Raoul Silva

"What is this if not betrayal? She sent you out to me knowing you're not ready, knowing you'll likely die. Mommy was very bad."

- Silva, concerning his hatred of M

Tiago Rodriguez, better known by his alias Raoul Silva, is the main antagonist in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall.

He is portrayed by Javier Bardem, who also portrays Anton Chigurh.

Early Life


He was once a British agent, working under M when she was the head of Station H, an MI6 division based in Hong Kong before the Handover in 1997 (the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the British to the Chin ese). His relationship with M was similar to that of Bond's, considering himself her "favorite". For M's part, she certainly held him in high esteem, telling Bond that he was a "brilliant" agent back then. Soon before the Handover, he acted beyond his professional duties, and was thus turned over to the Chinese in exchange for six other agents. For five months they tortured him, but he refused to give up his secrets. Upon learning it was M that gave him up, he tried to commit suicide, but the cyanide didn't work and left him disfigured.

He survived and vowed revenge on M, becoming a cyber terrorist, and began planning his revenge. Eventually getting two henchmen, alias Severine and Patrice.

Skyfall (2012)
He engineered his own capture by Bond in order to confront her (after having anonymously taunted her with the message "Think on your sins" earlier in the film), then escaped when a virus from his laptop infected MI6's system as Q was attempting to decrypt it; the virus opened all electronically locked doors in the base, including the door to his cell. He intended to kill M at a public hearing, however Bond pursued and thwarted that plan before escaping with M up to Scotland. (So according to Q, Silva's attempt to kill M was years in the planning. Plan A was to get caught. Plan B was to make sure MI6 hacked into his computer so the doors will be unlocked. Plan 3 was get disguised as a cop and bombard in the public hearing to assasinate M.)

At Bond's ancestral home, the eponymous Skyfall, he eventually managed to corner M in the estate's chapel. However, upon seeing that she was already mortally wounded, he broke down and became visibly upset that she was hurt. Then, realizing he can no longer bring himself to kill her, he forced his gun into her hand and held it to her temple while he pressed his head to the other side, begging her to kill them both with the same bullet. However, Bond hurled his father's old combat knife into Silva's back, killing him. Despite Silva being defeated, M succumbs to the bullet wound she sustained earlier on soon after, thus Silva's plan for revenge has finally succeeded.

Personality
Despite his chaotic methods, Silva maintained an air of calm and often handled things with ease. He was charismatic and very strategic, thinking of all of his plans in full detail and trying not to leave anything to chance, or else was very good at improvising. Silva was extremely intelligent, able not only to outsmart M, but Q and Bond as well, even going so far to use them as part of his plan. He was also sexually ambiguous; he had a female lover and also made strong overtures toward Bond, though what precisely he meant by it and whether he is actually bisexual is left up for debate.

Though Silva maintained a strong hatred towards M, he is also conflicted about her. He was convinced that he had survived to "look into [her] eyes one last time". During their confrontation in the MI6 cell room where he is held after his initial capture, he grew increasingly more agitated and deranged as she refused to show any remorse or regret for her actions, especially when she refuses to use his real name. He calls her "Mommy" or "Mother" multiple times, and he ultimately cannot bring himself to personally kill her.

It has been theorized that Silva had borderline personality disorder, which is characterized by intense fear of abandonment, emotional extremes, and an unstable sense of identity.

Appearance
Raoul Silva is a man with blonde hair and blue eyes; both are probably not natural. He wears a prosthetic upper jaw to conceal the damage done by the failed cyanide capsule; without it, his left cheek collapses, causing his lower eyelid to droop as well, and he is left with only a few stubs of teeth (see above).

In his first appearance, he wears a cream jacket, a Prada tile print dress shirt, brown waistcoat and trousers, and brown shoes. After escaping his cell at MI6, he disguises himself as a Metropolitan police officer. In the final showdown at Skyfall, he wears all black: turtleneck, trenchcoat, trousers, and combat boots. His weapons of choice include explosives, a Glock 13, a helicopter gunship, a subway train, and antique flintlock dueling pistols (used to kill his lover Sévérine in a "William Tell" game he forces Bond to participate in).

Trivia
 
 * Silva is similar several other Bond Villains:
 * Alec Trevelyan from 1995's Goldeneye. Both are ex-agents who had once served for MI6 and had close personal relationships with one of their co-workers (Bond for Trevlyan/M for Silva). Because of this, both are seen as "Anti-Bonds". Both seek justice for a betrayal done by MI6 (MI6 handing the Trevelyans and the Lienz Cossacks back to the Russians/MI6 for trading Silva over to the Chinese in order to free six captive agents). After leaving MI6 both start their own criminal rings, and major components of their plans involve great use of computer hacking. Both also recieved massive damage to their faces (Part of Trevelyan's face being burned by the explosion in the Soviet chemical plant in the opening of Goldeneye/Massive burning damage was done to Silva's face during a failed attempt at using a suicide cyanide pill that forces him to wear a brace in his mouth).
 * Francisco Scaramanga from 1974's The Man With the Golden Gun. Both have some form of Hispanic heritage, and are presented as being Bond's equal. Both feel they share a certain special connection with James because they find themselves to be two of a kind. (Scaramanga highlighting how, "We are the best" in their murderous field/Silva about how M made them the "two survivors". Their connections to M also binding them on a kind of emotional level). Both also are at times seen acting with a deal of eccentricity (and at times even sort of giddiness), particularly in their interactions with Bond. Both also have island lairs near China, and have a woman in their service (Andrea Anders/Sévérine) who is fearful of them and come to have hopes that Bond can kill their employers only to have Scaramanga and Silva eventually shoot and kill them personally.
 * Elektra King/Renard from 1999's The World Is Not Enough. Both are motivated by some wrong that M had committed against them in the past and intended to kill her. In both cases, M took the option most dictated by duty rather than compassion or loyalty. Both Elektra/Renard and Silva remotely set off explosions in the Vauxhall Building, the official headquarters of MI6. Elektra is particularly resentful of her father, who had consulted with M when Elektra had been kidnapped years before (M advised her father not to pay the ransom asked for, as it would be "negotiating with terrorists"). Silva sees M herself as a mother figure.
 * Silva's fake teeth might be a reference to the legendary Bond henchman, Jaws.
 * Silva's appearance may have been based on Wikileaks founder Jullian Assange.
 * The whiskey Silva pours out for Bond is a 50-year-old Macallan, a reference to the fact that Skyfall was the 50th anniversary film.
 * Silva's island was based on the real-life Japanese island of Hashima; Silva faked a leak at the island's chemical plant to cause the inhabitants to abandon it, based on the real chemical leak that caused the evacuation of the real island.
 * The fallen statue on Silva's island is a reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandius", which is about time and entropy making a mockery of once-mighty empires. The poem M quotes from at her hearing right before Silva storms in is Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Ulysses", which is about tenacity and striving forward even in the face of such decline.
 * Originally, the German actor Michael Pink was supposed to play the role until Bardem got it. Still Pink is seen as a henchman in the battle scene at the end.