Gustav Graves

"You see, Mr. Bond... You can't kill my dreams! But my dreams can kill you! Time to face destiny!"

- Gustav Graves' last words

Tan-Sun Moon (formerly known as: Col. Moon and now known as: Gustav Graves) is the main antagonist in the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day. He is a North Korean hardliner intending to unite Korea.

After his presumed demise by the hands of James Bond, he changed his appearance to infiltrate the society he intended to destroy.

As the North Korean Col. Moon he was portrayed by Will Yun Lee. As the British Gustav Graves he was portrayed by Toby Stephens.

Base attacked by Bond
Graves was born Tan-Sun Moon, son of General Moon. When first seen, he is a Colonel (Sangchwa) in the North Korean People's Army. He studied at Oxford and Harvard and was intended to become a bridge between South and North Korea. Instead, he became a radical and a weapons smuggler, exchanging state of the art hovercraft weapons (that he developed for use in the mine-infested DMZ, the hovercrafts being able to pass over the mines where all other vehicles would be destroyed) for conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, intent on the invasion and conquest of South Korea. MI6 becomes aware of his activities, however, and dispatches three agents, including James Bond, to shut him down. When Moon's right hand Zao finds out that Bond is in truth a British spy sent to kill him, Moon uses to destroy Bond's helicopter with one of his hightech weapons, called Tankbuster, killing the two remaining agents. Before he can kill Bond too, Moon is told that his father, general Moon, is about to arrive at the base. Moon and his men then quickly leave the base with the hovercrafts and weapons, so that his father doesn't find out about his weapon dealing. He leaves Bond to be shot by his men but the agent escapes by blowing up the diamond suitcase, having implanted a bomb earlier, and fleeing with the last remaining hovercraft. Pursuing Moon, Bond has to fight off many korean soldiers while being shot at by Moon with his Tankbuster and a flamethrower.

Eventually jumping onto Moon's hovercraft, Bond attacks the young colonel and the two fight long enough for the hovercraft to reach a cliff. Without a pilot to steer it the hovercraft drives right over the cliff into the river far below. Bond is able to jump off in time, but Moon is dragged over the cliff and presumed deceased. Right after, Bond is arrested by Moons father, and brought to a North Korean torture camp where is is brutally interrogated for before being exchanged for Zao, who had been arrested by the British.

New Identity
Moon survives, however, and flees to Cuba, where he undergoes DNA replacement therapy to alter his appearance to make him appear to be of European descent. He then reinvents himself as Gustav Graves, a British billionaire adventurer who works in diamond mines in Argentina and later discovers a great mine of diamonds in Iceland. In reality, the mine is just a laundering front for conflict diamonds, which he had been dealing with originally. He assumes a new personality modeled on James Bond due to the distinct impression the other man made on him during their brief confrontation: sophisticated, suave and, by Graves' own admission, arrogant. The DNA alteration was not without side effects, as Graves was plagued with permanent insomnia and has to use a special "dream machine" for an hour each day to rest and preserve his sanity, although in the novelisation he acknowledges that even this is only a temporary measure as he can almost feel his sanity slipping away.

With his new wealth, he builds the Icarus, a huge artificial satellite capable of harnessing solar energy and focusing it on any part of the world in the form of a laser. Graves' official reasons for the construction of Icarus are ending weather inconvenience and poverty and helping the harvests. His real reasons are more sinister, however; he is still intent on conquest of South Korea, and plans to use Icarus to create a pathway in the mined demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, then use Icarus to destroy any ballistic missiles or nuclear warheads launched against North Korea, so that the North Koreans could cross the DMZ and easily invade South Korea and the next step, Japan. Graves has the controls for Icarus built into an armored suit with an additional electroshock weapon for self-defense.

Fighting Bond at the club
Brought on Grave's trace through blood diamonds he found with Zao, Bond travels to London, where he witnesses Graves arriving at the Buckingham Palace by parachute before he is knighted by the Queen. Later that day, Bond visits the fencing academy where Grave's is training and manages to persuade the fight trainer Verity to arrange a match with Graves. When being introduced to Graves, Graves asks whether they have met before, to which Bond responds by stating he would remember. Graves admits that he is mistaking. Driven by their arrogance, both men then engage in their training match, betting money on the outcome. When Graves asks Bond if he still wants to continue, Bond proposes to up the wager, showing him one of the blood diamonds he got from Zao. When continuing their fight, Bond cuts Graves at the hand, pausing their fight to continue. When Bond mockingly-affably asks Graves whether he wants to continue, Graves responds that of course he wants to "bloody continue", but proposes that they use real swords and fight till first blood drawn from the torso. They engage in a furious duel, where both men are cut multiple times. Fighting their way through the club, changing their weapons multiple times. Eventually hammering at each others with medieval claymores, they continue their fight in the outer parts of the club, with Bond finally cutting Graves at the stomach, thereby throwing him into a fountain. Graves emerges furiously but before he can continue the fight, Miranda Frost stops them. Graves laughs and admits that Bond beat him and the men shake hands. Before they leave, Graves invites Bond to his presentation of Icarus in Iceland at the next weekend.

Ikarus at Iceland
"Let there be light..."

