Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Reboot Series)

"Welcome, James. It's been a long time. And finally, here we are. What took you so long? Cuckoo!"

- Blofeld noticing Bond during the SPECTRE meeting in Rome. "You came across me so many times and yet you never saw me. Le Chiffre, Greene, Silva... (Bond: All dead.) Yeah, that's right. A nice pattern developed, you interfered in my world, I destroyed yours. Or did you think it was coincidence that all the women in your life ended up dead? Vesper Lynd for example, she was the big one, has he told you about her? And then of course, your beloved M, gone forever. Me! It was all me, James. It's always been me: the author of all your pain!"

- Blofeld confessing to Bond that he's responsible for Bond's recent tragedies. "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."

- Blofeld revealing his new name to Bond during the latter's painful torture.

Franz Oberhauser, later renamed Ernst Stavro Blofeld, is the main antagonist of the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, serving as the founder of the titular organization. He is James Bond's foster brother and archenemy, being responsible for the latter's recent losses ever since the James Bond series rebooted with 2006's Casino Royale; thus he is the overarching antagonist of the reboot series.

He was portrayed by the two-time Academy Award winning actor Christoph Waltz, who also played Mandrake in Epic, Bert Hanson in Horrible Bosses 2, Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet, Léon Rom in The Legend of Tarzan, Walter Keane in Big Eyes, Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers and Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds.

Biography
Franz Oberhauser was born in the 1960s as the son of an Austrian couple named Hannes Oberhauser and Trudi Blofeld-Oberhauser, and his family was friendly with James Bond's parents. When Bond's parents died in a climbing accident, James was adopted by Hannes, who instructed Franz to treat James like a brother. However, Franz grew to hate and envy James, believing his father loved Bond more than him. At one point, Hannes and Franz were involved in an avalanche in which both of them apparently died. However, in truth, Franz killed his father out of jealousy and staged his own death while adopting his mother's maiden name.

As the years went by while James grew up to become one of MI6's best agents in the field, Blofeld went on to form a mysterious but notorious criminal organization known as SPECTRE. Under Blofeld's leadership, the organization became an extremely powerful group while retaining its complete anonymity to the world, staging many terrorist attacks throughout the years. Through the shadows of several SPECTRE's agents (such as Le Chiffre, Vesper Lynd, Mr. White, Dominic Greene, and Raoul Silva) and Quantum (which happens to be a subsidiary of SPECTRE), Blofeld had secretly caused several personal tragedies to James while continuing on executing more attacks around the world, gaining more power with each move he made. Even after the deaths of Le Chiffre, Lynd, Greene, and Silva, as well as the implied dismantling of Quantum, Blofeld maintained SPECTRE's complete anonymity to the public as planned to invoke more pain on Bond for his own amusement.

Events of the film
"Tell me where he is! "He's everywhere!..everywhere!. He's sitting at your desk, he's kissing your lover. He's eating a supper with your family!""

- James Bond and Mr. White, hoping to find Blofeld. Blofeld first appears briefly at the funeral of Marco Sciarra (one of SPECTRE's assassins) and Bond spots him, though without recognizing his face. Blofeld later appears at the SPECTRE meeting in Rome, where, after allowing Bond a short, brutal insight of SPECTRE, he exposes the latter, who was eavesdropping on the meeting. Bond makes his escape after a car chase with another SPECTRE assassin, Mr. Hinx.

Bond finds Mr. White, who had grown disillusioned with SPECTRE once it began dealing in human trafficking of women and children. White revealed that Blofeld had poisoned him with thallium, and that he had only days to live. White asks bond to save his daughter, Dr. Madeleine Swann, and then commits suicide. Bond and Swann head to a Moroccan hotel called L'Americain, where they find coordinates to Blofeld's main facility in the Sahara desert. While traveling there, the pair once more encounters Hinx and after a brutal fight they are able to kill the assassin. Bond and Swann arrive at the facility, but Blofeld has awaited their arrival. He reveals that he plans to take control of the world's intelligence systems through the Nine Eyes program developed by Max Denbigh (the head of the Joint Intelligence Services and one of SPECTRE's agents) and that he had arranged the '00 section to be shut down, using Denbigh's influence. Blofeld also reveals that he and SPECTRE were secretly behind the actions of Le Chiffre, Lynd, White, Greene, Silva, and Quantum. He then plays surveillance footage of Mr. White's suicide, driving a spike between Bond's and Swann's relationship. Blofeld's henchmen knock Bond unconscious.

