S.P.E.C.T.R.E.



         


Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Actor (See Below)
Gender Male
Age Mid 50's
Affiliation S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Status Terminated

The SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion (S.P.E.C.T.R.E.) is a fictional evil organization appearing in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, and subsequently in a few James Bond movies where it has been the spy's most persistent opponent.

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Overview

The goal of the organization is extortion and world domination. Organization discipline is notoriously draconian with the penalty for disobedience or failure being death. Members of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. are referred to only by numbers within the organisation, presumably as a security measure.

The commander of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., the supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, usually appears accompanied by a white angora cat in the movies (but not in the books). He appears in 5 official James Bond movies as well as Never Say Never Again, the 1983 remake of Thunderball, which makes him the most persistent and arguably greatest of James Bond's enemies. Blofeld was responsible for the murder of Bond's wife Tracy in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but for years never got his comeuppance. Blofeld apparently met his demise (or so we thought) in the pre-title sequence of 1981's For Your Eyes Only but for copyright reasons (see next paragraph) his name was never mentioned either verbally or in the final credits. The name Blofeld was inspired by the father of English Cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, with whom Fleming went to school.

For years there had been ongoing litigation between Kevin McClory/Sony and MGM/UA over who owns the rights to S.P.E.C.T.R.E. that has been in court since the 1960s. In 1981 Kevin McClory won a lawsuit against MGM that gave him the go ahead to create a remake of 1965's Thunderball, which he co-wrote with both Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham. The litigation was eventually settled with MGM getting the rights to the "unofficial" Bond films Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again.

There are some major differences between the portrayal of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in the Bond books and the movies. The organisation for example does not appear in the book of From Russia with Love (in the book the organization being fought is SMERSH, a Soviet counter-spy organization), though it plays a major role in the film. In the books the numbers of members are deliberately assigned at random and regularly rotated to prevent detection, and at the time of Thunderball the leader has been assigned 'Number 2'. In the movies Blofeld is 'Number 1', and the numbers appear to indicate rank.

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. was first created in the book Thunderball. It was never seen in the books again, although Blofeld appeared in two other books (On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice).

In the books, it appears that after James Bond smashed S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s plot to blackmail NATO with stolen nuclear weapons in Thunderball that S.P.E.C.T.R.E. was disbanded. Blofeld continued to cause trouble on his own in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He then killed Tracy Bond at the end and got away. James Bond later ran into Blofeld in Japan in You Only Live Twice, where he finally killed Blofeld and Irma Bunt.

In the official film series, the organization is much more resilient, coming back after each defeat by Bond with increasingly grander schemes until its final apparent defeat in You Only Live Twice. After which, Blofeld apparently worked independently.

The look of the Donald Pleasence Blofeld in You Only Live Twice inspired the look of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films, down to the Anthony Dawson (From Russia with Love) (uncredited; only his hands stroking his cat are shown)

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