Characters / James Bond - Blofeld

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Ernst Stavro Blofeld

All cinematic Blofelds; from left to right, from top to bottom: Anthony Dawson, Charles Gray, Telly Savalas, Christoph Waltz, Donald Pleasence, Max von Sydow. (Not pictured: John Hollis.)

Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a mysterious and powerful criminal mastermind and the closest figure James Bond ever had to an Arch-Enemy. As the cruel and unforgiving leader of his Nebulous Evil Organization, SPECTRE, he does not tolerate failures or even mild betrayal, and is known to frequently kill underlings who fail to meet his expectations.

Blofeld was the overall Big Bad for most of the first batch of Bond films, but an enduring legal battle that started between Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory^note (Fleming's associate on a scriptwriting attempt that would give birth to Thunderball) extended to the production team behind the Bond films, Eon Productions (Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, then Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson), and prevented them from using both Blofeld and SPECTRE after Diamonds Are Forever, forcing them to rely on Blofeld Expies and various other one-shot villains for more than 40 years.

Copyright turmoils ended once and for all in 2013, when Eon bought the rights to SPECTRE and Blofeld from McClory's estate, which directly led to the official return of Spectre^note (Re-stylized as such for the occasion, as the name is no longer used as an acronym) and Blofeld in the aptly named Spectre in 2015, with a new backstory, as they are now part of the Daniel Craig Bond continuity.

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The Character in General

• The Ace: He's a master manipulator and Evil Genius who's well-versed in both politics and technology thanks to his college degrees, capable of formulating Evil Plans and is personally charming and charismatic, at least when he wants to be. Plus, while he's giving out orders to henchmen for the most part, Blofeld won't hesitate to join the fray if needed. And when he joins, things get uglier.
• Adaptational Name Change: Of a sort: in both the books and movies all of the leaders of SPECTRE have numbers as code names. In the books the numbers are random so Blofeld is Number Two. He's changed to Number One in the films, possibly for fear the audiences would be too dumb to tell he's the leader if he doesn't have the lowest number.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: He's described as having long white hair in the novels. In the film, he's sometimes bald.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Uses a black octopus as SPECTRE's logo◊, symbolizing its omnipresence and behind-the-scenes reach to tilt geopolitical events to its side as if it were a pinball machine.
  • Blofeld is usually seen with a fluffy, white Persian cat and employs cat-like mannerisms himself, such as playing with his victims before killing them.
• Ambition Is Evil: Likes to work with AND pit both sides of the Cold War against each other, while planning mass destruction schemes without regards to the millions of casualties.
• A Million Is a Statistic: To Blofeld, profit is all that matters. Everything else can burn down to the ground. And he doesn't care how many millions die as a result of his Evil Plans. They're just as expendable as his minions.
• Arch-Enemy: Having appeared in seven films to date, he's the closest character that Bond ever had to a recurring powerful adversary. It has become very personal over time, especially in the Daniel Craig era.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Blofeld is capable of formulating Evil Plans to condemn the whole world to chaos, playing enemies against each other from behind the scenes all the while. On occasions, he wouldn't hesitate for a bit to get his hands dirty. And he's got a zero-tolerance policy for those who fail to please him.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He often wore a conservative business suit in the earlier films, and generally wears a Nehru suit after his reveal.
• Badass Bookworm: He is a very intelligent and shrewd man, oftentimes igniting conflicts simply by manipulating others rather than taking action himself. But on occasions, he wouldn't hesitate for a bit to get his hands dirty and join the fray. Add to the fact that he had college degrees in both politics and engineering in the books.
• Bad Boss: An extremely ruthless and tyrannical man, he demands absolute and unquestioning loyalty from his minions, rarely gives them a second chance, and has a vicious knack for killing them if they fail to do their assigned jobs properly. Fail your tasks or dare to question Blofeld? Get a poisoned dagger to your leg or be thrown into a piranha-infested water pool. Thinking of double-crossing him? Get electrocuted in a chair. Try to defect from him? A goon squad will be sent to hound you down no matter where you're hiding or located. There's a reason why he's the Trope Namer for Blofeld Ploy.
• Bald of Authority: The leader of SPECTRE, he is often portrayed as chrome-domed, appearing as such in You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and For Your Eyes Only overlapping with Bald of Evil. In all other films where this character shows up, this trope is averted.
• Batman Gambit: Part of his Evil Plans often involve elaborate schemes such as False Flag Operations and Playing Both Sides in order for SPECTRE to Take Over the World. And he's willing to condemn millions to their death if it involves material gain and profits for him.
• Berserk Button: Downplayed. Though he hardly raises his voice when berating and threatening his Mooks, he does not like it when they question him or try to double-cross SPECTRE. It's an automatic death sentence if his minions fail to complete their tasks.
  • And whatever you do, do not even think about betraying him. It will not end well.
• Big Bad:
  • Technically, of Sean Connery's and George Lazenby's Bond tenures,^note After acting as the Greater-Scope Villain in Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball, he's the main antagonist for You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and Diamonds Are Forever as well as that of Daniel Craig's Spectre.
  • He's also the Big Bad of the Ian Fleming's Blofeld trilogy — Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and You Only Live Twice.
• Black-and-White Morality: In the early stories, James Bond is Good and Blofeld is Evil. Full stop.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: In more recent, darker and more cynical stories, Bond is still Good and Blofeld is still Evil, but the British government 007 works for can be involved in some rather shady business, and run by rather nasty people.
• Blofeld Ploy: Trope Namer. He often uses this to kill useless minions by scaring a random mook, only to suddenly kill the actual target.
  • Blofeld does this twice in You Only Live Twice, and the second one is pretty funny, in a gallows humour kind-of-way. He points a gun at Bond, and when it looks like he's going to shoot him, he shoots Mr. Osato first, for failing so much. Before he can shoot Bond, Blofeld gets a shuriken to the wrist. This is particularly ironic, as Mr. Osato had been threatened in turn by Blofeld, only for Number 11 to be the one executed. Blofeld held them both responsible for failing to kill Bond, and he was arguably right.
  • In Thunderball, Blofeld electrocutes one of the henchmen sitting at his conference table for stealing from him, only after grilling another (and totally innocent) henchman for the reason why their drug trafficking ring had turned in such poor profits. The henchman who stole the money thought the innocent one would be held accountable to their scheme, but he's proven wrong by Blofeld. And it also shows that it applies to things other than just failing to kill a "00" Agent — Number One despises anybody who's trying to cheat SPECTRE.
  • From Russia with Love: Kronsteen looks on smugly, confident that fellow underling Klebb is being held terminally accountable for their scheme's failure — only for the poison blade to change direction at the last moment. Klebb lives to scheme another day. Ironically, Kronsteen was right — his plan worked perfectly; it was the assassin picked by Klebb who bungled the job. Of course, only Bond was in a position to know that.
  • Spectre: An arrogant Spectre member who was supposed to replace Marco Sciarra and eliminate the Pale King/Mr. White, looks on smugly but Mr. Hinx challenges him for the job. When asked 'why', Hinx suddenly bashes his skull on the meeting table, gouges his eyes with his thumbs, and kills him by snapping his neck — suggesting that this was done on Blofeld's orders.
• Breakout Villain: Along with Goldfinger, he become a widely recognized popular culture symbol of evil and deception. This is shown in that of all the Bond villains of the original continiuty, he's the only one to return in the reboot even after 40 years of having never appeared in a Bond film.
• Card-Carrying Villain: His organization is SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. He's fully aware of his villainy and uses it with glee.
• Catchphrase: To highlight his Bad Boss tendencies, Blofeld often stated this on several occasions to Mooks who failed to complete their tasks before condemning them to their doom: "This organization does not tolerate failure."
• Character Tics: Always seen stroking his Right-Hand Cat.
• The Chessmaster: Likes to play both sides of the Cold War like pawns, and oftentimes uses proxies to tilt events in SPECTRE's favour.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Generally uses both sides of the Cold War for his schemes.
• Classic Villain: Four vices:
  • Greed. Most of his plans revolve around pitting nations against each other via proxies, and the fact that he's willing to condemn the world to chaos just to line up his pockets really shows how dangerous Blofeld can be.
  • Wrath: He frequently kills henchmen who fail him, and organizational discipline within SPECTRE is extremely draconian. To heighten the impact of those who fail or cheat him, he often uses the Blofeld Ploy to scare a random mook, only to suddenly strike at the actual target when the supposed one is off-guard.
  • Ambition. His Evil Plans are of the Take Over the World variety — by pitting powerful nations against one another in the hope that they'll eventually wear themselves down, creating a power void that would enable SPECTRE to exploit and take over.
  • Pride. He's willing to be the world's most powerful man at all costs, even if it meant killing mooks or millions.
• Clothes Make the Legend: His iconic Nehru suit and conservative attire has made him the perfect example of a Diabolical Mastermind.
• Co-Dragons:
  • In the Connery era, he has several — Largo is The Dragon and its head of operations, Klebb is the chief executioner and liaison within the Warsaw Pact, Kronsteen is The Strategist, Dr. No is the chief scientist, and Jacques Bouvar is the military liaison within NATO.
  • In the Daniel Craig era, C/Max Denbigh is The Mole within the British government, the Pale King/Mr. White was the former head of Quantum (a subsidiary of SPECTRE), and Mr. Hinx seems to be The Brute/chief of operations.
• Control Freak: Has shades of these, as he's known to kill underlings who called it quits, failed him or for insubordination.
• Cool Chair: Blofeld is always seen sitting in a leather chair stroking his Right-Hand Cat while idly tapping a Trap Door button to show off his Diabolical Mastermind tendencies. This is done to show the tremendous prowess he wields as SPECTRE's head honcho and how he got to the top of the criminal food chain.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He basically leads a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt government officials, politicians, terrorists and businesspersons — making SPECTRE a shadow government whose members choose to operate in the dark.
• Cornered Rattlesnake: While Blofeld mostly avoids direct involvement on the field and has his henchmen carry out his plans, he won't hesitate, for a bit to join the fray whenever he's backed into a corner. And when he does, things get uglier.
• Cosmopolitan Council: SPECTRE's ruling panel consists of henchmen of various nationalities, including Western Terrorists, Scary Black Men, Evil Brits, French Jerks, Far East Asian Terrorists, and Renegade Russians. They also don't limit themselves to ideology either.
• Country Mouse: A man of modest origins, he rose up the ranks to become a very powerful criminal mastermind.
• Covert Group: SPECTRE and its mysterious leader Blofeld are behind many schemes of the Take Over the World variety. Its ruling council is a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt officials, politicians, terrorists and businesspersons — essentially making it a shadow government, whose members choose to operate in the dark.
• Cultured Badass: Since he had college degrees in both politics and engineering, Blofeld is well-versed in a wide variety of topics, such as economic events, formulating geopolitical crises, biology and technology, among others. It's his knowledge that enabled him to create SPECTRE.
• Dark Is Evil: The fact that he prefers to work from behind the scenes (for most of the time), wears a darker version of the Nehru jacket and has a deep voice clearly indicate that Blofeld isn't someone whom you don't want to cheat, mess around with or fail.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: His ultimate goal is to be the most powerful man in the world. Whether the world is better or worse off as a result is of little concern to him. The only thing that matters is how much he's profiting from his evil schemes.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Blofeld became the Trope Codifier in fiction: sitting in a chair with one hand idly tapping a Trap Door button and the other stroking his Right-Hand Cat while at the top of SPECTRE; his criminal resources rival those of developed nations.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Frequently kills henchmen who fail him, rarely giving them a second chance.
• Divide and Conquer: Best exemplified by this quote of him in From Russia with Love as he's monologuing to Rosa Klebb about his Evil Plan to Take Over the World. By loaning out his services to anybody that's willing to pay him, he's enabling them to fight each other so SPECTRE can seize the opportunity to strike gold at the right time.
  Blofeld: Siamese fighting fish — fascinating creatures. Brave, but on the whole, stupid. Yes, they're stupid. Except for the occasional one, such as we have here, who lets the other two fight. While he waits. Waits, until the survivor is so exhausted that he cannot defend himself, and then like SPECTRE... he strikes!
• The Dreaded: He's the tyrannical head of a Nebulous Evil Organization that's willing to condemn the world to chaos just for profit. Organizational discipline within SPECTRE is notoriously draconian with the penalty for failure or insubordination being death, and The Blofeld Ploy is used to kill problem mooks. In short, he is very awful and violent towards his subordinates, as he's one slip up away from having them killed. Plus, he is so feared and powerful, that only a select few like 007 have the audacity to challenge him.
• Elaborate Underground Base: A mainstay of Blofeld's numerous Supervillain Lairs.
• Encyclopaedic Knowledge: He's an Evil Genius capable of hatching Evil Plans, and his education enables him to be well-versed in topics such as biology, technology and economic events.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: SPECTRE's ruling panel includes henchmen of various nationalities, including Western Terrorists, Scary Black Men, Evil Brits, French Jerks, Far East Asian Terrorists, and Renegade Russians. Blofeld himself is of Greco-Polish descent in the original continuity and the books, and is an Austrian in the rebooted chronology.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being a ruthless madman bent on dominating the world, he despises disloyalty within SPECTRE or when his henchmen cross certain moral boundaries.
  • In the book version of Thunderball, he reports to SPECTRE that a hostage they had returned upon payment of the ransom was found to have been raped while in their possession. Since SPECTRE had promised to return her "unharmed", Blofeld refunded a portion of the ransom to her family. He also executes the agent responsible, stating that while they may be criminals, they still have to hold to a higher standard of conduct.
  • In the book version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he has a guard killed for harassing one of his patients.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His henchmen call him "Number One".
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To M, as both are the head of a secret organization and give orders directly to their subordinates, albeit in different ways. While M commands the respect of those working for him, Blofeld would often kill his henchmen if they failed to complete their tasks.
  • To James Bond himself: their encounters frequently show Bond and Blofeld to be equals with regard to wit, intelligence, and lethality, albeit often in different ways. Blofeld contrasts Bond by being from a humble background and rising to a position of power in contrast to Bond.
• Evil Feels Good: Part of being full on evil and the fact that he's willing to condemn the world to chaos just to line up his pockets really shows how dangerous Blofeld can be.
• Evil Genius: One of the most shrewd and cunning beings in the Bond franchise, Blofeld is the brains behind a terrifying criminal syndicate that's Playing Both Sides, works to overthrow governments, and is actively involved in many Evil Plans.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: In both the books and movies, SPECTRE's membership consists of corrupt politicians, businessmen, officials, and criminals, and they're on all sides of the ideological spectrum, not to mention being of different nationalities. The ruling panel in the books have from both Eastern European secret police and the Sicilian Mafia, not to mention former Soviets and Nazis, while they were a Multinational Team in the movies. Now normally, they'll be at each other's necks, but how exactly does Blofeld manage to keep the lid between them? Actually, he doesn't care about nationality or ideology, but how much SPECTRE is profiting from their evil schemes. It's highly likely that SPECTRE would erupt into civil war without him around.
• Evil Is Petty: A shtick of his. He would often kill mooks for tiny reasons, such as insubordination or failing to complete their assigned tasks.
  • He even rubs Bond's failures against him out of pure sadism in Spectre.
• Evil Plan: Of the Take Over the World variety. Generally, his plans revolve around manipulating countries into fighting each other while tilting the events to SPECTRE's favour.
  • Dr. No's plan was to topple American rockets from his island base as part of a mission from SPECTRE, probably with a hostile foreign power as a client.
  • Kronsteen and Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love wanted to steal a cryptographic device from the Soviets and sell it back to them, as well as take revenge on Bond for killing Dr. No. This was also ordered by Blofeld, as part of a grander scheme to have the powers fight each other without them knowing it was SPECTRE who fooled them.
  • Emilio Largo's plan in Thunderball was to steal two nuclear missiles and try to get ransom from NATO by threatening to launch them. This too was ordered by Blofeld.
  • This time, Blofeld joins the fray in You Only Live Twice. He wants to start World War III by destroying American and Russian spacecraft and framing the other. Again, SPECTRE had been hired to do this by a hostile foreign power, presumably Red China.
  • Blofeld's plan in On Her Majesty's Secret Service involves hypnotizing a group of 12 unwitting divas and arming them with a virus that causes infertility in the plant and animal life of his choosing, unless the world meets his demands of immunity from past crimes, enter private life after years of criminal activities and to be recognized as a Count.
  • Blofeld's plan in Diamonds Are Forever is to use stolen diamonds to build a Kill Sat and hold the world hostage.
  • Spectre has Oberhauser/Blofeld masterminding a series of terrorist attacks in order to trick the governments of the world into setting up an intelligence and surveillance sharing network... which, thanks to his moles, he'll have total access to, allowing him to stay permanently one step ahead of the opposition. On a personal level, Oberhauser developed an Irrational Hatred of 007 just because his father paid more attention to Bond than him when they were in their teens.
• Evil Running Good: SPECTRE and its mysterious leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld is behind many criminal schemes involving Evil Plans of the Take Over the World variety. And its ruling council is a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt officials, politicians, terrorists and businesspersons — SPECTRE is essentially a shadow government, whose members choose to operate in the dark.
• Eviler than Thou: Whenever he shows up, there's no question as to who the real Big Bad is.
  • In the Connery era, while Dr. No, Rosa Klebb and Emilio Largo are The Heavy within their respective plots, he's the one calling the shots.
  • In Spectre, while C may be The Heavy, Blofeld is still the Big Bad of SPECTRE and the movie. And while Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene and Silva were the villains of their movies, Blofeld is the true Big Bad of the rebooted era.
• Evil Virtues: Early appearances of SPECTRE emphasize efficiency and the need to be trustworthy in their own dealings. Despite being a madman bent on condemning the world to chaos, he despises disloyalty within his camp, and has killed henchmen for stealing from him or raping hostages.
• False Flag Operation: His Evil Plans often involve Playing Both Sides so SPECTRE could take over the Evil Power Vacuum they created in the first place.
  • From Russia With Love has SPECTRE pretending to be the KGB to steal the Lektor and destroy Bond. Also, they perform one as the British early in the film, killing one of the Bulgarian drivers who work for the Soviets. This causes the Soviets to heat up the normally routine observations both sides play in Istanbul.
  • You Only Live Twice has Blofeld running a dual false flag operation against both the US and the USSR space programs, making it look like each nation is hijacking the other's capsules out of orbit.
  • Every nation mentioned in Spectre has suffered a terrorist incident in the time frame of the film and is either a member of or fairly close to a member nation of the council that is voting on the "Nine Eyes" program. When South Africa says no, they suffer a terrorist incident that forces them to reconsider their position within a matter of days. This is because SPECTRE wants the Nine Eyes system to go live, as C is providing them with unlimited backdoor access.
• Fatal Flaw: Blofeld has three big weaknesses:
  • An inflated ego, desire for recognition, and vanity. He's willing to use underhanded means to get rich, even if it means condemning millions to chaos. This results in a bloated ego, as the process by which he demands to not only get acceptance in society, but also the ability to dominate and fleece it led to an increased vanity. This actually becomes a major problem for him in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as he is notably saddled with the exploitable weakness of snobbery about his assumed nobility, indicating that he is losing his grip on sanity. In the book version of YOLT, his ego and vanity have eaten up whatever remaining sanity he had.
  • Pettiness. He often kills many of his minions for minor reasons such as failure to complete their tasks. In Spectre, the need to see 007 suffer just because his father favoured him proves to be a major problem.
  • The Magic Plastic Surgery he does in the books and movies to shuffle around different bases comes with the price of Sanity Slippage.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's polite and calm with his subordinates, but has a zero tolerance policy for their mistakes. Despite engaging in idle banter with 007, he's simultaneously plotting to throw the world into chaos and being ready to kill Bond.
• Fiction 500: Blofeld has enough resources to rival those of developed nations.
• Foil: Blofeld, in many ways, can be seen as the polar opposite of both M and Bond.
  • While both are equals with regard to wit, intelligence, and lethality, Blofeld contrasts Bond by being from a humble background and rising to a position of power in contrast to Bond. While 007 may have True Companions, allies and friends such as M, Tanner and Q who help him even in dire situations, Blofeld keeps his own Mooks in line via threats and outright violence if they fail him.
  • Both Blofeld and M are the heads of a secret organization and give orders directly to their subordinates, but while M commands the respect of his peers and subordinates, Blofeld would often kill henchmen for minor reasons.
• Fountain of Expies: Inspired many villains such as Dr. Claw, Giovanni, and Dr. Evil. Even within the Bond film series, many villains were created as stands-in for Blofeld after a legal dispute left him Exiled from Continuity; Karl Stromberg and Hugo Drax, for instance, each wore variations of Blofeld's Iconic Outfit and their plots were very similar to his plan from You Only Live Twice.
• For the Evulz: All of his schemes revolve around personal gain, to which he's willing to condemn the world to chaos.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: A man of humble origins from eastern Europe (Poland in the novels and in the Connery era, Austria in the Craig era), he eventually becomes the head of a terrifying criminal syndicate.
  • In the novels, Blofeld was born in Gdynia to a Polish father and Greek mother, and became well-versed in both politics and science as a young man. Obtaining a bachelor's degree in politics and economics from the University of Warsaw, he then graduates from the Warsaw University of Technology with a major in Engineering and Radionics. Hired by the Polish Posts as a communications technician, he used his position for investing in stocks at the Warsaw Stock Exchange, while secretly selling copies of top-secret wires to the Nazis. Shortly before WWII began, he destroyed all records of his existence, then moved first to Sweden, then to Turkey, where he worked for Turkish Radio and began setting up the blueprints for SPECTRE. Playing Both Sides during the war and knowing that the Nazis were doomed, he decided to back the Allies, earning him numerous medals by the Allied powers after the war's end. Sometime after WWII, Blofeld temporarily relocated to South America before establishing SPECTRE.
  • Born as the son of an Austrian ski instructor in 1960 in the Daniel Craig era, Franz Oberhauser was the son of Trudi Blofeld-Oberhauser and her husband Hannes Oberhauser, the man responsible for raising an orphaned 007 following the death of his parents in a climbing accident. Franz grew jealous of his father's increasingly close relationship with Bond, even showing physical disgust when his father insist he call James his brother. Driven by Envy, he murdered his father and staged his own death in an avalanche, before adopting the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld (taken from his mother's maiden name) and staying low for a brief time, only to re-emerge as the leader of the shadowy terrorist organization known as SPECTRE and orchestrate the numerous tragedies Bond faced so far since Casino Royale (2006).
    • An earlier draft for Spectre revealed that shortly after faking his death, Oberhauser joined a battalion of the French Foreign Legion called 'Les Spectre de St. Pierre' ("The Specter of St. Peter" in English) in Morocco sometime in the 1990s. A fellow member of this battalion was the man who would later become known as Mr. White, becoming the Number Two for Oberhauser. It's implied the platoon was already involved in criminal dealings. At some point, there was a sandstorm and Blofeld and White were left for dead by the rest of the battalion with eight fellow soldiers, without rations, in the middle of the desert. Blofeld killed the other eight men in the night, leaving only White alive to help him to get to and carry the 'food' (the eighth dead soldier). After the sandstorm was over, Blofeld, with White's assistance, named the shadowy terrorist group named after the legion they served in.
• Fun with Acronyms: SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He is this in the early books and especially movies (where he appears in more installments). Of the first seven movies, Goldfinger is the only one where he's not involved somehow. In the Craig era, he is the primary antagonist of Spectre where he is retconned as being the guiding hand behind all the villains of the three previous Craig films, and also appears in No Time to Die in an antagonistic role.
• Greed: In virtually all of his incarnations, Blofeld is primarily motivated by the profits his Evil Plan will generate. Even in Spectre, where his grudge with Bond is much more personal, Blofeld's plans still involve considerable monetary gain apart from that.
• The Group: In both the books and movies, Blofeld is in charge of SPECTRE, a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt officials, politicians, criminals, terrorists, and businesspersons, whose main agenda is to dominate the world while tilting geopolitical events to its favour. For example, in Casino Royale (2006), it's bankrolling terrorist groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army and Al-Qaeda while simultaneously profiting from legitimate companies. In Thunderball, SPECTRE is seen distributing Red Chinese narcotics in the United States while simultaneously killing a defector to the USSR on behalf of the French DGSE.