Upon awakening, Bond finds himself strapped to a surgical chair. Blofeld attempts to lobotomize Bond, but Swann, who has been given an exploding watch from Q Branch by Bond, uses the device to destroy the machine and seemingly kill Blofeld. Bond and Swann escape the facility before it blows up, killing the majority of Blofeld's men in the process.

Final Showdown


"My wounds will heal.... what about yours? Look around you James.... look! This is what left of your world..everything you stood for, everything you believed in.... a ruin!"

- Bond and Blofeld meeting again for a final battle.

Since the Moroccan base was just one node in a wider network, Bond and Swann head back to London, where he conspires with M, Q, Bill Tanner, and Moneypenny to arrest Denbigh and stop the Nine Eyes program from going online. However, on the way, Bond is captured by several of SPECTRE's agents and taken to the derelict ruins of the old MI6 headquarters. Bond manages to kill the SPECTRE agents, and ventures inside the ruins, eventually finding Blofeld, who survived the explosion but was left with a facial scar and blinded eye. Bond tries to shoot Blofeld, only to have his bullets held at bay by the bullet-proof glass placed between them. Blofeld then reveals that he has kidnapped Swann and left her somewhere in the building, which is elaborately rigged with explosives. Blofeld gives Bond two options: either die in the explosions while trying to save Swann, or to save himself but leave Swann to die. Blofeld then enters a helicopter, which hovers over the Thames to allow Blofeld to watch Bond die. However, Bond and Swann escape seconds before the building explodes. In the meantime, Q manages to shut down Nine Eyes while M manages to finish off Denbigh, who ends up falling to his death several stories below.

Defeat


"Finish it...finish it!"

- Blofeld's last words to Bond before he's put under arrest for his crimes.

Believing Bond to be dead, Blofeld, along with his personal assistant and pilot, are about to escape, unaware that Bond and Swann are pursuing them in a speedboat. After a climactic chase, Bond manages to shoot down the helicopter's fuel tanks, sending it crashing onto Westminster Bridge, severely wounding Blofeld's leg and killing both his pilot and personal assistant. Blofeld tries to crawl away from the wreckage, but is held at gunpoint by an arriving Bond. Realizing that he can't escape alive and is now at 007's mercy, Blofeld tells Bond to kill him, but Bond refuses by unloading his gun, fully aware that killing him out of revenge would sink Bond to Blofeld's level. Blofeld is then arrested and imprisoned by the British Secret Service for crimes against humanity.

Personality
Blofeld is an unpredictable, dangerous and utterly ruthless megalomaniac of the most diabolical kind. He is unbelievably resourceful, and could access vast amounts of weaponry, technology, organizations and illegal activities - in other words, he was able to create and control SPECTRE. He is an exceptionally calm and reserved person and addressed any and all problems with an insidiously relaxed manner, even if he was helpless while being held at gunpoint.

He is also extremely intelligent but in all of the worst ways. He is a master of psychological warfare and could intimidate people with his very presence, and as with all of his previous incarnations, he runs SPECTRE like an absolute totalitarian and tyrannical dictator, despising those who failed or betrayed him, with Mr. White being a prime example of what happens if anybody dares to quit SPECTRE. His sophistication makes him an unbelievable strategist and enables him to outwit practically any opponent; it also makes him far-seeing and cunning to a fault, and he knew all of the details of his opponents' moves, right down to placing a bulletproof sheet of glass between him and James Bond in their final confrontation.

