Major Anya Amasova (Russian: Майо́р Аня Aмасова), also known as Agent XXX, is a fictional Soviet intelligence operative initially employed by the KGB and the lover of Sergei Barsov. Portrayed by American actress Barbara Bach, the character first appeared in the 1977 James Bond The Spy Who Loved Me and was also featured in Christopher Wood’s accompanying novelization, where she is an agent of Otdyel IV, a department of SMERSH. Anya was adapted for the 1983-87 tabletop role-playing game, James Bond 007: Role-Playing In Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Biography
When the British HMS Ranger and the Soviet submarine Potemkin are captured, M recalls James Bond from a mission where he is currently in a cabin located in Austria. While leaving, Bond is ambushed by a Russian team led by Sergei Barsov but can kill Barsov in self-defense before Leiter. Anya has also been recalled from a mission by General Gogol of the KGB.
Anya meets Bond during a show at the Pyramids in Egypt, where her thugs fight with Bond when she believes he has killed Aziz Fekkesh, an Egyptian contact whose body has been found in one of the pyramids. The natural killer was Jaws.
However, they become formally introduced to one another in Cairo when they arrive at Max Kalba’s club. After spouting various biographical details to each other (for example, Anya is aware of Bond’s doomed marriage), they attempt to outbid one another for secret microfilm. When Kalba is killed by Jaws, they travel across Egypt tracking the microfilm. After Anya ultimately outwits Bond for the microfilm (but Bond had reviewed it), they report to the Abu Simbel temple, where Gogol and M have decided to work together to find out how and why their submarines are being stolen while at sea.
For most of the film, Bond and Anya have the same mission objectives and often try to achieve the same goals by attempting to outdo one another, during which they fall in love. While traveling to Sardinia by train, they share a meal. While Anya is preparing for bed in her carriage, having politely declined Bond’s offer of a nightcap, she is attacked by Jaws. Bond hears the sounds of a struggle over the noise of the train and arrives just in time to save her from being killed. After a brief fight, Jaws is dispatched out of a window, and Bond returns to Anya, who tends to a cut on his shoulder before they kiss and ultimately spend the night together. On Sardinia, Anya accompanies Bond to meet Karl Stromberg posing as his wife. Afterward, Anya learns that Bond killed her lover. She then tells him that she will ultimately have revenge once their mission is complete.
Anya is later captured by Stromberg and held captive at Atlantis, Stromberg’s undersea base. Bond sneaks aboard and rescues her. As the mission ends, she points her gun at Bond, only to discover that she is too in love with him to kill him.
Anya (pointing gun at Bond) tells him: “The mission is over, Commander.” At that moment, as Anya is tightening her finger on the trigger, the cork pops off of a champagne bottle that Bond is in the process of opening. Anya smiles, stifling a giggle, and Bond says, “In my country, Major, the condemned man is usually allowed a final request,” to which she says, “Granted.” Bond then suggests that they get out of their wet clothes.
When James and Anya’s escape pod goes into the ship Bond saved from Stromberg’s ‘instruments of Armageddon,’ Q, M, Fredrick Gray, and Anya’s superiors from Russia look inside the window at James and Anya making love in the luxury bed in awe. “James!” Anya says she’s the first one in the pod to see the duo’s superiors.
Personality
Anya was depicted as cunning, devious, aloof, and fearless. She has strong emotions but can keep them under control and not She is highly intelligent, adaptable, and may have eidetic memory (as when she discusses blueprints).
She was vengeful and became obsessed with killing James Bond after what he had done to her boyfriend. However, unfortunately for Sergei, she is also capable of forgiving and letting go of these grudges as she has shown to have forgiven Bond after she realized Bond killed Sergei in self-defense. She is shown to have nerves of steel since she was completely calm in holding Jaws at gunpoint.
Anya also has a sense of humor, as when she meets Q, she calls him “Major Boothroyd” to show she knows who he is… she can also be somewhat playful, given to using pranks to get one up on Bond.
Behind the scenes
Barbara Bach was cast only four days before principal photography began and performed her audition expecting just a supporting role in the film.
It was planned to have Amasova make a cameo in Moonraker (released in 1979) as the woman in bed with General Gogol, but this never happened.
