Point Blanc

This article is about the book written by Anthony Horowitz. For the ballistics term, see point-blank range.

Point Blanc

First edition (UK)
Author	Anthony Horowitz
Language	English
Series	Alex Rider series
Genre	Adventure, spy thriller, thriller
Publisher	Walker Books (UK)
Publication date	4 September 2001 U.K April 15, 2002 N.A
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	288 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBN	0-7445-5971-5 (first edition paperback)
OCLC	47149349
LC Class	PZ7.H7875 Po 2001
Preceded by	Stormbreaker
Followed by	Skeleton Key

Point Blanc is the second book in the Alex Rider series, written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on September 3, 2001 and in North America on April 15, 2002, under the alternate title Point Blank.

In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read. In 2007, it was adapted into a graphic novel, written by Antony Johnston and illustrated by Kanako Damerum and Yuzuru Takasaki, and in 2020 served as the basis of the first season of the Amazon Prime Video series Alex Rider, starring Otto Farrant as Rider.

Plot summary

The book opens with the death of American electronics billionaire Michael J. Roscoe in an elevator shaft in his New York City office, arranged by a reputable contract killer known only as The Gentleman. In London, Alex Rider ends up in trouble with the police for causing a large amount of damage to a new conference centre while trying to expose a drug dealer operating at Brookland School. In exchange for any potential charges being dropped, Alex is assigned by MI6 to investigate the motive behind the mysterious deaths of Roscoe and another billionaire, former KGB agent and head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, General Viktor Ivanov, who died when his private yacht exploded on the Black Sea. The only apparent connection between the two men is that they both had a son attending Point Blanc, an academy for the problem sons of billionaires in the French Alps run by a South African scientist, Dr. Hugo Grief.

Alex then goes undercover as Alex Friend, supposedly the rebellious son of a supermarket magnate, Sir David Friend, and he spends a week with Sir David's family, during which he gets a hard time from Sir David's snooty daughter Fiona. After his stay with the family, Grief's assistant Mrs. Stellenbosch arrives at the Friend's house by helicopter. Meanwhile, Smithers meets and provides Alex with gadgets (including an explosive ear stud, a bulletproof ski suit, infrared ski goggles, a Sony Discman equipped with a diamond-edged buzzsaw (the blade disguised as a Beethoven CD) and an inbuilt SOS signal, and a hardback Harry Potter book with a tranquilizer dart concealed in the spine. Alex is taken to the academy-owned Hotel du Monde in Paris when the helicopter stops to refuel. During dinner, he is drugged and when he passes out in his room, he is transported to a laboratory where Mrs. Stellenbosch and Dr Walter Baxter strip Alex naked and medically examine him, taking samples of his hair, copying his eyeprints, fingerprints and mouth, as well as other procedures. At the end, his clothes are put back on him and he is returned to his room.

Upon arriving at Point Blanc, Alex meets the founder and director, Dr Grief, and later a German student who goes by the name of James Sprintz, as well as a group of five other boys (named Hugo Vries, Tom McMorin, Nicholas Marc, Cassian James and Joe Canterbury) he gets to know through the week. James confides with Alex that he thinks something is wrong with the academy, because the other boys were rebellious before and then suddenly became compliant at some point, with new personalities. James also plans to escape the academy, using skis and then going back to either his parents, or his friends if his parents do not want him. One night, Alex breaks out of his room after the door is locked electronically, and investigates the main hall, where he sees a boy being forcibly dragged downstairs by Mrs Stellenbosch and two guards. He thinks the boy being abducted is James, but he later sees James uninjured in his bedroom. The following day at breakfast, James' attitude towards his plan to escape seems to have changed, and Alex realizes he has become exactly like the other students. Alex climbs a chimney to examine the forbidden top two floors of the academy, which he discovers are largely replicas of the first two floors (for instance, replicas of the boys' rooms, with TV screens monitoring their behavior downstairs). He sees Baxter being shot by Grief when Baxter requests more money, while at the same time seeing photographs of himself being examined in Paris. Alex signals MI6 using the CD device. Upon receiving the signal, Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones debate whether to move in on the academy immediately. Blunt decides to prepare a SAS unit on standby, who will take action after 24 hours.

Upon further investigation the next day, after discovering a hidden lift (whose ground floor entrance is hidden behind a suit of medieval Swiss armour in the library), Alex finds some boys locked in a basement jail, including Tom McMorin, General Ivanov's son Dimitry, James, and Paul, the son of Michael J. Roscoe. From Paul, Alex learns that James was indeed dragged downstairs and was replaced by a replica. Alex reveals the truth about his MI6 status to James and Paul. However, as the cell is bugged, Mrs. Stellenbosch arrives, knocks Alex unconscious and turns him over to Dr. Grief, who then reveals his plan to take over the world, named "Project Gemini".

