Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen)

Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp
Character information
Title/rank	Colonel
Age	Mid 30s
Died	1995, Havana, Cuba
Hair	Black, long tied back
Eyes	Brown
Height	5'11 1/2" (1.82 m)
Dist. Features	Sexual sociopathy
Nationality	Georgian
Occupation	Criminal operative Soviet airforce pilot (formerly)
Affiliation	Janus Syndicate
Status	Deceased, crushed to death from being caught in a tree
Behind the scenes
Role	Henchman, Bond girl
Portrayed by	Famke Janssen
First seen	GoldenEye (film)
Last seen	GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

"Enjoy it while it lasts."
"The very words I live by."

― Xenia Onatopp and James Bond

Colonel Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp (Russian: Ксения Сергеевна Онатопп) was a former Soviet fighter-pilot and a ruthless assassin with sexual psychopathy employed by the Janus crime syndicate. The character first appeared as the secondary antagonist in EON Productions' 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, portrayed by Dutch actress Famke Janssen. Janssen would continue to provide her likeness for several video-games, notably the 1997 Nintendo 64 game GoldenEye 007 and the 2004 spin-off GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (voiced by Jenya Lano).

Biography

Background

Born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp was a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force. After the collapse of the USSR, she joined the Janus crime syndicate, led by renegade MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan. Operating as a ruthless enforcer and assassin for the organisation, her main characteristic is that she apparently can receive sexual satisfaction through killing. Her sadistic sexual proclivities, coupled with her overall lack of conscience as well as remorse for the deaths she causes, would seem to qualify her as a psychopath. She is proficient in martial arts, with a considerable degree of physical strength. She is a skillful aviator, able to commandeer a stolen EMP-hardened helicopter.

Stealing the Helicopter and GoldenEye

Onatopp and 007 gamble in a casino.

In 1995, James Bond gets into a car chase with Onatopp in Monte Carlo. He later meets her at a casino, his suspicions raised by her taste for expensive vehicles (with fake number plates) and her suspicious relationship with Canadian Navy admiral, Chuck Farrel. Suspecting her, he places her under surveillance, and runs a background check of her via MI6. Later that evening, Onatopp lures the admiral onto the Janus-leased yacht, Manticore. As Onatopp crushes the admiral to death with her thighs during sex, her Janus accomplice steals his credentials.

The next day, the pair use Farrel's credentials to board the La Fayette frigate, where the prototype Eurocopter Tiger helicopter is scheduled for a high-profile test flight. Onatopp murders the test pilots and they assume their identities, stealing the helicopter. Onatopp and the accomplice fly the helicopter out of NATO's reach, thanks to its radar-stealth capabilities.

Later, she pilots the Tiger to the Satellite Control Center, in Severnaya. This time she is accompanied by General Ourumov - who is now the head of Russian army's Space Divison - who uses his credentials to get access to the base. Once Ourumov acquires the keys and the control disk for the GoldenEye EMP-weapon from subordinate Russian officer, this prompts Xenia to unveil her AKS-74U carbine and opens fire. Xenia slaughters the staff at the control center in a bloodthirsty ecstasy, and after everybody in sight is killed, Ourumov reacts in stunned silence at Xenia's arousal. Together they arm and program the GoldenEye to destroy the complex, and escape with traitorous programmer Boris Grishenko.

Fighting James Bond

Onatopp attempts to crush 007 to death.

James Bond: "Well, I must say I've had a lovely evening! You?"

Xenia Onatopp: "Once again, the pleasure was all yours."

―James Bond and Xenia Onatopp

Natalya Simonova, the lone survivor of the attack, contacts Grishenko and arranges to meet him in St. Petersburg, where she is kidnapped by Onatopp and Boris. Assigned to investigate the events in Russia, 007 flies to St. Petersburg and arranges a meeting with the mysterious Janus via crime-boss Valentin Zukovsky. Onatopp attempts to surprise Bond as he exits the pool at the Grand Hotel Europe, but is outmanoeuvred and held at gunpoint. Onatopp tries to seduce him but Bond shoves her off him. Losing his gun in the process, Onatopp attacks him, climbing on top of him and trying to constrict him with her thighs as she did with the admiral. However, Bond drops her into a vat of hot water and re-obtains his gun, forcing her to bring him to Janus. Onatopp drives Bond to an abandoned statue junkyard, claiming that Janus is waiting for him. After knocking her out, Bond exits her car and walks towards the Tiger helicopter which he spots in the distance, meeting with Janus, who reveals himself as old colleague Trevelyan and attempts to kill him.