• Hair-Trigger Temper: Blofeld reacts quite violently whenever somebody fails to complete their tasks or is planning to cheat SPECTRE, often utilizing The Blofeld Ploy to kill useless henchmen. And the fact that he hardly raises his voice makes it even more scarier, as he's concealing the extreme anger he harbors towards incompetent minions.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: In the early films, he (yeah, him) actually started out this way.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Despite being a rare case of a recurring villain in the flicks, very little is known about Blofeld. In fact, more may be known about his cat. His motives remain a mystery.
  • Averted in the novels and in Spectre, where he's given a thorough backstory about his motivations and rise to power.
• Hypocrite: The organisation SPECTRE does not tolerate failure and Blofeld maintains that the penalty for failure is death...a rule that is never heard from again once Blofeld himself fails in directing the evil plan and has to go into hiding, of course.
• Iconic Outfit: Started being associated with Mao suits since the Donald Pleasence incarnation from You Only Live Twice wore one.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Fear. Most of his subordinates obey Blofeld out of abject terror, and are afraid of failing him.
• It's All About Me: If millions die as a result of his Evil Plans, who cares? To Blofeld, profit and personal gain is all that matters to him. Everything else, including the countless lives he destroyed, can burn to the ground. If his henchmen get killed in the process, then so be it.
• Jerkass: He's a very ruthless man who's willing to destroy countless lives for personal gain. And who cares if minions get killed in the ensuing mayhem SPECTRE creates? They're just as useful and expendable, as long as they please him. The minute they stop doing so though, it's an automatic death sentence.
• Joker Immunity: He appears to die twice; in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but he later comes back in the same movie. He was technically killed off in For Your Eyes Only, but only to resolve a legal dispute; he came back decades later in Spectre, where Bond refuses to kill him when he has the chance and has M arrest him instead.
  • 007 even lampshades this in the climax of Spectre:
  Bond: You're a hard man to kill, Blofeld.
• Just Between You and Me:
  • Justified in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, where just for once Blofeld actually has a sensible reason for keeping the captured Bond alive and explaining the plot to him: Bond's credibility will lend weight to Blofeld's threat to the United Nations.
  • Both Subverted and played straight in Diamonds Are Forever.
    • You think Blofeld is going to explain his plan, but...
      James Bond: What do you intend to do with those diamonds?
      Blofeld: An excellent question. And one which will be hanging on the lips of the world quite soon. If I were to break the news to anyone, it would be to you first. You know that. But it's late, I'm tired, and there's so much left to do. Good night, Mr. Bond.
    • Later on, when Bond arrives at the oil rig base, Blofeld gives him the grand tour and explains his plans fully. Justified since the plan is to hold the world hostage with a Kill Sat for money—and he's already made his demands and threat known, and is only telling Bond what targets he might choose. Bond has already figured out how to stop it as well.
  • In For Your Eyes Only, Blofeld's strategy of killing Bond involved flying him around in a remote-controlled helicopter which he operated from the safety of a flat rooftop with nothing hiding him, with no weapons or guards to protect him in case something went wrong, and he's also permanently crippled and bound to a wheelchair, presumably from the injuries he sustained from the exploding oil rig at the end of Diamonds Are Forever. He wants to see Bond dead, but wants to kill him personally (that means alone) for foiling his numerous Evil Plans and having him crippled.
  • Much of the plot of Spectre is revolves around Blofeld's It's Personal relationship with Bond, as he wants to destroy 007's personal life in any manner, just because Bond was favoured more by Oberhauser's father than he was after Bond was orphaned.
• Kick the Dog: Probably the most notorious example in the franchise: he kills Tracy Bond as a way to humiliate 007 in retaliation for foiling his Evil Plan in OHMSS and its film version.
  • For Your Eyes Only: If that wasn't sickening, a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Blofeld tries to kill Bond as he visits his deceased wife's grave (the very wife that Blofeld had killed in OHMSS). Thankfully, Blofeld gets his well-deserved death at the hands of 007.
  • In Spectre, he shows Madeleine the recording of her father shooting himself, and later forces her to watch Bond tortured by having holes drilled into various parts of his brain, while pointing out that he can take away Bond's ability to recognize faces, just because he knows that upsetting Madeleine is a surefire way to also upset Bond. He also constantly rubs 007's failures against him in the climax, and kidnaps Madeleine in an effort to guilt-trip Bond into the Despair Event Horizon.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: He often uses The Blofeld Ploy to kill off minions who failed in their tasks or are trying to cheat him.
• Knight of Cerebus: When Blofeld is around, you know he's someone whom you do not want to double-cross or fail him. Just ask Rosa Klebb, Osato, Mr. White and Kronsteen. And he's a dead serious and frighteningly competent villain.
• Lack of Empathy: A complete megalomaniac who shows no remorse for his willingness to condemn the world to chaos just for his own personal gain. To him, profit is all that matters. Everything else can burn down to the ground. If millions are killed, so be it. And who cares about mooks? They're just as expendable.
• Large and in Charge: Blofeld is a physically massive and powerfully-built man, standing around 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall and weighing 21.6 stone (about 300 pounds (140 kg)) in the books. His intimidating stature alone really scared many of his mooks.
• Legion of Doom: He's in charge of a Nebulous Evil Organization plotting to condemn the world to chaos. SPECTRE's membership isn't just limited to ideology, nation or type of henchman, but how much they will profit from their evil schemes.
• Mad Scientist: Both the novels and films have him as this. He's well-versed in in psychology, botany and technology, aside from being a ruthless Omnicidal Maniac. He first graduated from the University of Warsaw with a degree in Political History and Economics, and then from the Warsaw University of Technology with a degree in Engineering and Radionics. And his knowledge of biology is what enables him to formulate his Evil Plan in OHMSS. It's unknown if he went to college in the new continuity, but given his knowledge about political events and how he manages a Nebulous Evil Organization, it's implied he did.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: The usual explanation behind his different faces over time (more important in the books than in the films however). It comes at a price, as the constant plastic surgeries take a toll on his sanity, combined with constantly moving around his criminal bases to avoid being brought to justice.
• Make an Example of Them: Frequently uses the Blofeld Ploy to kill useless minions by scaring a random mook, only to suddenly kill the actual target. He also uses this tactic to send a message to his underlings: Either succeed in carrying out orders, or pay the penalty.
• Manipulative Bastard: The head and brains of SPECTRE. Like a puppet-master, he likes to play countries against each other.
• The Man Behind the Man:
  • He's the real villain hiding in the shadows, behind Klebb, Kronsteen, Largo, Osato, Helga Brandt and Dr. No through out the Sean Connery era.
  • In the Daniel Craig era, he is the Greater-Scope Villain, as he not only orchestrated many of Bond's tragedies, but also serves as the real leader of Spectre. While Le Chiffre, Mr. White, Greene, Raoul Silva, and Max Denbigh serve as The Heavy of their respective plots, Blofeld serves as the true Big Bad. It's also possible that he could be The Man Behind The Woman for Nicole Hunter, as she mentioned that someone who is "everywhere" and "bigger than MI6" was the real Big Bad, but is gunned down by a remote-controlled drone before revealing a name. It's also possible that he may be The Man Behind the Man to Alec Trevelyan/006 in the GoldenEye remake. As he says to Bond:
    Oberhauser: I am the author of all of your pain.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: He runs a vast criminal syndicate that has the resources and money to rival a superpower.
• Meaningful Name: SPECTRE means a ghost, a spirit. It means that the organization members and agents actually operate in the shadows. Even Blofeld chooses to operate from behind the scenes and from a distance. The octopus logo symbolizes SPECTRE's global reach and omnipresence to manipulate events to its favour.
• The Mob Boss Is Scarier: Blofeld runs SPECTRE with an iron fist. Clearly, most of his henchmen are scared to death of what he could do if they fail him.
• Multinational Team: Many of his henchmen are from both sides of the Cold War. Rosa Klebb, Kronsteen, Le Chiffre, Emilio Largo, Colonel Jacques Bouvar, C/Max Denbigh, Raoul Silva, Dr. No and Osato are some good examples.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • His first name means "serious" in German. That means he's a serious guy whom nobody wants to mess around with.
  • As the chief of SPECTRE, he is the organization's "Number One", and even his organization is called SPECTRE — SPecial Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
• Narcissist: A fairly good example here — bloated ego, demands unconditional worship from his underlings and will kill them if they fail him, total Lack of Empathy for the millions he's about to kill, purely motivated by Greed, and delusions of grandeur and megalomania, culminating with attempted omnicide. He blames others for what he's done so far. In OHMSS, his phony claim to the title of Comte de Bleuchamp gave him a saddled weakness of snobbery, and in Spectre, he blames Bond for creating a wedge between him and his father.
• Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy:
  • The trope was less overt in earlier films, but SPECTRE is involved in drug running, the Great Train Robbery, nuclear terrorism, and its members include a world chess champion, the former head of SMERSH, a Mad Scientist, a playboy, the CEO of a Japanese chemical company, and is recognizable to the public as the International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons. They also do mercenary work for both sides of the Cold War.
  • The most recent films providing good examples as Le Chiffre from Casino Royale is bankrolling African terrorists as an employee of Quantum, who in Quantum of Solace are trying to set up a Bolivian general as a dictator to seize control of Bolivia's water, and whose members include Corrupt Corporate Executive Dominic Greene and an advisor to the British Prime Minister. They also convince the CIA and, later, MI6 to go along with their schemes under false pretenses. They seem to be motivated by power more than by cash or ideology. In Spectre, it's revealed that Quantum members Greene, Le Chiffre and Mr. White were working for SPECTRE, which is a secret and shadowy cabal of corrupt officials, businessmen, politicians and terrorists — in essence, SPECTRE is a shadow government, whose members choose to operate in the dark. As an underworld banker for not only Quantum, but many other criminal groups (it's implied that Al-Qaeda was among them), Le Chiffre is basically a one-man Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy, who constitutes the link between a huge and diverse number of terrorist and criminal organizations whose money he secures and launders. This largely explains why MI6 is so interested in capturing him. Blofeld was also the one who backed cyberterrorist Raoul Silva and C/Max Denbigh in their schemes, as ways to get revenge on Bond just for being favoured by his father.
• Nebulous Evil Organization: SPECTRE itself is a big N.G.O. Superpower, a behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt businessmen, government officials, politicians, criminals, and terrorists, running what in essence is a shadow government.
• N.G.O. Superpower: SPECTRE has enough resources to manipulate powerful nations into going to war, have their own private army, and formulate plans to dominate the world through proxies.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Most of the time, Blofeld avoids direct involvement in the field, while his agents carry out his plans. But on occasions, he wouldn't hesitate for a bit to get his own hands dirty. When he does, things get uglier. Given his position, this wasn't always the case, as he very likely killed many to become a powerful crime lord.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: As expected, if you're working for him, obey Blofeld at all times without any reservations. He's proven to be 007's biggest Arch-Enemy, going so far to orchestrate many of his personal losses in the Daniel Craig era.
• The Nth Doctor: A villainous example. Blofeld was played by several actors over the years, with his changes of appearance being explained by plastic surgery. His portrayal in Spectre, played by Christoph Waltz, needs no such justification because there was a Continuity Reboot in Casino Royale (2006).
• Obviously Evil: Does more need to be said about how evil he is?
• Omnicidal Maniac: Blofeld is capable of conjuring up an Evil Plan to put the whole world at his mercy without regard for human lives as long as he gets what he wants and to rake in money and profit for his organization.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: In essence, SPECTRE is a shadowy grouping of corrupt officials, politicians, criminals, businesspeople, and terrorists who choose to operate in the dark.
• Only in It for the Money: Profit is the only thing that matters to Blofeld whenever he's concocting an Evil Plan.
• Organization with Unlimited Funding: Well, SPECTRE has enough resources to manipulate powerful nations into going to war, have their own private army, build Supervillain Lairs, and formulate schemes to tilt events to its favour from behind the scenes.
• Orcus on His Throne: Most of the time, he avoids direct involvement on the field, while his henchmen carry out his plans. But when he's cornered like a rattlesnake, he won't hesitate for a bit to join the fray.
• The Paranoiac: Though always a total bastard, he despises disloyalty within his camp, killing underlings who fail to please him. He has Control Freak tendencies, and daring to question him or plotting to cheat SPECTRE is an automatic death sentence.
• Playing Both Sides: Blofeld likes to run rings around many countries, so that they'll wear themselves down without them knowing that he's playing them like a fiddler, enabling SPECTRE to take over the reins.
  • In From Russia With Love, Blofeld stages an elaborate revenge scheme against 007 for the death of Dr. No by stealing a Russian cryptographic device. 007 will be assigned to recover the device, where SPECTRE's hired assassin Red Grant will kill Bond. They will then leak compromising photos of Bond and the Russian pawn, Tatiana Romanova, to the press and then sell the device back to the Russians, with neither the British or the Russians knowing that Blofeld is Playing Both Sides against each other.
  • In Thunderball, SPECTRE sells Red Chinese drugs in the USA while simultaneously killing a defector to the USSR on behalf of the French Foreign Ministry.
  • In You Only Live Twice, SPECTRE captures American and Soviet spacecraft with the Bird One space capsule with the intent of triggering a war between the United States and the Soviet Union on behalf of an undisclosed Asian country (presumably Red China).
  • In Spectre, he coerces several major intelligence agencies and tries to bring them under his control via a surveillance program called "Nine Eyes" so SPECTRE would always counteract their plans and permanently stay one step ahead of its enemies.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He is a very pragmatic person who switches loyalties as needed, and simply manages to get into conflict by Playing Both Sides of the Cold War via False Flag Operations through his proxies, but when he joins the fray, things get worse.
  • In the film version of Thunderball, Blofeld zaps one of the henchmen sitting at his conference table for stealing from him, only after grilling another (and totally innocent) henchman as to why their drug trafficking ring had turned in such poor profits.
• Pride: He's willing to be the world's most powerful man out of ego, and he'll do whatever it takes to reach that goal, even if it meant killing anyone out of pure greed.
• Private Military Contractor: Blofeld always loans out his services to many countries on both sides of the aisle, such as selling Chinese narcotics in the US while simultaneously killing a defector to Russia on behalf of the French, but what they don't know is that he's actually a Manipulative Bastard who's Playing Both Sides so SPECTRE could take over the reins.
• Psychotic Smirk: Often sports one, especially when he's gloating to Bond about his current Evil Plan.
• Right-Hand Cat: He is always seen with his beloved pet, an ever-present fluffy white cat (it even provides the trope's page image). Definitely the Trope Codifier. It is responsible for most, if not all, of the parodies and references of it in media. A Funny Background Event in You Only Live Twice shows that while the base is being attacked in the climax, the cat is dead scared and trying to escape Blofeld's grasp!
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Uses a black octopus as SPECTRE's logo, symbolizing its omnipresence and behind-the-scenes reach to tilt geopolitical events to its side like a pinball machine.
  • Ghosts. He uses the image of phantoms metaphorically as a way to operate from behind the scenes through his henchmen. Even in Spectre, where his grudge against Bond has escalated to personal levels, he cultivates the imagery of skeletons and the dead. Like a specter, Blofeld came back to haunt Bond by orchestrating the numerous tragedies 007 faced over the years.
  • Blofeld is usually seen with a fluffy, white Persian cat and employs cat-like mannerisms himself, such as playing with his victims before killing them.
• Shadow Archetype: He's basically a dark version of Bond, especially in terms of lethality, wit, and shrewdness. The Mirrored Confrontation Shot in Spectre even shows the visual similarities between the two, with Blofeld being a twisted version of Bond. Blofeld represents what 007 could easily be if he let his treacherous tendencies overwhelm his mind, threw his morality out the window, and started crossing moral lines.
• Self-Made Man: Kudos to Blofeld for rising to power and becoming the head of SPECTRE despite all his evils.
• Slouch of Villainy: Blofeld is mostly seen on his leather chair stroking his Right-Hand Cat, killing incompetent minions, relaying orders to Mooks, and engaging in idle banter with Bond all while threatening the world to chaos.
• Social Climber: Coming from a modest background, he sure did a damn good job rising to the top of the criminal food chain by becoming SPECTRE's head despite his evils.
• The Sociopath: Blofeld is quite an insane and ruthless megalomaniac — enabling him to be the perfect example of a Diabolical Mastermind. He has no regards for all the misery he fomented. To him, the only thing that matters is how much he's profiting from his Evil Plans. Everything else can rot in hell. If minions or millions are killed, so be it. They're just expendable. If his minions fail to please him, it's an automatic death sentence. And who cares about the deaths he caused so far?
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He rarely raises his voice, even when berating or threatening his Mooks with death. But when he raised his voice in You Only Live Twice, he sounded even much scarier.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Blofeld is the mastermind standing behind a number of minions.
• The Spook: In the original film continuity. The book version gets a very detailed backstory, and in the film Spectre, he is established as an estranged Big Brother Bully towards 007.
• Spotting the Thread: Blofeld somehow manages to identify 007 despite Bond's attempts to disguise himself.
  • In You Only Live Twice, he somehow blows Bond's astronaut cover when 007 attempts to enter the capsule while carrying his oxygen tank in his hand, something a real astronaut would never do. In the book version, Irma Bunt identifies him as a British spy and not a Japanese coal miner after he is spotted by Blofeld's guards in his Garden of Evil and has him captured.
  • In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond ventures into Switzerland posing as a genealogist to gather intel on Blofeld, who has went to the lengths of having his earlobes surgically removed to back his phony claims to the aristocratic title of "Comte de Bleuchamp", and tries to trick him into leaving Switzerland so he can be captured without violating Swiss sovereignty. But Blofeld somehow sees this as a ploy by MI6 to have him captured, and tells his men to take the agent away.
  • Spectre: 007 attempts to pose as a SPECTRE member attending a meeting of the organization's bigwigs, but Blofeld somehow knew this and blows his cover by calling him out, forcing Bond to bail out after recognizing that Oberhauser/Blofeld is his step-brother and that he was the one who orchestrated many of Bond's personal tragedies since Casino Royale (2006).
• The Stoic: Almost without fail, Blofeld is cold and calm, even when killing off incompetent or troublesome henchmen. You Only Live Twice was the only time that he raises his voice, but it was even more jarring when he yelled at Osato to get Bond after executing Helga Brandt.
• Supervillain Lair: Generally has these in each of the films he has appeared.
• The Syndicate: He's the head of SPECTRE aka Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. SPECTRE itself is a full-blown Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy appropriately enough — a shadowy, behind-the-scenes cabal of corrupt businesspersons, terrorists, government officials and politicians.
• Take Over the World: Many of his Evil Plans revolve around this — pit powerful nations against each other so they would eventually wear themselves down, and from there, SPECTRE could take over the reins from the power vacuum caused by him.
• Tentacled Terror: SPECTRE's logo is that of an octopus, symbolizing the group's omnipresence and behind-the-scenes reach to tilt geopolitical events to its favour.
• Terrorist Without A Cause: His plan aren't motivated by any specific ideology — he's a power-hungry villain who's Only in It for the Money.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Arguably the most ruthless villain Bond has ever faced, and his first name is Ernst.
• Tranquil Fury: He's usually calm even when he's killing mooks for their failures. You Only Live Twice was the only time that he raised his voice.
• The Unfettered: Who cares if minions get killed in the mayhem SPECTRE creates? And if millions die as a result of his Evil Plans, who gives a damn? To Blofeld, profit and personal gain is all that matters to him. Everything else, including the countless lives he's destroyed or about to destroy can burn to the ground. If his henchmen get killed in the process, then so be it.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Doesn't flinch a bit when killing off his henchmen for minor reasons.
• Victory by Endurance: He likes goading everyone against each other like a fiddler so they'll wear themselves out and enable SPECTRE to seize control in the resulting power vacuum he created.
• Villain Decay: He was pretty threatening the 5 times that Bond fought him. But in Diamonds Are Forever, he's reduced to stealing the identity of Howard Hughes knockoff Willard Whyte and hijacking his company to fund his plans. It's probably for the best that legal issues prevented Blofeld and SPECTRE from showing up again, although he does get a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo in FYEO, where he's easily reduced to being a screaming wreck who's killed unceremoniously in the The Teaser. He also undergoes Villain Decay in the novels, but in a completely different fashion.
  • Inverted in Spectre, where he became even more menacing than before.
• War for Fun and Profit: Blofeld is very willing to pit countries against each other like a fiddle or engineer mass destruction schemes if it means profit for SPECTRE. And if millions die as a result of his Evil Plans, who gives a damn? To Blofeld, profit is all that matters to him. Everything else can burn to the ground.
• We Have Reserves: Blofeld may have lost literally many henchmen over the years, yet he still remains Bond's most persistent foe.
• Western Terrorists: He is not interested in picking sides and would spread terror anywhere if it means profit for him.
• Wicked Cultured: He's a Diabolical Mastermind, but likes living with class and style, and has a fluffy white Turkish Angora as his Right-Hand Cat. One of his demands in On Her Majesty's Secret Service is to be given the title of Comte de Bleuchamp, for no reason other than the prestige and a way to enter private life after years of criminal activities. And while in college, he became well-versed in both politics and science, enabling him to be an Evil Genius on world affairs and technology.
• Wild Card: Blofeld deliberately chooses to stay neutral during the Cold War. The only thing that matters to him and SPECTRE is how much they're profiting from their schemes. As a Private Military Contractor, he lends out his services to anybody that's willing to pay him regardless of ideology, but what the others don't know is that he's actually goading them into wearing themselves down so SPECTRE could take over the reins.
• Would Hit a Girl: He has no qualms killing millions of innocents, women included. Trying to use women and children as sex slaves, using them to spread his virus if he doesn't get what he wants, offing female mooks such as Helga Brandt for their failures, kidnapping Madeleine Swann, and killing Tracy Bond to spite 007 for foiling his Evil Plan also count.
• Would Hurt a Child: He also doesn't care how many children die as a result of his evil schemes.
• You Are Number 6: As the chief of SPECTRE, he is the organization's "Number One".
• You Have Failed Me: Blofeld routinely orders the deaths of incompetent mooks such as Kronsteen, Osato, Helga Brandt and Mr. White for failing to complete their tasks.

