Raoul Silva

Tiago Rodriguez
Character information
Alias(es)	Raoul Silva
Died	2012, Glencoe, Scotland
Hair	Blond
Eyes	Brown
Height	6'0"
Weight	--
Dist. Features	Dental prosthesis concealing hydrogen cyanide damage
Occupation	MI6 operative (formerly), Cyber-terrorist
Affiliation	MI6 (formerly), Independent
Status	Deceased - Struck by knife thrown by Bond
Behind the scenes
Role	Main Villain
Portrayed by	Javier Bardem

Tiago Rodriguez (who goes by the alias Raoul Silva) is the main villain of the 2012 Bond film Skyfall. Silva is a former MI6 operative turned cyber-terrorist who is hellbent on seeking revenge against those he holds responsible for betraying him, most notably M. He was portrayed by Javier Bardem. 

Film biography

Background

Raoul Silva is of Hispanic descent. Little is known about Silva's early life. He mentions spending time with his grandmother on an island that she apparently owned, including one time when the island was infested with rats. He claims his grandmother showed him how to capture all the rats then what to do with them once captured. The experience taught him about how a creature's nature, even a human's, can be changed.

During his years in MI6, Silva had worked alongside M in Hong Kong from 1986 to 1997. M, who was section chief at the time, noticed that the operative had engaged in unauthorized hacking of the Chinese. Whilst she was overseeing the transition in Hong Kong from a British colony to a special administrative region she sold out Silva in exchange for prisoners held by the Chinese government.

During his capture, torture and imprisonment by the Chinese, Silva attempted to take his own life using a hydrogen cyanide implant in one of his molars. The suicide attempt failed, horrifically scarring Silva both mentally and physically. The botched attempt is shown to have severely damaged his upper jaw so his left cheek is sunken and all but a few teeth have melted away with the few remaining having been mutilated and deformed, requiring Silva to wear a prosthesis to replace the teeth and keep his left cheek up. When taken out his face is disfigured.

Revenge

Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva in a promotional shoot for the movie.

Years later, MI6 faces a crisis when the mercenary Patrice steals a hard drive containing the identities of every NATO agent currently in the field, who were all embedded in terrorist organizations across the globe, and delivered it to Silva. Silva ensures that M is at the centre of the crisis by decrypting the drive using M's personal computer, via a hack, and sending her a message advising her to "think on her sins" before bombing her office (knowing that she isn't inside), bringing her under pressure from the whole of the Secret Service.

Despite the injuries he sustained on a botched mission to retrieve the drive from Patrice, and ignoring the poor results of his re-entry test, M dispatches James Bond to Shanghai after receiving a tip from the CIA about Patrice's next contract. Though he is unsuccessful in learning Silva's identity after Patrice falls to his death from a skyscraper, Bond is able to locate Patrice's contact in a casino in Macau: Silva's mistress, Sévérine, who desperately asks that he kills Silva.

Bond boards Sévérine's yacht at night, which departs to a remote island off the coast of Macau - a former chemical plant which Silva had taken for himself by issuing a false alarm declaring a major leak, prompting all of the workers to evacuate. On the island, Silva's men take Sévérine away and restrain Bond in a chair at the end of a long room filled with Silva's electronic equipment. Silva enters to confront Bond, revealing his former status as an MI6 operative and gruesomely comparing Bond and himself to two tortured rats as a result of M's deceptive nature.

"She sent you to me knowing you are not ready, that you will most likely die...Mommy was very bad."

― Raoul Silva interrogating Bond, referring to M.

Taking Bond outside, Silva then has Sévérine tied to a collapsed statue, placing a small glass of alcohol on her head and forcing Bond to try to knock it off her head with a shot from an old single- shot flintlock pistol. Though Bond tries to spare her by aiming to her side, Silva then takes up his own pistol and shoots her instantly, causing the glass to fall from her head, but as he contemplates killing Bond, Bond is able to incapacitate all of his men. Before Silva has a chance to escape, helicopters that Bond signaled prior to arriving on the island finally arrive, and the team captures Silva.

Captivity & escape

Silva's disfigurement is revealed during his incarceration by MI6.

Back in England, Silva is confined within MI6's underground emergency headquarters, which they had retreated to following the explosion in M's office. When M confronts him in his cell, he expresses his hatred for her after his capture by the Chinese and his failed suicide attempt, and his determination to bring about her downfall. Meanwhile, Q acquires Silva's computer and decrypts a complex algorithm on its drive, which unlocks to form a detailed electronic map of underground London. In connecting Silva's computer to his own, Q inadvertently allows Silva to hack MI6's systems using a virus, releasing him from his cell and allowing him to escape into the subway through a floor grate.

Silva attempts to murder M during the public inquiry.

