Gustav Graves

Gustav Graves is a male film character that features in the James Bond series.

Biography

Graves was born Tan-Sun Moon, son of General Moon. When first seen, he is a Colonel (Sangchwa) in the Korean People's Army. He studied at Oxford and Harvard and was intended to become a bridge between the South and North Korea. Instead, he became a radical and a weapons smuggler, exchanging state of the art hovercraft weapons (that he developed for use in the mine-infested DMZ, the hovercrafts being able to pass over the mines where all other vehicles would be destroyed) for conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, intent on the invasion and conquest of South Korea. MI6 becomes aware of his activities, however, and dispatches three agents, including James Bond, to shut him down. The mission is a success, and Moon is believed to have died when his hovercraft falls off a cliff.

Moon survives, however, and flees to Cuba, where he undergoes DNA replacement therapy to alter his appearance to make him appear to be of European descent. He then reinvents himself as Gustav Graves, a British billionaire adventurer who works in diamond mines in Argentina and later discovers a great mine of diamonds in Iceland. In reality, the mine is just a laundering front for conflict diamonds, which he had been dealing with originally. He assumes a new personality modeled on James Bond due to the distinct impression the other man made on him during their brief confrontation: sophisticated, suave and, by Graves' own admission, arrogant. The DNA alteration was not without side effects, as Graves was plagued with permanent insomnia and has to use a special "dream machine" for an hour each day to rest and preserve his sanity, although in the novelisation he acknowledges that even this is only a temporary measure as he can almost feel his sanity slipping away.

With his new wealth, he builds the Icarus, a huge artificial satellite capable of harnessing solar energy and focusing it on any part of the world in the form of a laser. Graves' official reasons for the construction of Icarus are ending weather inconvenience and poverty and helping the harvests. His real reasons are more sinister, however; he is still intent on conquest of South Korea, and plans to use Icarus to create a pathway in the mined demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, then use Icarus to destroy any ballistic missiles or nuclear warheads launched against North Korea, so that the North Koreans could cross the DMZ and easily invade South Korea and the next step, Japan. Graves has the controls for Icarus built into an armored suit with an additional electroshock weapon for self-defense. Before he flies back to North Korea, Bond finds out that Graves' true identity is actually Colonel Tan-Sun Moon when he discovers the dream machine in Graves' headquarters.

Moon puts his plan into action when he and some his fellow North Korean hard-liners stage a coup to take control of the country, as he accompanies his father to use Icarus in the DMZ. He takes off in an Antonov An-124 with General Moon, and unbeknownst to him, James Bond along with Jinx, onboard to watch the scene. When General Moon immediately pulls out one of his officers' Makarovs to threaten Graves, trying to stop the plan, Graves murders his own father, and takes his medal. Bond then attempts to kill Graves, but a North Korean guard finds him and manages to wrestle him. Due to the guard, the shot misses and breaks a window in the plane, sending all other passengers except himself and Graves in the room flying out. The two fight until Bond uses Graves' parachute and the electroshock function of his suit to forcibly eject him, and Graves is sucked into the blades of the plane's jet engine, killing him and destroying his suit, rendering the Icarus harmless.

Notes

• Gustav Graves appeared as the main antagonist in the James Bond film Die Another Day where he was portrayed by actor Toby Stephens.

Appearances

• Die Another Day:

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