Home > S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

1 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 only indication that this wheelchair-bound character is Blofeld is the presence of the Angora cat.

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 1960sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Years: 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around. In 1981 Kevin McClory won a lawsuit against MGM that gave him the go ahead to create a remake of 19651965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). Events January-February January 4 United States President Lyndon Johnson proclaims his " Great Society" during his State of the Union address. January 14 Prime Ministers of N's Thunderball, which he co-wrote with both Ian Fleming and Jack WhittinghamJack Whittingham ( 1910 July 4, 1972) was a British playwright, film critic, and screenwriter. He is best-known for having collaborated with Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory on the original scripts for Thunderball''. After Fleming wrote the novel Thunderball. The litigation was eventually settled with MGM getting the rights to the "unofficial" Bond films Casino RoyaleCasino Royale is a novel by Ian Fleming, first published in 1953. It is the first in the series of James Bond books, and the only novel by Fleming not to have an official Bond film of the same name made by EON Productions. In 1997, MGM acquired the rights and Never Say Never Again.

The name Blofeld was inspired by the father of English Cricketcricket match in progress. The beige strip is the cricket pitch. The people wearing black trousers on the far right are the umpires. Cricket is a team game played between two teams of eleven players each. It originated in its modern form in England, and i commentator Henry BlofeldHenry Blofeld (September 23, 1939 ) (known as "Blowers") is a cricket commentator for BBC Radio 4, although he also commentated for Sky Television from 1991 to 1994. His cricket commentary is celebrated for his plummy voice and his idiosyncratic mention o, with whom Fleming went to school.

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 SMERSHSMERSH (in capitalised letters) was featured in Ian Fleming's early James Bond novels and films as 007's nemesis. SMERSH is a conjunction of two Russian words: "Smyert Shpionam", which means "Death to Spies". Though Fleming's SMERSH was supposed to be mod, 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 NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NATO , sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance is an international organization for defense collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed 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. The John Gardner Bond novel, For Special Services introduced a revived S.P.E.C.T.R.E. under the leadership of a new Blofeld. Although Bond ultimately prevents S.P.E.C.T.R.E. from reforming, it continued to play a part in several succeeding Gardner novels.

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 Donald Pleasence's Blofeld in You Only Live Twice inspired the look of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films, down to the Nehru suit and facial scar.

In the films, Blofeld's physical appearance and personality varies wildly due to the change of actors (i.e. Blofeld's scar does not appear in On Her Majesty's Secret Service or Diamonds Are Forever, and in OHMSS it is revealed that Blofeld has removed his earlobes, but they return in Diamonds). This is actually in keeping with the Blofeld of Fleming's novels, who is described as drastically changing his personality and appearance in order to hide from Bond.