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Just like the novels, in fact - TB, (TSWLM), OHMSS and YOLT.
Something like that.
Not sure if I'd include TSWLM in that list. There is merely a reference to them as the story followed on the heels of the Thunderball affair.
The Spectre we meet in CR and QOS are a very professional outfit. They are not depicted in the same light as the terrorist groups that we see in the news, they have no express ideological goal, nor are they interested in promoting their existence or cause. Spectre are far from ostentatious, instead preferring to operate in the shadows and manipulating factors from behind the scenes. Essentially they are more interested in the business of terrorism and operating an effective and professional service.
In CR we only get a very small insight into the type of work that the organisation does. Here we see Spectre working as “middle-men” involved in the financing and banking of terrorism. They are not directly involved in the acts of terrorism but more consulting and managing the financial and business aspects of the job. They are not fanatics but it’s most likely that in this context their clients are.
Le Chiffre is most likely a banker who turned to a life of crime and had since gained a reputation in the underworld. As a result he probably gained the interest of Spectre; I doubt he was a direct employee of the organisation, instead he was likely a contractor who provided a reliable service in the past. I really doubt that Le Chiffre had much contact, if any, with Blofeld. The closest he would have got to the top of the pyramid would likely have been Mr. White.
So from CR we only got a very brief glimpse into the sheer scale of Spectre… which leads to QOS. Here we find out that the organisation is far more than just a professional terrorist consultancy service. We learn that Spectre in fact has a large international monopoly with its membership including CEOs of large corporations, influential political figures and senior figures in major intelligence networks. They are an Illuminati-type group who are silently attempting to manipulate the world order. In the film we encounter “Quantum” – a small subsidiary of Spectre. Quantum are clearly involved in the more professional business of criminality – there chief goal seems to involve furthering Spectre’s political grasp globally.
I imagine considering his senior position in Spectre; Mr White was the chief of Quantum (especially considering he was at the meeting in Austria and was wearing the ‘Q’ lapel-pin) – I doubt he would have taken orders from Greene. I believe White was an assassin, most likely Blofeld’s most trusted assassin, hence why he was later promoted to running Quantum. I doubt Greene got anywhere near to Blofeld, I’d also be surprised to learn if he knew much of Spectre’s business. His only link would have been White, and White’s business would be none of his.
Trying to connect Silva to Spectre is more difficult. Mendes’s retcon sits a little uneasily with SF as Silva describes himself as being a freelance hacker. It’s therefore very likely that he had often been contacted by Spectre to do numerous jobs for them over the years. He’s immensely talented, so it’s likely he has proved to be a very important contact for Spectre. Plus if you are a freelance criminal it’s likely you’d run into Spectre, especially if you consider the size and structure of the group.
Additionally, considering Silva’s skillset and his status (he’s an ex-MI6 agent), I’d imagine he would have met Blofeld. I would think that Blofeld was directly responsible for helping Silva execute his place to attack MI6’s HQ and kill M. It would help explain the cheer audacity of Silva’s scheme (escaping MI6 custody/London tube bombing/inquiry shoot-out) and explain things such as how he got a helicopter in the middle of Scotland at the last minute. I would think that Blofeld was able to give Silva all the resources he needed to carry out the scheme especially as he knew it would psychologically affect Bond. However, I doubt Blofeld revealed his personal connection to 007 to Silva.
This now brings us to Craig’s fourth film. I imagine that since capturing Yusef Kabira, M had begun to get a firmer idea that there was one larger organisation controlling things. I imagine she kept this information firmly to herself whilst she investigated the group independently. She couldn’t trust anyone with the information, not even Bond, as she became aware that the organisation’s power was near universal. I imagine it’s one of the reasons she refuses to resign in SF when Mallory asks her too; she says she’ll leave “when the job’s done” – possible a reference to her quest to expose Spectre? Anyway, Silva throws a spanner in the works and knowing that her demise is imminent she sent a video to Bond asking him to kill Sciarra – who was clearly a lead she was chasing. M had obviously gained some knowledge on the way Spectre operated and how they organised their meetings.
The Spectre from CR and QOS have evolved in SP. They are not just a professional criminal liaison service or even an Illunanti-esque group, they are now an outwardly aggressive terrorist group who are directly responsible for numerous attacks across the globe.
