20 James Bond References You Might Have Missed In Die Another Day
13. Gene Therapy
Villains changing their appearance and mannerisms is nothing new in the world of James Bond.
In Thunderball, Paul Stassino's Angelo Palazzi had undergone extensive plastic surgery and voice lessons to look and sound like NATO Major François Derval (also Stassino), a tactic that SPECTRE’s leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld later used to escape justice multiple times. Charles Gray’s Blofeld also convinced a number of his henchmen to undergo various treatments to become exact duplicates of him in Diamonds Are Forever.
Gene therapy resurfaces as a much more pronounced plot device in Die Another Day, in which both Colonel Tan-Sun Moon (Will Yun Lee) and his lieutenant, Zao undergo treatment at La Clinica Alvarez off the Cuban coast, replacing their blood with those of nameless "donors", physically changing their appearances, whilst undergoing intensive training to learn new languages and cultural mannerisms.
This process can lead to temporary insomnia but, in Moon's case, his transformation into Gustav Graves leads him to suffer permanent lack of sleep, forcing him to use a psychedelic "Dream Machine" for an hour each day to preserve his sanity (or what remains of it).
Whilst this plot device came under heavy criticism (not least from a racial perspective) in the finished film, it harks back to the devilish machinations of Blofeld in Sean Connery's last official outing as Bond.