SPECTRE

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SPECTRE con
Universe James Bond series
Type Terrorist organisation
Founded c:a 1950
Location SPECTRE Island
Paris
Numerous
Key people Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Emilio Largo
Purpose Counter-intelligence
Terrorism
Revenge
Extortion
World domination
SPECTRE's leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld
SPECTRE's leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld

SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is a fictional terrorist organization featured in the British James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, and the films based on those novels. Led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organization first formally appeared in the novel and movie From Russia With Love, and subsequently in a number of James Bond films, although it was first mentioned as the organization behind Dr. No. The organization is the fictional spy's most persistent opponent and most famous antagonist.

Contents

[edit] Philosophy and goals

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The goal of the organization is extortion and world domination. To achieve this, their basic strategy of the organization is illustrated by the analogy of the three Siamese fighting fish Blofeld keeps in an aquarium in the film version of From Russia with Love. Blofeld notes that one fish is refraining from fighting two others until their fight is concluded. Then, that cunning fish attacks the weakened victor and kills it easily. Thus SPECTRE's main strategy is to instigate conflict between two powerful enemies, namely the superpowers, hoping that they will exhaust themselves and be vulnerable when SPECTRE finally moves in to seize power.

In both the film and the novel Thunderball, the physical headquarters of the organisation are laid in Paris, operating behind the front of an international organization aiding refugees (FIRCO in the novels; International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons in the films).

Organizational discipline is notoriously draconian with the penalty for disobedience or failure being death. Furthermore, to heighten the impact of the executions, Blofeld often chooses to focus attention on an innocent member, making it appear his death is imminent, only to suddenly strike down the actual target when that person is off guard.

Fleming's SPECTRE has elements inspired by mafia syndicates and organized crime rings that were actively hunted by law enforcement in the 1950s. The strict codes of loyalty and silence, and the hard retributions that followed violations, were hallmarks of mafioso families.

[edit] Leadership

SPECTRE's second in command, Emilio Largo, from Thunderball
SPECTRE's second in command, Emilio Largo, from Thunderball

SPECTRE is headed up by the supervillain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld who usually appears accompanied by a white Persian cat in the movies, but not in the books. In both the films and the novels, Emilio Largo is the second in command. It is stated in the novel that if something were to happen to Blofeld, Largo would assume command. Largo appears for the first and only time in Thunderball.

In the novels, the numbers of members are deliberately assigned at random and regularly rotated to prevent detection. At the time of Thunderball, the leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has been assigned "Number 2", while Emilio Largo is assigned "Number 1". In the films the number indicates rank. Blofeld is always referred to as "Number 1" and Emilio Largo, in Thunderball, is "Number 2".

This particular example of numbering is perhaps deliberately borrowed from revolutionary ideology, wherein members of a revolutionary cabal exist in cells, and are numerically defined to prevent identification and cross-betrayal of aims. By deliberately drawing attention away from the true leader of the organisation, he is protected in terms of being a target of lower importance, and the structure of the organisation therefore also has had a blinder pulled across it for intelligence services.

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Novels

In the original Bond novel series, SPECTRE's first and last appearance was also in the book Thunderball. It appears that after James Bond and Felix Leiter smashed SPECTRE's plot to blackmail NATO with stolen nuclear weapons, SPECTRE was disbanded. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the second chapter of what is known as the "Blofeld Trilogy", Blofeld revived SPECTRE, but it was not reformed as large or complex as it once was. Blofeld made one final appearance in Fleming's You Only Live Twice where SPECTRE, at least the true SPECTRE, was gone for good.

Later, the John Gardner Bond novel, For Special Services introduced a revived SPECTRE led by Blofeld's daughter, Nena Bismaquer. Although Bond ultimately prevents SPECTRE from reforming, it continued, under the leadership of Tamil Rahani, to play a part in Role of Honour and Nobody Lives For Ever. The next Bond novelist, Raymond Benson, reintroduced Irma Bunt in his short story "Blast From the Past".

[edit] Films

The first mention of SPECTRE occurred in the first official film, Dr. No. In the novel, Dr. Julius No was working in association with the Soviets. This was changed, however, for the film as well as subsequent adaptations of the novels where either the Soviets or their counter-spy agency, SMERSH are Bond's main nemesis. SMERSH, however, does have a small part in the film From Russia with Love.

Differing from the novel series by Fleming, SPECTRE is much more resilient, coming back after each defeat by Bond with increasingly grander schemes. SPECTRE is behind the villainous plots in some way in six James Bond films including Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Diamonds Are Forever where it appears they are ultimately defeated. Blofeld appears one more time in the pre-title sequence of For Your Eyes Only where he apparently meets his demise.

In 1983, SPECTRE was revived in the unofficial remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again.

The ending of 2006's Casino Royale hints at a shadowy organization behind Le Chiffre's money laundering operation. Representatives of this group kill Le Chiffre, and Bond later hunts down the group's representative, Mr. White, in the film's ending. It is possible this unknown organization is SPECTRE, since the original novel's Soviet-era SMERSH no longer exists.

