| Universe | James Bond series |
|---|---|
| Type | Criminal organisation Terrorist organisation |
| Founded | c:a mid 1950s |
| Location | Paris, 136 Boulevard Haussmann SPECTRE Island SPECTRE Yacht Numerous |
| Key people | Ernst Stavro Blofeld (leader) Emilio Largo (second-in-command) Rosa Klebb Dr. Julius No (chief scientist) |
| Purpose | Counter-intelligence Terrorism Revenge Extortion World domination |
SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is a fictional global terrorist organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, the films based on those novels, and James Bond video games. Led by evil genius and supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organisation first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the movie Dr. No (1962). SPECTRE is not aligned to any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as apolitical. SPECTRE began in the novels as a small group of criminals but became a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base in the films.
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In Ian Fleming's novels, SPECTRE is a commercial enterprise led by Blofeld. Their top-level members are 21 individuals, 18 of whom handle day-to-day affairs and are drawn in groups of three from six of the world's greatest criminal organisations—the Gestapo, SMERSH, Marshal Josip Broz Tito's secret police, the Mafia, the Unione Corse, and a massive heroin-smuggling operation based in Turkey.[1] Their debut is in Thunderball. At the time of writing the novel (1959) Fleming believed that the Cold War might end during the two years it would take to produce the film, which would leave it looking dated; he therefore thought it better to create a politically neutral enemy for Bond.[2] The organisation is next mentioned in The Spy Who Loved Me, when Bond describes investigating their activities in Toronto before the story begins.
The organisation's third appearance is in On Her Majesty's Secret Service where Blofeld, hired by an unnamed country or party (though the Soviet Union is implied) is executing a plan to ruin British agriculture. Blofeld, with a weakened SPECTRE would appear for the final time in You Only Live Twice.
In the films, the organisation has a more active role, often as a third party in the ongoing Cold War. The goal of world domination was only ever stated in You Only Live Twice, and SPECTRE was working not for itself but for an unnamed Asian government whose two representatives Blofeld speaks to during the movie; perhaps Red China, who earlier backed Goldfinger. SPECTRE's goals in the other films it has appeared in have always been less lofty. Its long-term strategy, however, 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 it seizes power. SPECTRE thus works with both sides of the Cold War; besides China's attempt in Goldfinger to destabilise the Western world's economy, the French Foreign Ministry has hired its services to kill a defector to the USSR.
In both the film and the novel Thunderball, the physical headquarters of the organisation are laid in Paris, operating behind the terrorist front organisation 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. As quoted by Blofeld on several occasions: "This organisation does not tolerate failure". 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 organised 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 U.S. gangster rings, Mafia, the Unione Corse, the Chinese Tongs/Triads and the Japanese Yakuza/Black Dragon Society.
SPECTRE is headed 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 and also in the unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again.
In the novels, the numbers of members were initially assigned at random and then rotated by two digits every month to prevent detection. For example, if one was Number 1 this month, he would be Number 3 next month. 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".
The SPECTRE cabinet had a total of 21 members. Blofeld was the chairman and leader because he founded the organisation, and Largo was elected by the cabinet to be second in command. A physicist named Kotze and an electronics expert named Maslov were also included in the group for their expertise on scientific and technical matters.
This particular example of numbering is perhaps deliberately borrowed from revolutionary organisations, wherein members 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 by masquerading as a target of lower importance, and the structure of the organisation is also obscured from intelligence services.
In the original Bond novel series, SPECTRE's first and last appearance as a worldwide power is in the novel Thunderball, published in 1961. In the novel, SPECTRE, headed by Blofeld, attempts to conduct nuclear blackmail against NATO. Apparently disbanded afterwards, SPECTRE is said to be active again in the next book, The Spy Who Loved Me, although the organisation is not involved in the plot. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the second chapter of what is known as the "Blofeld Trilogy", Blofeld has revived SPECTRE, and Blofeld's final appearance, sans SPECTRE, is in the final novel of the trilogy, You Only Live Twice.
Later, the John Gardner Bond novel, For Special Services introduces 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, reintroduces Irma Bunt, Blofeld's assistant, in his short story "Blast From the Past", which is a sequel to You Only Live Twice.
In the EON Productions James Bond series, which began in 1962 with Dr. No, SPECTRE plays a more prominent role. The organisation is first mentioned in Dr. No as the organisation for which Dr. Julius No works. This was changed from Fleming's novels, which had Dr. No working for the USSR. In the films, SPECTRE usually replaced SMERSH as the main villains, although there is a brief reference to SMERSH in the second EON Bond film, From Russia with Love. The film adaptation of From Russia with Love also features the first on-screen appearance of Blofeld, although he is only identified by name in the closing credits of the film. After being absent from Goldfinger, SPECTRE returns in Thunderball and subsequently is featured in the following films You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Diamonds Are Forever. Following Diamonds Are Forever, SPECTRE and Blofeld were retired from the EON Films series, except for a cameo by Blofeld (not identified by name, but accompanied by the character's trademark cat) in For Your Eyes Only.