Blofeld is heavily invested in bringing about the Nine Eyes programme and thereby makes an alliance with Max Denbigh – a British diplomat who believes more surveillance is necessary to protect national security. Blofeld believes that if he is able to provide an incentive to those countries to sign-up he too will be able to access the shared datastreams from all those states and further his global monopoly. Knowing that the countries will only respond if they believe their nationals security is threatened, Spectre responds by attacking their capital cities and encouraging these states to sign up due to the increased pressure.
Due to the new approach being adopted, Blofeld alienates even his most devoted followers, including Mr. White. We can presume from both CR and QOS, that White was more involved in the business management side of things, therefore, his revolt against Spectre’s current stance makes sense. At the end of the film M and Q are able to stop Nine Eyes from going live and Bond is able to capture Blofeld. By arresting Blofeld he is publically exposed. Blofeld has constantly worked in the shadows with his organisation quietly building momentum and sway within the world. By exposing him and the scale of his operation the whole world can see the influence and power he had.
What do we think? Are there any gaps that people can see that need filling?
Like, here: https://www.facebook.com/DieAnotherDayVodcast
So that's what Balje looks like.
but apart from that there´s a lot of logic to what you write in connection to CR, QOS and SF.
However, I don´t see any evolution from Quantum to Spectre. Spectre in SP doesn´t do anything more impressive than Quantum did already. If someone would have made a point of Blofeld´s desert lair being just one of many, the organisation would have easily achieved a certain nonchalance like Nr No´s outfit, but as it was presented, it was rather amateurish of Blofeld to be so occupied with his computers that he completely neglected security measures.
On the other hand, we don´t have any clear indication that Quantum has been dismantled, which makes them much more successful and dangerous. Yusef might have talked, but, as you suggest yourself, those organisations are not very open vertically. So it is not very likely that Yusef knew a lot of important names high up in Quantum.
M couldn´t trust anyone, not even Bond? Well, she sure didn´t travel around to gather the information herself. I can accept the idea that she´s an analysis genius and could have gotten all the information by analysing and cross-referencing thousands of computer files, kind of like a twin to Silva or Blofeld. Her not trusting Bond is an idea that is mentioned already right at the beginning of SF, when M insists on risking Bond´s life, and later on, when she outrageously claims "it was either the possibility of losing you or the certainty of losing that disc". Which is the weirdest of all statements. How could there be a possibility of recapturing that disc with Bond shot? And what makes her think her most trustworthy agent, who would fight to his death in order to get that disc, would not recapture it? Following that line of observation, it would make sense that M didn´t trust Bond when she found out about Sciarra, since that was about the same time the SF affair happened. But overall, that would imply that M had gotten Alzheimer by the time of SF. Especially after she kept lecturing Bond about trust in CR and QoS and then protected him personnally from the CIA in QoS.
You suggest that Mr White was more involved in business aspects. Yet he was directly involved with Quantum´s honey traps, and he didn´t hesitate to get his hands dirty when Le Chiffre needed to be taken care of, and the way he throws the quip about it being a pity Vesper killed herself doesn´t imply any form of remorse. I don´t buy his explanation about women and children at all, it doesn´t make sense after Vesper and undoubtedly others like her.
To my perception, SP works pretty fine as kind of a psychedelic, dream-like, Sergio Leone Bond film. And it would make a lot of sense to me if Bond at the beginning of the next film appeared at M´s office majorly dishevelled, and when MP or M asks him why he looks like s**t, he just makes a nonchalant quip about having had the weirdest of deams.
http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/spectre-really-james-bond-tool-occult-elite/
It really analyses Spectre's role as a modern Illuminati organisation. Additionally, it makes some very interesting and valid points about the UK Government and their agenda in wanting to subdue a group such as Spectre.
Probably one of the best articles I've read on SP
It is what @Forceland looks like though.
M = Mother
I = Singe eye
6 = three letters in MI6 - so 666
the mother with the single evil eye - isis = link to the anunaki
The illuminated ones like to show off and do things in plain site.
In all seriousness, I don't think Craig era Spectre was designed with any purpose in mind. In Connery's era, they profited off the Cold War. Now, it just seems like EON got the license and is trying to figure out how to make a good plot with it. Shoot first, aim later.
To find out more, let s spell it backwards and see where that takes us.
http://www.itanimulli.com
An Italian ice cream company? Neat!
I was more terrified watching the Rome meeting than I have been during any other SPECTRE briefing, even in TB when one of the traitors gets sizzled in his chair. The film found a way to take the organization and everything it has been known to stand for (signified by its very acronym) and make is modern and more grounded to fit the times.
