left alive as he fights Bond on the platform holding the missile, his hatred of Bond for murdering Kaufman increased even further by Carver's death. Bond is less of a match to the more physically muscular and greatly taller Stamper and tries to resort to his knife. He first stabs Stamper in the arm but the man is clearly enjoying the pain. Bond then stabs him in the chest but that doesn't work either. Bond then knocks Stamper backwards and releases the brake lever holding the missile. The missile slides backwards and just jams Stamper's giant foot, pinning him. Angry, Stamper grabs Bond and dangles him over the edge, waiting for the missile to ignite. Bond tries to unzip his jacket but it's stuck. He grabs the knife out of Stamper's chest and cuts himself loose, falling into the water to safety. Stamper is left stunned as the missile ignites but Bond had put detonators on the engines. As a result, Stamper is left to die alone on the raised missile platform. The missile, the stealth boat, and Stamper are destroyed in the explosion.

His name is mainly derived from his ability to stomp on his victims, causing them death due to his massive size. When Bond was trapped on the platform, Stamper put his boot over him, and clearly it consumed almost all of Bond's stomach and chest area. On the boat, during Bond's raid, one of his henchmen got in the way of his firing, and he merely kicked him aside, and he fell over the bridge to his death.

Stamper is also the seventh in a line of tall, blond henchmen to fight 007, after Red Grant (Robert Shaw) of From Russia with Love, Vargas (Philip Locke) of Thunderball, Hans (Ronald Rich) of You Only Live Twice, Peter Franks (Joe Robinson) of Diamonds Are Forever (although he was killed off at the very beginning,) Erich Kriegler (John Wyman) of For Your Eyes Only, and Necros (Andreas Wisniewski) of The Living Daylights.

Henry Gupta

Henry Gupta is a fictional character from the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. He is played by American actor and magician Ricky Jay.

A radical student at Berkeley in the 1960s, Gupta became a techno-terrorist, selling his services for money. He is employed by Elliot Carver to steer HMS Devonshire off course in the South China Sea, and provides all the technology and surveillance at Carver's offices, as well as programming a cruise missile to strike Beijing - "Press the magic button, Beijing disappears."

Once Bond has located the stealth ship on which Gupta and Carver are sailing, Gupta is captured and offered as a trade for the already-captured Wai Lin. Carver executes Gupta by shooting him in the chest, once he has established that he is surplus to requirements and was no longer of any use to Carver.

In the deleted scenes on the Ultimate Edition DVD, it is revealed that Gupta (rather like the real-life magician that Ricky Jay is) is an expert at card tricks, and is capable of throwing them into objects or people with deadly effectiveness (cf. Chris Ferguson, a poker player who is known to be able to slice vegetables with thrown playing cards). He is also one of the villain's henchmen who was not killed personally by Bond, but by his boss.

Dr. Kaufman

Dr. Kaufman is a fictional character in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, portrayed by American actor Vincent Schiavelli, in a cameo appearance.

Dr. Kaufman is a German professor of forensic medicine and a professional marksman, making him a capable assassin. His hobbies included the art of chakra torture, and he claimed that he was quite skilled at it. He was hired by Elliot Carver to kill his wife, Paris Carver, and James Bond in Bond's hotel room in Hamburg and make it look like Bond committed murder/suicide. Just as he is about to kill Bond, he is radioed by Mr. Stamper telling him to ask Bond how to unlock his car. Bond gives Kaufman his cellphone, which unlocks it and tells him the code to press. However, the code is for the taser on Bond's phone and Dr. Kaufman receives an electric shock. Bond then grabs the stunned Kaufman's gun and turns it against him. Kaufman attempts to reason with Bond in the following exchange:

Kaufman: Wait! I am just a professional doing a job.
Bond: Me too.

Bond then proceeds to shoot Kaufman in the head (one of the two occasions in the film series in which 007 is shown exercising his licence to kill against a disarmed opponent, the other being Professor Dent in Dr. No; the novelisation features Bond reflecting that Kaufman's murder is one of the rare occasions where he has killed someone whom he knows unquestionably deserved to die) before escaping from the room via the balcony. Later in the film Bond encounters Mr. Stamper, Kaufman's protégé, whom the doctor had schooled in the ancient art of chakra torture. Stamper states that, "He [Kaufman] was like a father to me", prompting Bond's wry comment: "Interesting role model."

General Chang

General Chang is a fictional character in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, portrayed by Philip Kwok.

Chang is a corrupt and arrogant Chinese general, who aspires to control his entire country. To that end, he teams up with Elliot Carver, with Carver starting World War III between Britain and China, until Chang "miraculously" quells the fighting. Chang would be made dictator of China and be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, and in exchange Carver would receive exclusive broadcasting rights in China. Chang was the one who provided Carver with the stealth material that he secretly stole from one of the Chinese military bases under his command that Carver used to build his stealth boat, though it also led Wai Lin to be secretly sent in to investigate this theft, leading Chang to order her assassination to cover up his criminal activity.

Chang is mentioned frequently in the film, but is only seen once in a minor nonspeaking role: in Carver's HQ in Saigon, thus confirming Lin's suspicions that he's working with Carver.