Despite speculation that SPECTRE would return for the Daniel Craig era of Bond films, 007 has instead tackled an underground terrorist organisation similar to SPECTRE, known as Quantum. They first appeared unnamed in 2006's Casino Royale and reappeared in 2008's Quantum of Solace. It is interesting to note that in the Bulgarian subtitles of Quantum of Solace, the name Quantum was translated as SPECTRE, with the title changed to "Spectre of Solace" ("Спектър на утехата").
In 1983, MGM released Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball. Not considered part of the official Bond series, the film retells the story of Thunderball and reintroduces both SPECTRE and Blofeld.
SPECTRE is shown, but never mentioned by name, in the game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Instead, it is referred to as a "powerful criminal organisation". It is depicted as being much more powerful than it was in any of the films or books, possessing a massive undersea black market known as The Octopus, resembling Karl Stromberg's lair from The Spy Who Loved Me, a large lair built into an extinct volcano akin to the films which is used as the main base of operations, and also the personal structures of its members such as Auric Goldfinger's Auric Enterprises and casino and Dr. No's Crab Key, also returning from the films. Spectre 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 Dr. No "...(Doctor Julius No) having broken ranks with our organisation. He must be eliminated".
After Dr. No is killed, Goldfinger takes over the Volcano Lair using the OMEN [Organic Mass Energy Neutralizer] which causes Disintegration of Organic Matter. Goldfinger is eventually killed by the Omen when it explodes, releasing the energy and killing everyone (except the player, who is safe from the Omen in a cut off area. The irony being that the area was a trap set by Goldfinger, where the air would drain out and the player would die.)
Although the From Russia with Love video game mirrors much of the plot of the eponymous film, it uses an organisation called OCTOPUS rather than SPECTRE to avoid copyright issues.
As a side note, the game features a recurring symbol which could be thought of as Spectre's logo: a simple, marine-blue octopus with semicircular eyes and blade-like tentacles. This logo is at least seen printed on the walls of The Octopus black market and on Goblin grenades.
SPECTRE and its characters have been at the centre of long-standing litigation starting in 1961 between Kevin McClory and Ian Fleming over the film rights to Thunderball and the ownership of the organisation and its characters. In 1963, Fleming settled out of court with McClory, which awarded McClory the film rights to Thunderball, although literary rights would stay with Fleming and thus allow continuation author John Gardner to use SPECTRE in a number of his novels.
In 1963, EON Productions producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made agreement with McClory to adapt the novel into the fourth official James Bond film, stipulating also 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 McClory retained the film rights to Thunderball until he died, the courts in 2001 awarded Eon exclusive film rights to the fictional character James Bond. This technically prevented McClory from creating further adaptations of the novel, it is unknown what will happen to the rights to the characters of Blofeld and members of his organisation post McClory's death.
Henchmen working for SPECTRE, one of its members, or directly for Ernst Stavro Blofeld:
This is only a brief description of the numbers of each member. In the first book to include SPECTRE, "Thunderball", it is stated that the numbers of each member changes periodically (it "advances round a rota by two digits at midnight on the first of every month") to avoid detection and Blofeld is in fact number 2.
| SPECTRE Command Structure | |||||
| Name | Number | Position | Film | Status | Actor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ernst Stavro Blofeld | 1 | Leader | From Russia With Love Thunderball You Only Live Twice On Her Majesty's Secret Service Diamonds Are Forever For Your Eyes Only Never Say Never Again (non EON) |
Deceased | Anthony Dawson/Eric Pohlman Anthony Dawson/Eric Pohlman Donald Plesance Telly Savalas Charles Gray John Hollis Max von Sydow (Non EON) (Active) |
| Emilio Largo | 2 | Second in command and head of extortion | Thunderball | Deceased | Adolfo Celi |
| Rosa Klebb Unknown |
3 | Chief executioner Operative in Blofeld's volcano lair. |
From Russia with Love You Only Live Twice |
Deceased (both) | Lotte Lenya Burt Kwouk |
| Unknown | 4 | Operative in Blofeld's volcano lair. | You Only Live Twice | Unknown, presumably deceased | Michael Chow |
| Tov Kronsteen | 5 | Chief planner | From Russia with Love | Deceased | Vladek Sheybal |
| Jacques Bouvar | 6 | Military Advisor | Thunderball | Deceased | Bob Simmons (uncredited in film) |
| Un-named | 7 | Member | Unknown | ||
| 8 | |||||
| Unknown | 9 | Member | Thunderball | Deceased | Clive Chavez |
| Un-named | 10 | ||||
| Unnamed Helga Brandt |
11 | Member | Thunderball You Only Live Twice |
Unknown Deceased |
Gabor Baraker Karin Dor |
| Fatima Blush | 12 | Member | Never Say Never Again (non EON) | Deceased | Barbara Carrera |
SPECTRE is often parodied in films, video games, and novels. The most obvious is the Austin Powers series of movies. In this, a man named Dr. Evil (a parody of Ernst Stavro Blofeld) is the leader of a villainous organisation called Virtucon. Dr. Evil's second in command, known only as "Number Two", is a parody of Emilio Largo, Blofeld's second in command.