

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. Fleming's SPECTRE has elements inspired by mafia syndicates and organised crime rings that were actively hunted by law enforcement in the 1950s. Therefore, he thought it better to create a politically neutral enemy for Bond. When 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 came to the conclusion that the inclusion of a contemporary political villain would leave the film looking dated. The remaining three members are Blofeld himself and two scientific/technical experts who make their debut in the ninth Bond novel, Thunderball (1961). Coincidentally, the three from KRYSTAL are all formerly of RAHIR, an intelligence agency previously run by Blofeld. 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 top level of the organisation is made up of twenty-one individuals, eighteen of whom handle day-to-day affairs. In the novels, SPECTRE, is a commercial enterprise led by Blofeld. The world map in the background is common to emphasise the aim of world domination. In the novels, SPECTRE begins as a small group of criminals but in the films, it is depicted as a vast international organisation with its own SPECTRE Island training base capable of replacing the Soviet SMERSH.īlofeld's SPECTRE volcano base complete with spacecraft-swallowing Bird One spacecraft, helipad and attack helicopter, and command centre in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice. The presence of former Gestapo members in the organisation though can be considered as a sign of Fleming's warnings about Nazi fugitives after the Second World War, as first detailed in the novel Moonraker (1954). SPECTRE is not aligned with any nation or political ideology, enabling the later Bond books and Bond films to be regarded as somewhat apolitical. Led by criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the international organisation first formally appeared in the novel Thunderball (1961) and in the film Dr. SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is a fictional organisation featured in the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, as well as the films and video games based on those novels.

Different rings are featured in From Russia with Love and Spectre.Ĭounterintelligence, terrorism, revenge, extortion, world domination SPECTRE's logo as featured on its members' rings in Thunderball.
