The Bond Villains: Karl Stromberg

Karl Stromberg

After the mysterious disappearance of British and Soviet nuclear submarines, James Bond is sent to investigate the matter. Together with female Russian agent Mayor Anya Amasova, he tracks down the man behind it: webbed-fingered megalomaniac Karl Stromberg, owner of a huge shipping company. Bond and Amasova are confronted with a villain obsessed by the ocean who resides on his own submersible fortress Atlantis. This gigantic masterpiece of engineering, which has the luxury of a Royal Palace, is like a city with its own infrastructure.

Stromberg is a man entirely driven by despite for the human race and proclaims, that the future of civilisation lies underwater. To achieve his diabolical goal, Stromberg captures one British and one Russian nuclear submarine to let them fire on New York and Moscow and thereby instigate a nuclear war between the superpowers that would put an end to humanity.

The striking thing about Stromberg is that he is an overall calm and composed villain. He never raises his voice much, is articulate and polite. Killing accomplices is a necessary evil for him that he soberly treats like everyday business. He even has a soft spot for classical music to make it all more bearable.

“I’m somewhat of a recluse. I wish to conduct my life on my own terms, and in surroundings with which I can identify. That is a privilege of wealth.” – Karl Stromberg

Stromberg´s wicked masterplan is certainly nothing new in the Bond universe. Waging war between superpowers had previously been attempted by Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his organization SPECTRE and the plot to start a new race would later be adapted by villain Hugo Drax in ‘MOONRAKER’. However, Stromberg´s efforts were admirable in their own right: deception, thievery and a larger than life tanker to store the stolen submarines. Would it not have been for James Bond, his plan could indeed have succeeded. In a rather unspectacular and yet brutal way, Stromberg faces his maker when Bond shoots him several times.

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