- Graves activates Icarus for the first time

When Bond arrives at Grave's place at Iceland, a palace made from pure ice only built for the demonstration of Icarus, he is greeted by Graves. While the guests entertain themselves inside, Graves is using his dream machine. He is interrupted by a man who is revealed to be Zao. Seeing his old friend for the first time after Zao's departure, Graves looks at his unfinished face and asks him who did that. Zao responds that it is Bond's work and Graves gleefully tells him that he has met Bond and Bond did not recognize him at all. Graves then asks Zao of news of his father and Zao tells him that General Moon still mourns his death.

The guests are then called for the presentation. Graves then presents Icarus, telling them that it will be used to bring light to the darkest places on earth and is able to warm even the coldest places to grow crops, therefor being a mean to end world hunger. He then uses Icarus to illuminate the entire palace, causing giant applause from the guests.

When NSA agent Jinx, who has also reached Island, breaks into the complex where Graves' chambers are located to kill Graves, she expects to find him under the dream machine's mask. However, when she takes the mask off, Zao looks at her and Graves attacks her from behind, wearing the prototype of his Icarus suit.

Unleashing Icarus
After saving Jinx from Zao, Bond heads to Graves' office where he waits for his old enemy. When Graves arrives, Bond tells him that he knows his true identity. Graves mocks him, telling him he thought that Bond would never get it. He then reveals to Bond that while they only met briefly, Bond had made a lasting impression on him, causing him to model his new identity Gustav Graves after the MI6 agent. Miranda then arrives, holding her weapon at Graves. Graves remarks seemingly defeated that Miranda seems to be not the one she claims to be. Bond agrees, but then Graves asks whether he has found out who betrayed him in North Korea and if it never occurred to him to look inside MI6. Miranda then aims her gun at Bond, revealing herself as the traitor. Graves also reveals that he knows of Jinx and says that a tragedy will befall her soon. When Bond is about to be killed, Bond goads Zao into hitting him into stomach in order to allow him to fall to the ground. Using a special ring he got from MI6's quartermaster, he breaks the glass panel that covers the entire floor in order to fall into the lower floor. As Bond runs off, Graves orders Zao to follow and kill him but Bond escapes with Grave's speeder, driving off into the ice plains at insane speed. When Zao returns and tells Graves that Bond escaped, Graves decides to unleash Icarus.

He orders Zao to bring the North Korean generals that were underneath the guests and tells them that he will demonstrate them the full power of Icarus. He then has Icarus produce a gargantuan heat beam, which Bond can only escape because of his vehicle's enormous speed. When Bond drives off a cliff, hanging there only on the breaking hook of the speeder, Graves has Icarus cut off the entire cliff. Though Bond survives, Graves believes him to be dead.

Preparing to return to North Korea, Graves leaves Zao at the palace to oversee the final preparations. He, Miranda and most of his men then leave the palace, leaving Zao only with a minimal force. Returning to the palace for Jinx, Bond sees their escape plane arrive. On the plane, Graves uses Icarus to destroy his ice palace, destroying any evidence left. After this, he tells his engineer to complete the Icarus suit.

Return to North Korea
Having fled to a North Korean airbase, Graves plans to use Icarus to destroy the minefield in the demilitarized zone, allowing North Korean forces to attack the South. As General Moon wouldn't allow this war, the hardliners staged a coup and put the general under arrest. Bond and Jinx are sent to stop Graves.When the USA sends a missile to destroy Icarus, Graves uses the satellite's power to disintegrate it mid-air. Unable to assassinate Graves at the airbase, Jinx and Bond are forced to board Grave's plane. On-board the plane, Graves and the generals are inside a planning room, where Graves admires the finished Icarus suit. He tells his men to have his father brought down. When General Moon arrives, Graves addresses him, but as his face is changed General Moon does not recognize him. When Moon tells him that he does not now him, Graves says that Moon always found it difficult to accept him, which made his exile easier to bear. He then quotes his father, which makes Moon realises that the man next to him is his son. However, he is deeply shocked, asking what his son did to himself. Graves then tells his father to watch the rising of his son and activates Icarus to destroy the minefield. However, opposed to Graves, Moon is disgusted by the heat beam as he knows this would mean war, with the Americans presumably sending nuclear warheads.

Finally truly realising what his son has become, Moon grabs a gun from a general and points it at his son's head. Graves asks his father whether he would kill his own son. When Moon claims that his son died long ago, Graves disarms him with the electricity glove of his Icarus suit and shoots him. He then sees Bond walking towards him and about to shoot him, but a henchman intervenes and the bullet hits the plane's window instead, causing it to break, sucking out everyone except Bond and Graves.

Showdown and Death
Graves and Bond then fight in the remains of the room, with Graves eventually overpowers Bond with his shock glove, Graves takes the plane's two parachutes and throws one out of the window. Intending to leave Bond to die in the planecrash, Graves kneels down next to Bond for one last gloat. Bond uses this display of arrogance to activate Graves' parachute, which sucks him out of the window. Though Graves manages to get hold of the rim of the window, Bond ultimately kills him by activating the Icarus suit's electricity gloves, thereby electrifying Graves who lets go of the rim and is sucked into the planes turbines and pulverized. With the destruction of his suit, Icarus is rendered harmless.

Trivia

 * An unusual feature of this villain is that Graves appears to be younger than James Bond. In general, Bond villains are roughly the same age or considerably older than Bond (with Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough a notable exception).