"ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" The Most Devious Money-Making Schemes in the James Bond Movies

Considered one of the foremost authorities on James Bond, Raymond Benson penned and published six original 007 novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories about the world's greatest secret agent.  

Benson's latest original suspense novel is THE BLACK STILETTO, the first in a series relaying the story of a female masked crusader in the late fifties and early sixties. A fast paced thriller, but also a compelling tale of personal relationships and of a women's struggle to live her life on her own terms. Reviews have been terrific!  Visit www.raymondbenson.com

[This is a reprint of a Bank Marketing News Article originally printed in March 2009]


 The name may be "Bond...James Bond," but very often the guys who walk away with the films are the villains.

The 007 motion picture series, produced by EON Productions since 1962, have given us a motley crew of baddies—who may or may not have stepped from the pages of Ian Fleming's original novels. In most cases, the film series used Fleming's characters and plot basics to come up with entirely new scenarios.  And, in at least one instance, the evil-doer's scheme even trumped Fleming's initial idea. Of course, there are many Bond plots in which the adversary simply wants world domination, not necessarily on a financial scale, but rather on a geo-political one.  These are the most preposterous ruses, and for the most part EON Productions has thankfully veered away from these types of ploys since the 1970s. In a recent interview, co-producer Michael G. Wilson said that the villain’s plot should always be about making money—if the scheme doesn’t make a profit, then why do it?

Thus, herewith are the five most ingenious and nefarious money-making schemes that have appeared in the Bond movies. (Note: by listing these titles, I am not necessarily saying these are the five best Bond films—not by a long shot. The plots of other truly excellent Bond films such as Goldfinger and Thunderball, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and in 2006, Casino Royale, do not really fit in with the "money-making schemes" criteria) certainly belong on a list of 007 Bests, but not the others.)  
  1. Goldfinger (1964) is probably the most quintessential Bond film of them all, the one that first brought in the box-office gold, so to speak.  It helped that the picture had one of the best (if not the best) villain in the series—Auric Goldfinger, a Latvian working in Britain as a metallurgist and furniture maker. In the novel, he is working for SMERSH, but in the film he is independent. Played by German actor Gert Frobe, Goldfinger is obsessed with gold and has the largest privately-owned stock of the valuable metal in England.  The villain has purchased an atomic bomb from the Red Chinese, has smuggled it into the United States, and plans to detonate it inside of Ft. Knox in Kentucky.  This would cause America's gold supply to be radioactive for decades, thus increasing the value of Goldfinger’s own supply. One of the richest men in the world would then be the richest. This scheme is actually one of the only improvements the film series made over Ian Fleming's plots—in the original novel, Goldfinger simply wanted to rob Ft. Knox, which, of course, would be impossible.

  2. Thunderball (1965) features the international crime organization SPECTRE (the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion), led by the dastardly Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who appeared in several of the early Bond films (the actor’s face is hidden in this picture). Most of Blofeld's schemes were off-the-charts, megalomaniacal pipe dreams more akin to the Austin Powers movies—in fact, "Dr. Evil" is based on Blofeld.   However, in Thunderball, we are presented with a very realistic—and terrifying—scenario that is even more plausible today than it was in the sixties. SPECTRE, by substituting a double for a NATO bomber pilot, hijacks two nuclear weapons and hides them in an underwater cave near the Bahamas.  They then ask for a ransom from the United States and Great Britain—or they will destroy a couple of major cities. Ouch.

  3. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) was produced from an original screenplay, not based on any Fleming material.  In it, Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), a British media mogul plans to instigate a war between Britain and China, thereby pushing out the current Chinese leader and implanting Carver's cohort who has made a deal with him for the Carver Media Group Network to have exclusive broadcasting rights in China. Carver smells a fortune. He aims to do this by using a stealth submarine to fire torpedoes at both British and Chinese warships—but making it appear that the other superpower was responsible for each hit. Far-fetched, certainly, but an intriguing and fascinating scheme to ponder, especially in light of the influence held by such real-life media moguls as Rupert Murdoch or Robert Maxwell.

  4. GoldenEye (1995), also filmed from an original screenplay, introduces audiences to the power of the electromagnetic pulse which can render useless any electronic device with powerful, explosive surges.  The ESP is fired from two orbiting Russian satellites, each called a GoldenEye.  Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) is a former Double-O agent, believed dead, now working for a Russian crime syndicate. His goal is to use the GoldenEye to wipe out the Bank of England’s funds (he has a personal beef with the U.K.) and transfer them into his own coffers. He must first obtain the keys that operate the satellites. His team hijacks a stealth helicopter (that can withstand the ESP) and flies it to the Russian base that controls the GoldenEyes.  He engineers an ESP blast to destroy the control center, leaving the stealth chopper to throw off the authorities' scent. With the keys in hand, it is only a matter of the right time—and from the right location—that he can maneuver the satellite in position to hit Britain.  Again, far-fetched, but not entirely unfeasible. Ian Fleming liked to say that he didn’t mind if his own plots were “improbable,” as long as they weren't "impossible."

  5. A View to a Kill (1985), another original screenplay with no Fleming material save for a bastardized short-story title, focused on Silicon Valley during the mid-eighties—the hot spot of future wealth.  Bad guy Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), already a multi-millionaire in the field of microchips, considers the Valley his only rival. What to do? Destroy it with an earthquake!  He plans to do this by setting off powerful bombs inside mine shafts lining the San Andreas Fault.  Yes, it’s similar to what Goldfinger was planning to do, only with microchips instead of gold, but it's a scheme that works—eliminate the competition and you’re the only game in town.

James Bond films have now been with us for five decades. They represent the most successful—both in longevity and monetarily—film franchise made by one production company in cinema history.  Perhaps that’s the real key to a dastardly villainous plot—make popular movies.

****

Raymond Benson is the author of twenty published books. Between 1996 and 2002, Benson was commissioned by the James Bond literary copyright holders to take over writing the 007 novels. In total he penned and published worldwide six original 007 novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories. An anthology of some of his Bond work, THE UNION TRILOGY, was published in November 2008. Benson's most recent original suspense novels are A HARD DAY'S DEATH, the first in a series of rock 'n roll thrillers, published in 2008, and its sequel, DARK SIDE OF THE MORGUE, published in March 2009. These books are available in stores, at Amazon, or through the author’s website at www.raymondbenson.com.

Posted by Raymond Benson at 9/14/2011 8:59 PM
Categories: Deposits, Selling Strategies, wealth marketing, Management
 

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