S.P.E.C.T.R.E I doubt will ever be back which is a shame. Back in the 70's there were some lawsuits leveled against EON, the company behind the Bond films by a producer Kevin McClory. It came from the Thunderball story. Kevin had worked with Ian Fleming on making a movie script for Bond. None of the studios bought it however and Ian Fleming later turned that script into the novel Thunderball. Thunderball marked the first appearance of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and Blofeld in the Bond universe. In the 70's, Kevin sued claiming the rights to those characters and because he wanted to make his own Bond film. EON had actually planned on using S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and Blofeld in their next Bond movie, which at the time was The Spy Who Loved Me. Due to the lawsuits, they had to change the villians and that is why S.P.E.C.T.R.E. disappeared from the 007 universe. Kevin won the lawsuits and went on to make the awful film Never Say Never Again. Thank you for ruining S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Kevin McClory.
But now, it seems the Bond makers have finally decided to bring back the idea of a worldwide criminal network with Quantum. And while I had hoped we would see more of the group in the movie, it's a start. Bond is slowly working his way up the ladder like the early Bond movies as he fought higher and higher levels of S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
The greatest crime and mistake the Bond franchise made was their handling of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. It started off so well. In Dr. No, Bond meets his first agent of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Dr. No himself. S.P.E.C.T.R.E., unhappy with the Dr. No's loss caused by Bond, come up with a plan to kill him off and profit themselves in From Russia With Love. Here we get our first glimpses of Blofeld. We see S.P.E.C.T.R.E. island, a villain training ground for the first and only time, and get a sense of the wide range of resources they have. We met No. 3, Rosa Klebb, who will meet her fate by the end of the movie. Goldfinger takes a break from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and Thunderball brings them back to new hieghts. The famous theft of two nuclear warheads held for ransom plot. Engineered by No. 2. The famous S.P.E.C.T.R.E. meeting at the start of the movie once again helps keep the menace of Blofeld simmering.
That brings us to the You Only Live Twice. To outdo the last plot and make the Blofeld showdown worth something, we resort to stealing space capsules to cause World War 3. Yeah, the plot was weak unfortunately. Blofeld keeps pirhanas instead of No. 2's sharks. Just not the same. Donald Pleasance's Blofeld is rather weak as well. Oh, his is the Blofeld face that is most remembered and loved but Blofeld was pathetic in this showdown. And of course, there's the big empty volcano hideout fight. So-so first meeting.
But On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the Blofeld/Bond rivalry reaches its pinnacle and it delivers what just might be the best bond movie in the series. Blofeld has a much better plot. Germ warfare and the plot to cause widespread famine. Blofeld is a much more worthy opponent played by Telly Savalas. He can throw a punch this time. Plus, he kills Bond's wife. The greatest blow to Bond ever.
This brings us to Diamonds Are Forever. It starts out well enough. Bond immediately hunting down Blofeld to make him pay. But after he supposedly does this, the movie goes into its diamond smuggling plot. While it eventually leads to Blofeld again, Bond seems to have lost all the hate he once had against Blofeld. Even Blofeld acts all chummy with Bond. It doesn't help that Charles Grey doesn't remind us anything of Blofeld. He went from bald and scarred in YOLT, to just bald in OHMSS, to now having a full head of greying hair in DAF. Anyways, the movie ends with Blofeld trapped in a bathosub above an exploding offshore platform. We never see the bathosub blow up or get confirmation that Blofeld is 100% dead, leaving that plot thread open.
And that's the way it stood until For Your Eyes Only kills him off in the opening sequence. Due to the lawsuit I mentioned above, they never say Blofelds name or mention S.P.E.C.T.R.E. We just have to assume the bald man in the wheelchair with the white cat was Blofeld and because Bond was visiting Tracy's grave at the very beginning.
All that time showing Bond go through the ranks of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., fighting Blofeld for three straight films. Blofeld killing Bond's wife. And that's how it all ends. The biggest disappointment of the Bond franchise.
Hopefully, Quantum is handled better.
Topic: Quantum of Solace (Read 26559 times)
