James Bond / Headscratchers

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No Ugly Bond Girls?

Where are all the ugly chicks? Seriously, it is an astonishing coincidence, even for somebody with Bond's improbable luck, that every woman that has something that Bond needs (information, resources, technology, etc...) is under-35 and looks like a supermodel! It's amazingly convenient that the only women Bond ever needs to seduce are young and hot, as opposed to being Angela Merkel or Hillary Clinton types.
- But there are some older women. Take SPECTRE Number 2 (Lotte Lenya) in From Russia with Love, for instance. Bond simply doesn't try to seduce those, he just fights them.
  - Not to mention Judi Dench's M, the "machine-gun granny" in Goldfinger, Irma Bunt from OHMSS, Ms. Bell from LALD and the ice-skating instructor from FYEO, among others.
- Maybe he finds other ways to social engineer them. Or maybe he does deal with them off-camera.
- Ms. Fanservice mixed with Rule of Cool. Bond films would lose a lot of their appeal with Bond romancing plain-looking or ugly women.
- Also, a surprising percentage of Bond girls have some justification for being attractive, since many are spies or criminals themselves who may have gotten where they are partially for their ability to manipulate people through seduction. Another good chunk are molls or trophy wives.

Moneypenny

Just why won't Bond sleep with Moneypenny? There is nothing different from her and any other chick he's bedded.
- They fact that they work together? So Bond wouldn't be able to do his usual 'love them and leave them' routine.
- She's also one of the few stable elements in his life. I highly doubt he wants to risk one of his multitudes of enemies catching him in the act with her.
- Assuming they genuinely are attracted to one another and aren't just playing an amusing private game, perhaps it's because of James' feelings for Moneypenny that he won't sleep with her. He doesn't think of her as just another of his frequent one-night-stands, he honestly has romantic feelings towards her and he's afraid he'll ruin that if he sleeps with her.
- Along with that, Bond is self-aware enough to know that he's a callous asshole with a dangerous lifestyle and that most of the women who have ever slept with him have ended up either better off without him, or dead. If he actually likes Moneypenny as a friend — which he does — it's no mystery why he decides to give her a pass on that.
- Her original actress speculated that they did once have a fling long ago when they first started at MI6, but mutually decided to keep it platonic after that.
I don't recall if the films ever said otherwise, but in the books she's M's secretary, not Bond's (the 00 agents have a different secretary, who specifically rejects all their advances because she knows any of them could be dead the next week). If Bond ever made a serious pass at her, M would probably shut it down as inappropriate fraternization or somesuch.

A Licence To Kill

Why do they point out James Bond is "licensed to kill"? Are most agents not allowed to kill anybody?
- Agents below the 00-ranking may be assigned to kill enemy agents from time to time, but 00-agents are licenced to kill at their discrimination.
  - As the more realistic Sandbaggers and literary Bond show, Bond being 7th out of 9 agents is probably the only lethal-force using SIS agents who exist. MI6 isn't an army and nine agents is pretty damned good.
  - It's unlikely-to-impossible they're the only agents allowed lethal force. To develop the analogy with The Sandbaggers a bit, he's seventh out of nine agents licenced to kill at his discretion, and obviously he's answerable only to M, too. So he's not necessarily under the authority of the local station chief if he's working in, say, Beijing, nor obligated to explain himself to them. He's one of M's personal sharp objects.
- Actually, most spies probably aren't (officially) allowed to kill people. Spies are usually in the business of learning, collecting and transmitting information, and killing people tends to get in the way of that; it creates unnecessary attention. The license to kill means that Bond is authorised to and is to be particularly assigned missions in which killing people is likely. In other words, it means that Bond is also an assassin on top of being a secret agent.

Inconspicuous Aston Martins

Isn't an Aston Martin a bit conspicuous for a secret agent? Wouldn't a secret agent based in London in The '60s have driven a Morris Minor or something like that?
- Well Bond hardly ever operates in London itself. And most of the time when he operates abroad he is generally playing high status characters who might be expected to have an Aston Martin.
- Rule of Cool. A spy always has to have a cool car, and as mentioned above, James is usually playing high profile characters.
- Normally it would, but most of Bond's cover ids seem to be millionaire playboy-types. An Aston Martin would actually make him less conspicuous in that case.
  - Which is the same logic behind the Ferraris in Miami Vice. Works better for Bond, in fact - in Miami Vice one might have thought that the baddies would have noticed they were being tailed or staked out by people in a white Testarossa, even if it makes sense for Crockett to drive one to meets...
- Realism aside, the whole point of James Bond is that he's a wish-fulfilment character for his readers / watchers — he beds beautiful women, gets into exciting adventures, lives in a (relatively) simple world where the good guys and the bad guys are clearly defined and the bad guys are easily defeated... and drives cool cars. The whole point of Bond is that he's an opportunity to indulge a fantasy, and fact is the Morris Minor, while a perfectly reliable and common vehicle, was not exactly the stuff of wish-fulfilment and fantasy. If you were a guy in Britain who was into cool cars in the 1960s and didn't have much money, you probably didn't spend your life hoping you'd one day get to drive a Morris Minor — you probably would, because they were cheap and you likely couldn't afford anything else. The Aston Martin DB5 on the other hand...
- Pretty sure Harry Palmer and George Smiley do indeed drive Morris Minors or similar, and rarely leave England (or at least Europe). Bond's not a "realistic" character though, he's a fantasy character. And to be honest, he's not "playing" high profile characters, in a very real way he is one. Intelligence for Fleming was an upper-middle to upper-class job, an Old Boys' Club where the Chief of the Service takes Bond as a bridge partner to his exclusive club, and he hobnobs with millionaires. Bond smokes handmade cigarettes, wears tailored suits, goes to good restaurants and drives Aston Martins and classic Bentley racers. Cover identities should be close to the truth, so even when he's working under an alias, he's still usually playing a well-off car lover. And when he isn't, he usually drives relatively inconspicuous cars.