Blofeld is also intensely sadistic, describing himself to James Bond as "the author of all [his] pain". Throughout the film, he ruthlessly plays a number of cruel and elaborate games with James's mind concerning his past and the people he has lost his entire life - Vesper, M, his parents, etc. Blofeld also possesses little self-preservation, despite his nefarious manner. Even when finally held at gunpoint by James, he over-confidently goaded him to pull the trigger, though James decided to spare him, knowing that he was not worth it.

Quotes
"It's funny... all that excitement in Mexico City rang a distant bell. And now, suddenly, this evening it made perfect sense. Welcome, James. It's been a long time... and, finally, here we are! What took you so long? Cuckoo!"

- Blofeld's malevolent greeting to James Bond in the SPECTRE meeting at Rome.

"The Kartenhoff, the oldest in human possession. The very meteorite which made this crater. Think about it: so many years up there - alone, silent - building momentum until it chose to make its mark on Earth... a huge unstoppable force."

- Blofeld comparing his power over SPECTRE to that of the meteorite he stored inside his North Africa facility.

"I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to this. All of us here together, a reunion! I'm so glad you came too, dear Madeline.... you were just a girl when I saw you first. I came to your home once to see your father. Shall we?"

- Blofeld meeting Bond and Madeleine in the facility.

"Information is all, is it not? For example, you must know by now that the 00' program is officially dead, which leads me to speculate exactly why you came. So, James, why did you come? (Bond: I've come to kill you.) And I thought you came here to die (Bond: Well, it's all matter of perspective) Speaking of perspective..."

- Blofeld confronts both Bond and Swann in the SPECTRE desert facility in Northern Africa.

"It's touching, don't you think?...Well, James, it looks like you're all alone."

- Blofeld after seemingly closing the 00 section.

"Whereas you couldn't see what's right in front of you. You came across me so many times and yet you never saw me... a nice pattern developed: you interfered with my world, I destroyed yours. Or did you think it was a coincidence all the women in your life ended up dead?"

- Blofeld after Bond mocked him for being a visionary.

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

- Blofeld after revealing that he orchestrated all of Bond's tragedies.

"This is important. I want you to understand something; The things that bring people together out of horror... beauty."

- Blofeld moments before Bond is knocked out.

"Torture is easy, on a superficial level. A man can watch himself being disemboweled and derive great horror from the experience, but it's still going on at a distance. It isn't taking place where he is. As you know all too well, dear Madeleine, a man lives inside his head; that's where the seed of his soul is. James and I were both present recently when a man was deprived of his eyes and the most astonishing thing happened, didn't you notice? He wasn't there anymore. He had gone even though he was still alive, so this brief moment between life and death, there was nobody inside his skull. Most odd..."

- Blofeld's speech while torturing Bond.

"You probably know that James here lost his parents when he was young. But did you know that it was my father who helped him through this difficult time? Over the course of two winters he taught him to ski and climb and hunt. He sewed the wounds of the poor little blue-eyed orphan, asked me to treat him as a brother... my little brother."

- Blofeld revealing his past life with Bond to Swann.

"You know what happens when a cuckoo hatches inside another bird's nest? Well, this cuckoo made me realize my father's life had to end. Anyways is he responsible for the path I took. So thank you, cuckoo!"

- Blofeld telling Swann of the true reason why he killed his father.

"If the needle finds the correct spot in the fusiform gyrus, you recognize no one! Of course the faces of your women changed a lot, eh James? You won't know who she is, just another passing face on your way to the grave."

- Blofeld to Bond while tormenting him.

"He dies not knowing who you are. The daughter of an assassin, the only one who could have understood him. Shame..."

- Blofeld to Swann, before continuing his torture of Bond.

"Let's look around you, James. Look! This is what's left of your world. Everything you ever stood for, everything you believed in - a ruin!"

- Blofeld to Bond in the destroyed MI6 headquarters.

