Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp(Russian:Ксения Сергеевна Онатопп,romanized:Kseniya Sergeevna Onatopp) is a fictional character andBond girlin theJames BondfilmGoldenEye,played by actressFamke Janssen.She is a fighter pilot and assassin who crushes her enemies with her thighsto get sexual satisfaction,working for the renegadeMI6agentAlec Trevelyan(Sean Bean).
| Xenia Onatopp | |
|---|---|
| James Bondcharacter | |
 Famke Janssenas Xenia Onatopp | |
| First appearance | GoldenEye(1995) |
| Portrayed by | Famke Janssen(1995) |
| Voiced by | Jenya Lano(GoldenEye: Rogue Agent) Kate Magowan(GoldenEye 007) |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Affiliation | ex-Soviet Air Force Janus |
| Classification | Bond girl/Henchwoman |
Onatopp has appeared in a number ofJames Bond video gamesas a playable multiplayer character.
In the film
editOnatopp, born in theGeorgian Soviet Socialist Republic,is a former officer and fighter pilot in theSoviet Air Force.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she joins the crime syndicate Janus, led by traitorousMI6agent Alec Trevelyan. Early in the movie, Bond (Pierce Brosnan) gets into a car chase with her, meets her ata casino,and places her under surveillance.
She lures aCanadianadmiral,Chuck Farrell (Billy J. Mitchell), onto a yacht moored offMonte Carloand kills him duringsex(honey trapping) by crushing hisribswith her thighs, achievingorgasmin the process. Meanwhile, Trevelyan's henchman General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov (Gottfried John) steals the dead admiral'sNATOID, granting him and Onatopp access to a prototype EMP-hardenedEurocopter Tigeraboard a French warship anchored off Monte Carlo.
Onatopp then hijacks the helicopter by killing the two pilots. Later, she and Ourumov use the hijacked Tiger in an attack on the Severnaya satellite control center in centralSiberia,where they steal the controller for the GoldenEye satellite weapon. During the attack, she kills all the military personnel and civilian technicians present and is visibly aroused by the killing. She then appears as Bond's link to the Janus group. In a meeting arranged by Bond's dealings with Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), a Russian arms dealer and formerKGBagent, Onatopp arrives to meet Bond as he swims in aTurkish Bath.The two indulge in aggressive foreplay where Onatopp attempts to crush Bond between her thighs, he finally draws hisWalther PPKon her and demands to be taken to Janus.
In her final encounter with Bond inCuba,she ambushes him and Severnaya programmerNatalya Simonova(Izabella Scorupco) by rappeling from a helicopter and again attempts to crush him between her legs. Bond uses her assault rifle to damage the helicopter, entangling her rope, which pulls her off him, crushing her to death against a tree trunk.
In video games
editHer first appearance in a video game was in the 1997 video game adaptation ofGoldenEye,GoldenEye 007for theNintendo 64.She is with Trevelyan on the train stage of the game. If the player quickly shoots her after eliminating Ourumov, she will yell to Trevelyan that she is wounded and to wait up for her; this buys the player more time to escape from the train. She later reappears in the jungle stage. Similar to the film, she is killed in the jungles of Cuba in a firefight with Bond. Killing Onatopp is the only way for the player todual-wieldtwo different guns in the game without a complex series of button presses; she uses an RC-P90and agrenade launcherat the same time.
In the James Bond gameNightfire,Onatopp also appears as a multiplayer character. She can be unlocked by a cheat on thecheats menuas Janus, the organization she works for in the movie.
She appeared in the spinoff Bond gameGoldenEye: Rogue Agentwhere she works forDr. Julius Noand is Agent GoldenEye's alluring opponent. She is commander of No's army, which has taken over theHoover Dam.She is killed after being thrown off of the Hoover Dam while fighting Goldeneye. In the game, her likeness was based onFamke Janssenbut was voiced by actressJenya Lano.
