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"You should know something about me and the people I work with. We deal with the left or the right, with dictators or liberators. If the current president had been more agreeable, I wouldn't be talking to you. So if you decide not to sign, you will wake up with your balls in your mouth and your willing replacement standing over you. If you doubt that, then shoot me, take that money, and have a good night's sleep."
― Dominic Greene to General Medrano.[src]

Dominic Greene was a billionaire leading an environmentalist enterprise, Greene Planet, but also an high-ranking operative of a criminal organization revealed to be Quantum, who had tasked him with securing a piece of Bolivia that is rich in natural resources. The character was the main antagonist in the 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace and one of the main antagonists in his video game adaptation by Activision. Greene was later mentioned in the 2015 film Spectre were it was revealed that Quantum was a division of the global criminal organization SPECTRE. He was portrayed by French actor Mathieu Amalric.

Biography[]

Background[]

Greene runs an organisation called Greene Planet, which is supposedly devoted to buying up large sums of land for ecological preservation. However, Greene is secretly a member of Quantum, a criminal organization which accrues power and influence through world finance and geopolitics. During the events of the film he is spearheading their Tierra Project in Bolivia.

When showing Camille Montes the body of her informant, he relates the story of how when he was 15, he had a crush on one of his mother’s piano students. He overheard this girl saying mean things about him. Angry, he presumably killed her with an iron.

Scheme[]

"This is the world's most precious resource, and we have to control as much of it as we can."
― Greene to his fellow operatives during the performance of Tosca.[src]
Quantum of Solace - Greene shows Camille the dead employee

Greene shows Camille Montes the body of her ally

Greene Planet is a front for his real plan, to control various commodities such as oil and water, the latter having to do with his current plot. Greene plans to control the supply of water in Bolivia, which if successful will put his organization in control of the country's most vital asset. To make the transaction, "legal," Greene approaches the president of Bolivia with an offer - a large sum of money for 60% control of the water. The president refuses, so Greene takes his offer to the exiled dictator of Bolivia, General Medrano. He makes the general an offer to return him to power in exchange for a large region of apparently barren land. Medrano accepts, thinking the barren region to be worthless. It is only after the transaction has been made that Greene reveals his extortionate plans.

Greene's mistress, Camille Montes, has been wanting to see Medrano for a very long time. The general had murdered her family some years previous, and Montes has been looking for him ever since. When she found out that Medrano was in business with Greene, she became involved with the villain, in order to get to Medrano. Greene knows this, and arranges for Montes to be killed. She is saved, however, by James Bond. She confronts Greene, who turns her over to Medrano, asking him to throw her overboard when he's done with her. Medrano takes her on a speedboat to his yacht, but Bond intervenes. Just as she is about to kill Medrano, Bond pulls her into a separate boat. After a long chase, Bond leaves Her on the warf. Bond inadvertently helped Greene's plan by saving Medrano's life.

Greene then moves forward with his plan. He meets with Quantum at a performance of Tosca. When Bond infiltrates the meeting by stealing the Quantum Earpiece and warning the members about their impending situation, Greene leaves in a hurry. When Greene gets to his car, a henchman falls out of the sky and onto the car. He has his driver shoot the wounded man, then speeds away from the scene, blaming the man's death on Bond.

He then hosts a party, celebrating the conservation of land in Bolivia. He uses this party as an opportunity to make new deals, one of which is interrupted and terminated by Camille Montes. Greene, furious, takes to a balcony and tries to push her to her death. Bond intervenes, and leaves with Montes. Greene sends his henchman Elvis after them, but he's injured by Strawberry Fields, who trips him and sends him tumbling down a staircase. Greene later has Fields murdered by drowning her in oil.

Downfall[]

He then leaves to make his deal with Medrano, and the Colonel Carlos, who earlier had Bond's contact René Mathis killed. He meets with Medrano and Carlos, giving Carlos his money first. When Medrano inquires after his own cash, Greene explains a little side deal. In order for Medrano to get the money to overthrow the government, he has to sign over 60% of all Bolivian water. When Medrano refuses, Greene explains that he had first gone to the current president, and offered him the same deal, and met with the same answer. Medrano reluctantly signs it over, in order to get the money.

Quantum of Solace - Dominic Greene and Bond fighting

Greene furiously fights against James Bond

Everything seems alright - until 007 breaks in. There's also a nasty little surprise. Bond has killed Carlos, and in doing so set the building on fire. Medrano has already left for his room, which leaves Greene, Bond, and Elvis in the conference room. Greene orders Elvis to kill Bond, but before he can do so, the explosions reach the three opponents. Bond and Greene race for cover, but Elvis is incinerated. In the hallway, Greene attacks Bond with a fire axe. They battle over the flames on a catwalk which eventually collapses. Bond leaps for dry land, but Greene starts to plummet towards the flames. Bond grabs Greene by the hair, saving his life.

Meanwhile, in Medrano's room, Montes and the General battle. While Bond attempts to pull Greene onto firm ground, they hear a shot. Greene laughs, thinking that the general has murdered Montes.

"Sounds like you just lost another one!"
― Greene laughing at Bond over Camille's apparent death.[src]

Bond responds by lifting Greene up to the catwalk and rushing away to save Camille. He walks in to find Medrano dead, and Camille attempting to escape from the inferno. They manage to escape, and Bond sees that Greene survived, and is currently trying to escape on foot with a leg injury.

Fate[]

Quantum of Solace - Greene abandoned in the desert

Bond strands Greene in the middle of the Atacama desert.

