Invent a Crime Syndicate for Bond...

[Big Orange]

If SPECTRE does not come back in the up coming Craig movies, what kind of international syndicate could be behind LeChifre and Mr. White's sinister activities in Casino Royale? Here is my idea for a SPECTRE-style knock off:

* It is known only as "The Association".

* The Association is a secret global network of businessmen, scientists, mercenaries, and ex-spies whose goal is to forge a global hegemony of total peace and economic prosperity, but through potentially dirty means.

* The Association has significant links to Western governments and MI6 has even contacted this organization for it's services in the past.

* The Association is internally democratic on paper, has no defined commander with a council of cell leaders governing Association affairs and policies, but power struggles still occur between cell leaders on occasion, yet this bickering both overt or covert is kept in check by certain cell leaders with more political/financial clout than the others, and by the collective vetoing powers of the Association's council.

* The Association has existed since the 1500s, but remained a purely passive intelligence and financial organization only until WWI, when a clique of Association members wanted to take things directly into their own hands on the international stage.

* The Association has established various major holding companies as commercial fronts and bases of operations, with the paramilitary/intelligence sections of the Association operating out of them, perhaps posing as government agencies (as inspired by Alias).

* The Association's leadership is mobile, holding meetings in not the same place twice since the 1960s, at the advent of more advanced intelligence gathering displayed by the Cold War powers.

[Gullible Jones]

No... Just no. Too old, too vast, too Illuminati-like. Heck, I'm not a Bond fan, but that's too generic and cliche even for a spoof like Bond.

[Cykeisme]

Hey, that isn't sci-fi!
</nitpick>

[Uraniun235]

"The Association" is a really lame name. It immediately compares unfavorably to the deliciously evil SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion.

[18-Till-I-Die]

Ok dig this.

Legion...the letters dont meant anything, they just like the sound of it.

Legion is made up of ex-secret agents, many of whom were discarded by their governments after some mission needed to be "denied" or some such, and so they're all extremely skilled and extremely pissed.

Your bassic evil crime syndicate, Legion is dedicated to ruling all of mankind by manipulating political systems from behind the scenes. As the entire organization, from top to bottom, is filled with former spies, assassins and secret agents they specialize not so much in direct military conflicts but in using stealth, black ops and assassinations to spark wars and cause chaos.

The danger here is that their basic guys, called Legionnaires, are all like Jason Bournes or Ethan Hunts, all extremely well trained and highly skilled, and they have basically their own Q Branch called "The Armory" that supplies their Legionnaires with all kinds of fancy shit like Bond has. More so they actually have guys equivalent to him, elite forces of a sort. So one way or another, it's basically Bond vs a whole cadre of Bonds.

Their primary disadvantage is their small size. These guys arent easy to come by, so they only have maybe a few thousand people worldwide. However, because they're all experts at such covert tomfoolery they can easily outmaneuver larger organizations and manipulate them from within to their own ends. Legion's basic means to make money, for example, is to use a few assassinations and terrorist attacks to spark wars, and then make a killing selling WMDs to both sides on the black market, or because of their dealings with (read: extortion of) arms companies. What did you think Iraqi Freedom was really about? Or the Gulf War. Or Nam, etc etc.

It's implied that several smaller groups, like some of those lesser organizations Bond faced in the past (i.e. Moonraker, Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies) were actually being funded and controlled by Legion. Which is why they come after bond now, as he's fucked with their plans to spark profitable wars and such for too long and they want to nip this in the bud now.

[Shinova]

If it's any comfort, I think Legion sounds even worse than Association.

[Coalition]

One option would be a decentralized type of criminal organization. Instead of a hierarchy, you have lots of individual groups that cover different areas. You would have drug dealers that sell, drug buyers that buy, transport arrangements, money laundering, lists of bribed agents, etc, but all of them would have their own smaller organization. They would meet at different gathering places (also individually controlled), where they would talk around, everyone trying to get a good deal. Other places would have their own people, trying to drum up business for their spots as well.

