Milton Krest is a character from the James Bond short story The Hildebrand Rarity, part of the For Your Eyes Only collection. The character was later adapted as a henchman in the 1989 Bond film, Licence to Kill. He was portrayed by Anthony Zerbe.

Anthony Zerbe as Milton Krest in ‘Licence to Kill’.

Film biography: The owner of a marine research foundation, Milton Krest is a business partner and collaborator with Franz Sanchez. He uses a laboratory of supposedly genetically engineered maggots to conceal drugs, and his submarine remote probe, Sentinel, is used to pass the drug shipments on to seaplanes at a distance from his boat, The WaveKrest. He drunkenly attempts to seduce his boss’s mistress, Lupe Lamora, despite the brutal murder of her previous lover in the pre-title sequence (it is strongly implied that his heart is removed from his chest, although this happens off-screen).

Krest’s behaviour backfires when Lupe pretends she didn’t see Bond on his yacht as he was sabotaging a drugs deal by destroying the narcotics in the Sentinel and escaping with $5 million in cash.

Bond infiltrates Sanchez’s inner circle and convinces the drug baron that Krest is trying to have him killed, using a hitman who is expecting to be paid in cash that evening. Bond then sneaks aboard the WaveKrest and stashes the remaining cash from the drug deal back aboard the boat, in time for Sanchez to find it and presume that this is the hitman’s payoff. Sanchez kills Krest by forcing him into the decompression chamber containing the money, increasing the pressure inside the chamber and then tearing the air tubes open with an axe, causing rapid depressurisation and Krest’s head to explode in a bloody mess.

This scene is regarded as one of the most bloody in any Bond film and was censored on release in UK and North American cinemas; the 2006 Ultimate DVD Collection is the first time the sequence has been available for purchase.

See also:

• Bond henchmen