Spectre

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Lore & Background

In the James Bond novels, SPECTRE is an organised crime enterprise led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The organisation's executive consists of 21 individuals, 18 of whom handle day-to-day affairs. Members are drawn in groups of three from six of the world's most notorious organisations — the Nazi German Gestapo, the Soviet SMERSH, Yugoslav Marshal Josip Broz Tito's OZNA, the Italian Mafia, the French-Corsican Unione Corse, and KRYSTAL, a massive Turkish heroin-smuggling operation. The remaining three members are Blofeld himself and two scientific/technical experts who make their debut in the ninth Bond novel, Thunderball (1961). When Ian Fleming was writing the novel in 1959, he believed that the Cold War might end during the two years it would take to produce the film, and he came to the conclusion that the inclusion of a contemporary political villain would leave the film looking dated. Therefore, he thought it better to create a politically neutral enemy for Bond. 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 American gangster rings, the Italian Mafia, the Russian mafia, the Unione Corse, the Chinese Tongs and Triads, and the Japanese Yakuza and Black Dragon Society. During the events of Thunderball, SPECTRE successfully hijacked two nuclear warheads for ransom. The organisation is next mentioned in the tenth novel, The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), when James Bond describes investigating their activities in Toronto before the story begins, though they play no part in the story itself. The organisation's third appearance is in the eleventh novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963) where Blofeld, hired by an unnamed country or party—though the Soviet Union is implied—is executing a plan to ruin British agriculture with biological warfare. Blofeld, with a weakened SPECTRE, would appear for the final time in the twelfth novel, You Only Live Twice (1964). By this point, the organisation has largely been shut down, and what remains is focused on maintaining Blofeld's alias as Dr. Guntram von Shatterhand and his compound in Japan.

In Their Own Story

In the films, the organisation often acts as a third party in the ongoing Cold War. Their objectives have ranged from supporting Dr. Julius No in sabotaging American rocket launches, holding the world to ransom, and demanding clemency from governments for their previous crimes. The goal of world domination was only ever stated in the film version of You Only Live Twice (1967) when SPECTRE was working on behalf of an unnamed Asian government. This is strongly implied to be Red China, who earlier backed Auric Goldfinger in the 1964 film of the same name. Its long-term strategy, however, is illustrated by the analogy of the three Siamese fighting fish Blofeld keeps in an aquarium aboard SPECTRE's yacht in the film version of From Russia with Love (1963). 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, and against, both sides of the Cold War. For example, in the film Thunderball (1965), it simultaneously blackmails a Japanese double agent, distributes Red Chinese narcotics in the United States, kills a defector to the USSR on behalf of the French Foreign Ministry, and threatens NATO with stolen nuclear weapons, while continuing ordinary criminal operations such as advising on the British Great Train Robbery. In both the film and the novel Thunderball, the physical headquarters of the organisation are in Paris, operating behind a front organisation aiding refugees named 'Firco' (Fraternité Internationale de la Résistance Contre l'Oppression) in the novels and '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. To heighten the impact of executions, Blofeld had been known 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.

Reader's Guide

SPECTRE is headed by the criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld who usually appears accompanied by a Chinchilla Silver Persian cat in the films, but not in the books. In both the films and the novels, Emilio Largo (played in the film Thunderball by Adolfo Celi) 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 in the 1961 novel Thunderball, the 1965 film version and its 1983 remake, Never Say Never Again, where he is renamed Maximilian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer) and is said to be Romanian rather than Italian. The SPECTRE cabinet had a total of twenty-one 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 (who later defected) and an electronics expert named Maslov were also included in the group for their expertise on scientific and technical matters. Members are typically referred to by number rather than by name. In the novels, the numbers were initially assigned at random and then rotated up by two digits on a once-a-month basis to prevent detection; for example, if a SPECTRE operative is titled 'Number 1' in the present month, the security system will designate them 'Number 3' in the next month, 'Number 5' in the following month and so forth. However, in the EON films the number indicates rank within the organisation: Blofeld is always referred to as 'Number 1' and Emilio Largo, in Thunderball, is 'Number 2'. This particular example of numbering is perhaps deliberately borrowed from revolutionary organisations, where 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. Members who fail missions are immediately executed, usually in gory and spectacular ways. In the novel, Blofeld electrocutes Pierre Borraud (codename Number 12) in his chair for sexually molesting a girl who had been kidnapped by the organisation; he had previously strangled a second to death with a garrote and shot a third through the heart with a compressed-air pistol. In the film, Number 9 (Clive Cazes) is electrocuted for embezzlement at the Thunderball meeting where he and Number 11 (Murray Kash) report on the proceeds from a narcotics-related operation. The merciless killing of assistant Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) in You Only Live Twice, for failing to kill James Bond (Sean Connery), similarly horrifies visiting Red Chinese agents; she is dropped into a pool of piranha, which quickly eat her alive. Previously, in From Russia with Love, Tov Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) was killed with a poisoned shoe knife in front of Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) to motivate Klebb to complete her mission with no further delays. Blofeld prefers to accuse another operative as a decoy, keeping his victim calm inside the trap before executing them.

Did You Know?

• SPECTRE stands for 'Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion'.
• The organisation first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. No (1962).
• In the novels, member numbers are rotated up by two digits each month to prevent detection.
• Blofeld keeps three Siamese fighting fish in an aquarium in the film From Russia with Love to illustrate SPECTRE's strategy of letting enemies weaken each other.
• The penalty for failure in SPECTRE is death, with executions including electrocution, garroting, compressed-air pistol shots, and being fed to piranha.