Camille Montes: A Bond Girl with a Vengeance in Quantum of Solace
Camille Montes Rivero is Bolivian Intelligence Service Agent, but she’s on a personal mission for retribution for her family’s brutal execution at the hands of General Medrano, a dictator in exile. She’s the main Bond girl in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.
Ukrainian-French actress and model, Olga Kurylenko, brings this character to life and the action-packed performance has made her one of the most memorable Bond girls throughout the Bond series.
Camille Montes
Background
The youngest child of Ernesto Montes, a member of the Bolivian military, and an unnamed Russian prima ballerina, Camille Montes experiences a tragic childhood.
The opposition to Bolivian government despatch General Medrano to her family home. The ruthless general kills he father before violating her mother and older sister before choking them to death, and then nonchalantly smiling at Camille before leaving.
He departs, leaving the house ablaze, which results in the scorching scars on Camille’s back. The horrific ordeal leaves Camille with both a deep-seated fear of fire and a profound desire to exact vengeance on Medrano. As soon as she’ comes of age’s old enough, Camille affiliates herself with the Bolivian Secret Service, anticipating the perfect opportunity for reprisal.
In her pursuit of revenge, she aligns herself with Dominic Greene, an environmental activist and operative of Quantum, and uses seduction as a tactic to get closer to Medrano. Greene, in return, conspires to topple the Bolivian government in a deal that offers him rights to a seemingly barren tract of Bolivian land rich in hidden resources.
Quantum of Solace
Dominic Greene realises Camille’s intentions to use their liaison to reach General Medrano with deadly intentions. He orders the hitman Edmund Slate, under the guise of a geologist, to meet her in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and kill her.
Luckily, just before she’s supposed to pick Slate up, Agent 007, James Bond kills him for his own reasons and seizes the hitman’s briefcase. Camille Montes mistakes Bond for Slate, thinking he’s the geologist, inviting him into her car.
After discovering a gun and her photo in the briefcase, Camille confronts Bond, who quickly abandons the vehicle. She later challenges Greene about his murder attempt but ends up in the clutches of Medrano, reinforcing Greene’s new alliance.
However, Bond trails them, kills many of Medrano’s accomplices and rescues Camille from certain death.
Days later, Camille Montes attends a party thrown by Greene, where he’s celebrating his Bolivian land acquisition and conducting additional deals. To make Greene disclose Medrano’s location, Camille disrupts his investor relations, causing his rage to boil over.
Bond intervenes, whisking Camille away from the explosive situation. Greene’s henchman Elvis chases them, but Bond’s associate, Strawberry Fields, trips him up, allowing Bond and Camille to make a quick exit.
Despite this, Greene frames Bond for the murder of French agent René Mathis, executed by the corrupt Bolivian police chief, Carlos. Yet, Bond and Camille evade arrest, neutralize two of Carlos’ officers, and commandeer an old transport plane to journey to Bolivia’s Atacama Desert, seeking insight into Greene and Medrano’s scheme.
Carlos dispatches a militarized Aermacchi SF.260TP fighter-trainer to kill the pair, but despite sustaining damage, Bond manages to outmaneuver the attacker, leading to their crash. Bond and Camille plunge into a chasm, and are lucky to survive.
Later, Bond and Camille storm Perla de las Dunas, interrupting Greene and Medrano’s crucial meeting. Camille Montes confronts Medrano, freeing a maid he sought to violate in his hotel room.
Medrano gloats about his past atrocities against Camille’s family and attempts to assault her, but she retaliates, fatally shooting him and concluding her vengeance. Amidst the collapsing, burning hotel, Camille fights her pyrophobia to escape with Bond.
After the mission is complete, Bond accompanies her to a train station, where she heads off, facing an uncertain future.
Olga Kurylenko
Olga Kurylenko, a Ukrainian-French actress and model, was born on November 14, 1979, in Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. At 15, she moved to Moscow and then to Paris a year later, where she signed with Madison modelling agency. She made a name for herself in the modelling industry, gracing the covers of prestigious magazines like Vogue and Elle, and modelling for brands like Bebe and Clarins.
While in Paris, she appeared in music videos, including Faudel’s Tellement Je T’aime and Seal’s Love’s Divine. In 2005, she began her acting career and gained recognition for her performance in the film L’Annulaire, earning a certificate of excellence award at the Brooklyn International Film Festival in 2006.
She achieved worldwide fame in 2008, when she was cast as Bond girl, Camille Montes, a Bolivian Secret Service agent, in Bond 22, Quantum of Solace. Kurylenko has continued to take diverse roles in the film industry, including a part in Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin and Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