Later, Bond pursues a fleeing Ourumov who has taken Natalya aboard Janus' Converted Missile Train. 007 drives his tank on the rails, intending to derail the train; much to Onatopp's glee. The train ends up derailed and Bond boards the wreckage - confronting its dazed passengers with a Kalashnikov Rifle. A standoff ensues with an unarmed Onatopp and Trevelyan bargaining for their lives using Natalya, who is being held at gunpoint by Ourumov. After Bond states the girl means nothing to him Trevelyan gestures to have her killed, fleeing from the carriage with Onatopp as 007 swings around to shoot the General. As Trevelyan and Onatopp escape by helicopter, he locks Bond in the train with Natalya, setting it to self-destruct. He fails to kill them and Natalya manages to triangulate the location of Janus' Cuban base of operations before the train explodes.

Final Fight and Death

Xenia ironically squeezed to death.

"This time, Mr. Bond, the pleasure will be all mine!"

― Xenia sadistically taunting Bond while crushing him with her thighs.

Trevelyan and Onatopp depart Russia and head to Cuba, pursued by the British and American intelligence agencies. While searching for GoldenEye's satellite dish, Bond and Natalya are shot down and crash land in the Cuban jungle. Onatopp rappels down from a helicopter and attacks Bond. Kicking the wounded spy around, Xenia violently grasps him between her thighs, informing him that, this time, the pleasure is going to be all hers (a running joke between the pair, starting with the casino scene). Despite Bond's best attempts, he begins to succumb to her orgasmic embrace, and is saved by a branch-wielding Natalya's intervention. Blocking the attack, Onatopp grabs her by the face and instructs her to wait for her turn, before headbutting her aside. The interruption gives Bond the opportunity he needs and he reattaches her jump rope, using her rifle to kill the crew of her helicopter above. In the ensuing chaos, the henchwoman is violently thrown backwards by the force of the chopper's descent, and is caught between two curiously shaped branches, crushing her to death in an ironic manner and avenging the deaths of Anna Nishkov and all of Natalya's friends. Bond and Natalya stare at her corpse with Bond remarking "She always did enjoy a good squeeze."

Alternate Continuities

GoldenEye

After the fall of the KGB in the 1991 Coup, Xenia joined the biggest Crime family in Russia, the Janus Crime Syndicate. She was eventually called upon to use her unique talent of crushing rib cages with her thighs to obtain the Tigre helicopter from Monte Carlo where it was being shown to the United States Navy. She did this by using her natural charm to lure in the American Naval Admiral Chuck Farrel. On her way into town in her yellow Ferrari F355, she came upon James Bond in an Aston Martin DB5, who challenged her to a race. The two sped along the mountain roads of Monaco until a tourbus appeared coming toward them. Xenia was able to stay in her lane while Bond swerved off into a tourist viewpoint. Xenia then made her way to a Casino where she met Admiral Farrel. After making sizable winnings at the Baccarat table and scaring off the other players, she was joined again by James Bond. He won the hand, and Xenia left the table with her money. At the Casino's bar, she and Bond shared a drink before she left with Farrel, and took him aboard her yacht the Manticore, where she killed him after three bouts of sexual intercourse in two hours by crushing his rib cage with her thighs. After a few more minutes revelling in the ecstasy of her latest kill, she was collected by General Arkady Ourumov, and the two broke in to the Tigre 's unveiling where they took the place of the existing test pilots and stole the helicopter. She and Ourumov then flew to Severnaya Station where she ordered the security doors open while they performed a test launch of the GoldenEye weapon. After they obtained the weapon, Xenia massacred the technicians while Ourumov set the weapon to destroy the facility. Even miles away from the Facility, Xenia and Ourumov felt the blast of the GoldenEye.

She was later assigned to aid Boris Grishenko in the kidnapping of the escaped Severnaya technician Natalya Simonova. Boris lured her behind a curtain in a Russian Orthodox Church, where Xenia waited with a hypodermic needle that she used to incapacitate the technician before heading out to another job. She then waited in the Turkish Bath at the Grand Hotel Europe for James Bond to arrive. He found her in the mist and dragged her into the open. She then removed her towel, and made sexual advances on the man until he put down his gun. They maintained a short intercourse before Xenia locked her thighs around his chest and began to constrict him. In an attempt to get a better hold, Xenia moved her legs, and Bond used this opportunity to push Xenia off and hold her at gunpoint. He demanded to see Janus, leading Xenia to ask whether or not he would like to put any clothes on first. He then took her up to his room where he tied her up as he changed, which led her to an obligatory bondage joke. She then directed him to the Statue Park, where old Communist icons were dumped and introduced him to Janus.

