Quantum

Quantum
Organisation information
Key people	Mr. White, Dominic Greene, Guy Haines
HQ	None / mobile

"Money is not as important to our organization as knowing who to trust."

- Mr. White, Casino Royale

"The first thing you should know about us, is that we have people everywhere."

- Mr. White, Quantum Of Solace

Quantum is a fictional criminal organization, featured as the antagonists in the James Bond films Casino Royale, and its sequel, Quantum of Solace. Quantum may be a subsidiary of SPECTRE, and will appear either directly or indirectly in the James Bond film, Spectre. The organization exists in the shadows, and is known to contract third parties to avoid implicating itself. It is connected to the highest circles of government and corporate power in the world; among its known leaders, two are major business magnates, one a well-connected environmental activist, and one a special adviser to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Concept and creation

Quantum filled in for SMERSH from the Casino Royale novel, and subsequently became a sort of successor or revision to both SMERSH from the early novels and SPECTRE from the early years of the film series. Their name derives from the short story "Quantum of Solace" published in For Your Eyes Only, which was also used as the film's title. One of the organization's trademarks is that the leaders of Quantum mostly are chauffered around in black Jaguar XJs.

Appearances

Main articles: Casino Royale (2006 film) and Quantum of Solace

In Casino Royale, Quantum is featured in the background but not named; it is represented only through its middleman, Mr. White. The film's main villain, Le Chiffre, is a private banker for international terrorists with connections to the organization. At the beginning of the movie, Mr. White introduces Le Chiffre to Steven Obanno, a feared leader in the Lord's Resistance Army, who entrusts him with his money. Le Chiffre loses the money when Bond foils his plot to short an airline's stock for more than $100 million, and then loses his chance to win the money back in a high stakes poker game with Bond. Mr. White hears of this and executes him, stating that "money's not as valuable to our organization as knowing who to trust." In reality, he executed Le Chiffre to allow Bond (the only person who knew the password to the money) to remain alive so they could steal it.

Quantum Lapel Pin (Worn by Dominic Greene).

However, these events alert the British Secret Intelligence Service and the American CIA to Quantum's existence. One of the organization's moles inside the British government, Vesper Lynd, falls in love with Bond and gives him information on Mr. White before committing suicide. At the end of the movie, Bond tracks down and captures Mr. White after shooting him in the leg. At the beginning of the second film, Bond kills Mr. White's Quantum bodyguards in a car chase, and pulls White from the trunk of his car so he can be interrogated by M. But after Mr. White says "the first thing you should know about us is that we have people everywhere", it is revealed that Craig Mitchell, a senior MI6 agent present at the interrogation, is a Quantum mole. Though Bond eventually kills Mitchell, the distraction allows Mr. White to escape.

Quantum of Solace features Bond chasing Dominic Greene, one of Quantum's top leaders. Greene plans to create a coup d'état in Bolivia, installing his associate General Medrano as the country's new dictator, in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land on the Atacama desert, which will give Greene and Quantum complete control of the nation's water supply. The coup is thwarted just in time by Bond and Camille Montes of Bolivian Intelligence. Bond interrogates Greene and then abandons him in the middle of the desert; Greene is later found dead with two bullets in the back of his head, executed by Quantum for his failure.

By the end of the movie, Bond and MI6 have revealed the identities of three of Quantum's remaining leaders (Guy Haines, Gregor Karakov, and Moishe Soref), thwarted their third plot (to infiltrate Canadian intelligence) and finally have one of its members, Yusef Kabira, in custody.

Ideology

Operating under the mantra, "We deal with the left and the right, dictators or liberators", the Quantum organization appears to be a New World Order power-cabal, composed of various plutocrats, wealthy technology magnates, and powerful members of the intelligence agencies of both the Western and former Eastern blocs (including the CIA, MI6, Mossad, and KGB). Quantum is apolitical, primarily concerned with amassing more wealth and power, through various schemes ranging from serving as a third party source of funds for various terrorist groups, to illicitly buying up the rights to limited natural resources in third world countries (such as gaining a monopoly on the water supply of Bolivia). Quantum is capable of and willing to depose various dictators or legitimate governments to replace them with new heads of state that are more willing to pay off their organization. Quantum is not above conducting acts of terrorism directly, though these are for purely financial, and not political reasons, i.e. Le Chiffre planned to blow up a commercial airline flight, simply in order to harm the airline industry and thus influence stock market trends in his favor.

Known members and associates

• Mr. White – Quantum's representative between Obanno and Le Chiffre. Still at large.
  • Le Chiffre – though not a Quantum member, he was a private banker to major terrorists who are introduced through Quantum, until Mr. White executes him. Shot in the head.
    • Valenka – Le Chiffre's girlfriend.
  • Adolph Gettler – a Quantum operative with a Jericho 941 and one darkened eyeglass lens sent to retrieve money coerced from Vesper Lynd; Mr. White's second-in-command. Shot in darkened lens with a nail gun by Bond once his security team is decimated in a collapsing venetian palazzo.
  • Craig Mitchell – a deep cover Quantum operative who deceived both M and Bond. Shot by Bond after a tense standoff in a Siena art gallery when Mitchell wasn't quick enough retrieving his SIG-Sauer P226.
  • "Tall Man" – Gettler's subordinate in Venice. Crushed by elevator.
  • Vesper Lynd – Blackmailed by Mr. White to embezzle Bond's winnings.
• Dominic Greene – leader of Quantum's Tierra Project and a major player in the organization. Ran an environmentalist corporation called Greene Planet. Assassinated for betraying Quantum.
  • Edmund Slate – a freelance assassin hired by Greene to murder Camille Montes. Stabbed in the neck and then the leg with scissors by Bond.
  • Elvis – Greene's main subordinate. Blown up.
• Yusef Kabira – a Quantum operative who functions as a honeypot to deceive foreign intelligence agents (first Vesper Lynd, then Corrine). Arrested.
• Guy Haines – Quantum leader, is a special envoy of the Prime Minister and is one of the PM's most trusted advisers, Is a member of the Quantum identified by Tanner using Bond's photos from the opera Tosca. Still at large.
• Gregor Karakov – Quantum leader, a former politician, owner of several mines in Siberia, is a member of the Quantum identified by Tanner using Bond's photos from the opera Tosca. Still at large.
• Moishe Soref – Quantum leader, former Mossad agent, and Telecom giant. Is a member of the Quantum identified by Tanner using Bond's photos from the opera Tosca. Still at large.
• "Man with Gift Bag" – a Quantum member at the Tosca opera; Bond incapacitates him and uses his earpiece to spy on the organization's leadership.

See also

• SPECTRE
• The Union

References

• Breznican, Anthony (4 April 2008). "James Bond series takes a 'Quantum' leap". USA Today. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
• "New Bond film title is confirmed". BBC News. 24 January 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2008.