In the 1995 film "GoldenEye", Bean portrayed James Bond's nemesis Alec Trevelyan (MI6's 006). He played the weak-stomached Spence in "Ronin" (1998), a wife-beating ex-con in "Essex Boys" (2000), and a malevolent kidnapper/jewel thief in "Don't Say a Word" (2001). He was also widely recognised as villainous treasure hunter Ian Howe in "National Treasure", and played a villainous scientist in "The Island" (2005). In the independent film "Far North", he plays a Russian mercenary who gets lost in the tundra and is rescued by an Inuit woman and her daughter, whom he later pits against one another.