They left him in the helicopter, with it rigged to explode before leaving for their train. Xenia was then there to receive Natalya Simonova when she was again captured, this time by by Ourumov. She and Alec Trevelyan were then held captive by Bond, who had broken aboard the train to rescue her, before they escaped it in a helicopter hidden in one of the cars after rigging it to explode. They then traveled to Havana Cuba, where the control station for a second GoldenEye, codenamed Mischa was located. After spotting Bond and Natalya near the facility, she dropped down from her helicopter on a tether, and attempted to crush Bond. Natalya attacked her from behind, which was long enough for Bond to steal her Machine Pistol, which he used to shoot her helicopter off course. Unable to regain balance, the helicopter dragged Xenia between two tree branches, where she was crushed by the force of the pull against the unyielding wood.

Video games

Onatopp has appeared in a number of James Bond video games as a playable multiplayer character. Her first appearance was in the 1997 video game adaptation of GoldenEye, GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. Similar to the film, she is killed in the jungles of Cuba after battling with Bond, however this method of death is more conventional, getting shot. Xenia also appears in a prior stage on the train in Russia. Shooting her will not kill her, but allow Bond precious time to escape as she shouts to Alec Trevelyan she is wounded, thus postponing Trevelyan's time bomb.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Promotional image of Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (2004).

Xenia Onatopp later appeared in the 2004 spin-off Bond game, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. Set in an alternate timeline, with its focus on the underworld of the 007 universe, Onatopp is employed by Dr. Julius No as his chief enforcer.

Personality

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Behind the Scenes

Writing

The character was originally named Xenia Labyakova and appeared in the earliest GoldenEye scripts by Michael France. While the scripts of GoldenEye would go through various changes, Xenia is arguably one of the lesser changed characters in the story.

In the early France scripts, she was member of KGB's Active Measures unit under command of the main villain Augustus Trevelyan (who ultimately was rewritten into Alec Trevelyan) and served as the latter's more trusted underlings. Her main method of killing people was use of Kung Fu to stop people's hearts when her victims were getting too excited from her eroticism. She would also wield a earring, which concealed a garotte wire. Her character, while still deranged, was much more sedate than her final version ended up being.

Casting

German actress and singer Ute Lemper was offered the role of Xenia Onatopp but turned it down. At one point, Courteney Cox was considered for the role, but she was turned down due to scheduling conflicts with Friends.

Famke Janssen came to the attention of filmmakers when they saw footage of the supernatural thriller The Illusion Master (1995), released by United Artists. The actress tested opposite Pierce Brosnan, reading the casino scene, and knew she was ideal for the role as soon as she met the producers: "It was written all over their faces."

Reception

Yahoo! Movies had her name included in the list of the best Bond girl names, even while calling it a "slightly-too-obvious pun." In 2015, The Daily Telegraph suggested that "in the stolid Brosnan years, former Soviet fighter pilot Onatopp was a breath of fresh air." Paul Simpson argues that with Onatopp, the femme fatale made a "welcome reappearance" after the role had previously fallen out of fashion.

Anna Katherine Amacker and Donna Ashley Moore suggest that Onatopp is a "direct throwback to the earlier style of Bond girl, complete with an innuendo-laden name and a blatant sexuality." Robert A. Saunders suggests that she "personifies the hypersexualized archetype of the post-Soviet Russian woman."

Esquire Magazine ranked Onatopp #12 in the list of James Bond Villains, saying, "No beating around the bush here: Famke Janseen is incredible in GoldenEye, taking a silly character and creating someone that's both heart-stoppingly attractive and legitimately terrifying. Don't let the eye-roll of a name fool you—this is one of the best henchpersons in all of Bond-dom."

Trivia

• Xenia also appeared in a 1995 edition of Esquire magazine prior to the debut of GoldenEye, introducing her as the "Bad Bond Girl" and explaining some of her traits and clothing in the film, as well as saying she would be played by Famke Janssen, a model and actress from Holland.
• Xenia Onatopp's eccentricity and sadism been compared with Fatima Blush from Never Say Never Again, a non-Eon film, and she has been suggested as an influence on the character.

Gallery

• Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen)/Gallery

See also

• Xenia Onatopp
• Xenia Onatopp (Jenya Lano)
• Xenia Onatopp (Kate Magowan)