Literary

Literary

Ernst Stavro Blofeld / SPECTRE Number One / Comte Balthazar de Bleuville / Dr. Guntram Shatterhand

Artist depiction of Blofeld during Thunderball

^{Click here to see artist depiction of Blofeld during On Her Majesty's Secret Service}

^{Click here to see artist depiction of Blofeld during You Only Live Twice}

Appearances: Thunderball | On Her Majesty's Secret Service | You Only Live Twice

Voiced by: Ronald Herdman (You Only Live Twice, BBC Radio 4, 1990), Alfred Molina (BBC Radio 4 Dramas since 2014)

SPECTRE's nefarious leader appears as the Big Bad of Ian Fleming's Blofeld trilogy.

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• Arch-Enemy: Once Blofeld kills 007's wife in OHMSS, this attracted the raw anger Bond felt towards him.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Fake Aristocrat, but Blofeld is still a thoroughly evil individual in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In OHMSS, he and Bunt kill off Bond's wife Tracy in retaliation for foiling their Evil Plan in one of the franchise's most notorious Kick the Dog moments.
• Blofeld Ploy: The meeting between SPECTRE agents has Blofeld chewing out someone in charge of a kidnapping that went awry when the kidnap victim was supposedly raped as it's a violation of self-discipline during captivity; though Blofeld isn't sure if it was rape or consensual sex, he doesn't really care. He then kills another underling sitting nearby — the actual culprit — revealing he was using the first agent as a distraction and let the real target get too comfy sitting in his electrified chair.
• Character Tics: If he disagrees with something, he'll take a violet-scented breath mint.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: In his backstory, he worked for the Polish Posts as a communications technician, but secretly sold copies of wires to the Nazis. Anticipating WWII, he destroyed all of his records, then worked for both the Nazis and Turkish Radio while simultaneously creating the blueprints for SPECTRE. He then jumped to the Allied cause, earned himself numerous medals after the war ended, and stayed in South America for a brief time before establishing SPECTRE.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front: In Thunderball, Blofeld uses "Firco", a trust organization ostensibly set up for the support of stateless refugees, as a cover for SPECTRE.
• Devil in Plain Sight: In YOLT, Blofeld is in his Dr. Shatterhand guise, however; as penitent suicide has such an honoured place in Japan (especially as portrayed by Fleming), no-one bar Tiger Tanaka is in a hurry to do anything about him.
• Dirty Communists: The Soviet Union is implied to be backing Blofeld's operation in OHMSS, due to it being based on hypnosis, a field they're good at. Many of his thugs are also ex-SMERSH agents gone freelance.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He really hates it when his mooks sexually assault women.
  • In Thunderball, he kills a SPECTRE agent for raping one of their hostage victims.
  • On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he has a guard killed for harassing one of his patients.
• Evil Gloating: In YOLT, Bond waits patiently for a change as Blofeld, who has him at his mercy, rants about how he is a genius and Bond is just a common criminal on a payroll.
• Evil Plan:
  • In Thunderball, SPECTRE has stolen two British nukes and used Blackmail to demand a ransom of 100 million pounds. Bond is sent to the Bahamas to investigate a possible link to SPECTRE.
  • In OHMSS, Blofeld has planted deadly viruses to animals on his allergy patients, which are supposed to ruin England's economy when they return home to their agricultural jobs in exchange for amnesty from his previous crimes and to be allowed to enter private life.
  • YOLT: By now, Blofeld had lost a lot of money and resources, so he creates a "garden of death" and entices depressed Japanese to suicide for a fee to refinance SPECTRE under the guise of "Dr. Guntram Shatterhand".
• Fake Aristocrat: He claims the title of 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuville' as a way to become a Karma Houdini in OHMSS.
• Fake Charity: In Thunderball, Blofeld uses "Firco", a trust organization ostensibly set up for the support of stateless refugees; its public head office is situated at a prestigious address: 136, boulevard Haussmann in Paris.
• Fat Bastard: In Thunderball, even though the narration also mentions that he doesn't actually eat much.
• Fatal Flaw: Apart from his inflated ego and tendency to kill minions for minor reasons, the Magic Plastic Surgery he does to escape justice in both OHMSS and You Only Live Twice comes with the cost of Sanity Slippage. By the end of You Only Live Twice, he's completely into Villainous Breakdown mode.
• Formerly Fit: Zigzagged - he's noticeably pudgy in his first introduction. He later trims off some of his weight to change his appearance and escape justice in OHMSS, but gains a few pounds in YOLT.
• Garden of Evil: The Garden of Death, created by Dr. Shatterhand/Blofeld in YOLT as a mecca for suicidal Japanese. It lives up to its name.
• Glory Hound: In order to escape justice in OHMSS, he makes a phony claim to the title of 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuville', but it also gave him the saddled weakness of snobbery — and a clear indicator that he's losing his grip on his sanity.
• Hannibal Lecture: In YOLT, he subjects Bond to one of these, claiming himself to be a genius and likening himself to Frederick the Great, Nietzsche and Van Gogh, but 007 answers him in the most blunt way possible.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Dr. Shatterhand turns out to be none other than Blofeld.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: By YOLT, having lost a lot of resources and money, he creates a "garden of death" and entices depressed Japanese to suicide for a fee to refinance SPECTRE.
• Inside Job: SPECTRE bribes a NATO officer to steal a pair of nuclear weapons. This was subverted in the film version of Thunderball, where Blofeld replaces the officer with a double, but played straight again in the remake, Never Say Never Again, where the officer re-programs two nuclear missiles so the warheads can be recovered by SPECTRE.
• It's Personal: Bond held a personal grudge against him in YOLT for killing his wife Tracy.
• Just Between You and Me: In YOLT, Bond waits patiently for a change as Blofeld, who has him at his mercy, rants about how he is a genius and Bond is just a common criminal on a payroll.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: The literary Blofeld loses his warranty when Bond finds out that he's using the alias of Guntram Shatterhand as a way to escape justice by choking him to death.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Wields one in his final battle against 007 in YOLT.
• Large and in Charge: In Thunderball, Blofeld is described as a physically massive and powerfully-built man, standing around 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall and weighing roughly 21.6 stone (about 300 pounds (140 kg)) in the books, though he didn't eat that much. His intimidating stature alone really scared many of his mooks. But this is eventually subverted in OHMSS and YOLT, where he radically alters his appearance and looks thinner to become Karma Houdini.
• Lean and Mean: Though he first appears Large and in Charge in Thunderball, Blofeld radically alters his appearance in OHMSS to escape justice by reducing his weight to 180 pounds and appearing thinner.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: Though he radically alters himself to escape justice in both OHMSS and YOLT, it comes at a price as it eats away his sanity.
  • When we're first introduced to him, he has a physically massive and intimidating appearance, standing around 6'3" and weighing around 300 pounds. He has black crew-cut hair, black eyes (similar to those of Benito Mussolini), heavy eyelashes, a thin mouth and long pointed hands and feet. He has violet-scented breath from chewing flavoured cachous (breath mints).
  • In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he appears Lean and Mean by reducing his weight to 180 pounds, cuts off his earlobes, dyes his hair white, wears dark green tinted contact lenses, and has developed a nasal infection.
  • By You Only Live Twice, he regains some of his weight but his nose has fully healed, has a gold-capped tooth, let his hair grow out, and now sports a drooping gray mustache.
• Mask of Sanity: Though he starts out as a calm-and-collected leader in Thunderball, Blofeld starts to lose his grip on sanity in OHMSS with an inflated ego and the saddled weakness of snobbery to his supposed claim to the title of 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuville', and by YOLT, his formerly calm speech has been replaced by a Hitleresque bark — an indicator of him entering Villainous Breakdown mode. His Magic Plastic Surgery also played a role in his Sanity Slippage.
• No Indoor Voice: By YOLT, his formerly calm speech has been replaced by a Hitleresque bark — an indicator of him entering Villainous Breakdown mode.
• Number Two: Subverted in the novels. The numbers assigned to the SPECTRE members doesn't indicate their importance in the organization.
• One Last Job: The nuke heist caper in Thunderball is supposed to be SPECTRE's last big job before its members retire quietly to enjoy their riches.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: One of his rare Pet the Dog moments involves him killing a mook for raping a hostage he had promised to return unharmed after getting their ransom and refunding half of the it to her family as compensation. It's shown that despite being a ruthless madman, he doesn't like it when his henchmen cross certain moral boundaries.
• Pet the Dog: In Thunderball, he kills a mook for raping a hostage they had while in their possession. Since SPECTRE had promised to return her "unharmed," Blofeld refunded a portion of the ransom to her family.
• Piranha Problem: The Garden of Death in YOLT has many lakes in it, all filled with hungry piranha.
• Red Right Hand:
  • He removes his earlobes to coerce the UN into granting him the title 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuville', wears dark-green tinted contact lenses, and develops a nasal infection in OHMSS.
  • In YOLT, he allows his hair to grow out, has a gold tooth, and grows a drooping grey mustache.
• Reverse Whodunnit: In Thunderball, plenty of pages go to depict the theft of nukes, which is then followed by Secret Service working to catch the one responsible.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Attempts to do one in In YOLT, but 007 simply kills him.
• The Reveal: In YOLT, Dr. Shatterhand and his wife are actually Blofeld and Irma Bunt.
• Revealing Cover-Up: In YOLT, he knows that the sensationalism behind the suicides in his garden is bound to force him to relocate.
• Samurai: He wears samurai armor in YOLT to protect himself from the poisonous plants and killer piranha fish in his Garden of Evil. He also tries to kill 007 with a katana, although he has none of the discipline of bushido.
• Sanity Slippage: By YOLT, Blofeld has lost it - his ego has bloated, his formerly calm speech has been replaced by a Hitleresque bark, and the Magic Plastic Surgeries to his face have eaten up his remaining sanity.
• Straight Edge Evil: Blofeld neither smokes nor drinks; furthermore, he never slept with a member of either sex. He didn't even eat very much, despite a stocky build. Yet he's willing to nuke Miami if NATO doesn't pay him off.
• Villainous Breakdown: By the time he resurfaces in YOLT, he's lost all of sanity, partly because of the Magic Plastic Surgery he did to avoid justice.
• You Are Number 6: Each main member of SPECTRE have a number assigned to them, which changes every month. In Thunderball, Blofeld is currently number two, and Largo is number one - but still, Blofeld retains ultimate authority over SPECTRE, and chose this system as a way to confuse outsiders from knowing who's calling the shots.
• You Have Failed Me: In OHMSS, one of the workers in Piz Gloria dies when he slides down a mile-long bobsled track and crashes into a hut below. Bond overhears that the guy had sexually harassed one of the allergy treatment patients and surmises that the "accident" was actually a typical SPECTRE execution for disobedience.

Eon Productions films

Anthony Dawson

Ernst Blofeld / SPECTRE Number One

"Our organization did not arrange for you to come over from the Russians just for amusement, Number 3."

Played by: Anthony Dawson (on-set actor), Eric Pohlmann (voice)

Dubbed in French by: Pierre Collet (From Russia With Love), Duncan Elliott (Thunderball)

Dubbed in Japanese by: Tōru Ōhira (TBS 1), Yuzo Hayakawa (TBS 2) Takashi Inagaki (DVD/Blu-Ray)

Appearances: From Russia with Love | Thunderball

From Russia With Love marks the first film appearance of the mysterious chief of SPECTRE. Though his face and name were not revealed on screen until You Only Live Twice, Number One's name can be spotted in the credits as 'Ernst Blofeld' (minus the middle name) but is never spoken in the films proper.

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• Agents Dating: He cooks up a plan to kill Bond with Tatiana Romanova, a KGB enlisted woman. 007 knows it's a trap but goes along with it, because (aside from the obvious reasons) it comes with a chance to steal the LEKTOR encoding device.
• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed, but in the books he actually has some has some standards, namely, he electrocutes his henchman because, during a kidnapping operation, he supposedly raped the kidnapee. In the movie his reason is far more selfish (he suspects the person embezzled money from one of his operations.)
• Animal Motifs: He enjoys making parallels between fish fights and his Evil Plan in From Russia With Love.
• Animal Metaphor: Monologues about Siamese fighting fish, comparing them to his Evil Plan to have the superpowers slowly destroy each other so SPECTRE could Take Over the World in the ensuing Evil Power Vacuum.
• Bad Boss: Establishes himself as one when he has Kronsteen killed via a poisoned dagger. He again zaps one of his henchmen in Thunderball for stealing from him.
• Board to Death: The SPECTRE meeting in Thunderball ends with a zapped subordinate, who was stealing money from him.
• Combat Pragmatist: In From Russia With Love, he compares two fish fighting while a third quietly watches and waits to fight the winner with the ongoing situation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and how SPECTRE will fill in the power vacuum once both sides are weakened.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front: As in the book version of Thunderball, SPECTRE hides behind the front of a charitable organization called 'International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons', ostensibly established to support stateless refugees.
• Death Trap: In Thunderball, Blofeld electrocutes one of the henchmen sitting at his conference table for embezzling money from him, only after grilling another (and totally innocent) henchman for the reason why their drug trafficking ring had turned in such poor profits.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • After Kronsteen is killed by the poisoned blade, Number One simply quips that "one of these days we have to invent a faster working venom."
  • Doesn't flinch again when he zaps a henchman to death for embezzling money from SPECTRE in Thunderball.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: He sends a threatening message to the leaders of the UK and USA that he will nuke one of their cities if SPECTRE doesn't get paid $280 million in ransom.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In both of his first two appearances he wears an ordinary business suit, rather than the Nehru jackets that would become associated with the character. Some Freeze-Frame Bonus also shows that he has a head full of black hair, as opposed to the bald head of the Donald Pleasance and Telly Savalas incarnations (or the Lawyer-Friendly Cameo John Hollis incarnation) or the gray hair of the Charles Gray incarnation.
• Establishing Character Moment: Blofeld's introduction in the films has him monologuing about Siamese fighting fish, comparing them to his Evil Plan to have both sides of the Cold War slowly destroy each other so SPECTRE could Take Over the World in the ensuing Evil Power Vacuum. He's also shown giving orders to his subordinates, explicitly mentioning that Bond's death should be "a particularly unpleasant and humiliating one". His second and final scene in From Russia With Love, where he has Kronsteen killed, establishes his Bad Boss tendencies, fondness for The Blofeld Ploy, and his status as The Dreaded to his henchmen.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He disdains disloyalty in his own camp. So when he finds out that a henchman has been siphoning money off drug sales, he kills him on the spot. This also sends a clear message to the others as well — betray SPECTRE and you face deadly consequences.
  • The version of the scene in the book is an even bigger case, as he kills the man for raping a hostage.
• Evil Running Good: In Thunderball, Largo and Blofeld are in charge of The International Brotherhood for Assistance of Stateless Persons, a philanthropic organization based in Paris. It acts as a legal cover for the terrorist organization.
• Evil Sounds Deep: As dubbed by Eric Pohlmann, he speaks in a deep, rich baritone that shows off his intelligence and villainy.
• Exact Words: At the end of FRWL, when Kronsteen arrogantly defends his failed plans from Klebb's accusation that he underestimated Bond, Kronsteen brashly declares "Who is Bond, compared with Kronsteen?" To this, Blofeld replies "exactly" and then has an underling come in, seemingly to kill Klebb, only to kill Kronsteen instead. Blofeld had, of course, learned exactly how superior Bond was to the man.
• The Faceless: In From Russia With Love, his face is visible to his underlings but not to the viewers. He is hidden behind blinds in Thunderball, but viewers can still see small parts of Anthony Dawson's face.
• Fake Charity: As in the book version of Thunderball, Blofeld set up a charitable organization as a legal cover for SPECTRE.
• False Flag Operation:
  • The gist of the plot of From Russia With Love: SPECTRE pretends to be the KGB to steal the LEKTOR decoding device and destroy Bond for killing Dr. No.
  • He also has SPECTRE perform one as the British early in From Russia With Love, killing one of the Bulgarian drivers who work for the Soviets. This causes them to heat up the normally routine observations both sides play in Istanbul.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Though Dr. No, Klebb, Kronsteen and Largo are the antagonists most directly involved in their plots, Number One oversees them from behind-the-scenes and has greater authority.
• Karma Houdini: In From Russia With Love and Thunderball, he stays far from the action and Bond never encounters him. As such, he is neither harmed nor brought to justice.
• Minor Major Character: Has limited screen-time, in true Greater-Scope Villain fashion, he is an ominous, far off threat who only appears to occasionally order subordinates or hand out punishments.
• No Name Given: Subverted and played straight. Number One is identified as "Ernst Blofeld" in the closing credits of From Russia With Love, but the audience during the initial run of the film is only given a "?" when presented with the identity of the actor.
• No One Sees the Boss: This is played straight in Thunderball, with Blofeld's face hidden behind blinds, even from his own henchmen.
• Pet the Dog: In Thunderball, he spares No. 11 for the reason why their drug trafficking ring had turned in such poor profits, knowing that he was telling the truth. He then proceeds to zap No. 9 for stealing money from SPECTRE as a warning to others to never betray him.
• Supervillain Lair:
  • A yacht in From Russia With Love. SPECTRE also has an elaborate training camp based around a stately home in an unknown location.
  • A secret headquarters at No. 35, Avenue d'Eylau in Paris, with a meeting room for SPECTRE mission reports and briefings in Thunderball. Its legal business cover is named 'International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons'.
• Xanatos Gambit: From Russia With Love has him fomenting one: the Evil Plan involves fooling the British and the Russians into fighting each other through a False Flag Operation. SPECTRE pretends to be the KGB to steal the LEKTOR decoding device and destroy the British in revenge for killing Dr. No. Blofeld is also aware that MI6 will use 007 for such a job, as they know it'll be a trap, but they will go for it. And by killing Bond in the most painful and humiliating manner, they'll be able to get away with it, with neither the Russians nor the British knowing it was SPECTRE who fooled them. Plus, by offing Bond, Blofeld knows it'll make MI6 the laughing stock of the intelligence community, as 007 was caught in a compromising position.
• You Have Failed Me: In From Russia With Love, he orders Kronsteen's death when the latter's plan to assassinate Bond and obtain the Lektor decoding machine fails. The use of this trope started out more as a subversion as it was made to look like Rosa Klebb was to be executed for her failure. Even more so, her tone made it sound like she was ready to pay the price for her failure.

Donald Pleasence

Ernst Stavro Blofeld / SPECTRE Number One

"I shall look forward personally to exterminating you, Mr. Bond."

Played by: Donald Pleasence

Dubbed in Japanese: Makoto Tsujimura (TBS), Takashi Inagaki (DVD/Blu-Ray)

Appearances: You Only Live Twice

As hinted in the previous films, Blofeld is revealed to be a businessman in the business of terror; a man willing to push the world towards nuclear war for his own material gains. He does so by capturing American and Soviet spacecrafts and bringing them to his gigantic SPECTRE base hidden within a volcano in Japan.

You Only Live Twice is both the start of Blofeld as a central villain in the movies and the end of his role in the books.

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• Bad Boss: Blofeld kills Helga Brandt by opening a trap door leading into a piranha-infested water tank for failing to kill 007, and later shoots at Osato for the same reason. He also casually orders for his own astronauts to be blown up once they have captured the American spacecraft.
• Badass Boast: "I shall look forward personally to exterminating you, Mr. Bond."
• Bald of Evil: Possibly the Trope Codifier.
• Big Bad: Schemes to start a war between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in You Only Live Twice.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When the two emissaries from the unnamed Asian country balk at his demands for more money, Number One bluntly demonstrates who is Eviler than Thou through his Bad Boss tendencies by making it crystal clear who is truly calling the shots. Blackmail may be an ugly word, but its closely related term, extortion, is fine with him. After all, he says upfront, "Extortion is my business."
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Blofeld actually calls his underlings out on this. When he captures Bond himself, he does make a mistake that allows Bond to escape (he shoots Osato first), but that doesn't seem to be an example of this as Bond was saved by events out of Blofeld's control.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He flirts with it for a moment, saying in a very dismissive tone, "Extortion is my business."
• The Chessmaster: His Evil Plan involves pitting the US and the USSR against each other by making each think that the other is stealing its spacecrafts to ignite a global nuclear war on behalf of an unknown third party.
• Creepy Monotone: He usually speaks in a cold, creepy monotone. The brief moments where he raises his voice (commanding Osato to kill Bond and preparing to kill Bond himself) sounded more jarring than usual.
• Death Trap: He uses a piranha pool to kill worthless minions.
• Duelling Scar: This version of Blofeld has one.
• Eviler than Thou: When the emissaries from the unnamed Asian country balk at Blofeld's demands for more money, he bluntly reminds them of who actually is in charge by demonstrating his Bad Boss tendencies.
• False Flag Operation: Blofeld does this to the US and USSR to make each think that the other side is stealing its space capsules.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The vertical scar over his right eye.
• Icy Blue Eyes: This version of Blofeld has light blue eyes that emphasize his cold, evil and ruthless demeanour.
• Karma Houdini: Escapes after activating his base's Self-Destruct Mechanism.
• Leitmotif: Countdown to Blofeld.
• Omnicidal Maniac: As he reveals to Bond, his intention of fooling the US and USSR into thinking they are stealing each others spacecrafts is to to ignite a global nuclear war.
  "As you can see, I am about to inaugurate a little war. In a matter of hours after America and Russia have annihilated each other. We shall see a new power dominating the world."
• Mega-Maw Maneuver: Blofeld has one of these, which he uses in his False Flag Operation to steal US and Soviet space capsules to ignite World War III between them.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: When he and Bond finally meet face-to-face for the first time: "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ernst. Stavro. Blofeld."
• Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Blofeld says "Interception will take place in eight minutes. Nothing can prevent that."
• Piranha Problem: Blofeld kept a piranha pond in his underground lair — handy for getting rid of problem employees.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "KILL BOND! NOW!!!"
• Psycho for Hire: Blofeld lent SPECTRE's services to an unknown Asian country, presumably Red China, in YOLT. Their emissaries balk at him demanding for more money, but he subtly reminds them of who is actually calling the shots via disguised threats and demonstrating his Bad Boss tendencies towards his Mooks.
• Red Right Hand: A disfigured eye and scar. His baldness has also become somewhat synonymous with the character in a manner similar to Lex Luthor, but actually not common to all incarnations of Blofeld.
• Stock Shout-Outs: Practically every Bond parody, in any medium, will base the villain on this version of Blofeld.
• Suddenly Shouting: Perhaps the only time in the series anybody will hear him raise his voice, commanding Osato to kill Bond. It was even more jarring when he did it.
• Supervillain Lair: A Volcano Lair in Japan.
• Title Drop: "You only live twice, Mr. Bond!"
• Trap Door: Blofeld has a bridge that collapses by pressing a pedal, dropping whatever is on it into the piranha-infested water tank below.
• Unseen No More: He reveals his face, after two and a half movies of being The Faceless, when he first makes direct contact with Bond.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After his plans are foiled and he himself is injured, Blofeld flees, setting his lair to self-destruct as he does.

