Vladimir "Vlad" Popov is a supporting antagonist of the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day. He is the head inventor of Gustav Graves until the events of the film.
He was portrayed by Mikhail Gorevoy.
Biography[]
Vlad first appeared when Graves heads to his ice palace in Iceland through his own ice dragster. Despite being informed by Vlad of a new personal best that he beat with the dragster, Graves doesn't appear to be very impressed by saying that one of the thrusters cut out and ordering Vlad to fix it.
Following the arrival of Tang Lin Zao, Vlad was later seen alongside Miranda Frost and Mr. Kil during Graves's presentation of his latest invention: a new satellite called Icarus that can provide sunlight to areas of the world which lack it in order to promote agricultural development in cold climate countries.
However, it turns out that Icarus was actually designed as a weapon to detonate mines placed along the De-Militarized Zone between North and South Korea, as Graves intends to create a path carved through the De-Militarized Zone so that all of Korea would be reunited by force under North control. It also turns out that Vlad himself is involved in the plot as he created a metal suit that will allow Graves to take full control of Icarus, even setting up its defense system to 100,000 volts.
Following Graves' return to North Korea while boarding on his plane to finalize his plot with the help of General Han, General Li and General Dong, Vlad is seen sitting on a chair as he enjoys watching Graves using Icarus to create a path for the North Korean troops. However, Graves' father General Moon disapproves of the plot and attempts to stop this by holding Graves at gunpoint, only for a disappointed Graves to stun Moon and shoot him, much to the shock of Vlad and the other generals.
Needless to say, James Bond and Jinx broke into the plane just as the former accidentally fires a bullet in one of the plane's windows, causing the cabin to lose pressure. Vlad and the generals were blown out of the plane and fell to their deaths.
