Renard

"You can't kill me. I'am already dead."

- Renard to James Bond. "No hard feelings Mr. Bond, but we're even. Soon you'll feel nothing at all!"

- Renard "Welcome to my nuclear family!"

- Renard

Renard (real name: Victor Zokas) and sometimes called The Anarchist, is one of the two main antagonists of the James Bond film The World is Not Enough. Though it has been a controversial subject of debate as to whether Renard is merely a henchman of Elektra King or Elektra is a puppet of Renard's, most sources have declared that the two form a villain duumvirate.

He was portrayed by Robert Carlyle, who also portrayed Francis Begbie, Adolf Hitler, Durza and Rumplestiltskin.

Past
Born as Victor Zokas, Renard served as a KGB assassin throughout most of the Cold War but was ultimately expelled after the Afghan conflict due to his sadistic methods. Zokas then decided to go rogue as a freelance terrorist, and took up the epithet of "Renard The Anarchist". Sometime later, Renard kidnapped oil heiress Elektra King, and held her ransom. In response to the terrorist's attack, MI6 dispatched 009 to rescue the girl and eliminate Renard. When 009 located Renard's terror cell, he shot the terrorist in the head but found that King had escaped prior to his arrival. During Elektra's time spent with Renard, she managed to seduce him and allied herself with him, hoping to seek revenge upon her father who refused to pay her ransom. Now working side by side, Renard and Elektra staged her supposed escape from his clutches, with Elektra severing her own earlobe to make the stunt seem convincing. In the aftermath of 009's assault, Renard managed to survive the blow to his head which left him with a rather curious side-effect. As the bullet slowly traveled through his brain, every single one of Renard's five senses would be rapidly depleted, most notably the feeling of touch along with the sensation of pain. Though the bullet would eventually make it's way to the center of his brain and kill him, in the meantime, Renard was now rendered virtually unstoppable. With his new found abilities, Renard's final mission was to secure the future of Elektra's oil pipeline, and ensure that a part of him lived on through the madness which he had created within Elektra.

The World Is Not Enough
As the events of The World is Not Enough unfold, Renard is living with an indeterminate life expectancy, as the bullet could reach his cerebral cortex at any time and kill him. However, according to MI6 doctor Molly Warmflash, until the bullet kills him, Renard is expected to continue due to his inability to feel pain, allowing him to drive himself beyond ordinary physical limits. This unique trait is demonstrated in Renard's first on-screen appearance when he handles scalding pieces of volcanic rock in his hand without any sign of discomfort. After her 'escape' from Renard, Elektra claimed to be traumatized, faking Stockholm syndrome.

In the film, Elektra joins forces with Renard in a scheme to take control of the world's oil market. They launch an attack on MI6 headquarters in London, which results in the death of Elektra's father. Originally, it is thought their target is her family's oil pipeline, but it is later revealed that Renard and Elektra damaged the pipeline to cover their real target of disrupting all oil supplies except for those belonging to the King family. Renard hijacks a Russian nuclear submarine and intends to introduce weapons-grade plutonium into the submarine's nuclear reactor, causing a nuclear meltdown. This would happen in the Bosporus at Istanbul, which would contaminate the city and the Bosporus for decades, preventing any shipping from the Black Sea. Shipments of Caspian Sea oil via all existing pipelines except for the King pipeline which terminated on Turkey's Mediterranean coast would have been affected.

Meanwhile, Elektra takes M hostage for Renard and captures Bond, but is ultimately killed by 007 after she tells Renard to launch the submarine on its mission. Bond boards the sub and confronts Renard, revealing Elektra's death during the confrontation. The latter locks himself inside the reactor so that Bond cannot get to him. Just as the reactor is about to go into a critical state due to Renard's plutonium-laced fuel rod, Bond causes the reactor to shoot the rod out of the core at a high speed and into Renard's abdomen-his last words being to inform Renard that Elektra is waiting for him-thus killing him and stopping the reaction.

Trivia

 * Renard is the only Bond villain who's defined and called as an anarchist.
 * His forename is the French word for Fox.
 * Even though Elektra and Renard served as the Big Bad Duumvirate, Renard wound up being the final antagonist of the film because Elektra was killed before Bond faced him.