SPECTRE

Infobox fictional secret organisation
organisation_name = SPECTRE
organisation_logo =
organisation_type = Terrorist organisation
universe = James Bond series
foundation = c:a mid 1950's
location = SPECTRE Island Paris SPECTRE Yacht
Numerous
key_people = Ernst Stavro Blofeld (leader) Emilio Largo Rosa Klebb
purpose = Counter-intelligence Terrorism Revenge Extortion World domination
technologies =
powers =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
affiliations =
subsid =
homepage =
footnotes =

SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is a fictional global 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" (1961) and in the movie "Dr. No" (1962). SPECTRE is unaligned to any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as apolitical. The organisation 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.

Philosophy and goals

In Ian Fleming's novels, SPECTRE is a commercial enterprise led by Blofeld. Their membership comprises 18 individuals, three each from the world's six great criminal organizations—the Gestapo, SMERSH, Marshal Tito's secret police, the highland Turks, the Mafia, and the Union Corse. Their debut appearance in "Thunderball" is concerned chiefly with "Plan Omega," a plot to capture two nuclear weapons from NATO for a ransom of 100 million pounds. The organization is next mentioned in "The Spy Who Loved Me", when Bond describes investigating their activities in Toronto before the story begins.

The organization'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, without SPECTRE would appear for the final time in "You Only Live Twice."

In the films, the goal of the organization is world domination. To achieve this, the 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.

However, it should be noted that this goal of world domination was only ever stated in " You Only Live Twice", and Blofeld does not say that SPECTRE will be the dominant power. He is seen earlier in the film speaking with two unidentified Asian men and it is stated he is working for their government. This is likely either Japan- only because SPECTRE's base in the film is situated in that country, or more likely North Korea or Red China, which had split from the Soviet Union by that time and in the third film were the backers of Goldfinger. SPECTRE's goals in the other films it has appeared in have always been less lofty.

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 U.S. gangster rings, Mafia, the Unione Corse, the Chinese Tongs and the Japanese Yakuza and Black Dragon Society.

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 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 organization 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".

Films

In the EON Productions James Bond series, which began in 1962 with "Dr. No", SPECTRE plays a more prominent role. The organization is first mentioned in "Dr. No" as the organization 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", although it is not referred to by name in the final film. 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, it has been unveiled that 007 will instead tackle an underground terrorist organization similar to SPECTRE known as QUANTUM. They first appeared unnamed in 2006's "Casino Royale" and reappear in 2008's "Quantum of Solace".

Non-EON

In 1983, Warner Bros. 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.

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 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 in the Volcano Lair (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.)

Spectre is also featured in "From Russia With Love", although it is called Octopus in this game.

Copyright issues

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 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.

PECTRE henchmen

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

Novels

* Emilio Largo — 'Number 1'
* Giuseppe Petacchi — Domino Petacchi's brother
* Pierre Borraud — Had sex with a girl that he kidnapped for ransom. As a punishment, Blofeld had Borraud killed and returned half of the ransom money to the girl's father as compensation. While Blofeld considered the possibility that the sexual relationship was consensual, it was more important that SPECTRE was reputed to keep its word. [http://debrief.commanderbond.net/index.php?s=28c5343bd2d63561fc66caca7dbbebb0&showtopic=20881&st=0&p=370125&#entry370125]
* Dr. Kandinsky
* Dr. Kotze
* Count Lippe — "Sub-operator G"
* Agent #6 — Kills Count Lippe at the behest of Blofeld for being unreliable
* Irma Bunt
* Black Dragon SocietyThis 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.

Films

; By order of appearance and fate:
* Dr. Julius No ("Dr. No")-killed by James Bond
* Professor R. J. Dent ("Dr. No")-killed by James Bond
* Miss Taro ("Dr. No")-arrested by Jamican Police
* Rosa Klebb (No. 3, "From Russia with Love")-killed by Tatiana
* Donald "Red" Grant ("From Russia with Love")-killed by James Bond
* Kronsteen (No. 5, "From Russia with Love")-killed on Blofeld's orders by Morzeny
* Colonel Jaques Bouvar (No. 6, "Thunderball")-killed by James Bond
* Morzeny ("From Russia with Love")-killed by James Bond
* Emilio Largo (No. 2, "Thunderball")-killed by Domino Vitali
* Fiona Volpe ("Thunderball")-killed by own henchmen by accident trying to kill James Bond
* Clive Cazes (No. 9, "Thunderball")-killed by Blofeld for stealing from Spectre
* Count Lippe ("Thunderball")-killed by Volpe on Blofeld's orders
* Angelo Palazzi ("Thunderball")-killed by Largo
* Vargas ("Thunderball")-killed by James Bond
* Janni ("Thunderball")-killed when Largo yacht explodes
* Professor Ladislav Kutze ("Thunderball", defected)-last seen jumping into ocean with lifebouy-fate unknown
* Quist ("Thunderball")-thrown by Largo into shark pool
* Helga Brandt (No.11, "You Only Live Twice")-thrown by Blofeld into piranha pool
* Hans ("You Only Live Twice")-thrown by James Bond into piranha pool
* Mr. Osato (Head Of Osato Chemicals, "You Only Live Twice")-shot and killed by Blofeld
* (No.3, "You Only Live Twice")-killed by explosion (#3 played by Burt Kwouk)
* (No.4, "You Only Live Twice")-fate unknown (# 4 Played by Michael Chow)
* Irma Bunt ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service")-fate unknown
* Grunther ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service")-killed by Tracy Bond
* Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd ("Diamonds Are Forever")-killed by James Bond
* Bert Saxby ("Diamonds Are Forever")-killed by CIA Agents
* Several other agents of SPECTRE remain nameless and unimportant

By Hierarchy

Non-EON

* Maximillian Largo (No.2, "Never Say Never Again")
* Fatima Blush (No.12, "Never Say Never Again")
* Eva Adara ("From Russia with Love") (Video game)

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 called Virtucon. Dr. Evil's second in command, known only as "Number Two", is a parody of Emilio Largo, Blofeld's second in command.

*The Belgian comics series Spirou et Fantasio features an international criminal organisation called the Triangle whose members also address each by numbers.

*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.

*The Matt Helm films featured the Brotherhood of International Government and Order called "Big O".

*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. (Technological Hierarchy 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.

*The THUNDER Agents comic featured an enemy called S.P.I.D.E.R. (Secret People's International Directorate for Extralegal Revenue)

*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 whose main enemy is them organization THEM, led by evil Doctor Doctor.

*In the Dr. Brain video game "Action Reaction", the evil organization S.P.O.R.E. (Sinister People Organized Really Efficiently) is likely based on SPECTRE.

*In "Road to Hong Kong" that pre-dated "Dr No (film)", Bob Hope and Bing Crosby are up against "The Third Echelon" who have their own underwater secret headquarters with the capability to launch missiles into outer space.

*The "Galaxy" organization features in "Our Man Flint" where "Agent 0008" tells Flint that Galaxy is "bigger than SPECTRE".

*Tom Clancy's novel "Rainbow Six" features a terrorist organization that the characters compare to SPECTRE once they learn that the terrorists are using chemical warfare similar to that in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".

ee also

* List of James Bond villains
* SMERSH
* Quantum

External links

* [http://www.mjnewton.demon.co.uk/bond/blofeld.htm Blofeld] from [http://www.mjnewton.demon.co.uk/bond/ The Bond Film Informant]
* [http://www.spectreorganisation.com/index.html spectreorganisation.com] -- Information on Kevin McClory's fight for the rights to Thunderball and SPECTRE