Telly Savalas

Ernst Stavro Blofeld / Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp / SPECTRE Number One

"In a few short hours, the United Nations will receive a Yuletide greeting. The information that I now possess the scientific means to control, or to destroy, the economy of the whole world."

Played by: Telly Savalas

Dubbed in Japanese by: Shuichiro Moriyama (TBS), Makoto Terada (DVD/Blu-Ray)

Appearances: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

In hiding after his defeat in You Only Live Twice, Blofeld has now resurfaced atop Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps, ostensibly running an allergy research clinic. Savalas' Blofeld is more of a social climber — a foil to the well-born Bond. He doesn't want piles of money this time, he wants respect. His plot is undermined because he wanted the claim the title of Comte de Bleuchamp, allowing Bond entrance to his clinic posing as a genealogy researcher.

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• Adaptational Villainy: In the novels, Blofeld's mission was to hold food supplies in the UK at ransom. In the film, he is instead working towards releasing a sterility virus that will ultimately result in the extinction of all life on earth.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Fake Aristocrat, but Blofeld is still a thoroughly evil individual.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He leads a ski chase to hunt Bond down himself, and blindsides him with a freaking drive-by ambush.
• Bad Boss: During the second ski chase, when Bond and Tracy enter an avalanche-risk area, Blofeld and two of his men stop outside of it. He then sends three the other three after his targets just in case the next step doesn't work. Finally, he deliberately causs a massive avalanche only moments later that seemingly kills his men who he sent into danger for no reason. Of course, this doesn't make his henchmen respect him any less. In fact, it was The Dragon who passed him the weapon he used to do the deed.
• Bald of Evil: Just like in the previous film, Blofeld is bald here.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed. While Blofeld's Evil Plan is in ruins and his finances and resources have plummeted, he takes perhaps the most horrific revenge on Bond possible.
• Bedtime Brainwashing: Blofeld is using this to brainwash the women at his clinic, so he can use them as couriers for the deadly virus he's developing. Of course, they're all under the impression it's to cure their allergies.
• Big Bad: Plots to release a sterility virus into the environment unless he's pardoned for his crimes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Despite knowing how cunning Bond is, Blofeld decides to keep him alive as he may "prove useful during the negotiations". Of course Bond soon escapes. This is in stark contrast to Blofeld's attitude in the previous film where he had a woman killed for failing to kill Bond. Justified as Blofeld wants the UN to pardon him so he can go Karma Houdini, so killing Bond would just make things more tense. He specifically mentions that Bond would be an external witness to his activities to verify his claims that he can actually release a "Virus Omega" and is not merely bluffing.
• Clark Kenting: Downplayed since he managed to remove his scar since the last film, but he merely surgically removes his earlobes to prove he is of Bleuchamp ancestry. Lampshaded here.
  Blofeld: It takes more than a few props to turn 007 into a Herald. [breaks Bond's glasses]
  Bond: It'll take more than cutting off your earlobes, Blofeld, to turn you into a Count.
• Diabolus ex Machina: He and Bunt come out of almost nowhere in the final scene to gun down Bond, killing Tracy instead.
• Dirty Old Man: Judging by the way he courts Tracy.
• Evil Eyebrows: Courtesy of Telly Savalas' eyebrows, adding a sinister feel to his face.
• Evil Genius: He's an Evilutionary Biologist this time around, capable of engineering a global sterility virus. He's also an expert on psychotherapy.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He has Telly Savalas' impressively deep voice.
• Evilutionary Biologist: This time around, he's capable of engineering a global sterility virus, and threatens to release them if his crimes aren't pardoned. He's also an expert on psychotherapy.
• Fake Aristocrat: He claims the title of 'Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp' ("Blue Field" in French) to disguise himself, and cuts off his earlobes to prove his phony claim. Recognition of the title on his retirement is even a condition of his Evil Plan — though snobbery is also a factor, since it's implied he is trying to con his way into the title.
  Bond: It'll take more than cutting off your earlobes, Blofeld, to make you a Count.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's got Telly Savalas' immense charisma and never drops his charming tone even as he details his plans to create a famine that will kill untold millions, which would include himself.
• Frontline General: He personally leads his henchmen on skis to hunt Bond down the mountains.
• Genius Bruiser: Blofeld has a more physical role here, even having a hint of The Brute in his fight with Bond in the bobsled chase, where he begins throwing hands after using all his weapons.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He cut off his own earlobes to fit the Bleuchamp lineage trademark. It's unknown how he removed the enormous facial scar he had in YOLT, but the common consensus is that this Blofeld is a double at work to make the real one harder to locate or that he used Magic Plastic Surgery to alter his appearance.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Smokes a cigarette at one point.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: A clue to Blofeld's true identity is the Bleuchamp family motto, "Arae et Foci", which means "hearth and home". Also, Blofeld loosely translates to Bleuchamp in French.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Blofeld to Tracy, who responds coldly at first, then appears to reconsider. It's only a distraction because she hears her father's voice through a radio communication and realises he is coming to save her.
• Karma Houdini: This is actually one of Blofeld's two demands. He won't unleash devastation with his virus if the United Nations grants him amnesty for all past crimes, the other demand being recognizing him as Comte de Bleuchamp. He doesn't totally succeed in this in the end, as he injures his neck and loses a lot of resources including his so-called clinic, which probably cost lot of money, by the end of the movie, but he manages to escape justice. And in retaliation for foiling his Evil Plan, Blofeld kills 007's wife on her wedding day.
• Low Clearance: Blofeld encounters a low branch while fighting Bond on a bobsled.
• Mad Scientist: He involves himself in the conception of the virus he plans to unleash.
• Made of Iron: He's still alive after getting his neck caught in a forked branch and is functional enough to drive a car.
• No-One Could Have Survived That: Blofeld gets his neck tangled in a branch at high speeds, complete with a shot of his lifeless legs dangling in mid-air (bringing an execution to mind). He later reappears in a neck brace. Oops.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite both his predecessor and successor being British, Telly Savalas simply keeps his natural American accent.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • As he escapes from his condemned base and looks back at it as it explodes, he has a look of pure despair as he watches parts of it fly all over the mountain. He quickly subdues this and continues running for his life.
  • During the final bobsled chase, Blofeld drops an active grenade intended for Bond and desperately struggles to get it out. He barely manages to grab it and toss it out in time.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Downplayed. He threatens to sterilize the world's food supply through a group of brainwashed "angels of death" unless his demands are met for an international amnesty for his previous crimes, recognition of his title as the Count De Bleuchamp (the French form of Blofeld), and be allowed to retire for good. Bond points out this would kill off the human race but Blofeld is pretty certain the UN will cave before it comes to that thanks to the lenient price and the threat he poses should they turn it down.
• Red Right Hand: To impersonate the Count of Bleauchamp, he cuts offs his own earlobes.
• Retired Monster: One of his demands to the UN is to get amnesty for his previous crimes and enter private life quietly.
• Sinister Schnoz: One of Telly Savalas' trademark features.
• Supervillain Lair: A mountain fortress atop Piz Gloria in Switzerland. The business cover of it takes the form of a clinical allergy-research institute.
• Took a Level in Badass: This time, he is more involved in the field work of SPECTRE and takes part to the chase against Bond. He is shown on skis chasing Bond himself once he escapes from the Piz Gloria, setting off an avalanche, and being pretty much an expert bobsledder.
• Unconventional Vehicle Chase: Played entirely seriously. When his defending forces are overcome, Blofeld escapes Piz Gloria in a bobsled. Bond grabs another and goes after him.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He and Irma Bunt drive away after assassinating Bond's new wife. 007 is too grief-stricken to give chase.
• Villanous Valour: Blofeld does lead his men in battle from the front and is not afraid to get in the fray himself. Of course he is played by Telly Savalas.

Charles Gray

Ernst Stavro Blofeld / SPECTRE Number One

"Such a pity. All that time and energy wasted, simply to provide you with one mock, heroic moment."

Played by: Charles Gray

Dubbed in Japanese: Minoru Uchida (TBS 1) Kobayashi Osa (TBS 2) Umeji Sasaki (DVD/Blu-Ray

Appearances: Diamonds Are Forever

Having escaped justice, Blofeld uses plastic surgery body doubles and hides behind the apparatus of Williard Whyte's business, whom he kidnapped to use the wealth and space research centre for his next diabolical scheme involving a diamond smuggling chain as well as a satellite.

Diamonds Are Forever was the last time Bond officially tangled with Blofeld in the film series^note apart from a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo in For Your Eyes Only; Never Say Never Again was not part of the series. until the release of Spectre 44 years later.

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• Actually a Doombot: Blofeld has been using plastic surgery to turn henchmen into doubles to fool Bond. It works, and Bond kills two of them mistaking them for the real deal, plus a third in the first scene who is in between procedures.
• Adaptational Personality Change: The farthest removed from the literary character, being considerably more jovial, erudite and campy to the point of being effeminate.
• Adaptation Expansion: The diamond smuggling pipeline is the entire Evil Plan in the book, and is run by comparatively mundane gangsters. In the film, it's just one arm in another of Blofeld's grandiose schemes.
• The Anticipator: Bond drops into Willard Whyte's penthouse suite and, having been observed by Blofeld, is greeted by Willard Whyte (actually Blofeld with a disguised voice) with the words, 'Howdy. Welcome, son. We've been expecting you'.
• Auction of Evil: "An international auction, with nuclear supremacy going to the highest bidder."
• Bad Boss: He's okay with having body doubles being killed in his place. Or having his workers fight to the death against an American helicopter raid while he tries to make a run for it in a mini-sub.
• Big Bad: The main villain of Diamonds Are Forever, stealing diamons to create a space laser.
• The Big Board: Willard Whyte (actually a disguised Blofeld) has on his financial holdings across the US, which provides the location of Blofeld's endgame operation.
• Body Double: He has created several body doubles of himself using Magic Plastic Surgery on his henchmen. And in yet another expression of his Bad Boss tendencies, Blofeld is fine with these body doubles being killed in his place.
• Camp Straight: Probably the most blatant case in the franchise. He even gets Disguised in Drag at one point.
• The Chessmaster: Blofeld's Evil Plan this time is using a diamond-powered Kill Sat to destroy nuclear weapons in China, the Soviet Union and the United States, then propose "an international auction, with nuclear supremacy going to the highest bidder."
• Clone by Conversion: Blofeld attempts this at the start. Bond subverts the trope by drowning the would-be clone in mud.
• Collapsing Lair: His oil rig, as a result of the helicopter attack.
• Creepy Crossdresser: Blofeld does this as a disguise to escape.
• Deadpan Snarker: Blofeld is at his most snarky in Diamonds Are Forever. He's especially having a ball in the third act at the oil rig.
  Blofeld: The satellite is at present over... Kansas. Well, if we destroy Kansas the world may not hear about it for years. Perhaps New York, with all that smut and traffic... might give them a chance for a fresh start.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Lampshaded, as Blofeld asks Tiffany to put something on over her revealing bikini, saying "I've come too far to have the aim of my crew affected by the sight of a pretty body.".
• Dirty Coward: Attempts to abandon the oil rig in a mini-sub the moment it comes under helicopter attack by the CIA. This a moment after telling Dr Metz to stop panicking.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Assuming that you count his final demise as happening in this film. In fairness, they were apparently planning to bring him back for one last outing in the next film, but Kevin McClory demanded that the producers stop using Blofeld. He is finally Killed Off for Real in the Bond Cold Open of For Your Eyes Only, though for legal reasons the studio couldn't confirm that until decades later and he is credited as "the man in a wheelchair".
• Disguised in Drag: The way he escapes from Whyte's casino.
• End of an Age: Due to endless litigation between the producers and Kevin McClory, this would be the last Eon Bond film where Blofeld and SPECTRE would appear as Big Bad and Nebulous Evil Organization respectively until the 2015 movie Spectre.
• Evil Is Hammy: Makes more ham-style comments and snarks a lot this time.
• Evil Is Petty: When his evil plan is falling apart as the CIA attacks his oil rig base, his underling Dr Metz, who hitherto believed Blofeld was a Well-Intentioned Extremist bent on world peace, pleads with him to surrender to stop all the violence, only for Blofeld to refuse and reveal that his actual motivation is to get revenge on the world powers for "humiliating" him, presumably by helping Bond foil his evil plans and treating him like the criminal that he is.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: The cigarette holder as an Evil Smoking indicator.
• Grand Finale: This film also saw the last appearances of Blofeld and SPECTRE as primary antagonists, with future films mostly having Bond facing off against rich megalomaniacs and/or political renegades rather than a large criminal organization.
• Identity Impersonator: Impersonates Willard Whyte with a voice modulator in order to use the latter's wealth and space research facility for his scheme.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: For most of this Blofeld's screentime it's actually several plastic surgery body doubles of himself that we see, though they all seem to have trained to have the same mannerisms and wit. At this point it's not even sure if the Blofeld who was on the oil rig and likely perished was the real article.
• Large and in Charge: The actor's broad, blocky frame actually more closely matches the character's description in the books (besides his "thin" phase in OHMSS) than some of the other actors who have played him.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: He's the last Blofeld of the trilogy of films that have Blofeld with his face revealed and as the active main villain, and Blofeld now has grown hair, unlike in the two previous films, and acts more camp and snarky, unlike his more stoic previous incarnations.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: He creates doubles of himself using plastic surgery and, oddly, mud baths on his henchmen.
• Masquerading As the Unseen: Willard Whyte is infamously reclusive, which makes it easy for Blofeld to abduct him and take control of his business empire in his latest plot.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: According to Charles Gray, Tom Mankiewicz told him that Blofeld is like the infamous Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
• No One Could Survive That!: Blofeld at the end. Indeed it was going to be revealed that he survived, but then the rights issues reared their ugly head.
• Not Quite Dead: In the pre-credits sequence of Diamonds Are Forever, Bond finds him at a facility where Blofeld look-alikes are being created through surgery. Bond kills a test subject, and later the "real" Blofeld, by drowning him in a pool of superheated mud. Turns out that Blofeld was also a look-alike.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Blofeld claims that his purpose is complete nuclear disarmament (and quickly force thus the end of the Cold War), and he does this by threatening to use a Kill Sat. In reality a throw away line from Bond and Whyte reveals he's planning to sell the Kill Sat (and thus global supremacy) to the highest bidder, not to mention petulant revenge on the world for his past defeats.
• Pet the Dog: It's small, but at the start, he, or rather a clone, does show some sympathy for a potential clone who Bond had just killed.
  Blofeld (Clone): He would've been me in a matter of days, if you'd given the poor fellow a chance.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Between the last movie and this one, Blofeld somehow usurped Willard Whyte's vast empire, and suddenly...
• Supervillain Lair: Two:
  • Willard Whyte's penthouse atop a hotel in Las Vegas.
  • An oil rig off the coast of Baja, California.
• Voice Changeling: He uses voice duplicating machines to fool other people.
• Welcome to Hell: Bond to Blofeld after he apparently kills him. Yeah, not really.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Blofeld sure looks like a kind old lady in that getup...
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Blofeld sends assassins to dispose of the members of his diamond smuggling ring.

John Hollis

Wheelchair Villain (implied to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld)

"I trust you had a pleasant...fright?"

Played by: John Hollis (on-set actor), Robert Rietty (voice)

Dubbed in Japanese: Seizō Katō (TBS)

Appearances: For Your Eyes Only

The nameless villain of the pre-credits sequence of For Your Eyes Only. He is a crippled man in a wheelchair who wants to take his revenge on Bond using a remote-controlled helicopter as a trap after the latter's visit to Tracy's grave.

The producers were unable to name him "Blofeld" but Bond's visit to Tracy's grave, the baldness and crippling condition of the character (which might have resulted from the exploding oil rig at the end of Diamonds Are Forever, alternatively from his crash into a tree branch in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, given the neck brace) as well as his fluffy white Right-Hand Cat leave no serious doubt about his real identity.