Grief and Mrs Stellenbosch are both revealed to be supporters of the apartheid regime and former agents of the South African Bureau of State Security. Believing that the black population would not be able to run South Africa and seeing the rest of the world are against the regime, Grief thinks he would be better suited to rule the entire world, and he cloned sixteen copies of himself during the 1980s using stolen money from the South African government. Grief pays plastic surgeon Dr. Baxter to surgically alter Grief's 14-year-old clones to resemble the boys in the academy. The clones will later take the positions of the boys without their parents noticing. Dr. Grief and his clones will take their assets and eventually rule the world, taking over every field of human life when their time comes, as the parents are leaders in their respective fields (Tom McMorin's mother runs newspapers, for example; Hugo Vries' father, Rudi, owns a fifty per cent stake in the world's diamond mining market; James Sprintz's father, Dieter, is a multimillionaire financier; Joe Canterbury belongs to a politically powerful family; and Michael J. Roscoe, as stated, ran his electronics empire, leaving it all to Paul). The parents Roscoe and Ivanov were both killed because they became suspicious of their "sons'" behaviour.

Grief imprisons Alex, planning to dissect him alive the next day for a biology class, but Alex manages to escape, using his exploding earring to blow the cell door open. He improvises a snowboard (using an ironing board and his Discman saw) to escape from the academy, but Grief sends two of his guards to take him down. However, Alex manages to outwit the pursuing guards, who are on snowmobiles, and almost makes it to the bottom of the mountain but encounters a machine gun, set at the foot of the mountain previously by Grief as a failsafe, waiting for him. As the man fires, Alex jumps on top of an incoming train to evade the shots but falls and passes out.

Alex is taken to hospital in Grenoble, where a visiting Mrs Stellenbosch is told that Alex has died, and she observes a British Army group carrying a coffin, ostensibly containing Alex's corpse, off for repatriation and funeral. However, it is revealed that Alex is alive, thanks to the SAS unit (who were operating in the mountains, following Alex during his escape and radioing for help), and that his death has been faked to throw the academy off guard. Mrs Jones then sends him out again with a team of six SAS soldiers led by Wolf, an SAS soldier whom Alex met in Stormbreaker, to help liberate the school. In the school, the SAS team takes down several guards and goes down to the basement to save the imprisoned boys. An ongoing fire-fight ensues as the team encounters more guards. Wolf demands that Alex stay back, and Alex later sees Dr Grief attempting to escape in a helicopter. A surprised and disappointed Mrs Stellenbosch appears and fights with Alex. Mrs Stellenbosch proves impervious to Alex's attempts to subdue her (as she is a weightlifting champion, having bent a fireplace poker out of shape on Alex's first day at the academy) and knocks him down. Just as she points her gun at Alex, Wolf appears, who is shot three times by Mrs Stellenbosch but manages to shoot the woman himself with his machine gun, sending her crashing through a window to her demise. Alex prevents Dr. Grief from escaping by driving a snowmobile up a ski jump and sending it on a collision course with Grief's helicopter, jumping off at the last second as it obliterates the doctor in a fiery explosion.

Alex is debriefed by MI6. He is told that fifteen of the clones have been arrested in their native countries, and that Wolf survived being shot thanks to his body armour. Alex later goes to the headmaster's office at school, being informed that his school headmaster, Mr. Bray, wanted to see him. Alex is startled to find the sixteenth and final clone, who resembles Alex and had escaped from the academy. The clone tries to shoot Alex in revenge for Grief's death, causing a fire and an explosion in a laboratory when he ruptures a Bunsen burner with a bullet. Alex runs up to the roof, to be followed by the clone, and the two fight, ending with one of them falling into a hole in the roof caused by the explosion, and the other being rescued by the fire service.

Critical reception

Reviewer Chris High said, "For first class spills, thrills, and adventure, Anthony Horowitz can be safely said to have cornered the modern market...influenced greatly by Ian Fleming's work." Read Hot calls it a "must read for all teenagers". The School Library Journal says, "Spy gadgets, chase scenes, mysteries, and a cliff-hanger ending will keep even reluctant readers interested in the second novel in this series." Booklist also says that Point Blanc is a great read for any reluctant teenager ready for a thrilling spy adventure.

Adaptation

In July 2018, it was announced that Eleventh Hour Films would be collaborating with Sony Pictures Television to produce an eight-episode adaptation of Point Blanc as part of their upcoming Alex Rider television series. In late September 2019, Andreas Prochaska was announced as the director with Otto Farrant starring as Alex Rider.

Awards

• Shortlisted for the 2002 Children’s Book Award.
• Winner of the 2004 Children's Book Awards.