I’m not sure how widespread this terminology is, but the ‘sacrificial lamb’ refers to a character, a Bond girl or an ally, who is killed in order to drive the plot.
What I’ve been thinking recently is that there are a few films where the character is absent. Maybe? It could well be up for debate.
1 - The Spy Who Loved Me
Jaws leaves a trail of bodies behind him, but Max Kalba and Fekkesh are hardly sympathetic. A lot of sailors die in the climactic battle, but I don’t think any of them had names.
2 - Die Another Day
From an MI6 perspective, Bond’s main ally was supposed to be Miranda Frost, but she betrayed him. Maybe an argument could be made for the Korean agents on the PTS, but they barely had any screentime. General Moon, perhaps? He was antagonistic for most of the film, but did oppose General Moon/ Graves at the end.
3 - Spectre
The strongest case for the death of an ally here is Mr White. A villain in his previous appearances, but he does pass on some vital information to Bond because he has nothing else to lose.
Maybe you could also consider Felicca as innocent victim in The Spy Who Loved Me, she was only ordered to keep Bond occupied, but she is sacrificed both by the killer and Bond.
These three films do have the “weakest” or least influential sacrificial lambs of the series. But, I would say the sacrificial lambs in those three films are:
The Spy Who Loved Me – Cmdr. Talbot
Die Another Day – Gen. Moon
SPECTRE – Mr. White
I’d take Talbot over Felicca in TSWLM because Felicca is in league with one of the bad guys–Aziz Fekkesh–and is tasked with delaying/distracting James Bond in his mission. She is not really on his side. However, that said, she does warn 007 of his impending danger, so choosing her is not a bad option. But Talbot is clearly on the side of the angels, and he is the most notable and noticeable ally that dies in the assault on the Liparus so he gets my vote.
I’d take Gen. Moon in DAD because there is no other major character that even remotely is on the side of the good who dies in the film than him. Now, a case can be made that he is not on Bond’s side either, but he is clearly against his son’s Icarus plot, so he’s not all bad. The ONLY other option in DAD, as Vanya mentioned, is Don and Lee–the South Korean agents who help Bond in the PTS–but they’re almost blink and you miss them allies, so it’s kind of hard to choose them. It would be easier to go with Don and Lee as the sacrificial lambs for the DAD novelization as they get a LITTLE bit more usage there.
And in SPECTRE, White is the only character who is close to being an ally of 007’s and who dies in the film. He gives Bond some valuable information before he commits suicide as he basically sides with 007 against his former employers. He literally serves as an example of the phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The reason I didn’t think of Talbot is that the character never left much of an impact on me. Had you not brought him up, I wouldn’t have remembered his name. But he was a good officer, doing his duty until the very end.
True, and I’m all for shaking up the formula. It just struck me as odd that in a world as dangerous as Bond’s, there were films where I struggled to think of any good guys who died. It’s not something that occurred on the first watch; it just niggled at me over time.