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• 1-Dimensional Thinking: When Bond regains control of the helicopter and comes after him, he tries to outrun the chopper in his wheelchair and doesn't even bother trying a sudden swerve. He also sits out in the open rather than hiding someplace safe, allowing 007 to spot him easily.
• Back for the Dead: Someone who looks a lot like Blofeld is killed in the cold open.
• Bad Boss: The pilot of the helicopter Bond is in gets electrocuted mid-flight. He calls him one of his less-useful people.
• Bald of Evil: He is bald and out to kill Bond.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He learns this lesson the painful way, pathetically begging 007 to "put him down." Bond happily does it… by dumping him down a chimney.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: After revealing that he has the helicopter under his control, he wastes a lot of time cackling at Bond's predicament instead of just crashing the helicopter straight away, giving Bond enough time to turn the tables.
• Break the Haughty: Once Bond turns the tables on him, he is reduced to begging for mercy. Given the only thing he could offer is a measly lunch wrap, it's also implied he's on hard times.
• Comically Small Bribe: While pleading for his life, he offers to buy Bond "a delicatessen in stainless steel." Not only could Bond easily afford that on his own salary, but such a gift couldn't begin to make up for all the crimes that Bond has set out to punish him for. (Besides, what possible use would a globetrotting spy have for a cheap lunch anyway?) Assuming that Blofeld meant it literally and wasn't just engaging in some truly baffling Spy Speak at the worst possible time, such a paltry bribe indicates that either he's fallen on hard times and had nothing else to offer Bond or he's such a cheapskate that he can't help but lowball 007 even with his life on the line.
• Composite Character: He permanently resides in a chair, has an ambiguous European accent and his face is never seen, which were qualities shared by Anthony Dawson and Donald Pleasence, but his neck brace was sported by Telly Savalas after his Blofeld suffered a Low Clearance incident.
• Dirty Coward: Goes from a cackling villain to a complete wreck pathetically offering Bond a delicatessen when he's at Bond's mercy.
• Didn't Think This Through: He sits right out in the open (allowing Bond to spot him easily) rather than hiding in a building or somewhere else relatively safe. Also, the control wire for the helicopter is conspicuously exposed, allowing anyone (such as Bond does) to rip it out and regain control.
• Disney Villain Death: Bond makes him fall down a smokestack.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Kevin McClory, who owned the copyright to Blofeld, was trying to use it to seize control of the franchise. So, this Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Blofeld is comically killed in the opening sequence by being dropped down a chimney, all while pleading for Bond to spare his life. It was basically the owners' declaration of independence and burning of bridges to assert that Bond did not have to depend upon Blofeld and SPECTRE as an antagonist, which were McClory's properties at the time.
• Evil Cripple: A villain in a wheelchair. If it really is Blofeld, he was presumably left disabled at the end of Diamonds Are Forever.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He makes a bunch of really lame and tasteless jokes while he's tormenting Bond.
  Wheelchair Villain: I trust you had a pleasant...fright?
• Evil Laugh: He lets several of these when he has Bond at his mercy.
• The Faceless: His face is never seen, a giveaway that this is Blofeld in all but name.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Bond disconnects the wire which allowed the unnamed villain to control the helicopter, then picks him up in his wheelchair. 007 then returns the favour by briefly toying around with the guy and finally drops him down an industrial smokestack, killing him for good.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: If he is really Blofeld, it seems he resurfaced years later to exact revenge on his Arch-Enemy for foiling his numerous Evil Plans. He is now permanently crippled and wearing a neck brace, presumably from the injuries he sustained from the exploding oil rig at the end of Diamonds are Forever, or from his Low Clearance incident in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. When Bond turns the tables around by regaining control over the chopper, he begs Bond to spare his life. As the only thing he could offer Bond was a steel delicatessen, he was probably low on funds as well.
• Hypocrite: Chews 007 out for chucking the pilot's corpse out of the cockpit and showing no respect for the dead despite being responsible for said pilot's death.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: If this villain is Blofeld, it seems his time is up when Bond turns the tables by regaining control over the chopper and has him at his mercy when 007 uses the helicopter's skids to capture the villain's wheelchair, lifting him into the skies. He even begs Bond to spare him, but Bond won't have any and drops him down a tall industrial chimney stack to his death.
• Lame Last Words: His pleas for Bond to have mercy, including his attempt at bribing Bond with "a delicatessen in stainless steel!".
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: He was Blofeld in anything but name, but couldn't be named as such because Kevin McClory owned the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE at the time.
• Murder by Remote Control Vehicle: He fakes a message from Bond's office and sends a helicopter disguised with Universal Exports^note MI6's legal business cover markings to pick him up, then kills the pilot and hijacks the chopper's controls remotely. Taunting Bond, he causes the chopper to make several near misses on high buildings before steering it into a disused factory where it will inevitably crash. But Bond (naturally) manages to regain control of the helicopter by disconnecting the wire which allowed the unnamed villain to control it.
• No Name Given: He is heavily implied to be Blofeld, but couldn't be named due to legal reasons. The bald head, the way his face is hidden, his fluffy Right-Hand Cat, the Nehru jacket, the personal reason to attack him, and Bond visiting his wife's grave are all telltale signs that this is SPECTRE Number One in all but name.
• Not My Driver: He fakes a message from Bond's office and sends a helicopter to pick 007 up in the opening.
• Refuge in Audacity: When Bond throws the pilot's corpse out of the cockpit, he calls 007 out for showing no respect for the dead, despite the fact that he is the reason the guy's dead in the first place.
• Red Right Hand: Has a neck brace and is disabled, which might have resulted from the exploding oil rig at the end of Diamonds are Forever.
• Right-Hand Cat: The main giveaway that this character is most likely Blofeld: he has a white cat.
• Sadist: Genuinely enjoys and cackles at Bond's apparently futile attempt to escape his remote-controlled helicopter by deliberately flying it near buildings just to frighten him.
• Starter Villain: The first villain Bond faces in For Your Eyes Only.
• Stupid Evil: Had he just rammed the helicopter into the ground as soon as he was in control, he would have killed Bond. Instead, he's so sadistic he can't resist toying with him for a few minutes, which gives Bond the chance to regain control of the helicopter and kill him.
• Take That!: His humiliating death was probably an up-yours sent to Kevin McClory (who owned the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE) after he publicly revealed that a new Bond movie was to be filmed outside of the EON productions series. The scene was "a deliberate statement by producer Albert R. Broccoli of his lack of need to use the character" in any case.
• Too Dumb to Live: Exactly where did he think messing with Bond while he's visiting his wife's grave was going to get him? Also, he could have opted to hide someplace safe rather than being out in the open, which allowed Bond to spot him easily.
• Undignified Death: Spends his final moments pleading for Bond to spare him, offering him the oddest concession in the film series and probably all of cinema ("A delicatessen in stainless steel!"), only to be dropped in a smokestack, which is scored by a bomb whistle and a loud clang.
• Villainous Breakdown: Once Bond regained control over the helicopter, he begs 007 to spare him, but Bond ignores it and drops him down a smokestack, killing him for good^note (Despite what Fanon has to say.)
• Villains Want Mercy: He pleads Bond to spare him after the latter gains control over the helicopter, but 007 ignores his pleas and dumps him down a chimney. Given he's crippled, it's highly likely that he won't survive the fall (and considering the fall was about 100 feet, even an able bodied person would be unlikely to survive).
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: He has an ambiguously Greek accent, maybe as a nod to Greek-American actor Telly Savalas, who played Blofeld in OHMSS.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: He genuinely enjoys Bond's apparently futile attempt to escape his remote-controlled helicopter by deliberately flying it near buildings just to frighten him. It allows 007 time to work his way into the cockpit (despite several near-misses), where he can disconnect the cables to the remote system.

Christoph Waltz

Massive spoilers for Spectre & No Time to Die lie ahead. You Have Been Warned.

Franz Oberhauser / Ernst Stavro Blofeld

"The things that bring people together. Out of horror, beauty."

^{Click here to see him in No Time To Die}
"I didn't need to kill you. I'd already broken you. I wanted to give you an empty world. Like the one you gave me. It's enough to almost make me regret it. Almost."

Played by: Christoph Waltz

Appearances: Spectre | No Time to Die

"It was all me, James. It's always been me. The author of all your pain!"

Spectre^note (named without caps because it is no longer an acronym) and Blofeld have returned after a 44-year absence from the film franchise. Their involvement in the Daniel Craig era is retroactively applied to all of his movies.

The estranged foster brother of 007 and the leader of Spectre, he is bent on controlling global surveillance through the "Nine Eyes" programme, alongside a willingness to kill Bond for being favoured by Oberhauser's father. In addition, he supervised the activities of Bond's antagonists since Casino Royale, including Mr. White, Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene, and Raoul Silva.

