SPECTRE

'SPECTRE' ('SP'ecial 'E'xecutive for 'C'ounter-intelligence, 'T'errorism, 'R'evenge and 'E'xtortion) is a fictional terrorist organisation featured in the British 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'', and in the movie ''Dr. No''.

Contents

Philosophy and goals

Leadership

Appearances

Novels

Films

Video games

Copyright issues

SPECTRE henchmen

Films

Non-EON

Novels

Parodies and Clones

See also

External links

Philosophy and goals

The goal of the organization is 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).
Organisational discipline is notoriously draconian with the penalty for disobedience or failure being death. As quoted by Blofeld on several occasions: "This organization 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 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.

Leadership

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 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 organization and Largo was elected by the cabinet to be second in command.
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.

Appearances

Novels

In the original Bond novel series, SPECTRE's first and last appearance as a world wide power was 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. The novel ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' stated that SPECTRE was active again, but it did not make an appearance. 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''. If SPECTRE wasn't dead already, it certainly died with Blofeld.
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".

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''.

Video games

SPECTRE is shown, but never mentioned by name, in the game ''. 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.

Copyright issues

:''Main article: The controversy over ''Thunderball''
SPECTRE and its characters have been at the center of long-standing litigation 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, 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.

SPECTRE henchmen

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

Films

★ Dr. Julius No (''Dr. No'')

★ Professor R. J. Dent (''Dr. No'')

★ Miss Taro (''Dr. No'')

★ Rosa Klebb (No. 3, ''From Russia with Love'')

★ Donald "Red" Grant (''From Russia with Love'')

★ Eva Adara (''From Russia with Love'')

★ Kronsteen (No. 5, ''From Russia with Love'')

★ Morzeny (''From Russia with Love'')

★ Emilio Largo (No. 2, ''Thunderball'')

★ Fiona Volpe (''Thunderball'')

★ Colonel Jacques Bouvar (No. 6, ''Thunderball'')

★ Count Lippe (''Thunderball'')

★ Angelo Palazzi (''Thunderball'')

★ Vargas (''Thunderball'')

★ Janni (''Thunderball'')

★ Professor Ladislav Kutze (''Thunderball'', defected)

★ Quist (''Thunderball'')

★ Helga Brandt (No.11, ''You Only Live Twice'')

★ Hans (''You Only Live Twice'')

★ Mr. Osato (Head Of Osato Chemicals, ''You Only Live Twice'')

★ Irma Bunt (''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'')

★ Grunther (''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'')

★ Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd (''Diamonds Are Forever'')

★ Bert Saxby (''Diamonds Are Forever'')

★ Several other agents of SPECTRE remain nameless and unimportant

Non-EON

★ Maximillian Largo (No.2, ''Never Say Never Again'')

★ Fatima Blush (No.12, ''Never Say Never Again'')

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

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, 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 organization exactly like SPECTRE. The character Maximilian is a spoof of Blofeld. Similarly, the enemy organizations 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." (Saboteurs and Criminals United in Mayhem).

★ The animated series ''Inspector Gadget'' featured a clone of SPECTRE called "M.A.D." (Mean And Dirty). Dr. Claw, the head of M.A.D. is also based on the villain Blofeld.

★ The TV series ''Get Smart'' featured a SPECTRE-like organization called KAOS.

★ In 1983, 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 changes were to SPECTRE: Blofeld's name was changed to Karl Ferenc Skorpios, and he was given a grayhound instead of a white cat; the organization itself was renamed TAROT (Technological Accession, Revenge, and Organized Terrorism), with the face cards represented various departments. This was due to the copyright issues referenced above. Victory Games(http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/jamesbond007/) 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 Secret Board of Shadowy Figures from ''Clone High''.

★ The Man from U.N.C.L.E. pitted a United Nations espionage agency against the forces of T.H.R.U.S.H. (Terrestrial Hegemony for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity).

★ The Disney animated series "Darkwing Duck" featured a masked crimefighter who often worked with an agency called S.H.U.S.H. against the forces of F.O.W.L. (the Fiendish Organization of World Larceny). One of the foremost agents of FOWL was Steelbeak.

★ A number of comic book villainous organizations bear some (if distant) similarities to SPECTRE, including HYDRA, A.I.M. (both Marvel Comics), Cobra Command (also Marvel Comics), and the Kobra-cult (DC Comics)

★ 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.

★ In the Nicktoons Network cartoon ''The Secret Show'', Victor Volt and Anita Knight are agents of UZZ, a crime fighting organization who's main enemy is them organization THEM, led by evil Doctor Doctor.

See also

★ List of James Bond villains

★ SMERSH

External links

★ Blofeld from The Bond Film Informant

★ spectreorganisation.com -- Information on Kevin McClory's fight for the rights to Thunderball and SPECTRE