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Xenia Onatopp is the villain most people remember from GoldenEye, often before they remember the plot. She arrives in a red Ferrari, loses to Bond at baccarat, steals a helicopter in front of a navy and leaves the film in a Cuban jungle. This guide covers who she is, where each of her scenes takes place, the car, clothes and props connected to her, and the auction lots that have come out of the production since.
The short answer
Xenia Onatopp is the assassin and pilot who works for the Janus crime syndicate in GoldenEye (1995), Pierce Brosnan’s first Bond film. She is played by the Dutch actress Famke Janssen. She is not a Fleming character: GoldenEye was the first Bond film to use no story elements from Ian Fleming’s books. Her car is a red Ferrari F355 GTS, her big theft is a Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter, and she dies in the film’s Cuban finale.
Who she is
In the film, Onatopp is a former Soviet Air Force fighter pilot, born in Georgia, who has joined Janus after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Janus is run by Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), the former 006, and she works alongside General Ourumov, played by the German actor Gottfried John. She plays baccarat, smokes cigars and kills by crushing her victims. The writers Anna Katherine Amacker and Donna Ashley Moore call her a “direct throwback to the earlier style of Bond girl”, complete with an innuendo-laden name.
The name is a pun, and not a subtle one. Yahoo Movies included it in a list of the best Bond girl names while calling it a “slightly-too-obvious pun”, which seems fair to us.
The entrance: a Ferrari above Monaco
We first see Onatopp at the wheel of a red Ferrari F355 GTS, racing Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 on the mountain roads above Monaco. The chase is set on the way into Monte Carlo but was filmed in the hills of the Alpes-Maritimes in France. The F355 GTS is the targa-roof version of the car, with a removable panel over the cabin, and the film car is red with a tan interior. You can still buy an F355 GTS through classic car dealers, and our car page lists the values and asking prices we found in October 2026.
She wears dark shield sunglasses for the drive. The pair on screen is not confirmed, but the Versace N76 852BK is the closest match we can identify, and we say so on its page.
Baccarat at the Casino de Monte-Carlo
That evening Bond finds her at the Casino de Monte-Carlo. His arrival and his walk through the casino were filmed there, although location guides say the baccarat game itself was shot in a studio. They play baccarat and Bond wins. Two pieces of that game have since been sold by Prop Store: a holographic 10,000 plaque, one of the custom plaques Eon made for the film, and five playing cards that Prop Store says include Bond’s winning hand.
The Manticore and the Tiger helicopter
The next day Onatopp arrives at the Yacht Club de Monaco with Admiral Chuck Farrel of the Royal Canadian Navy. A Riva Aquarama Special takes them out to the Manticore, a yacht played by a real 43 metre motor yacht called Northern Cross. Bond watches from above the harbour, from the Fort Antoine Theatre according to location guides. Aboard the yacht, Onatopp kills the admiral, and Ourumov uses his identity to get them onto a French frigate.
The prize is a Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter, being demonstrated on board. The French Navy lent the production both the frigate La Fayette and the helicopter, so the aircraft on screen is the real thing. Onatopp, in an oversized black hat by the milliner Philip Somerville, shoots the two pilots, and she and Ourumov fly the Tiger away while Bond watches from the deck. They use it next at the Severnaya satellite station in Siberia, where Janus steals the controls for the GoldenEye weapon.
St Petersburg and the Cuban finale
Bond meets her again in St Petersburg, at a bathhouse meeting arranged through the arms dealer Valentin Zukovsky. The scene ends with Bond holding his Walther PPK on her and asking to be taken to Janus. She takes him to the meeting, where he discovers that Janus is Trevelyan. She is also aboard Janus’s armoured train later in the film, and leaves it by helicopter with Trevelyan before it explodes.
Her last scene is in Cuba. She abseils from a helicopter to ambush Bond and Natalya Simonova in the jungle, and fights him there. Bond fires at the helicopter with her own rifle, and its line drags her into a tree, which kills her. The costume she wears for that sequence is one of the better documented items from the film, because Prop Store sold it.
What she left behind: the auction lots
Three Onatopp lots have passed through Prop Store’s London auctions, and each has its own page with us.
- Xenia Onatopp’s helicopter costume: a padded nylon top, zipped nylon trousers, a leather belt and a black and purple safety harness, with a letter of authenticity from Eon. It was lot 222 in 2022, estimated at £8,000 to £12,000.
- Her stunt Walther PPK and Galco holster: a resin PPK that Prop Store says the costume department provided for Famke Janssen to use in a photograph session with Terry O’Neill at Leavesden, offered with a Galco EX204 shoulder holster. It was lot 232 in 2024, estimated at £6,000 to £12,000.
- Her Ferrari’s number plates, sold with a statue head from the St Petersburg chase, Polaroids and call sheets. It was lot 1341 in 2024, estimated at £2,000 to £4,000.
All three have sold, and Prop Store shows the prices only to registered users, so we do not quote them.
Famke Janssen
Janssen was born in the Netherlands on 5 November 1964. GoldenEye came early in her film career, and she went on to play Jean Grey in the X-Men films and Lenore Mills in the Taken trilogy. She is one of the reasons the character works: the writing is broad, and she plays it with complete conviction.
Onatopp in the games
The character has had a long second life in video games. In Rare’s GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64 (1997) she appears on the train and in the jungle, as in the film. She is a multiplayer character in James Bond 007: Nightfire, an opponent in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, with a likeness based on Janssen, and a reworked character in the 2010 GoldenEye 007 remake, where she is voiced by and modelled on Kate Magowan. If you want to play the original, our guide on how to play GoldenEye 007 today covers the Xbox and Nintendo Switch Online versions.
Where to go next
- GoldenEye: the film hub, with every product and location we have catalogued.
- Ferrari F355 GTS: her car, and how to find one now.
- Eurocopter Tiger: the helicopter she steals, and the model kit.
- Casino de Monte-Carlo: the baccarat scene, and how to visit.
- Pierce Brosnan: the hub for his four films.
Sources: Wikipedia, Xenia Onatopp; Wikipedia, GoldenEye; Wikipedia, Famke Janssen; Prop Store lot pages, linked from each product page above.