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• Adaptational Villainy: He is the darkest incarnation of Blofeld so far, being more sadistic and petty than his previous incarnations, who were more along the lines of an icy-cold sociopath. This is shown by his deeds here being more in a Darker and Edgier direction compared to his previous incarnations, what with the Patricide, human slavery, Cold-Blooded Torture, and Big Brother Is Watching.
• Adaptation Name Change: In contrast to the original novels and the previous films, Blofeld's real name is revealed to be Franz Oberhauser. "Blofeld" is his mother's maiden name, which he uses after symbolically rejecting the name his father gave him.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Bond and Blofeld are adoptive brothers in this continuity, which they were not before. This makes Bond's feud with his Arch-Enemy far more personal, especially since Blofeld killed his own father in response to said adoption.
• Analogy Backfire: Oberhauser's facility is housed within a crater formed by a meteor, and he had the meteor itself put on display. When Bond and Swann arrive, he launches into a speech about how the meteor had waited up in space, silently biding it's time, before becoming an unstoppable force that changed the face of the Earth. Bond shoots back that the meteor actually did stop, and right where they're standing, in fact. You can see the wind come out of Oberhauser's sails. That's not even counting how outside of the film, the analogy still doesn't really hold up — the meteor, other than being an inanimate object that can't "bide it's time", was in fact completely at the mercy of the forces (gravity from the sun, planets, and other astronomical bodies) around it.
• Antagonistic Offspring: The fact that his father favoured Bond over him was enough to make Oberhauser kill him and destroy Bond's life.
• The Anticipator: Played for creepy effects with Oberhauser, who always seems to know when Bond will show up, even outfitting rooms in his Supervillain Lair with personal photographs for his 'guests'.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Like his previous incarnations, he uses a black octopus as a symbol for Spectre and has a white, fluffy cat.
  • He mockingly calls Bond a "cuckoo" because the latter was favoured by Oberhauser's father when both were younger.
• Animal Metaphor: A vindictive and petty man, he mockingly calls 007 a "cuckoo" for the resentment he felt for Bond as a foster brother.
• Arch-Enemy: Is this to Daniel Craig's Bond, without a doubt. He holds an intense grudge against 007 because Oberhauser's father favuored an orphaned Bond over Franz, resulting in Oberhauser killing his own father out of jealousy and faking his own death before going on to create a Nebulous Evil Organization and orchestrating many of Bond's tragedies since Casino Royale.
• Arc Welding: Blofeld claims that Spectre was behind the events of Casino Royale, Quantum, and Skyfall (supposedly, as it's entirely possible he was just attempting to rattle James). This is a fairly unusual case, because the arc seems to have been unwelded just to weld it back together. Le Chiffre was clearly established as having worked for Quantum (and being killed for being unreliable) in the first two films, but references to those events in this film seem to imply that MI6 thought they were independent villains. One of Mr. White's lines implies that Spectre is Quantum, just after mission drift and a strong change in plans (likely Bond disrupting its leadership), or that Quantum was Dominic Greene's own business (with Greene being a Spectre member nonetheless).
• Artistic Licence – Anatomy: During the torture scenes, the descriptions of what drilling into specific parts of the brain will do are suspect at best. Higher brain functions like facial recognition are spread out over an area, so whether damaging such a tiny area would give the described result is already questionable. Furthermore, even the general area of the brain is all wrong. In the film this is said to be the result when the drill goes into something at the base of the neck. That area in the human brain controls basic functions like motor functions and autonomous muscles. Facial recognition has been mapped around the temple, which was ironically the previous location the drill went. Of course, all that talk might just have been to heighten the victim's horror, as the film itself seems to lampshade this as Bond has no problem recognizing people after his torture. However, this also brings the question of Bond somehow not being incapacitated by the procedure itself. Most people wouldn't be able to function for a while after having something drilled into their head, much less go into action.
• Asshole Victim: No one sheds tears when he dies due to the nanobots that Safin had Madeleine bring in the base, which she transmitted to Bond, who then unwittingly transmitted them to Blofeld, killing him.
• Ax-Crazy: A subdued and downplayed example due to how creepily calm he can be, but it's still there. He also expresses a murderous glee to torture Bond in the most horrific way possible.
• Big Bad:
  • He is this in Spectre, due to his plot to gain control of all of the world's intelligence and surveillance systems through the Nine Eyes program in order to establish a new world order, all at the cost of making Bond's life so miserable out of spite and jealousy.
  • It is also quite clear that he is this to the entire rebooted 007 series (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall) as he was the one who created Quantum as a figurehead to Spectre, and that other main villains (Le Chiffre, Greene, Mr. White, and Silva) were nothing but pawns who reported to him the entire time. Even his actions in No Time to Die are more than enough to cause Safin to go down a darker path.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Safin in No Time to Die.
• Big Brother Bully: He and Bond were foster brothers, but Bond was highly favoured by Oberhauser's father. He proclaims to be behind all of Bond's miseries and wants to make his life even more miserable in any way possible, whether physically or psychologically. Even after he's imprisoned in No Time to Die, he still refuses to stop tormenting Bond.
• Bond Villain Stupidity:
  • First, when Oberhauser has Bond at his mercy in his secret base, he decided to go all Evil Gloating and Break the Badass on both Bond and his girl, and then he'd get to killing Bond after the Cold-Blooded Torture. This gave Bond time enough to bail out and make his escape with Madeleine. The second time (in the climax), he constructs an elaborate Death Trap, giving Bond a Sadistic Choice: escape now on your own (and live with the guilt and shame of not saving Madeleine in time for the rest of his life), or try to rescue her and die together. In the latter case, he was playing on Bond's feelings to get him to fall, but since he was more interested in tormenting Bond rather than killing him, this gave Bond plenty of time to find Madeleine and then escape.
  • His henchmen aren't too bright either. While kidnapping Bond, they tie his hands in front of him, with plastic zip ties. Sure enough, Bond is able to grab one of their guns and shoot them both, then break free.
  • In No Time To Die, he gets Bond right where he wants him: at Blofeld's birthday party, surrounded by SPECTRE agents. However, rather than just having someone shoot Bond, he has a scientist who has developed a weapon that can be programmed to instantly kill a specific target kidnapped and forced to set said weapon to target Bond. This probably would have worked if not for the fact that said scientist was already working for another villain, who instead had him program the weapon to target the SPECTRE agents at the gathering. In other words, Blofeld's Complexity Addiction not only caused his plan to kill Bond to fail, but also wiped out SPECTRE as a group.
• Broken Pedestal: Mr. White once regarded him as a comrade-in-arms. However, when SPECTRE began to expand into sexual slavery, White reacts with disgust, but this causes a major fallout to the point Oberhauser basically declares him a dead man walking and orders his death sometime between Quantum of Solace and Spectre. Likewise, White could never look at Oberhauser the same way he used to and is forced into hiding.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Blofeld really thought that nearly murdering Safin and killing his entire family was just another day of fun sadistic activity for him to enjoy and that he will never get comeuppance for it because he sees himself as powerful and invincible, let's just say he was ''DEAD'' wrong.
  • In No Time to Die, he couldn't resist gloating about his scheme to wreck 007's life even from behind bars by trying to create a wedge between James and Madeleine's relationship. Guess how Bond reacts to this?
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In a sense. Safin launches a successful scheme to kill Blofeld and dismantle Spectre to avenge his family, but Blofeld never mentions him or even seems aware that it could be one of his many victims coming after him and dies without ever knowing who was responsible.
• Cain and Abel: He is the Cain to Bond's Abel, as the latter was taken in by Oberhauser's father after he was orphaned. Also played with when Bond and Oberhauser meet with a bulletproof glass pane between them in the climax. Oberhauser's reflection is projected almost perfectly over Bond's face, highlighting their visual similarities.
  • The roles are reversed in No Time To Die where Bond interrogates Blofeld in prison — after losing patience, Bond strangles him momentarily, but relents. In doing so, Bond unwittingly passes on the Heracles virus to Blofeld, which kills him instantly.
• Canon Character All Along: First named "Franz Oberhauser", he is revealed to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
• Card-Carrying Villain: "Me. It was me, James. It's always been me. The author of all your pain."
• The Chessmaster: His plan is to take control of the world's intelligence services by getting an asset in position to propose and implement a global electronic surveillance system through instigating terrorist incidents. As a result, he even manages to put MI6 and Bond briefly out of business and cause more long-term damage to them than his character's previous incarnations.
  • Also proclaims to be behind Bond's miseries since Casino Royale. On another level, much of Oberhauser's claimed plans relied heavily on Bond joining the 00 program, suggesting he had a hand in that as well.
• Classic Villain: Besides greed, wrath, and ambition, he comes with the additional vice of envy. In his youth, he committed patricide simply because he resented his father for adopting and adoring Bond over him.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Tortures Bond by drilling holes into various parts of his brain while explaining what effect this is having on him throughout. He takes it to a disturbing level as he's eerily calm while doing this. It doesn't actually faze Bond himself that much, because he's, well, 007, but it unnerves Madeleine, especially when he threatens to take away Bond's ability to recognize faces. He does it out of pure sadism and to get a sick kick at Bond's expense.
• Complexity Addiction: He spends decades plotting to hurt James Bond through a barrage of very twisted individuals and treasonous infiltrators, and it shows its worst in No Time To Die where his whole plan as the Disc-One Final Boss was just to lead Bond to a party in Cuba where he would die of Hercules surrounded by the entirety of SPECTRE's high command laughing at him. Unfortunately, he did not expect the developer of Hercules had been bribed by Safin to program it to kill SPECTRE agents only, leading to his organization being decapitated.
• Composite Character: Although he is Blofeld, he has some similarities with Alec Trevelyan (as in, he is a non-British associate of Bond who was presumed dead, and who later built himself up as the head of a terrorist organization). He is also this (in a roundabout way) to two characters from the books — Hannes Oberhauser and Major Smythe — being the son of the former, who was Bond's father figure, and like the latter is the man who killed him. Finally, his monologue during the torture scene is almost a direct lift from that of the title character in Colonel Sun.
• Cyborg: By the time of No Time to Die, he has a cybernetic eye, which he uses to run Spectre behind bars.
• Dark Is Evil: Wears dark clothing and is a really nasty Diabolical Mastermind. He's also the darkest incarnation of Blofeld.
• Darker and Edgier: He lacks many of the cartoonish supervillain trappings of his predecessors, them being replaced by a totally sociopathic monster who relishes in sheer brutality, personal cruelty, and menace never seen before, combined with chillingly realistic crimes. Gone are the days of campiness. The new SPECTRE he heads-up is a properly cut-throat organization dabbling in human slavery, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, and utilizing a massive network of well-equipped agents to do its bidding from behind the scenes. What's even worse is that he even managed to compromise British intelligence via an asset who would be able to hand them the crown jewels of the world's spy services on a silver platter, namely the collective intel gathered by all of them, information that they have the capability to act on and utilize regardless of who gets destroyed in the process.
  • In a way, SPECTRE is this to Quantum. Depending on the interpretation (the film supports both), it's either the warped version of Quantum or its bosses. Either way, Quantum was into Pragmatic Villainy, manipulating leaders and natural resources to secure profit and influence for its network. SPECTRE is explicitly involved with bombing cities, human trafficking and other more overt methods. Profit's still in mind, but in a messier, darker way.
• Determinator:
  • He wants to humiliate 007 in any way possible, whether psychological or physical through elaborate revenge schemes and mind games. That's because Bond was favoured more by Oberhauser's father when the two were younger.
  • He's also willing to send goons worldwide to hunt down defectors such as Mr. White just for calling it quits.
• Diabolical Mastermind: Oberhauser seemingly masterminded Bond's miseries since Casino Royale and wants to screw around with his life in any way possible. He's also the head of a Nebulous Evil Organization and even his subordinates are clearly terrified of what he could do, with the Pale King/Mr. White being a good example.
• Didn't Think This Through: He should have known that sooner or later, one of his countless victims will definitely seek their revenge as he sometimes killed For the Evulz. Just as he killed Safin's family via Mr. White, Safin returns the favor via another proxy — 007.
• Disproportionate Retribution: His motive for his vendetta on Bond and creating Spectre was because his father, who adopted James after the death of his parents, liked him more than his own son and forced him to act like a big brother, thus causing Oberhauser to murder his father and fake his own death before starting his criminal empire.
• Dissonant Serenity: Eerily calm when torturing Bond and during the Spectre meeting he conducts.
• Domestic Abuse: Of the more step-brothers variety, but he relentlessly commits psychological, emotional and physical abuse towards Bond, both directly and through SPECTRE's actions, all because his father favoured the latter over him. Even worse, making Bond miserable forever was what made him happy and wasn't willing to give it up no matter what, to the point it was like an addiction for him.
• The Dreaded: His subordinates are clearly terrified of him; even Mr. White warns Bond of the man's vindictiveness. Naturally, only very few can dare challenge him.
• Driven by Envy: The reason he hates Bond so much is that he thinks that Bond was favoured by his father over him. It's implied he also murdered Safin's parents as they adored their son while his own father favored 007. Murdering Safin’s parents ultimately leads to Blofeld’s unlamented murder by Safin.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In No Time To Die, he gets poisoned by James, via a Safin plot and dies with very little fanfare.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Using Psychological Projection, Blofeld claims that he and Max Denbigh/C are visionaries, only for Bond to mockingly say that both of them are not "visionaries", but totally insane megalomaniacs. "Psychiatric wards are full of them."
  • Following the Final Battle, this is his reaction when Bond spares him despite being offered to Finish Him! and their Cain and Abel relationship. 007 knows that murdering Blofeld in revenge won't do much despite being capable of doing so and instead has him arrested.
• Evil Counterpart: Where Silva was Bond's, Oberhauser appears to be M's — the head of a secret organization, and an "older brother" figure to Bond instead of a surrogate mother. Ironically, Silva went after M while Oberhauser went after Bond.
  • He also plays the "Not So Different" Remark card with Bond. Also played with when the two have a Mirrored Confrontation Shot in the climax. Oberhauser's reflection is projected almost perfectly over Bond's face, highlighting their visual similarities. To drive the parallels home, Blofeld metaphorically serves as a warped reflection of 007, lacking all the qualities Bond has.
• Evil Genius: You try creating the most sophisticated and powerful criminal empire yet under the noses of the world's intelligence agencies entirely from scratch. For all his horribleness, there is no denying he is legitimately brilliant.
• Evil Plan: Oberhauser has been funding the Joint Intelligence Service program from behind the scenes while staging terrorist attacks around the world, creating a need for the Nine Eyes program. In return, C will give Spectre unlimited access to intelligence gathered by Nine Eyes, allowing them to anticipate and counter-act any investigation into their operations.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: He cruelly mocks Bond when he offers his Sadistic Choice to 007 in the climax.
• Evil Is Petty: It's not just his motivations for antagonizing James that are petty, it's his machinations. One of his desires is to remove Bond's ability to recognize faces so he won't recognize Madeleine's. Blofeld's true motivation for what he does to James is because when his father began to treat James as a second son, he immediately became jealous of the relationship 007 had with his father.
  • The rift between James and Madeleine in No Time To Die was his doing. 5 years of no speaking, a loving relationship ruined, a man never finding out about his daughter until she was in danger....because daddy gave James a bit more attention than Franz. Let that sink in.
  • It's implied he also murdered Safin's family out of the envy of seeing Safin being adored by his own family. This comes back to bite him when Safin indirectly causes Blofeld’s murder.
• Evil Laugh: Downplayed. He briefly snickers after offering his Sadistic Choice to 007.
• Evil Wears Black: Wears a darker version of Blofeld's (and Dr. No's) Nehru jacket.
• Eye Scream: Gets his trademark scar over his right eye after Madeleine throws Bond's explosive watch at him. Blood can be seen flying off his face as he falls. When the scar is seen later, it's clear that Blofeld can no longer see out of that eye. When 007 asks him about it, he simply shrugs as if nothing unusual happened.
• Fatal Flaw: Pettiness. His obsessive need to see 007 suffer through elaborate means due to daddy issues proves to be a major problem.
  • This pettiness is ultimately the reason that he's killed in No Time To Die. Madeleine is blackmailed by Safin into spraying herself with Hercules, a bunch of nano machines programmed to inflict lethal damage to a person who has the targeted DNA sequence, and only them, allowing for precise, indirect assassination. Madeleine ultimately can't go through with knowingly killing Blofeld, but James accidentally gets some of Hercules on his hands when he grabs her wrist as she's leaving. In the ensuring interrogation Blofeld's constant taunting of James, especially the reveal that he orchestrated the attack on James 5 years ago and intentionally framed Madeleine for it just to drive them apart, drives James to start strangling him and begging Blofeld to die. Though James regains his composure shortly afterwards, The Hercules has already done it's work and Blofeld quietly passes away whilst James is arguing with Bill Tanner over his conduct. Since there were severe visiting restrictions set over Blofeld, including separation distance, Blofeld ultimately has nobody but himself to blame for his demise, because he simply would not stop his constant torment of James even for a minute.
• Faking the Dead: Faked his own death in an avalanche after killing his own father out of jealousy for favouring an orphaned Bond over him when both were younger.
• False Flag Operation: Every nation mentioned to have suffered a terrorist incident in the time frame of the film is either a member of or fairly close to a member nation of the council that is voting on the Nine Eyes program. When South Africa vetoes the program, they suffer a terrorist incident that makes them reconsider their position within a matter of days. This is because Blofeld wants the Nine Eyes system to go live as C is providing them with backdoor access.
• Faux Affably Evil: He is eerily calm and pleasant even when he berates and tortures Bond.
• Foil: To Safin in No Time to Die. Safin uses Pragmatic Villainy by averting the Bond Villain Stupidity flaw that previous Bond villains fell to via their Evil Gloating. Furthermore, Safin genuinely cared about his family and acts in revenge for their deaths, but Blofeld cared only for himself and killed his father for believing he was The Un-Favourite out of sheer jealousy and pettiness. Also, while Blofeld is a Non-Action Big Bad, Safin is more than capable of killing people physically. And while Blofeld was a central figure from Bond's past and devoted his life to making Bond suffer, Safin has no personal animosity towards Bond. Posthumously, Safin has succeeded in the one thing that Blofeld himself failed at: killing James Bond.
• Forced to Watch: Oberhauser forces Madeleine to watch Bond tortured by a Mind Probe and before that, shows her the recording of her father's conversation with Bond before shooting himself. Subverted in the latter case, as Bond manages to get her to look at him instead of the screen.
• For the Evulz: He made his life's mission to not only orchestrate total chaos just for his own benefit, but to wreck Bond's life to further punish him for being favoured more by his father.
  • In No Time To Die, this is also possibly why he had Safin's family killed via Mr. White. It's possible he may have done that out of petty jealousy that Safin was adored by his own family while his parents adored Bond instead.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: He's made his life's mission to screw Bond at every turn because his dad paid more attention to Bond than him when they were in their teens, causing him to commit patricide out of envy. However, it's negated by the fact that he did it out of pure malice and not because of something that drove him to snap. It doesn't change or is even unconnected to the many atrocities he committed all on his own as an adult. His repeated attempts to mock Bond for his past failures in the climax just because he felt neglected really shows how he is nothing more than an irredeemable monster.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from being the son of an Austrian ski instructor to the head of a terrifying criminal syndicate.
• Get It Over With: At the climax, Blofeld tells Bond to kill him when both his plot is foiled and his attempted escape thwarted. Bond hesitates, but ultimately puts down his gun and lets Blofeld be arrested, fully aware that stooping to Blofeld's level won't help anything.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: See Red Right Hand. Following the destruction of his Moroccan lair, Oberhauser sports a raw version of Donald Pleasance's iconic facial scar.
• Graceful Loser: Subverted. Although he seemed to accept his capture with resignation at the end of Spectre, that still didn't stop him from wrecking Bond's life even from behind bars in No Time To Die. This pettiness is what ultimately kills him for good.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He proclaims to be behind Bond's troubles, and wants to toy around with it in any way possible. All of Bond's enemies (C/Max Denbigh, The Pale King/Mr. White, Raoul Silva, Dominic Greene and Le Chiffre) were working for him; not only this, he EVEN claims to have orchestrated the deaths of Vesper and M.
