The Money Bomb was a fictional improvised explosive device (IED) created and used by oil heiress, Elektra King, and the terrorist, Renard, to bomb the SIS Building in November, 1999.[1] The weapon first appeared in the 1999James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough, along with its accompanying novelisation and video game adaptation.
History[]
The money bomb was utilized in Elektra King's scheme to kill her father, Sir Robert King, and the Head of MI6. Prior to the events of the film, her associate, Renard, murders an MI6 agent to obtain a classified report stolen from the Russian Atomic Energy Department. Her oil tycoon father accidentally purchases the document on the black market, having been led to believe it would identify the terrorists who had attacked his new oil pipeline. Shortly after the transaction, Lachaise, a middle-man in the affair, offers to return Sir Robert's money via MI6. The intelligence agency sends James Bond to meet with the banker and retrieve the money.
The bomb explodes, killing Sir Robert King
Unbeknownst to Sir Robert and MI6, Renard has orchestrated the events and has converted the money into a highly compacted fertiliser bomb. The £3,030,303.03 cash, mostly comprised of £50 notes, had been dipped in urea, dried and packed tight. The metal anti-counterfeiting strip on one of the notes had been replaced with magnesium, which acted as the detonator. The bomb was designed to be triggered by a radio transmitter hidden in a duplicate of King's heirloom lapel pin. Bond realizes too late to stop the bomb from detonating; killing the oil tycoon, destroying the vault and blowing a large hole in the north-facing wall of the SIS Building. The bombing led to the temporary relocation of MI6's operations to Castle Thane, Scotland and the ascendancy of Elektra, who inherited her father's business.
Trivia[]
- In Raymond Benson's novelization, King's lapel pin was named the "Eye of the Glens".[2]
- The novelization's lapel pin is explicitly a radio receiver/ transmitter, which was primed by a trigger signal sent from the nearby assassin, Giulietta da Vinci. The counterpart to the transmitter is found in the boat she left behind on the Thames.[2]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ (1999). The World Is Not Enough (Blu-Ray). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Event occurs at 00:23:53. "Receipt dated 15th November 1999"
- ↑ 2.02.1Benson, Raymond; Neil Purvis & Robert Wade (1999). "Chapter 03: Elektra", The World Is Not Enough (in En). Boulevard. ISBN 9780425173503.
