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Biography of Ernst Stavro Blofeld from the James Bond reboot series.
Murdering His Father[]
Franz Oberhauser was born in 1960 as the son of an Austrian couple named Hannes Oberhauser and Trudi Blofeld-Oberhauser, and his family were close friends of James Bond's parents. When James' parents died in a climbing accident, the Oberhauser family decided to adopt James, and Hannes instructed Franz to treat James like a little brother.
However, Franz grew to hate and envy James, believing his father loved James more than him. At one point, Hannes and Franz were involved in an avalanche in which both of them apparently died. In reality, however, Franz murdered Hannes and staged his death while adopting his mother's maiden name. Despite having succeeded in murdering Hannes as sworn, Blofeld bitterly refuses to put aside his jealousy towards James and decided to take over the world for himself to rule so that he can make James' life a living hell.
As Blofeld grew up, he gets himself involved in many high-level underworld dealings, allowing himself to form a mysterious yet powerful criminal organization known as Spectre. Under Blofeld's leadership, the organization became extremely powerful, committing numerous acts of terrorism around the world for decades with the help from many criminals and corrupt officials while maintaining its anonymity from the public, even before Bond became a full-fledged MI6 agent after killing the corrupt MI6 chief Dryden and his associate Fisher.
Plotting Against Bond[]
It is implied that Blofeld created the terrorist organization Quantum and employed Mr. White as its figurehead to covert Spectre's attacks. He also tasked the corrupt banker Le Chiffre to sabotage an aerospace company (through the funds from the notorious warlord Steven Obanno) and pay back the money through a casino poker tournament in Montenegro. However, Bond kills Obanno and wins the tournament, and Blofeld orders Mr. White to execute Le Chiffre and his cohorts as punishment for their failure. Blofeld also got Mr. White to successfully steal back the casino winnings from Bond, which resulted in the death of Bond's lover Vesper Lynd, provoking an angry Bond to track down and arrest Mr. White.
Following Mr. White's escape from MI6 custody (with the help from Craig Mitchell), it is implied that Blofeld assigned Dominic Greene of Greene Planet to help support the overthrow of the Bolivian government for the exiled general Luiz Medrano in exchange for a portion of the land for Quantum to utilize its resources. However, Bond foils this plot as revenge for the deaths of MI6 agents Rene Mathis and Strawberry Fields while Bolivian agent Camille Montes kills Medrano. Bond also captures and interrogates Greene and Yusef Kabira (the man who seduced Vesper) about Quantum's secrets, resulting in Kabira's arrest and Quantum's dissolution while Greene is abandoned in the middle of the Bolivian desert. It can also be implied that Blofeld has Greene executed in the desert as punishment for telling Bond about Quantum and its secrets.
It is implied that Blofeld sent in the cyberterrorist Raoul Silva to steal a flash drive containing the identities of several MI6 agents and expose them to the Internet. With the help from Patrice, Silva succeeds at this task, resulting in the deaths of the MI6 agents, even before Patrice falls to his death after a brief fight with Bond. It is also implied that Blofeld assigned Silva to bomb MI6 headquarters and kill M in revenge for betraying Silva to the Chinese when he served for her at MI6. While Silva succeeds at both tasks, Bond kills Silva soon afterwards.
Attending a Funeral[]
| “ | Bond: Tell me where he is! White: 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 appeared 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 with many of his associates (including Dr. Vogel, Moreau, Abrika, Valerian, and Marshall) about the reports of their notorious activities. After allowing Bond a short, brutal insight of Spectre, Blofeld exposes the latter, who was eavesdropping on the meeting. Bond makes his escape after a car chase with another Spectre assassin Mr. Hinx.
Meeting with Bond[]
Bond later finds Mr. White, who had grown disillusioned with Spectre once it began dealing in sex trafficking of women and children to feed up Spectre's bank accounts. White revealed that Blofeld had poisoned him with thallium following his departure and that he had only days to live. Mr. White asks Bond to save his daughter Dr. Madeleine Swann and then commits suicide by shooting himself with Bond's gun. 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 travelling there, the pair once more encounters Hinx, and after a brutal fight, they can kill Hinx. 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, Mr. White, Greene and Silva. He then plays surveillance footage of Mr. White's suicide, driving a spike between Bond's and Swann's relationship. Blofeld's henchmen then knock Bond unconscious.
Franz Oberhauser reveals his new identity as Ernst Stavro Blofeld to his foster brother and archenemy James Bond.
Upon awakening, Bond finds himself strapped to a surgical chair. Blofeld begins to torture Bond by directing a surgical drill into his cheek, during which he admits to having murdered Hannes and founding Spectre out of jealousy against Bond. He then directs the drill into Bond's neck, declaring that if he drills into the correct spot, it will leave Bond unable to recognize faces. Upon doing so, however, Bond can recognize Swann, implying that Blofeld may have been lying to mess with Bond, or that he intentionally drilled in the wrong location. Blofeld then brings up a second drill and directs both of them towards Bond's eyes, intending to lobotomize him. However, 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's left of your world… everything you stood for, everything you believed in… a ruin! | „ |
| ~ Bond and Blofeld meeting again for a final battle. |
Two Brothers meeting for the apparent showdown.
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 save himself but leave Swann to die and live with the guilt for it. At first, Bond believes that Blofeld is bluffing, but Blofeld jokingly admitted that he put through Bond a lot before stating that brothers always know which buttons to press before setting the timer, confirming that he's not bluffing.
Realizing this, Bond goes off to save Swann while Blofeld 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 and crumbles down. 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.
