Timothy Dalton's darkest kill as James Bond might also be one of the most disturbing of the entire franchise. Dalton's name had come up for Bond a few times before he made his debut. He had first been approached for On Her Majesty's Secret Service - but felt he was too young for the role at the time - and considered again during different points in the Roger Moore era when the latter considered not returning. After Pierce Brosnan briefly won the part - but was later forced to exit due to another commitment - Dalton became Bond for 1987's The Living Daylights.
Moore's 007 run was filled with light humor and cartoonish action, so Dalton sought to return to the grit of the original Ian Fleming Bond novels. This was underlined by his second and final adventure Licence To Kill, where Bond goes rogue to hunt down a drug lord who maimed his friend Felix Leiter and killed his wife. While still being PG-13, Licence To Kill is noted as one of the most brutal entries and is filled with blunt violence, including the aforementioned Leiter getting his leg bitten off by a shark.
The movie's intensity met with a mixed response in 1989, though it's now considered one of the most underrated Bonds. Licence To Kill also contains Dalton's darkest kill as the character, and while it's often not cited as such, it might be one of the most unpleasant demises in the entire series. This takes place towards the end of the first act, where Dalton's Bond - whose favorite 007 film was From Russia With Love - infiltrates the aquarium where Leiter was mauled, which contains a maggot incubator used to hide packages of cocaine. Bond rolls up his sleeve to retrieve the drugs when a security guard named Bill (Jeff Moldovan) holds him at gunpoint. 007 then hurls a fistful of maggots in Bill's face, knocks him into the wriggling pile and then closes the drawer, quipping "Bon appetit."
It's later confirmed that the luckless Bill died, and reportedly a scene where his body was recovered from the maggot drawer was filmed for Licence To Kill but cut. It's a particularly cruel fate for such a minor James Bond character and he likely died from suffocation than being eaten by the maggots, who only feed on dead flesh. This means there's a chance Bill woke up in the squirming, maggot-filled drawer in the pitch dark, which is just an existentially horrifying way for anyone to spend their final moments.
Still, this Licence To Kill scene isn't usually highlighted as one of the more memorable kills in the series, likely since the "maggots" themselves are really plastic fishing grubs. Some motion was added to produce the wiggling effect for the scene, but even then, they just don't look that convincing. Regardless, poor Bill didn't deserve the bleak fate he was dealt in the movie.