"My wounds will heal... what about yours?""

- Blofeld in his final showdown with Bond after the latter comments on his scar.

"I've really put you through it, haven't I? But, that's brothers for you; they always know which buttons to press."

- Blofeld to Bond before pressing the explosives timer button.

"Goodbye, James Bond!"

- Blofeld in his helicopter, believing Bond to have died while saving Swann from the rigged MI6 building.

Trivia

 * This version of Blofeld differs from the original in that he has a closer connection to Bond, being his foster brother.
 * Ironically enough, Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers series (who is a parody of Blofeld) was revealed to being Austin Powers' brother in the third film Austin Powers in Goldmember.
 * It was speculated before the film's release that Christoph Waltz was to play Blofeld, though that rumor was denied by Waltz. However, he does play Blofeld in the film. Waltz denied the rumor either because it was meant to be top secret until the film's release, or it was probably because of the fact that Andrew Scott's Max Denbigh was originally meant to be the one turning out to be Blofeld, with Waltz's Oberhauser being the secondary antagonist. It's probably most likely because the revelation of Waltz being Blofeld was meant to shock viewers (similar to how Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard in Batman Begins turning out to be one of Batman's greatest enemies, Ra's Al Ghul, surprised loads of viewers).
 * He was actually born as Franz Oberhauser, and after he had founded SPECTRE and murdered his father, he took up the name Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
 * During his military service alongside Mr. White, it was said that the two were in a conflict with a group of bandits in which their military team died and after this, Oberhauser killed the bandits and left White in the deserts, with founding SPECTRE as of the name of their military legion; Spectre.
 * The organisation's name SPECTRE means a ghost, a spirit. This means that the organisation members and agents were actually activated in the shadows. And the octopus motif and logo symbolizes Blofeld's behind-the-scenes reach to manipulate global events to his favor via the proxies he sends out and to dominate the world.
 * Blofeld is clearly the Big Bad of the entire reboot series (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre), as he is the man responsible for assigning the main threats (Le Chiffre, Mr. White, Dominic Greene, and Raoul Silva) in their plots, using them all as pawns as part of his plan to wreak psychological pain on James Bond.
 * His father, Hannes Oberhauser, first appeared in the short story Octopussy, as his death is the reason Bond gets involved in tracking down Dexter Smythe, the story's antagonist. However, Hannes and Blofeld were not related in the novel continuity.
 * In order to create Blofeld's hideous facial scar, the film's producers used CGI and not makeup as the filmmakers of the old Bond films did with Blofeld.
 * By far, he is the darkest version of Blofeld ever, as he loves to play elaborate but sadistic mind games with 007 in an effort to break him psychologically, and as well as one of the two villains (and the only main villain) in the reboot series who are considered as Complete Monsters (the other is General Medrano). Also unlike the other main villains (who all die in the end), he is the only main villain to be arrested and taken into custody for his crimes.
 * The scar Blofeld receives from Bond's exploding watch is a reference to a similar scar that Donald Pleasence's incarnation of Blofeld has in You Only Live Twice. However, unlike the former film, the origin of his disfigurement is not only revealed but also shown on screen.
 * Upon the film's release, Christoph Waltz had received widespread critical acclaim for his performance as Blofeld, being commented as "classic, menacing and original Bond villain.".
 * It is rumored that Christoph Waltz will return in the next Bond film which presumed title is Shatterhand, which will also be the last time Daniel Craig will play 007, this could mean that it would be the final encounter between Bond and Blofeld and may result in Blofeld's death.
 * As Quantum was revealed to be a division within Spectre this would support the idea that Quantum member Dominic Grenne was executed by a hitman on Blofeld's orders.
 * Although he is the main antagonist of the film, he has just small screen time.
 * Blofeld reminds Bond of how he got interfered in Blofeld's world and destroyed his world implies that Bond's foiling of Quantum's Tierra project lead Blofeld to enlist Silva to destroy MI6.

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