[edit] Video games

SPECTRE is shown, but never mentioned by name, in the game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. It is depicted as being much more powerful than it was in any of the films or books, and seems to possess a massive undersea base resembling Karl Stromberg's lair from The Spy Who Loved Me, as well as a large army of well-equipped soldiers. It also seems to possess extremely advanced technology, such as virtual reality and strange energy generators in its volcano lair. Dr. No and Auric Goldfinger appear as SPECTRE members, with the former breaking away from the organisation with his army.

SPECTRE also features in From Russia With Love, although it is called OCTOPUS in this game.

[edit] Copyright issues

Main article: The controversy over Thunderball

SPECTRE and its characters have been at the center of a long-standing litigation case starting in 1961 between Kevin McClory and Ian Fleming over the film rights to Thunderball and the ownership of the organization and its characters. In 1963 Ian Fleming settled out of court with McClory, which awarded McClory with the film rights to Thunderball, although the literary rights would stay with Fleming and thus allow continuation author John Gardner to use SPECTRE in a number of his novels.

In 1963 the producers of EON Productions, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made an agreement with McClory to adapt the novel into the fourth official James Bond film. The agreement also stipulated that McClory would not be allowed to make further adaptations of Thunderball for at least ten years since the release. Although SPECTRE and Blofeld are used in a number of films before and after Thunderball, the issue over the copyright of Thunderball, did prevent SPECTRE and Blofeld from becoming the main villains in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. In 1983, McClory released the unofficial remake of 1965's Thunderball, entitled Never Say Never Again.

Although until he died, McClory retained the film rights to Thunderball, the courts in 2001 awarded Eon with the exclusive film rights to the fictional character James Bond. This technically prevented McClory from creating further adaptations of the novel.

[edit] SPECTRE henchmen

Henchmen working for SPECTRE, one of its members, or directly for Ernst Stavro Blofeld in (order of appearance):

[edit] Films

Dr. Julius No in the film Dr. No

[edit] Unofficial

  • Maximillian Largo (No.2, Never Say Never Again)
  • Fatima Blush (No.12, Never Say Never Again)

[edit] Novels

All henchmen listed below are from Thunderball

  • Emilio Largo — 'Number 1'
  • Giuseppe Petacchi — Domino Petacchi's brother
  • Pierre Borraud — Killed by Blofeld for raping a girl
  • Dr. Kandinsky
  • Dr. Kotze
  • Count Lippe — "Sub-operator G"
  • Agent #6 — Kills Count Lippe at the behest of Blofeld for being unreliable

[edit] Parodies and clones

SPECTRE is often cloned or parodied in films, video games, and novels. The most obvious is the Austin Powers series of movies. In this series, a man named Dr. Evil (a parody of Ernst Stavro Blofeld) is the leader of a villainous organisation simply called "Dr. Evil's Evil organisation." Dr. Evil's second in command, known only as "Number Two", is a parody of Emilio Largo, Blofeld's second in command.

  • In the video game series No One Lives Forever a man simply called "The director" leads a similar organisation called "H.A.R.M.". A running joke during the series is that no one actually knows what H.A.R.M. stands for. H.A.R.M may jokingly refer to Human Aetiological Relations Machine, the name of a fictional intelligence agency featured in the 1960s spy film Agent for H.A.R.M.
  • In the video game Evil Genius, one has to make a criminal organisation exactly like SPECTRE. The character Maximillian is a spoof of Blofeld. Similarly, the enemy organisations within the game are named things like 'S.M.A.S.H.' or 'H.A.M.M.E.R.'
  • The James Bond spinoff animated series, James Bond Jr, featured a clone of SPECTRE called "S.C.U.M.".
  • The animated series Inspector Gadget featured a clone of SPECTRE called "M.A.D.". Dr. Claw, the head of M.A.D. is also based on the villain Blofeld.
  • The TV series Get Smart featured a SPECTRE-like organisation called KAOS.
  • In the mid 80s, a highly successful James Bond tabletop RPG was released. With the films as inspirations, the stories were adapted for players. Minor changes to plots and villains were made. For example, Kidd & Wint were freelance assassins working for SPECTRE. They in fact leased out services to other terrorist organisations and various crime syndicates. The most noted change was SPECTRE. It was later renamed TAROT and the face cards represented various departments. This was due to the copyright issues referenced above. West End Games (the game's publisher) worked with Eon productions (the film producers) for the rights to Bond, and were told they were not allowed to negotiate with McClory for the rights to SPECTRE, hence the hasty renaming.
  • The Disney animated series "Darkwing Duck" featured a masked crimefighter who often worked with an agency called "SHUSH" against the forces of FOWL (the Fiendish Organization of World Larceny). One of the foremost agents of FOWL was Steelbeak.
  • The Pixar animated film "The Incredibles" borrowed many tropes from James Bond movies, including a SPECTRE like island hideout complete with army of goons to support the film's villain.
  • An episode of Spongebob Squarepants, due to a fallout with Mermaid Man his sidekick Barnacle Boy formed a SPECTRE like criminal organisation called E.V.I.L, which stands for 'Every Villain Is Lemons'
  • The Consortium from Act of War is probably based on SPECTRE.
  • The evil terrorist organisation SCORPIA from the Alex Rider series of books is probably based on SPECTRE.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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