SILVA, RAOUL

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

Charismatic, revenge-crazed cyberterrorist portrayed by Javier Bardem in Skyfall. Born Tiago Rodriguez, Silva was once an MI6 agent, assigned to Station H–Hong Kong between 1986 and 1997. He claims that he was a favorite of M (Dame Judi Dench) but M has a different recollection. According to her, he exceeded his orders, hacking into Chinese intelligence as Great Britain was preparing to hand over control of Hong Kong to China. When the Chinese learned of his tricks, M was forced to give him up. In return, she got back six captured agents and ensured a peaceful transition.

Silva chose to bite into the cyanide capsule hidden in his back left molar, but it didn’t kill him, it only disfigured the inside of his mouth. Now Silva is determined to kill M and thoroughly disrupt British intelligence—in conjunction with, as we learn in the following film, his new allies in SPECTRE.

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