- "Oh, stop it, both of you! Stop it! You're like...boys with toys!"
- ― Natalya Simonova to Bond and Dimitri Mishkin.
Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova (Russian: Наталья Фёдоровна Симонова) is a fictional Russian programmer and Bond girl who first appeared in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, portrayed by actress Izabella Scorupco. The character was subsequently re-imagined for the 2010 video-game GoldenEye 007, voiced by Kirsty Mitchell.
Film biography
Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova works as a Level 2 programmer at a bunker, the Severnaya Space Weapons Control Centre before it is destroyed by a blast from one of the two GoldenEye satellites set-off by the Janus Crime Syndicate. When the treasonous General Ourumov and Xenia Onatopp attack the station with a stolen Eurocopter Tiger helicopter, she is left the only survivor besides Boris Grishenko, who had disappeared when he was "going for a cigarette". He had actually slipped away and flew off with Ouromov and Onatopp, having allied himself with them and Alec Trevelyan to steal the GoldenEye satellite.
Natalya attempts to find Boris, whom she believes to be innocent; he meets her in a cathedral and turns her over to Onatopp.
Simonova and Bond, who have both been captured by Trevelyan, are trapped in the stolen Tiger helicopter. The helicopter fires missiles at itself, but Bond is able to eject the two, who are subsequently arrested by the Russian government. Ourumov sets Bond free to clear his own name of murder; Bond escapes, but loses Natalya in the process. Ourumov is ordered by Trevelyan to kidnap Simonova and rendezvous at his armored train. Despite initially escaping, Bond manages to intercept the train and derails it using a Russian T-54 tank. Boarding the train, Trevelyan traps Bond for a second time in one of the carriages. Blaming Bond for his disfigurement, Trevelyan sadistically informs him that the carriage is rigged to explode and wishes him luck cutting his way out. The timer had been set for the same amount of time Bond had given him to escape; exactly three minutes. Before escaping the train, Bond and Simonova trace the location of the GoldenEye control antenna to Cuba. They become lovers.
The two then follow Trevelyan to Cuba, where she questions his "professional callousness" during an argument:
- Natalya: "How can you act like this? How can you be so cold?"
- Bond: "It's what keeps me alive."
- Natalya: "No. It's what keeps you alone."
At Cuba, Onatopp rappells from a helicopter onto Bond, who is just awakening, and quickly gains the upper hand in their battle. She gets Bond into position to crush his chest; just as Bond is ready to pass out from the pressure, Natalya saves her friend then he connects the rope she rappelled down to her safety harness, grabs her AK-74 rifle that was slung across her back and kills the helicopter's pilot by shooting into the helicopter's cockpit from the ground. The chopper veers away, wrenching the henchhwoman screaming off Bond and trapping her in a fork of a tree. After Onatopp's death, Bond tells Natalya that "She always did enjoy a good squeeze", an allusion to the fact that Onatopp enjoyed squeezing her victims to death.
Before escaping the train, Bond and Simonova trace the location of the GoldenEye control antenna to Cuba. Infiltrating Trevelyan's control facility, the two split up; Bond attempting to plant explosives and Simonova hacking the GoldenEye's guidance systems but Natalya his captured by Trevelyan's army and she meet Boris. She attacked him in a fit of rage for allying himself with the enemy.
She destroys the GoldenEye satellite and commandeers a helicopter to pick up Bond and herself by using the gun Bond gave her. Natalya saves Bond right after he defeats Trevelyan. She and he leave in the helicopter and get dropped off a distance away. Jack Wade was waiting for the two. He picks them up in the helicopter, ending the movie.
Other Appearances
Simanova appears in two video games. She appears first in GoldenEye, where she has much the same role as in the movie. She is rescued by Bond, kidnapped by Janus, and later helps Bond stop Trevelyan and the GoldenEye satellite.
She also appears in the 2010 remake. Again, she helps Bond on his mission to take down the Janus Group and stop the GoldenEye satellite.