Bond captures Greene, who reveals everything he knows about Quantum. In exchange, Bond doesn't kill him. However, he leaves him in the middle of the desert that Greene had just bought, and gives him a can of motor oil (a reference to Strawberry Fields's death by the hands of his agents), betting that he'll make it twenty miles before he's tempted to drink it. Later, following Yusef Kabira's arrest, M tells Bond that Greene was found dead in the desert, with two bullets in the base of his skull and motor oil in his stomach; implying his execution by Quantum for leaking information, similarly to how happened to Le Chiffre before him.

Spectre[]

Some years later, Bond investigates about a shadow organization later revealed to be SPECTRE. He learns that Quantum was only a division of it and that Greene, alongside Medrano, Le Chiffre and Raoul Silva, were all pawns of SPECTRE leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in his plot to wreak psychological pain on Bond. At this stage, it is implied that Greene was executed by Blofeld's agents.

Alternate continuities[]

Quantum of Solace (video game)[]

Personality[]

"There is nothing that makes me more uncomfortable than friends talking behind my back. It feels like ants under my skin. It's been that way forever, I remember when I was 15. I had a crush on one of my mother's piano students. Somehow, I overheard her saying very nasty things about me. I got so angry, I took an iron ..."
― Greene discusses his childhood with Camille.[src]

An intelligent, ambitious, cunning and manipulative sociopath, Dominic Greene showed a highly opinionated and callous personality. He was quite a social climber, well-respected for his wealth, intellect and so-called ambitions. However, underneath it all, he was a cruel, malicious and arrogant man. He covered his tracks splendidly and knew quite a bit about how the Secret Services of the world work.

He was highly well-connected, and was able to side with the Bolivian chief of police and also General Medrano. Greene was quite cunning and manages to blackmail Medrano into signing over the money that Greene demanded (Double of what they had previously agreed), at the same time showing to Medrano how ruthless Quantum could be and that Medrano, whether he liked it or not, was completely expendable to them.

Dominic Greene was extremely devious and nobody could predict what his next move was going to be. Unfortunately, he had a habit of picking the wrong people to side with: He lost General Medrano to Camille, and beforehand he lost the Bolivian chief of police to James Bond. He was sadistic, taunting Bond when the latter believed Camille to have been killed by General Medrano. This showed him to be quite reckless, as Greene was about to fall to his death when he taunted Bond, who could have easily killed him for that remark. Greene was a coward, and did whatever he could to escape Quantum, and the wrath of James Bond, after he revealed every last secret of his secret organisation.

Henchmen & Associates[]

Behind the scenes[]

Mathieu Amalric acknowledged taking the role was an easy decision because, "It's impossible to say to your kids that 'I could have been in a Bond film but I refused.'"[1] Amalric wanted to wear make-up for the role, but Forster explained that he wanted Greene not to look grotesque, but to symbolise the hidden evils in society.[2]

Amalric modeled his performance on "the smile of Tony Blair [and] the craziness of Sarkozy," the latter of whom he called "the worst villain we [the French] have ever had ... he walks around thinking he's in a Bond film."[3] He later claimed this was not criticism of either politician, but rather an example of how a politician relies on performance instead of a genuine policy to win power. "Sarkozy, is just a better actor than [his presidential opponent] Ségolène Royal—that's all," he explained.[4]

Amalric and Forster re-conceived the character, who was supposed to have a "special skill" in the script, to someone who uses pure animal instinct when fighting Bond in the climax.[5] German actor, Bruno Ganz was also considered for the part,[6] but Forster decided Amalric gave the character a "pitiful" quality.[5]

Gallery[]

Dominic Greene/Gallery

Trivia[]

  • Dominic Greene is the only main antagonist in the franchise to explicitly be killed off-screen, though this was implied with General Koskov.
  • Greene is the first main antagonist of the reboot series to fight James Bond physically and up until Lyutsifer Safin was the only one to fight Daniel Craig's incarnation.
  • The assassins, agents and connections, such as Bolivian officials, available to Greene and Quantum suggest that they have intimidated or killed many prominent people in different countries, much like the drug dealer Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill (1989).
  • It is possible that Greene was involved in the betrayal of Vesper Lynd since he may have been one of the people who led her to believe that Yusef Kabira was kidnapped by Quantum, resulting in the young woman's suicide. Although this was not confirmed, it was established that Greene knew the man's name and revealed it to Bond as 007 confronts the man in Kazan, Russia, after abandoning him in the desert.
  • He was a major final boss in Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/PC video games, but a secondary final boss in PlayStation 2 video game. The major boss in PlayStation 2 video game was replaced by Medrano.

References[]

  1. Mark Brown. "Everything changes but Bond", The Guardian, 24 January 2008. Retrieved on 24 January 2008. 
  2. Benjamin Svetkey. "Bond is back!", Entertainment Weekly, 30 October 2008. Retrieved on 1 November 2008. 
  3. "Bond villain spills the beans", Metro, 24 January 2008. Retrieved on 31 January 2008. 
  4. Karl Rozemeyer. "Mathieu Amalric on Being the 'Bond 22' Villain", Premiere, 18 March 2008. Retrieved on 19 March 2008. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Williams, Murphy. "Quantum of Solace: Mathieu Amalric on playing James Bond's nemesis", The Daily Telegraph, 2 October 2008. Retrieved on 23 October 2008. 
  6. "Bond 22 Pre-Production Diary (22)", MI6-HQ.com, 30 December 2007. Retrieved on 31 December 2007. 

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