The main heroine and a Bond girl in the 2008 James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, was portrayed by Ukrainian-French actress and model Olga Kurylenko, and was also doubled by stunt-performer Nicola Berwick. Camille Montes Rivero is a fictional intelligence operative working for the Bolivian Secret Service who is seeking revenge for the murder of her family by an exiled dictator, General Medrano. Still portrayed by Kurylenko, the character also featured in Activision’s tie-in video game, re-named Camille Rivera.
Biography
Background
Camille Montes was the youngest daughter of Ernesto Montes, a Bolivian military officer employed by the Junta of Commanders of the Armed Forces (and apparently a “very cruel man”), and an unidentified Russian prima ballerina. When she was a young girl, the opposition in Bolivia sent General Medrano to the family house; he shot Ernesto, raped Camille’s mother and eldest sister before strangling them to death, and then smiled at Camille before leaving and setting the house on fire, which is the cause for the burnt scars on her back. This left Camille severely traumatized and pyrophobic but also instilled in her a burning (pun not intended) hatred of and desire to kill Medrano. Once she was old enough, she joined the Bolivian Secret Service and waited for a chance at revenge. To that end, Camille has approached environmentalist and Quantum operative Dominic Greene and had sexual congress with him to reach Medrano, with whom Greene made a deal to overthrow the Bolivian government in exchange for giving ownership of a seemingly barren piece of Bolivian land for its vast resources.
Haiti
In August 2006, realizing that Camille only sleeps with him to approach Medrano and she is trying to kill him, Greene sent hitman Edmund Slate to murder her by pretending to be a geologist with whom she had planned a meeting at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. However, British Secret Service agent James Bond kills Slate in his hotel room with his agenda and tasks the assassin’s briefcase. As the spy is walking on the street, Camille sees him and tells him to get in her car, mistaking him for the geologist. As the Bolivian operative drives 007 off, she finds a gun and a picture of herself at the bottom of the briefcase and pulls her gun on Bond, who quickly jumps out of the car, commenting, “That wasn’t very nice!”. Camille later goes to a nearby dockside to confront Greene for trying to get her killed, but the villain turns her over to Medrano, requesting that he kills her once he is done with her to sweeten their new partnership. Fortunately, Bond pursues them and manages to save Camille, and the pair escape, killing many of Medrano’s men. An unconscious Camille is then dropped off at a hotel down the river before Bond continues his investigation of Greene.
Green and Camille
A few days later, Camille is at a party hosted by Greene, who celebrates the land in Bolivia and attempts to make other deals. To force the billionaire to tell him where Medrano is, Camille makes him lose investors, and a furious Greene tries to push the spy through a balcony, but Bond intervenes again and leaves with Montes. The criminal operative sends his right-hand man Elvis after them, but 007’s colleague Strawberry Fields trips the henchman and sends him tumbling down a staircase, leaving Bond and Camille to the party. Unfortunately, Greene has the corrupt Bolivian police chief murdering French agent René Mathis to frame Bond and have the spy arrested by the police. However, Bond and Camille escape after killing two of Carlos’ police officers and borrowing an old transport plane. Their pilot towards Bolivia’s Atacama Desert to learn more about Greene and Medrano’s plans. Carlos dispatches a militarized Aermacchi SF.260TP fighter-trainer to pursue the duo and kill them on sight. To that end, the unidentified pilot riddles Bond and Camille’s plane with bullets, destroying one of the engines and causing it to produce heavy smoke. Despite the damage, Bond manages to improvise by using the smoke to block the pilot’s vision, placing his aircraft in such a manner as to reduce the SF.260’s airspeed, causing him to lose control and crash into a rock formation. Bond and Camille fall into a chasm but survive thanks to a parachute. While alone, Camille talks with Bond about his motives for her revenge against Medrano.
The pair later leads a raid at Perla de las Dunas where Greene and Medrano attempt to finalize their deal, killing all of Greene’s thugs and Medrano’s men. As Bond fights against Greene, Camille makes her way to Medrano’s suite, where she frees the maid the General attempted to rape and lets her escape. However, Medrano attacks the vengeful agent, boasting about when he raped and killed her mother. The ruthless General then tries to rape Camille, but she fights back and grabs her gun, aiming at Medrano. Swearing that she will burn, the dictator foolishly charges Camille to kill her, but the latter forcibly shoots the General in the head, killing him and ending her quest for vengeance. However, as the burning hotel falls apart, Camille starts to panic but manages to escape the building with Bond, leaving Medrano’s corpse buried in the rubble. Bond later escorts her to a train station where she is last seen walking for an unknown future.