Realizing that Silva has been one step ahead of them the whole time, his capture by MI6 and subsequent escape having been planned years in advance, Bond deduces that he plans to travel along the subway and emerge at the scene of a public inquiry into M's actions regarding the stolen hard drive. Silva is successfully able to evade Bond at end of the chase by detonating an underground bomb that causes an incoming train to derail, almost crushing Bond. He then makes his way to the inquiry with a small number of henchmen, storming in and firing frantically at M but misses when Mallory takes the hit for her. He never manages to hit M, as he panics when Bond arrives kicking a gun to Eve Moneypenny where they both then flank him. His henchmen are then killed by Mallory who took a gun, shot one of them and then allowed James to notice a fire extinguisher which he then shot causing Silva to lose sight of M forcing him to retreat.

Skyfall

Silva leaves the scene after destroying the Bond family home.

After Silva flees the scene, Bond takes M and leaves London, knowing that Silva and his men will come back in full force after his long-planned strategy failed him. Assigning Q to leave a complex electronic trail that only Silva will be able to follow, Bond takes M to Skyfall, his remote childhood home in Scotland, intending to lead Silva into a trap. With help from the house's gamekeeper, Kincade, Bond and M rig the house with a range of booby traps and explosives, and finish just as a wave of armed henchmen begins to approach from a hilltop. Though most of the henchmen are easily dispatched by the traps and by Bond and Kincade, one of them manages to wound M with a shot to the hip before being killed by Bond.

Bond notices that Silva was not among the gunmen, and having already used all of the traps, he tells Kincade to evacuate M to the nearby chapel via a tunnel beneath the house. Night falls, and a second wave of men, including Silva, arrive in a helicopter. Bond finds a pair of gas tanks and a stick of dynamite, timing them to explode after he escapes through the tunnel himself. Silva and his henchmen circle the house before it explodes, which manages to kill the majority of the gunmen and causes the helicopter to crash.

Death

Silva lies dead on the ground with a combat knife in his back.

Looking across the moors, Silva spots Kincade's flashlight as he escorts M towards the chapel, and stumbles after them. Bond emerges from the tunnel in pursuit, incapacitating one of Silva's two remaining henchmen. He purposely falls through the frozen ice on a lake while fighting the other gunman, allowing Silva to reach the chapel and approach M while Kincade is coincidentally out of sight. Despite his hatred for her, he appears worried when he sees her bleeding wound, but nonetheless holds a gun to her head. When he struggles to execute her himself, he forces the gun into her hand, placing his head beside hers and demanding that she kill both him and herself with a single bullet through their heads.

"You're hurt. You're hurt! What have they done to you? What have they done to you? [puts his gun in her hand] Free us both. With the same bullet. Only you can do it. Do it! Do it!"

― Silva urges M to kill them both.

Bond arrives at the last minute and hurls his father's old combat knife into Silva's back, declaring himself the "last rat standing" in reference to Silva's earlier speech. Silva collapses, dead. His scheme is still fulfilled even after death, as M collapses in Bond's arms and dies from her wound.

Personality

Silva was highly charismatic, cunning, manipulative and a fully-fledged megalomaniac. He was vengeful, as his master-plan was to murder M for giving him up to the Chinese a very long time ago. He was cynical, sly, malicious and very bitter since his country gave him up despite him being a highly brilliant field agent. He was an excellent cyberterrorist and strategist. He was emotional, as even when he was about to kill M he decided that she take both their lives because he was unable to take her life himself. Silva also shows no remorse, as proven by the courtroom shootout, whereby he proceeds to shoot one of his own henchmen when the fight dies down.

Henchmen & Associates

Patrice

Sévérine

Behind the scenes

Discussing his character prior to Skyfall's release, actor Javier Bardem described Raoul Silva as "more than a villain". His co-star, Daniel Craig stated that Bond has a "very important relationship" to Silva. In casting the role, director Sam Mendes admitted that he lobbied hard for Bardem to accept the part as Mendes recognised the potential for the character to be recognised as one of the most-memorable characters in the franchise and so wanted to create "something [the audience] may consider to have been absent from the Bond movies for a long time".

He felt that Bardem was one of the few actors up to the task of becoming "colourless" and existing within the world of the film as something more than a function of the plot, and so pushed hard for the actor to be cast. In preparing for the role, Bardem had the script translated into his native Spanish in order to better-understand his character, which Mendes cited as being a sign of the actor's commitment to the film. Bardem dyed his hair blond for the role after brainstorming ideas with Mendes to come up with a distinct visual look for the character.

Images

Official Skyfall promotional poster featuring Bardem as Raoul Silva.

Silva in a prison cell after being captured by MI6.

Silva on the London Underground Tube, disguised as a police officer.

Silva confronts a wounded M in the estate's chapel.

Videos

Skyfall - Mind the Gap

Skyfall (2012) - Interview: Javier Bardem

Trivia

• Originally, the Austrian actor Michael Pink was supposed to play Silva until Bardem got the role. Still Pink is seen as a henchman in the battle scenes at the end.