She appears in theGoldenEyeremakeas a former Russian general who served under Ouromov during the Russian invasion ofGeorgia.Her plot arc is significantly changed for the remake. She appears in the Nightclub level (where Bond first meets her) disguised as a waitress, and assassinates Valentin Zukovsky after he gives vital information about Janus to Bond - the man is framed for the murder of Zukovsky. She betrays and assassinates Ouromov in the train level in which she appears. During her final confrontation with Bond, she is lowered down to him from a helicopter and proceeds to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him. She is defeated when Bond launches a missile at her helicopter while she is strangling him, the helicopter crashing into a nearby gorge and dragging her down with it. She is voiced by and modeled afterKate Magowan.
Analysis
editAnna Katherine Amacker and Donna Ashley Moore suggest that Onatopp is a "direct throwback to the earlier style of Bond girl, complete with an innuendo-laden name and a blatant sexuality."[1]Robert A. Saunders suggests that she "personifies thehypersexualizedarchetype of thepost-SovietRussian woman."[2]
Helena Bassil-Morosow suggests that Onatopp is "visuallycodedas a stereotypicaldominatrix:dark hair, bright red lipstick, smoky eyeshadow and sharply defined eyebrows, "[3]while Monica Germanà suggests that "Xenia's glamour encapsulates the sadistic quality of her excessive appetite".[4]
Bassil-Morosow goes on to note that Onatopp "also sees violence as a broadly defined sexual act in which she gets to dominate and ultimately decide people's fates," and argues that she "poses a threat to Bond's status as a dominant male as she consistently outdoes him in all his favourite activities: driving, killing, risk-taking and having sex with multiple partners." In this way, she "has to be eventually killed by him because not only is she ruthless and unstoppable but also metaphorically as a punishment for refusing to admire him." Bassil-Morosow concludes that "Onatopp's character, masculinised, independent, domineering and sexually liberated, can be read as a bitter parody of feminism."[3]
Reception
editXenia Onatopp has appeared in several lists of the top 10Bond girls,including byEntertainment Weekly.[5]Yahoo! Movieshad her name included in the list of the best Bond girl names, even while calling it a "slightly-too-obvious pun."[6]In 2015,The Telegraphsuggested that "in the stolid Brosnan years, former Soviet fighter pilot Onatopp was a breath of fresh air."[7]Paul Simpson argues that with Onatopp, thefemme fatalemade a "welcome reappearance" after the role had previously fallen out of fashion.[8]
References
edit- ^Amacker, Anna Katherine; Moore, Donna Ashley (2012).""The Bitch is Dead": Anti-feminist Rhetoric in Casino Royale ".James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The Films are Not Enough.Newcastle Upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 151.ISBN9781443843843.Retrieved25 July2015.
- ^Saunders, Robert A. (2011)."Brand Interrupted: The Impact of Alternative Narrators on Nation Branding in the Former Second World".Branding Post-Communist Nations: Marketizing National Identities in the "New" Europe.Abingdon, England:Routledge.p. 53.ISBN978-0415882750.Retrieved25 July2015.
- ^abBassil-Morosow, Helena (2020)."The Soviet Woman in Bond Films".From Blofeld to Moneypenny: Gender in James Bond.Emerald Group Publishing.p. 99.ISBN9781838671655.Retrieved10 November2022.
- ^Germanà, Monica (2019).Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender.Bloomsbury Publishing.p. 170.ISBN9781350124714.Retrieved11 November2022.
- ^Rich, Joshua (30 March 2007)."The 10 Best Bond Girls".Entertainment Weekly.New York City:Time, Inc.Archivedfrom the original on 7 January 2014.Retrieved4 April2011.
- ^James Bond at 50: the best Bond Girl names | Movie Editor's Blog - Yahoo! Movies UK
- ^"Five Bond characters who should make a comeback".The Daily Telegraph.London, England. 28 May 2015.Retrieved25 July2015.
- ^Simpson, Paul (2020).Bond vs. Bond: The Many Faces of 007.Race Point Publishing.p. 179.ISBN9781631066962.Retrieved14 June2021.