  • This continues into No Time To Die when it's revealed he arranged for the murder of Safin's family, and is thus indirectly responsible for Safin's actions in the film, including his own death and that of Bond.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He became envious of the attention 007 received from his father, causing him to commit Patricide.
  • In No Time to Die, it's implied the reason why he had Safin's parents murdered was that he felt envious that Safin was adored by his own family while his parents adored Bond instead.
• Hannibal Lecture: Gives a harsh one to Bond when they meet in the Saharan facility, where he talks about being "the author of 007's pain". His "Reason You Suck" Speech against Bond in the climax also counts as well.
• Hidden Villain: Claims to be responsible for Bond's miseries since Casino Royale, and even says it word-for-word.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Blofeld was The Man Behind the Man for Le Chiffre, Mr. White, Dominic Greene and Raoul Silva. Interestingly, this is James Bond's first time facing Spectre in this timeline, making it only a meta-example.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In spades. He tries to use a poison engineered specifically to kill Bond. But Safin, whose family Blofeld had murdered decades prior, interferes and adjusts it to target Blofeld and Spectre. The poison gets on Bond, who later chokes Blofeld, who couldn't resist revealing how he drove Bond and Madeline apart, causing the poison to kill Blofeld almost instantly. In short, Blofeld was killed with own weapon through a scheme he orchestrated, and largely due to him revealing he simply couldn't resist hurting Bond and taunting him. The poison also ends up destroying his own organization to boot, and all by someone who he set on the path to villainy decades earlier.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Oberhauser's entire plan was ultimately to force this trope on Bond via a Trauma Conga Line. Instead, Bond turns things around by wrecking his primary base of operations, depriving him of his resources and network, leaving him battered and at the mercy of the British government, then refuses to kill him, instead letting him get a view of Bond and Madeleine having earned their happy ending. It didn't stop this madman from wrecking his foster brother's life even from jail, as shown in No Time To Die.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: He developed an Irrational Hatred of 007 just because his father paid more attention to Bond than him when they were in their teens. Driven by Envy, he commits Patricide out of a selfish desire to get more affection than his foster brother.
• Interface Spoiler: For Spectre, if you decide to watch it for the first time in Blu-Ray, you had better not activate the English subtitles, because they will refer to Oberhauser as Blofeld as early as his very first scene.
• Irrational Hatred: Oberhauser despises 007 just for being favoured more by his father when both were in their teens. Bond even chews him out for committing Patricide for this minor reason.
• Ironic Echo: To Mr. White's "we have people everywhere" taunt. Oberhauser does it to the extent that it has forced Mr. White into laying low.
• Irony: In the classic sense. Bond assumed Blofeld is dead after the SPECTRE base explodes, but viewers saw cars fleeing the explosion as Bond flew away in the opposite direction.
• It's All About Me: He murdered his own father out of a selfish desire to get more affection than his foster brother. As an adult, he's even worse, orchestrating massive amounts of wanton violence for his own benefit and inflicting horrible pain on Bond just for being favoured by Oberhauser's father.
• It's Personal: When he and Bond finally meet face-to-face, it's quite clear that despite his composure, he really wants Bond dead due to their Cain and Abel situation.
• Jerkass: It takes a special kind of an asshole to be a Big Brother Bully towards their step-brother as said asshole's father favoured Bond over him. He even committed Patricide just because his father favoured his his foster brother.
• Just Between You and Me: Oberhauser sends a vintage luxury car to pick up Bond and Madeleine, gives them exquisite quarters in his lodgings, and serves them drinks. He then reveals that Spectre has been funding the "Joint Intelligence Service" program from behind the scenes while staging terrorist attacks around the world, creating a need for the "Nine Eyes" surveillance system. In return, C will give Spectre unlimited access to intelligence gathered by Nine Eyes, allowing them to anticipate and counter-act any investigation into their operations. Oberhauser later reveals that he is the one responsible for many of Bond's tragedies.
• Karmic Death: He had Safin's family killed and his henchman (Mr. White) used a poisonous agent to do it. Safin has Blofeld and his organization killed with poison in return.
• Knight of Cerebus: With Blofeld not only being revealed as the mastermind behind everything since Casino Royale, but also Bond's adopted brother who killed his own father out of jealousy for the time he spent with Bond, drills holes into Bond's head as torture and forces him into a Sadistic Choice in which Bond has to save Madeleine from the former MI6 building in three minutes before the demolition explosives go off. Disturbingly enough, he is the darkest version of Blofeld, as he is far more ruthless than his previous incarnations. As far as SPECTRE is concerned, the rebooted version is more of a Covert Group lacking the cartoonish supervillain trappings its previous version had, instead focusing in chillingly realistic crimes such as slavery, terrorism, regime change, and utilizing a massive network of well-equipped agents to do its bidding from behind the scenes. Arguably, this version of Blofeld is one of the darkest villains in the Bond franchise, as his brutality rivals that of Zorin or Onatopp.
• Lack of Empathy: Oberhauser didn't show any remorse even when he spitefully killed his own father nor does he during any of his other vile deeds.
• Lean and Mean: While he's quite skinny, he is actually quite the petty sadist who created SPECTRE just to wreck his foster brother's life.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Oberhauser's "It's been a long time. And finally, here we are." is as much about SPECTRE returning to the Bond franchise as 007 and Oberhauser/Blofeld being reunited.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: If we're going by the newspaper article about his father's death, it's shown that Hannes was a Nice Guy towards his neighbors and son, and a stark contrast to Franz, who later became a psychopath.
• Major Injury Underreaction: In the climax, when Bond asks him about the horrid facial scar he received courtesy of his explosive exit in the Saharan base, Blofeld shrugs it off as if nothing unusual happened.
• Meaningful Rename: He renames himself Blofeld after murdering his own father out of pure envy, despite using his professional name.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: While he's locked in Belmarsh Prison as of No Time to Die, he still runs Spectre from there, communicating with them via his electronic eye.
• Mirrored Confrontation Shot: A literal example of this occurs in the final showdown between him and 007, showing their facial similarities. Being an Evil Counterpart and Shadow Archetype of 007, it shows.
• Motive Rant: Gives one of these when torturing Bond. It culminates in him reintroducing himself to Bond as Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
  Oberhauser: You know what happens when a cuckoo hatches inside another bird's nest?
  Madeleine Swann: Yes — it forces the other eggs out.
  Oberhauser: Yes. [pointing to 007] Well, this "cuckoo" made me realize my father's life had to end. In a way, he's responsible for the path I took. [turns to Bond] So thank you, cuckoo!
  Bond: Do you know any other bird calls, Franz? [sarcastically chuckles; Blofeld's cat jumps up on his lap] Hello, pussy.
  Oberhauser: Franz Oberhauser died twenty years ago, James, in an avalanche alongside his father. The man you're talking to now, the man inside your head... is Ernst Stavro Blofeld. [strokes his cat]
• Mythology Gag:
  • He is introduced in a similar manner to how he was back during the Sean Connery films, with his face heavily obscured. The SPECTRE meeting runs a little bit deadly for one of its members, just as it did in Thunderball and From Russia with Love, the other members are discussing the death of one of their own and the plots being carried out worldwide, and Oberhauser/Blofeld's face not shown.
  • He at one point wears a darker version of Blofeld's (and Dr. No's) Nehru jacket, just as he did in You Only Live Twice. He gets the trademark scar Donald Pleasence's version had, courtesy of Bond's exploding watch, and his Supervillain Lair in Morocco is based in a geological crater like the one in YOLT.
• Near-Villain Victory: In Spectre, if it weren't for Bond realizing that C was working for Blofeld and relaying this info to M, C would've managed to get the Nine Eyes program implemented and Blofeld would have succeeded in taking over all of the world's intelligence systems and further humiliating 007.
  • In No Time To Die, Blofeld kidnapped the scientist Obruchev in hopes of using his nanobots program as a means of trapping and murdering Bond at a SPECTRE party in Cuba, free himself from custody, and take over the world. Though he succeeded in trapping Bond at the party, Blofeld never anticipated the fact that Obruchev was actually working for Safin, and that on Safin's orders, Obruchev secretly reprogrammed the nanobots to murder all of the SPECTRE members.
• Never My Fault: Blames Bond for creating a wedge between him and his father, and the path he chose, when in reality, he himself is responsible for the choices he made.
• Nice Job Fixing it, Franz: Good job, Blofeld. Pinning Bond's arms behind him on the torture chair gives him the opportunity to rig the explosive alarm on his watch, which he then hands it to Madeline for her to toss at you.
• Nom de Mom: "Blofeld" is revealed to be his mother's maiden name.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Oberhauser sends a vintage luxury car to pick up Bond and Madeleine, gives them exquisite quarters in his lodgings, and serves them drinks. He's still planning to torture and kill them, as it's a Faux Affably Evil approach to a mind game, mainly because of his It's Personal relationship with Bond.
• No One Could Survive That!: Bond takes this view of Oberhauser. He refers to him as the "recently deceased leader of Spectre" when talking to M, after the attack on the Morocco base.
• "Not So Different" Remark: He plays this card with 007.
  • Later on, he attempts to goad Bond into killing him when he's cornered, wrongly assuming it'll make him cross the He Who Fights Monsters line, but Bond refuses and has him arrested instead, not wanting to sink to his level.
• Obfuscating Insanity: While being held captive by MI6 for several years, he hoodwinked everyone into believing he was an insane nutjob rambling to himself, when in reality he was giving orders to Spectre through his bionic eye.
• Oh, Crap!: Blofeld himself when he realizes his helicopter is about to crash near Westminster. It's the only time in Spectre when his calm and collected demeanour slips.
• Patricide: He killed his own father out of resentment and jealousy for favouring Bond over him.
• Personal Effects Reveal: The reveal about the Cain and Abel relationship between Bond and Oberhauser is foreshadowed by a mysterious photo recovered from the ruins of Skyfall (Bond's ancestral home), along with a legal order giving a man named "Oberhauser" temporary custody of 12-year-old James.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: He's a sociopathic Soft-Spoken Sadist compared to Bond, who's more of a Revenge-seeking Knight in Sour Armor.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Type C. Despite being a very powerful crime lord, he acts as an immature Big Brother Bully towards Bond when they're reacquainted. His villainy came from Bond supposedly receiving more endearment as his foster brother, something which he still hasn't outgrown from.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives Bond a very harsh one in the climax of Spectre, considering how he was behind all of Bond's miseries since they were in their teens. It nearly causes Bond to cross the Despair Event Horizon, but he gets better.
• Red Right Hand:
  • Following the destruction of his Moroccan lair, he sports a raw version of Donald Pleasance's iconic facial scar and disfigured face, and is also partially blind as well.
  • He has a pretty unsettling empty eye socket as of No Time To Die when Bond visits him in his prison.
• Related in the Adaptation: In a huge break from the original canon, he is Bond's older but estranged foster brother.
• The Resenter: The fact that his father loved Bond was enough to make Oberhauser kill him and destroy Bond's life.
• Right-Hand Cat: Just as Blofeld has returned in the films, so has his fluffy white cat.
• Rule of Symbolism: Several here.
  • In his Supervillain Lair, when he and Bond talk about the meteorite hitting Earth, they’re really talking about the relationship between the two.
  • The Cut Song "Spectre" by Radiohead, The Teaser, and the Arc Words of the film ("The dead are alive") all use the motif of ghosts. Like a specter, Blofeld haunted Bond by orchestrating the numerous tragedies 007 faced over the years. He also cultivates the image of phantoms as a way to tilt events to his favour from behind the scenes through his henchmen like his predecessors.
  • He mockingly calls Bond a "cuckoo in the nest" for disrupting the happiness of Oberhauser's family life, causing Franz to kill his own father out of resentment.
  • Bond finds a photo that features him as a boy with his long-deceased mentor and another boy, but the 2nd boy's face is not shown as part of the photo has been charred. This not only foreshadows his Cain and Abel relationship with Blofeld, but also the damage to Blofeld's face when the watch blows up. A full copy of the original photo is later seen at Blofeld's base.
• Sadist: Disturbingly enough, he is the darkest incarnation of Blofeld. He's already given enough abuse on his foster brother, and the fact that he does Cold-Blooded Torture on 007 really shows his intensely malicious nature. While doing this, he remains eerily calm and soft, trying to weaken 007's morale in any way possible. To twist the knife even further, he even rubs Bond's past failures in his face several times.
  • This gets worse, when it's revealed in No Time To Die that he was the one to have Safin's family killed, implied to be merely to fulfil his sadism out of sheer boredom, implying that ruining lives of innocents is like a favourite hobby for him.
• Sadistic Choice: After activating a 3-minute time bomb in the climax, he gives Bond the choice of either saving Madeleine and risk dying from the explosion, or saving himself but living with the despair and guilt of not saving Madeleine in time for the rest of his life. But Bond being Bond, he Took a Third Option by not only saving Madeleine in time, but also giving chase to Blofeld on a speedboat he saw earlier. This is just another effort by Blofeld to humiliate 007 mentally.
• Satanic Archetype: This version of Blofeld has shades of this. Just as Satan rebelled against God out of pride, leads an army of demons, and is actively dedicated to oppose God at all costs, Blofeld killed his own father out of pure envy, leads an army of mooks to manipulate events, and wants to spite Bond in any way, be it psychological or physical. He also doesn't see anything wrong in hurting countless innocents in a bid to gain more power or relishing in sadistic torture. Even his lairs in Rome and Morocco are dimly lit to show the true evil in SPECTRE, and obviously have hellish connotations to them as well.
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: He's James Bond's Arch-Enemy and most well-known villain in both the books and original film series, yet he doesn't show up until the fourth installment in the reboot series.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Oberhauser claims that he and C are "visionaries," Bond sarcastically retorts that they're not visionaries, but totally insane nutjobs.
  • Later on, when he subjects Bond to Cold-Blooded Torture and gives his Motive Rant, 007 simply tells him to Get It Over With and has Madeleine toss his explosive watch at Blofeld.
• Skewed Priorities: After all the members of SPECTRE are killed by the Heracles virus (orchestrated by Safin), Blofeld doesn't care who did it and is more concerned about torturing Bond even more for his own amusement.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: SPECTRE dabbles in slavery. During the meeting, the only presentation that the audience gets to hear in full is a progress report about the success of their Sex Slave operations and the 160,000 women they have placed so far. Their crimes against humanity is what not only repulsed Bond, it also forced Mr. White to quit SPECTRE.
• Slasher Smile: Gives a particularly sadistic Psychotic Smirk when he tortures Bond, and later on, when he offers his Sadistic Choice.
• Smug Snake: Doesn't hold Bond in high regards and goes to great lengths to make his life miserable in any way. It costs him dearly, first by losing an eye and scarring his face, and in the chase scene during the climax, fracturing his leg in a helicopter crash.
• The Social Darwinist: His "cuckoo" speech to Madeleine has shades of this, telling how a cuckoo pushes the eggs of other birds out of a nest.
• The Sociopath: Obviously, but he's far more evil than his previous versions. He committed patricide out of pure malice, and wrecked havoc on Bond's life since Casino Royale (2006) due to his Irrational Hatred, yet he blames 007 for creating a wedge between him and his father (when it was the other way around). But still, he remains surprisingly but disturbingly calm throughout this. This petty obsession to destroy 007 via elaborate mind-games just for being favoured more by his father, combined with running a Nebulous Evil Organization bent on condemning millions to chaos for his own Greed, shows how he is a textbook psychopathic monster, totally rotten to the core with no empathy for those who get in his way.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: As befits his actor as well as his previous incarnations.
• The Spymaster: He effectively is an evil version. Blofeld is running assets such as "C" who attempts to help him take control over the intel gathered by the world's intelligence services by implementing a electronic surveillance system that Spectre can access 24/7. With this, Spectre could use it to counteract any investigation into their operations, and they intend to do so via a series of false flag terrorist attacks.
• The Stoic: He has an eerily and disturbingly calm and collected demeanour, whether it's torturing his enemies or hosting the Spectre meetings he conducts.
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: After the climatic Final Battle, he attempts to invoke this in an attempt to break 007's morale. But Bond, not wanting to sink to Blofeld's level, simply states that he's "out of bullets" and tosses his gun away so Blofeld can be taken into custody, leaving him confused at 007's rationale to spare him despite their Cain and Abel relationship.
• Strong Family Resemblance: The newspaper article about Hannes Oberhauser's death shows Blofeld sharing some of his dad's facial features.
• Supervillain Lair: He has two:
  • The SPECTRE meeting he hosts in Rome is inside a palace. It's very similar to the one in Thunderball, with SPECTRE's bigwigs describing the profit they're getting from their global illicit operations, one of their members getting killed for insubordination, the meeting being held in a prestigious location, and Blofeld hiding in the shadows.
  • His base in the Saharan desert is a high-tech satellite relay station and server farm that also has an observatory and high-end guest quarters. It's also built inside a crater, reminiscent of the volcano lair in YOLT.
• That Man Is Dead: Oberhauser still uses his birth name professionally despite having faked his death many years earlier, but he considers that man to have actually died. He truly identifies himself as "Ernst Stavro Blofeld".
  Oberhauser: Franz Oberhauser died twenty years ago, in an avalanche together with his father. The man you're talking to now, the man inside your head... is Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
• Terms of Endangerment: He frequently calls Bond a "cuckoo" because the latter was favoured by Oberhauser's father when they were younger.
• To the Pain: He tortures Bond by drilling holes into various parts of his brain while explaining what effect this is having on him throughout. It doesn't actually faze Bond himself that much, but it greatly disturbs Madeleine, especially when he threatens to take away Bond's ability to recognize faces.
• Torture Technician: Tortures Bond by strapping him to a high-tech version of a dentist chair and drilling holes into various parts of his brain while explaining what effect this is having on him throughout. He's disturbingly calm throughout this, especially when he threatens to take away Bond's ability to recognize faces.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He's unfazed even when he's berating and torturing Bond, having one of his henchmen killed off during the Spectre meeting, committing patricide out of pure malice, or when 007 has him at his mercy.
• Villainous Valour: Even after his plans backfire, Oberhauser attempts to goad Bond into shooting him without a shred of fear or remorse.
• Walking Spoiler: Oberhauser is not only revealed to be Bond's foster brother, but also changed his name to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, SPECTRE's nefarious leader. He chose this route just because his father favoured an orphaned Bond over him, causing him to orchestrate all of the tragedies Bond faced since Casino Royale (2006), making him the true villain of the Daniel Craig era.
• We Will Meet Again: Gives Bond a menacing look when he's spared, indicating that he will plan for his revenge.
• Wham Line: "Me. It was all me, James. It's always been me. The author of all your pain!"
  • "Franz Oberhauser died twenty years ago, in an avalanche together with his father. The man you're talking to now, the man inside your head... is Ernst Stavro Blofeld." Punctuated even more by the fact that he strokes his pet cat as he says it.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: He relishes in seeing 007 suffer, whether by torturing him or by playing mind-games, but this also proves to be a big problem. He had many opportunities to off Bond, but his tendency to concoct elaborate revenge schemes against 007 due to their Cain and Abel situation proves to be one of his Fatal Flaws in Spectre, alongside his Envy and inflated ego.
• Wicked Cultured: Claims to be behind Bond's troubles since Casino Royale (2006), yet has a large meteorite called "Kartenhoff" in his possession, and as with all of his previous incarnations, has a fluffy Right-Hand Cat and enormous amounts of wealth from his illegal operations.
• The Worf Effect: Not physically but mentally bested by Safin, who counters Blofeld's decades of calculated, theatrical plotting to "break" James with a revenge plan of his own that is practical, elegant and diabolically simple — he infects Madeline with a Heracles virus micro-targeted to Blofeld. Even if she doesn't spread it to him directly, it will still lay dormant and pass to other people who are likely to contact Blofeld, most likely Bond. Sure enough, Bond touches Swann, and then chokes Blofeld because Blofeld couldn't resist twisting the knife in James. With one stroke, Safin's enemy is instantly dead, never guessing who killed him or why.
• Would Hurt a Child: It's revealed in No Time To Die, he was the one who got Safin's family killed via Mr. White. Safin nearly died from the poison attack which left him disfigured as child, implying that Blofeld didn't care about poisoning a young boy as well. Even worse Safin and his family had nothing to do with Blofeld's vendetta against Bond, which is even more horrifying.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Oberhauser shows off Spectre's surveillance abilities by replaying Mr. White's last moments to Madeleine.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Does this to a Spectre member who was supposed to replace Marco Sciarra, and to the Pale King (a.k.a. Mr. White) after he quit the organization and is now fighting for his life.
• You're Insane!: Bond's Shut Up, Hannibal! response is basically this, when he calls out Blofeld for his Evil Plan.
  • This quote is virtually similar to the one 007 gave to Dr. No: "World domination. Same old dream. Our asylums are full of people who think they're Napoleon. Or God."

