| “ | Blofeld sends his regards. | „ |
| ~ Cyclops to James Bond. |
Primo, also known as Cyclops, is a major antagonist in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die.
He is a professional mercenary and former Spectre operative who previously worked for Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but later finds employment with bioterrorist Lyutsifer Safin following Spectre's destruction at the latter's hand. He is also known for using a bionic eye paired with a similar one that Blofeld is using while still remaining in prison.
He was portrayed by Dali Benssalah.
Biography[]
Attack at Italy[]
Several days following Blofeld's arrest for his crimes against humanity, Primo first appeared in Italy, where he led several Spectre assassins to confront and take down Blofeld's nemesis James Bond when the latter was visiting Vesper Lynd's grave, which was blown up by the assassins. Engaging into a brief fight with Bond, Primo claims that Madeleine sent him to murder Bond, right before he is knocked out. Bond then escapes with Madeleine after taking down many of the assassins, but a call from Madeleine's phone number implicates her as a traitor, inciting an enraged Bond to sever his relationship with Swann.
Defecting from SPECTRE[]
Five years later, Primo is assigned by Blofeld to lead a new team of SPECTRE assassins to kidnap corrupt MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev, who has created a deadly nanobot bioweapon called Project Heracles. As part of the plan, Primo and the assassins broke into a MI6 laboratory, where they murdered many of the MI6 personnel before taking Obruchev and his bioweapon. CIA agents Felix Leiter and Logan Ash contacted Bond about the situation, stating that they have located Obruchev in Cuba, where he is due to attend a SPECTRE meeting.
Bond infiltrates the meeting, only to end up being trapped by the SPECTRE members. It later turns out that Blofeld has a bionic eye paired up with Primo's bionic eye, and that he is using Primo's eye as a communication device to lead the meeting while still remaining in prison. Blofeld releases for the nanobots to kill Bond, but the nanobots instead kill every member of SPECTRE in the vicinity; Obruchev had reprogrammed the nanobots to target them instead of Bond on Safin's orders. However, Primo escapes and reclaims his bionic eye and helps Obruchev escape from custody.
Following Blofeld's death, MI-6 armorer Q learns through several video files recorded from Blofeld's bionic eye that Primo has met up with Ash, who has recruited him to work for Safin. On Safin's orders, Primo, Ash and several of their men capture Bond, Swann and their daughter Mathilde. Though Bond manages to kill Ash and several of Safin's men, Safin captures Swann and Mathilde before taking them to his base on an island located between Russia and Japan.
Death[]
At Safin's base, Safin orders Primo to take Swann to her cell while deciding to keep Mathilde to himself. Swann tries to distract Primo by berating him for his betrayal of SPECTRE, but Primo silences her and tries to make her drink a glass filled with eye-damaging poison. However, Swann splashes the drink in Primo's face and uses the opportunity to escape. Shortly afterward, Bond and Nomi, his successor as 007, infiltrate Safin's fortress and dispatch most of Safin's men.
Bond then rescues Swann and Mathilde, while Nomi kills Obruchev. Bond then lets Nomi, Swann and Mathilde escape on a boat before staying behind to open the island's silo doors, which would enable a missile strike from the British Navy to destroy the nanobots.
As Bond heads over to the control console to open the silos, he kills all of Safin's remaining guards before engaging in another fight against Primo. Eventually, Bond uses the watch that Q gave him, which releases an electromagnetic pulse, to strike Primo in the face, blowing up his bionic eye inside his head, killing him instantly. After Primo's death, Bond quips to Q that Primo had seen the watch, and that it "blew his mind".
Trivia[]
- Dali Bensallah is the first Algerian-French actor to portray a character in the Bond franchise.
External Links[]
- Primo on the James Bond Wiki