I get chills when I listen to how the SPECTRE members are so cavalierly discussing their control of vaccines for deadly diseases they have market monopoly over, or how they managed to exterminate the threat of an anti-Human Trafficking organization, freeing them up to enter even more women into what they call the "leisure sector" to reap massive profits off sex slavery.
The whole scene is just so disgusting, because the agents are treating humans as nothing more than mere figures to be dealt with. Even the operations the organization controls are very real-world and logical for our modern age. SPECTRE aren't busying themselves with pursuing larger-than-life schemes, but are instead weeding agents into every position imaginable in governments and institutions the world over to take stake control in medicine, industry, trade, transport, leisure sectors and who knows how many other industries all while using extortion when they need to convince people to fall in line with them (as they do with the South Africans in the film to get them to sign on with the Nine Eyes program). The Nine Eyes program is the cherry on top of the cake of their control, as their partnership with Denbigh gives them access to surveillance that makes all agencies easy to counteract, making their operations even more surgical and likely to succeed.
This SPECTRE felt in touch with the 60s organization to me, with the correct changes made to suit the times. Even how Blofeld deals out his operations rang true. In most Blofeld featured Bond films where he's the main villain there's usually one character that he sinks his hooks into and manipulates to join his cause. In Thunderball, Professor Kutze was working with Blofeld under Largo's orders to make sure that the NATO bombs were operational and that their extortion of the Brits and Americans was successful. Kutze clearly isn't there in the Bahamas entirely by choice, as he mentions preferring to work from his lab in Warsaw (implying he got threats), but Largo retorts by telling him that his cut from the NATO job will dwarf any money he would get from any number of Nobel prizes he'd secure doing decent scientific work. Though Kutze later reforms, it's clear that, despite his reluctance to join SPECTRE, they satisfy his need to be paid and recognized for his services.
In You Only Live Twice Blofeld is working with Chinese representatives who sought his expertise in creating a war between the Americans and Russians, and right before the operation is about to go off, Blofeld knows he has his partners in a vulnerable position and forces them to pay him an additional $100 million for his services. I like to think that Blofeld extorted the money from his clients at this moment to make up for the $100 million in diamonds SPECTRE lost when Bond foiled their NATO operation. He was no doubt still feeling that loss and was waiting for a moment like that one where he had a client in a tough negotiating position he could use as leverage to get the money out of them he needed.
In Diamonds Are Forever Blofeld manipulates a partner for the diamond satellite operation directly, making Dr. Metz his newest target. Blofeld lies to Metz, telling him that if he builds him a diamond satellite powerful enough to destroy the weaponry of major nations he will eradicate the military stores of all the main world powers to forcefully pave a way to peace through the complete extinction of existing nuclear technology. Of course Blofeld is only using Metz to get the laser and once he has it, he goes back on his statements and instead uses the weapon for what he originally desired, blackmailing nations at laser point for obscene amounts of cash.
In SP Blofeld is doing the same manipulative stuff, using Denbigh's own belief system of "more surveillance, less human agents" as his tool of victory. Denbigh is sick and tired of seeing his government send humans to war, and has no doubt done all he could in the past to get the 00 section and other programs like them exterminated to meet his vision of a hyper-security, drone-run world. Blofeld knew that Quantum's failures needed to be rectified, and the perfect way to counteract the intelligence agencies that were going after those operations would be to manipulate a program like Nine Eyes that they could then use as their own personal strategic tool to sabotage or defend against agents like those at MI6. Denbigh, a good "disciple" (as Bond calls him) signs off on Blofeld's idea to manufacture major terrorist attacks in major world centers like Hamburg, Tunisia and Mexico City in order to give the Nine Eyes program a certain relevancy and to make Denbigh's plan seem like a sensible one for the times, something that needed to be voted into action post-haste by all world governments for the safety of the planet. Denbigh then agrees to let Blofeld use his program to do as he wishes with it because the man helped him realize his dream, with both sides benefiting immensely from the partnership in the end. Denbigh is unique in the Bond series because instead of turning on Blofeld later on in the film when he sees the horror the man is unleashing like a Kutze or Metz, he is perfectly fine with signing off on a little terror to make sure his program is made operational, whatever the cost to innocent life.
I find this aspect of SP to be endlessly satisfying, and to see the power of SPECTRE at work in the movie is at times truly terrifying because, like the acts of evil we've seen in CR, QoS and SF before it, it's not hard to imagine this kind of dirty dealing going on behind veiled curtains in our modern age.