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Vesper Lynd is a fictional character of Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Casino Royale. In the 1967 film version she was played by Ursula Andress. In the 2006 version she is played by Eva Green.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Vesper is an MI6 agent loaned to Bond, much to his irritation, to assist him in his mission to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a SMERSH-controlled trade union. They are instructed to pose as travel companions in order to infiltrate Royale-les-Eaux, the casino in which Le Chiffre frequently gambles. After Bond takes all of Le Chiffre's money in a high-stakes game of baccarat, Vesper is kidnapped by Le Chiffre's thugs, who also nab Bond when he tries to rescue her. Both are rescued after Le Chiffre is assassinated by a SMERSH agent, but only after Bond has been tortured.
Vesper visits Bond every day in the hospital, and the two grow very close much to his own surprise, Bond develops genuine feelings for her, and even dreams of leaving the service and marrying her. After he is released from the hospital, they go on a holiday together, and eventually become lovers.
Vesper holds a terrible secret, however: she is a double agent working for MVD, and worked with Bond because she was under orders to see that he did not escape Le Chiffre. (Her kidnapping was staged in order to lure Bond into Le Chiffre's clutches.) Prior to her meeting Bond, she had been romantically involved with an RAF operative. This man had been captured by SMERSH, and revealed information about Vesper under torture. Hence, SMERSH was using this operative to blackmail Vesper into helping them. After the death of Le Chiffre, she is initially hopeful that she and Bond can start a new life, but realizes this is impossible when she notices a SMERSH operative, Gettler, tracking her and Bond's movements. Consumed with guilt and certain that SMERSH will find and kill both of them, she commits suicide, leaving a note admitting her treachery and pledging her love to Bond.
For his part, however, Bond's outrage at her betrayal outweighs his grief for her loss, and he resolves to bury any feelings he has for her and think of her as nothing more than a traitor. He phones his superiors and informs them of Vesper's treason and death, coldly saying "The bitch is dead now."
Bond's feelings for Vesper are not totally extinguished, however Fleming's eleventh novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, reveals that he makes an annual pilgrimage to Royale-les-Eaux to visit her grave.
2006
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In the 2006 film version of the novel, Vesper is a treasury agent assigned to make sure that Bond adequately manages the funds provided by MI6. However, she is secretly working for the anonymous party that Mr. White, one of the film's villains, represents. She is extorted into this role by a threat to her French-Algerian boyfriend's life. The necklace she wears depicts an "Algerian love knot," and, presumably, was a gift from her boyfriend. As in the novel, she becomes Bond's lover, but chooses a tragic end, trapping herself in an elevator as it plunges into a flooded building. Bond opens the elevator and takes her out of the water. Bond tries to revive her, but she is dead. The film does not indicate the fate of her boyfriend. Bond still holds the disdain he feels for her betrayal in the novel, uttering the same quote "The bitch is dead now", but M reprimands him and reveals Vesper's reasons for her manipulation by the villains Vesper's last act was to leave Bond the name of the mastermind of the plot (Mr. White) and his phone number.
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