Non-Eon Productions films

Max von Sydow

Played by: Max von Sydow

Appearances: Never Say Never Again

"In matters of death, SPECTRE is strictly impartial."

"Now, for the future. SPECTRE's most audacious enterprise of any; next to which our previous ventures are inconsequential. Our esteemed Number One is in complete charge of the entire operation, which will henceforth be called: The Tears of Allah."

The non-EON Blofeld, he appeared once in a remake of Thunderball. According to producers, he was personally hand-picked by Sean Connery to provide some "class" to the role, while maintaining a Cold Ham personality. Sydow manages to give a personality to the character, despite a great deal of scenes being left on the cutting room floor.

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• Badass Boast:
  Blofeld: I am Supreme Commander of SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Yesterday morning, the American Air Force launched 2 cruise missiles from Swadley Air Base in Great Britain. Through the ingenuity of SPECTRE, the dummy warheads they carried were replaced with live, nuclear warheads. Your weapons of destruction are now safely in our possession and will be moved to two secret targets. Please note the serial numbers of the missiles; they will confirm the truth. Your weapons of deterrence did not deter us from our objective! A terrible catastrophe now confronts you. However, it can be avoided by paying a tribute to our organization, amounting to twenty-five percent of your respective countries' annual oil purchases. We have accomplished two of the functions that the name SPECTRE embodies: terror and extortion. If our demands are not met within seven days, we shall ruthlessly apply the third: revenge!
• Beard of Evil: This film gives Blofeld, one of the most famous supervillains in fiction, a goatee.
• Cold Ham: Like his portrayal of Ming the Merciless, Sydow manages equal Barbara Carrera's hammiess by being as quiet as she is campy.
• Evil Old Folks: This incarnation of Blofeld in particular really shows his age, looking more like an avuncular figure than a supervillain. (Ironically, Max von Sydow is only a year older than Sean Connery.)
• Faux Affably Evil: He acts very suave and charismatic but he's as always a merciless megalomaniac who has no compunctions in having people killed for his nefarious plans.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As the leader of SPECTRE, he's the superior of Largo, whose actions are those who move the plot.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Just like in the novel Thunderball and its original movie adaptation, Blofeld avoids direct involvement in the field while his agents carry out his plans.
• One-Scene Wonder: Blofeld has only two scenes, but he makes them count.
• Pet the Dog: He shows much affections to his cat than any other Blofeld incarnations.
• Right-Hand Cat: It wouldn't be Blofeld without his ever-present fluffy white Persian cat.
• Smug Snake: He exudes smarm and confidence.
• The Unfought: Bond never faces him directly, only his operatives Largo and Fatima.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Sydow's take on Blofeld lasted for only one, non-EON film.

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