Arrested by the MI6[]
| “ | Finish it…finish it! | „ |
| ~ Blofeld's last words to Bond before he's put under arrest for his crimes. |
Blofeld tries to goad Bond into killing him — without success.
Believing Bond to be dead, Blofeld, along with his assistant and pilot, are about to escape in their helicopter, 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 Bond's mercy, rather than begging to be spared, Blofeld instead sadistically demands to be finished off at once. However, Bond refuses by unloading his gun, fully aware that killing Blofeld out of revenge will only sink him to the latter's level.
Deciding that Blofeld is not worth the trouble, Bond walks away peacefully with Swann, leaving Blofeld to be arrested by MI6 for his crimes against humanity, a fate that Blofeld accepts with resignation. It is implied that Blofeld has been sent to prison for his crimes against humanity while Bond happily resigns from MI6 to start a new life with Swann, satisfied that his tragic past is finally put to rest.
Matera Ambush[]
| “ | It's Blofeld, my love. Your father would be so proud of you. Your sacrifice will be our glory. | „ |
| ~ Blofeld's voice message to Madeleine Swann, sent to deceive James Bond into believing Swann was an agent of Spectre. |
Despite his arrest, Blofeld is able to continue overseeing and coordinating Spectre operations from within Belmarsh. Several days after Blofeld's arrest, Bond and Swann were ambushed by several Spectre assassins (led by Primo) in Matera, Italy, and Primo claimed that Swann betrayed Bond to them. This was seemingly confirmed when Blofeld sent out a call on Swann's phone congratulating her for the attempt on Bond's life. This event is what drove a furious Bond to sever his relationship with Swann.
Planning Revenge Against Bond[]
| “ | But I see you before my little eye, and my little eye says hi. Now, see, now, we emerge from the shadows as gods on Mount Olympus. Here's to the end of our pariah, my burden, my brother… James Bond! | „ |
| ~ Blofeld attempts to have Bond killed on his birthday. |
Five years later, Bond soon learns of a new MI6 project called Project Heracles, which involves using nanobots (created by MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev) as a bioweapon, and that Obruchev has been kidnapped by Primo and several Spectre agents in their intent to use the nanobots to free Blofeld and take over the world. During a Spectre meeting in Cuba about Project Heracles, Blofeld (using both his bionic eye and Primo's bionic eye to see and communicate while remaining in his holding cell) anticipated Bond's arrival at the meeting, expecting him to be killed by the nanobots. However, the tables are turned as Obruchev (who turns out to be in league with the bioterrorist Lyutsifer Safin) reprogrammed the nanobots to kill all of the remaining Spectre members (including Dr. Vogel, Moreau, Abrika, Valerian, and Marshall), something which both Bond and Blofeld didn't expect.
It is later revealed that Blofeld is responsible for the deaths of Safin's family as he ordered Mr. White to murder them with a dioxin attack during their early years working for Spectre, which led to Safin's facial disfigurement and his vow of revenge against Blofeld and the rest of Spectre. To that end, Safin murdered Swann's mother in 1998; even after hearing about Blofeld's arrest and Mr. White's suicide, Safin refuses to give up his quest for revenge.
Death[]
| “ | James… you gave up everything for her. When her secret finds its way out, it would be the death of you. | „ |
| ~ Blofeld to Bond about Swann's past with Safin. |
When word got out that Blofeld used his bionic eye to lead the meeting, it got confiscated, and Q found out from several video files recorded in Blofeld's bionic eye that Primo (who escaped from being murdered by the nanobots) met up with CIA agent Logan Ash, thus exposing their true allegiance to Safin and their involvement for the deaths of all of the Spectre operatives and CIA agent Felix Leiter. Bond then pays a visit to Blofeld in his cell, where he encounters Swann, who was blackmailed to be infected with nanobots by Safin as she was the only one to be in contact with Blofeld since his imprisonment.
When Bond touches Swann and unknowingly infects himself, Swann runs off in a huff, leading Bond to interrogate Blofeld on the matter. It was then Blofeld confessed that he deliberately staged the ambush in Matera and made it look like Swann was betraying Bond to them, all just to cause more pain to Bond by straining his relationship with Swann out of revenge for defeating him and getting him arrested. Blofeld also vowed that Bond would be meeting his imminent death once the truth about Swann's past comes out. Enraged by this revelation, Bond grabs Blofeld by the neck and begins to strangle him, relenting when Bill Tanner moves to intervene, and the nanobots infect and kill Blofeld just as Safin planned, something which a horrified Bond didn't expect. Upon realizing that he was infected with the nanobots that caused Blofeld's death, Bond confronts Swann, who informs him about her past encounter with Safin and what he did to her that led to Blofeld's death. However, Bond showed no remorse for what happened to Blofeld; even Swann admitted that she's relieved to hear that Blofeld is dead, despite the fact that she couldn't bear to do the job of murdering Blofeld herself. It was also revealed that following Bond and Swann's fallout, Swann gave birth to Bond's daughter Mathilde, thus making Blofeld a foster uncle to Mathilde.
Despite Blofeld's death, Bond finds himself in more pain after Safin kidnaps Swann and Mathilde. Even when Bond was able to track down and kill Safin's men (including Primo, Obruchev and Ash), Safin managed to infect Bond with more nanobots equipped with Swann and Mathilde's DNA before he ends up being killed by Bond. Unwilling to risk Swann and Mathilde's lives, Bond sacrifices himself in a missile explosion to destroy the nanobots and foil Safin's plot for good, thus fulfilling Blofeld's final vow for Bond's death and bringing full closure for all the pain and suffering that Blofeld has inflicted against the world.