James Bond Character - Fiona Volpe
About
| Age | Late 20s |
|---|---|
| Ethnicity | Italian |
| Role | Henchwoman |
| Status | Dead |
Summary
Fiona Volpe was a SPECTRE henchwoman in Thunderball. Her main duties were to seduce men, including Francois Derval and James Bond, in order to make them vulnerable, so that other SPECTRE agents could kill or kidnap them.
| Played by | Luciana Paluzzi | Appears in | Thunderball (1965) |
|---|
The Character in the Film
Fiona Volpe was a henchwoman working for SPECTRE. She had the job of seducing NATO pilot Francois Derval, so that he could be kidnapped and replaced by an impostor who had undertaken facial surgery. The plan was for the impostor to board a NATO plane and hijack two nuclear missiles.
Fiona seduced Francois and made love to him, to keep him in his room until fellow SPECTRE agent Count Lippe and the impostor Angelo Palazzi arrived. Angelo gases Francois to death, and Fiona arranges for him to be taken away in an ambulance. She bandages his face so that they can pull a bait-and-switch, so that the other guests will assume Angelo Palazzi had died.
Fiona gives Angelo some equipment and his $100,00 payment, but Angelo tries to extort more money out of them, thinking he has the upper hand due to the two years of preparation work that went into the operation. Count Lippe almost shoots him, but Fiona agrees to his demand for more money, knowing that she can have him killed after the operation is complete.
After Angelo hijacks the plane, and the UK side of the operation is complete, Count Lippe drives after Bond to get revenge for Bond having locked him in a hot steam bath. What Lippe doesn't realize is that Fiona is also chasing him. The head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, had ordered Fiona to kill Count Lippe because his poor choice of Angelo Palazzi may have jeopardized the entire operation. Fiona chases him on a motorbike and blows up his car with a missile.
Fiona then flies to the Bahamas to join the Nassau side of the operation. While driving to her hotel one evening, she meets Bond at a road-side. Bond is dressed in a wet suit, having narrowly escaped death after spying on a boat belonging to SPECTRE #2 Emilio Largo.
| Bond: | Can I have a lift? |
| Fiona: | Sure |
| Bond: | Thank you. You've just about saved my life. |
| Fiona: | Really? |
| Bond: | My outboard capsized, so I had to swim ashore. |
Fiona tries to scare Bond by driving along the tight road at over 100 miles per hour, before coming to an abrupt stop outside her hotel. At which point Bond manages to fit in an in-joke reference to Dr. No:
| Fiona: | You look pale Mr. Bond, I hope I didn't frighten you. |
| Bond: | Well you see, I've always been a nervous passenger. |
The next day, Fiona goes to meet Largo, to discuss Bond. She tells Largo that his hasty attempt to try and kill Bond was foolish, as it would have signalled to the British government that the Bombs were in Nassau. She suggests keeping Bond alive until the time is right, saying she will kill him.
Always trying to be a few steps ahead, Fiona goes with Largo's men, Vargas and Janni, to kidnap Bond's assistant. She tells them to use Chloroform on her, so her screaming can't be heard by other guests in the hotel.
Bond arrives back at the hotel and finds Fiona in his bath. Fiona makes love to Bond to keep him in the room, until some SPECTRE henchmen arrive, just as she did with Francois Derval.
| Bond: | My dear girl, don't flatter yourself. What I did this evening was for King and country. You don't think it gave me any pleasure, do you? |
| Fiona: | But of course, I forgot your ego Mr. Bond. James Bond, who only has to make love to a women, then she starts to hear heavenly choirs singing. She repents, and immediately returns to the side of right and virtue. But, not this one. |
Fiona's speech was a direct response by the Producers to criticisms of prior Bond films. Bond girls Tatiana Romanova and Pussy Galore from the previous two films had done as Fiona described.
Fiona plans to take Bond back to Largo, but Bond manages to escape in a small fire. One of the henchmen shoots Bond in the leg, and Fiona manages to track him by the blood trail. She dances with Bond, and tries to persuade him to come quietly. At that moment, the henchmen shoots Bond in the back, but Bond spins round and the bullet kills Fiona instead.