| Alec Trevelyan / Janus | |
| Series: | James Bond |
| First: | GoldenEye (1995) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Occupation: | Head of Janus (former MI6 operative) |
| Affiliation: | Janus |
| Lbl21: | Classification |
| Data21: | Villain |
| Voice: | Elliot Cowan (2010 video game) |
| Lbl22: | Henchmen |
| Data22: | Xenia Onatopp General Ourumov Boris Grishenko |
Alec Trevelyan is a fictional character portraying the main antagonist in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, portrayed by actor Sean Bean. Bean's likeness was also used as the model for Alec Trevelyan in the 1997 video game GoldenEye 007.[1]
The character Trevelyan is born to Lienz Cossacks who collaborated with the Nazis, but attempted to defect to the United Kingdom at the end of World War II. When the UK instead sent them back to the Soviets, many are executed by Joseph Stalin's death squads. Though Trevelyan's parents survive, his father, ashamed to have lived, kills his wife and himself. At the time, Trevelyan is only six years old. He is then transported to the United Kingdom and taken in by MI6, which continue to sponsor his training and education throughout his childhood (by Trevelyan's own account, MI6 think he would have been "too young to remember"). At 18, he begins to formally work for MI6 under the alias Agent 006, and subsequently begins planning his revenge against the British government for his family's demise.[2] He considers recruiting fellow MI6 agent and friend James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to his cause, but ultimately decides against it, believing Bond too loyal to MI6.
On a mission working alongside Bond to blow up the Arkhangelsk chemical weapons facility in the Soviet Union, Trevelyan betrays MI6. During the operation, Trevelyan fakes his own execution with the help of the base's commander, Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov (Gottfried John). Bond manages to finish the mission and escapes unscathed by changing the sequence of detonation timers. This action unwittingly leads to Trevelyan being disfigured in the subsequent explosion. Later Bond admits to M (Judi Dench) that he feels responsible for Trevelyan's apparent death.
Nine years later, Bond's pursuit of a stolen helicopter and investigation of an explosion leads him to Saint Petersburg, where he learns from gangster Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane) that the head of the crime syndicate responsible for the theft is a man operating under the name Janus. Later, when he finally meets Janus, Bond is shocked to discover the scarred Trevelyan.
Trevelyan's scheme begins with the theft of the experimental, electromagnetically insulated Tiger helicopter from the French frigate La Fayette, using his two primary operatives, Ourumov, now a General in the Russian army and head of their Space Division, and Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen). With the helicopter, the two fly to the GoldenEye satellite facility in Severnaya, Siberia, where they murder the staff, steal the access keys for the GoldenEye weapons satellite, and program the satellite to destroy the facility to cover up the theft. The GoldenEye weapons satellite is actually two smaller disposable satellites named Petya and Mischa, which are armed with nuclear warheads that when detonated in the atmosphere create electromagnetic pulses capable of destroying any machinery with an electronic signal.
Trevelyan plans to use GoldenEye to help him electronically steal hundreds of millions of pounds sterling from the Bank of England in London, with its electromagnetic pulse causing a blackout in London that would erase all evidence of the transaction. GoldenEye would also erase the bank's financial records, crippling the British economy and government, triggering a catastrophic currency crisis, and causing global economic chaos.
Bond stops this scheme with the help of surviving Severnaya technician Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) and CIA agent Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker). Wade helps Bond and Natalya track Trevelyan's Cuban headquarters and Natalya subsequently programs the GoldenEye satellite to crash after resetting the access codes. As Bond attempts to disable the GoldenEye antenna, Trevelyan attacks him and the two scrap on the bottom of the satellite antenna, suspended high above the dish. Bond eventually knocks Trevelyan off the antenna, but reflexively grabs him by the leg.
While hanging, Trevelyan mockingly asks Bond, "For England, James?" Bond replies, "No, for me," and lets go. Trevelyan falls a number of stories down to the dish, but survives, mortally wounded. Moments later, the antenna array, sabotaged by Bond, explodes and collapses in a fiery wreck on top of Trevelyan, finally killing him.
Trevelyan was the only 00 Agent (other than Bond himself) to have a substantial role in a Bond film, including sizeable screen and speaking time, until the debut of Lashana Lynch's Nomi in 2021's No Time to Die. Previously, the only other '00' agent to have had any amount of screen time or to play a role in a Bond film was Octopussys 009, portrayed by stuntman Andy Bradford.
Apart from seeing the back of their heads or shortly before they are killed and/or dead already (Thunderball, A View to a Kill, and The Living Daylights), other 00 agents are rarely seen and only spoken of (an example being Agent 002 Bill Fairbanks in The Man with the Golden Gun, who is only mentioned). When Bean auditioned for the film, he was considered for the role of Bond (see List of actors considered for the James Bond character).
Trevelyan has been consistently ranked among the greatest Bond villains, and is considered the dark inversion of Bond.[3] [4] [5]