Stunningly beautiful but treacherous daughter of oil tycoon Sir Robert King (David Calder), portrayed by French actress Sophie Marceau in The World Is Not Enough. King was abducted by former KGB agent Renard (Robert Carlyle) before our story takes place, but on the advice of M (Dame Judi Dench), her father didn’t pay the $5 million ransom and Elektra was forced to shoot her way out of captivity. At least that’s what she’s told the world’s press. In reality, she’s a victim of Stockholm syndrome, by which a kidnapping victim falls in love with her captor. Now partnered with Renard and intent on revenge like her mythological Greek namesake, Elektra helps the terrorist murder her father with a “compacted fertilizer bomb” deployed by Julietta the Cigar Girl (Maria Grazia Cucinotta) and then targets M for abduction and eventual assassination. Now in charge of her father’s company, she also enlists Renard to take out three competing Russian oil pipelines—a plot that involves detonating a nuclear device in the Bosphorus.

Unaware that she’s turned, M (who has been friends with the King family for many years) sends 007 (Pierce Brosnan) to Azerbaijan to protect Elektra from further trouble. When 007 saves her from marauding Parahawk hang gliders, Elektra thanks him with a hop in the sack. However, all of this is a plot to lure M to her doom. When Bond is also captured, Elektra places him in a medieval torture device that can snap his neck with the turn of a wheel. In one of the best torture sequences in the series since the encounter between Bond (Sean Connery) and the laser beam in Goldfinger, it looks like 007 has finally met his match. But he’s rescued by casino owner Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who, before Elektra kills him, shatters Bond’s leg shackle with a single shot from the gun hidden in his cane.

Bond escapes, chasing Elektra through her Maiden’s Tower hideaway in the Bosphorus and corners her in an upstairs bedroom. Ignoring her pompous comment that he could never kill a woman he made love to, Bond nails her with a single shot from his Walther. Still, the look on 007’s face says that he didn’t enjoy it. Score a major victory for actor Pierce Brosnan, who really grew into the Bond role in this film.