SPECTRE is a fictional organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, as well as the films and video games based on those novels. Led by criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the international organisation first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. No (1962). SPECTRE is not aligned with any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as somewhat apolitical. The presence of former Gestapo members in the organisation though can be considered as a sign of Fleming's warnings about Nazi fugitives after the Second World War, as first detailed in the novel Moonraker (1954). In the novels, SPECTRE begins as a small group of criminals but in the films, it is depicted as a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base capable of replacing the Soviet SMERSH.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character and villain from the James Bond series of novels and films, created by Ian Fleming. A criminal mastermind with aspirations of world domination, he is the archenemy of the British Secret Service agent James Bond. Blofeld is head of the global criminal organisation SPECTRE and is commonly referred to by the codename Number 1 within this organisation. The character was originally written by Fleming as a physically massive and powerfully built man, standing around 6' 3" and weighing 20 st, who had become flabby with a huge belly.
Thunderball is the ninth book in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, and the eighth full-length Bond novel. It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 27 March 1961, where the initial print run of 50,938 copies quickly sold out. The first novelisation of an unfilmed James Bond screenplay, it was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo, although the controversial shared credit of Fleming, McClory and Whittingham was the result of a courtroom decision.
A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest, female companion or (occasionally) an adversary of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game. Bond girls occasionally have names that are double entendres or sexual puns, such as Plenty O'Toole, Holly Goodhead, or Xenia Onatopp. The female leads in the films, such as Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, or Eva Green, can also be referred to as "Bond girls". The term Bond girl may also be considered as an anachronism, with some female cast members in the films preferring the designation Bond woman.
A femme fatale, sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of literature and art. Her ability to enchant, entice and hypnotize her victim with a spell was in the earliest stories seen as verging on supernatural; hence, the femme fatale today is still often described as having a power akin to an enchantress, seductress, witch, having power over men. Femmes fatales are typically villainous, or at least morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification, and unease.
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. The novel had been previously adapted as the 1965 film of the same name. Never Say Never Again is the second and most recent James Bond film not to be produced by Eon Productions, the usual producer of the Bond series, but by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm, and was distributed by Warner Bros. instead of United Artists. The film was executive produced by Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline. McClory had retained the filming rights of the novel following a long legal battle dating from the 1960s.
Emilio Largo is a fictional character and the main antagonist from the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball. He appears in the 1965 film adaptation, again as the main antagonist, with Italian actor Adolfo Celi filling the role. Largo is also the main antagonist in the 1983 unofficial James Bond movie Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball. In Never Say Never Again, the character's name, however, was changed to Maximillian Largo and he was portrayed by the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.
Claudine Auger was a French actress best known for her role as a Bond girl, Dominique "Domino" Derval, in the James Bond film Thunderball (1965). She earned the title of Miss France Monde 1958 and went on to finish as the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest.
Elektra Vavra King is a character and one of the two main antagonists in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, played by actress Sophie Marceau.
Fiona is a feminine given name. The name is associated with the Gaelic traditions of Ireland and Scotland, but has also become popular in England. It can be considered either a Latinised form of the Gaelic word fionn, meaning "white", "fair", or an Anglicisation of the Irish name Fíona. The Scottish Gaelic feminine name Fionnghal is sometimes equated with Fiona. In ninth-century Welsh and Breton language 'Fion' referred to the foxglove species and is also a female given name as in Ffion Hague.
Dominetta Vitali, known simply as Domino, is a fictional character and the main Bond girl in the James Bond novel Thunderball. For the 1965 film adaptation of the same name, her name was changed to Dominique Derval, nicknamed Domino, and she was portrayed by French actress Claudine Auger. In the 1983 film adaptation Never Say Never Again, her character was renamed Domino Petachi and she was portrayed by American actress Kim Basinger.
Luciana Paluzzi is an Italian actress. She is perhaps best known for playing SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe in the fourth James Bond film, Thunderball, but she had important roles in notable films of the 1960s and 1970s in both the Italian film industry and Hollywood, including Chuka, The Green Slime, 99 Women, Black Gunn, The Klansman and The Sensuous Nurse.
Thunderball is a 1965 spy film and the fourth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham devised from a story conceived by Kevin McClory, Whittingham, and Fleming. It was the third and final Bond film to be directed by Terence Young, with its screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins.
Yvonne Monlaur was a French film actress of the late 1950s and 1960s best known for her roles in the Hammer horror films.
Camille Montes Rivero is a fictional character in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace portrayed by actress Olga Kurylenko.
Lady Bullseye is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. A female counterpart of Bullseye, she was created by Ed Brubaker, Marko Djurdjevic, and Clay Mann, first appearing in Daredevil #111. She has primarily been an opponent of the superhero Daredevil.
The James Bond series of films contain a number of repeating, distinctive motifs which date from the series' inception with Dr. No in 1962. The series consists of twenty five films produced by Eon Productions featuring the James Bond character, a fictional British Secret Service agent. The most recent instalment is No Time to Die, released in UK cinemas on 30 September 2021. There have also been two independently made features, the satirical Casino Royale, released in 1967, and the 1983 film Never Say Never Again.
Sévérine is a fictional character who appears in the 23rd James Bond filmSkyfall (2012). Played by Bérénice Marlohe, Sévérine is a former sex slave who works as an accomplice of Raoul Silva. She collaborates with James Bond to stop her boss, but is captured and killed by Silva.