So there is no central organization, no head to cut off, just a lot of smaller people who move illegal stuff everywhere. Lower profits individually, but much harder to crack. Even if you do take someone out, their 'territory', whether in drugs, transportation, bribes, etc would be up for sale. You'd see 007 trying to slowly infiltrate the organization, and implicating others as potential leaks, to shut down the markets. Once the last market is in place, and the top dealers are in place, they are taken down.

But even as he takes them down, you switch to a view of other dealers hearing about the take-down, and dividing up the areas among them.

[JME2]

If it's any comfort, I think Legion sounds even worse than Association.

Irregardless, the name Legion's already taken:

[Shroom Man 777]

SERPENT

Society for Espionage, Revenge, Perjury, Extortion, Notoriety and Theft

[Stark]

Their primary goal is notoriety! That's awesome

[Bounty]

What we really need is a Bond vs the Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity crossover movie. With a cameo from guy who's now on NCIS and the dude from Hustle.

Admit it, you'd want to see it.

[Big Orange]

No... Just no. Too old, too vast, too Illuminati-like. Heck, I'm not a Bond fan, but that's too generic and cliche even for a spoof like Bond.

James Bond by definition is a hodge-podge of archetypes, formulas, and clichés, even with the relatively more grounded Bonds movies such as From Russia With Love, Casino Royale, TWINE, and LTK. I just thought up of a more deeper and widespread group of bad guys for Bond to defeat over the course of three or four movies into the next decade, and adequately takes the place of SPECTRE. The "Association" name tag seems pretty trite, but it could just be a colloquial name for the global network of businessmen, private spies, and professional criminals working together to stabilize international politics.

I don't think the Association is too much like the Illuminati, because they do not secretly control every government on Earth, and have fairly tight limits to their international authority, so they can only go so far without exposing themselves fully to legitimate agencies. I maybe made the Association too old, but I don't think the Association is too vast or monolithic if this syndicate has a heavily decentralized leadership (with no official leader like Blofeld), and the Association's members number less than 10, 000 operatives.

SERPENT

Society for Espionage, Revenge, Perjury, Extortion, Notoriety and Theft

What other acronym named crime syndicate could James Bond go after? How about the Coalition of Revenge, Aviation, and Plutocracy?

The dreaded Secret Meritocracy of Eminent Gentlemen, perhaps?

Should Bond also pit his wits against the might of Socrates’ Hierarchy of Intelligent Terrorist? Or the Foul, Unholy Coalition of Killers?

Escape from the clutches of the Coalition of Undercover Nationalists, and Terrorists? Or foil the plans of the Perilous Regiment of Insidious Crooks, and Kleptomaniacs?

Or will Bond be stopped by the forces of the Preposterous Institution of Racists, Cooks, and Koopas?

[kinnison]

Bizarre Bond crossover idea; after a little more skulking about in the shadows he finds out what he is up against is the Kindred. (LeChifre and Mr white being ghouls, of course).

That bunch might be his match.

[DPDarkPrimus]

CABAL

Conspiratorial Association for the Betterment of AlL

They manipulate the world's political and economic scenes in order to progress towards their vision of an ideal future.

[andrewgpaul]

Or will Bond be stopped by the forces of the Preposterous Institution of Racists, Cooks, and Koopas?

PIRCK?

[Argosh]

If SPECTRE does not come back in the up coming Craig movies, what kind of international syndicate could be behind LeChifre and Mr. White's sinister activities in Casino Royale?

TSWI - The Syndicate Without Initials?

[hongi]

HOTMEN

Hegemonic Organisation of Terror, Mayhem, Evil Numbnuts

[loomer]

The Catholic Church. It must be done. Clearly the pope is up to something.

Please don't send assassins after me!

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's implied that several smaller groups, like some of those lesser organizations Bond faced in the past (i.e. Moonraker, Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies) were actually being funded and controlled by Legion. Which is why they come after bond now, as he's fucked with their plans to spark profitable wars and such for too long and they want to nip this in the bud now.

That wouldn't work in the context of a Craig movie. Remember Casino Royale was a complete reboot of the franchise, it starts the continuity over from the beginning. Though perhaps throwing in homages to older Bond movies would work.