Dubbing and local honourifics

When Bond is dubbed in foreign languages, are there any particular rules on the use of the two forms of "you"? Or, for that matter, honorific use in Japanese?
- Good question, but why specifically Bond? Russians, for example, have multiple ways of dealing with T-V distinctions in translating foreign fiction; it depends on the translator. In LOTR, they just stuck with the "singular nonpolite" ty and had Aragorn explicitly lampshade it. For "realistic" settings, on the other hand, the usual rules of everyday speech apply.
- Bond Girls. I'm interested in what forms are used by Bond to them and when it changes.
  - In German dubbings the change from formal to informal 'you' occurs when Bond (or any other two characters) kiss for the first time.
- A word from translator here. Whenever the distributors makes a local dubbing/subtitles, they usually provide translators with the movie or at least the transcript. The distinction is then based purely on context and judgement of the translator. Given that such people are usually experienced and well-versed in literature (you don't commission a blockbuster like a Bond movie to an amateur), the result is usually pretty natural.
  - Thanks.

Bond Girls post-Bond

Personally, I've always wondered what happens to the (still living) Bond girls in between each movie.
- Short relationship with Bond, then break-up. At least that's how it goes in the novels.
- Interestingly, in Dr. No, he's trying to get Honey a job.
- You actually see what happens at the beginning of some movies. Bond is out having a jolly good time with some babe, he gets a call or a message from the boss, and he's off, and we never hear from the girl again. He just leaves them in the lurch without explanation.
  - He's definitely got that kind of personality.
- More likely it never works out because he's a professional killer that spends his life travelling around the world. The one time he did settle down, the woman was killed. Bond probably ends it either because he knows it won't work out or he's worried that they'll get hurt. Your choice which explanation he uses on which Bond Girls.

Q and Moneypenny in the Craig Era (defunct as of Skyfall)

In the Daniel Craig movies, where are Q and Moneypenny?
- Reserved for future instalments?
  - Yep.
- The problem they have is that by this point James Bond movies have practically become a parody of themselves (Ice-hearted villainess called Frost, Bad Guy called GRAVEs, Henchman called Mr. Kill etc) And they wanted to do a return to the form of the books. Q is a comic relief character in the movies, which doesn't exist in the books. While Moneypenny is in the books it's the innuendo and comedic interchanges between her and Bond that the movies rely on. Neither of these are suitable for a revamped Darker and Grittier Bond
  - Really? The Nolan movies have Commissioner Gordon and Alfred, despite the Alfred role being filled by Lucius Fox and the police not fully trusting Batman. Why? Because they are important character in the Batman mythos. Likewise, Q and Moneypenny are important characters in the Bond mythos. Who is supposed to give Bond his gadgets? Who is supposed to play a grandfather role to Bond? What other female can Bond strike a relationship with WITHOUT brooding and whining?
  - Bond doesn't get any gadgets in the Craig movies. If he has no gadgets, there's no use for Q. If they decide to give Bond gadgets in the next one, they'll introduce Q. As for Moneypenny, her absence made the Vesper plotline more plausible. With that plot all resolved, maybe we'll see her too. On the other wiki, they say that if they find a place for these characters, the'll introduce them. We'll know by 2012.
  - Also, they are very influenced by the Fleming novels. Q here is an armourer and rarely gives gadgets to Bond. The few items he does give over the books are things that today are taken care by his cellphone. Plus it puts him closer to Fleming's Bond, who had to rely on his wit, not his gadgets.
- There's Villiers, who could vaguely fill the Moneypenny role, but he's male. Let's see how that works out.

The condition of Q's gadgets

Just a question concerning Q and his constant complaints about Bond having gadgets destroyed or brought back in a less than pristine condition - what the hell does he think James Bond actually does for a living?
- Presumably, he is able to compare Bond's return rate with other agents, and finds it lacking.
  - "Well 006 failed to defeat the evil drug dealer and prevent the nuking of the west coast of Florida. On the other hand, he did manage to return the magnetic watch undamaged".
  - Interestingly, so far as we know, Florida still exists in the Bond universe. Presumably, 006 was able to complete the mission and return the magnetic watch undamaged. Non-mutual-exclusion is a funny thing.
  - Interestingly enough, as far as we know, Japan still exists in the real universe AND was itself nuked. Twice. No reason Florida can't soak up a little radiation here and there and keep on chuggin'.
- Bond is rather reckless with his stuff even when the situation doesn't call for it. Consider how he raced the Aston Martin up a narrow mountain road in Film/Goldeneye for no good reason. Well, except for that reason.
- Q's the guy of guy who'd understand that, but he'd still probably annoyed about having gadgets destroyed. Think about it: if you spent all your time building stuff and most of the stuff you give to 007 gets destroyed, you're going to be annoyed a little bit even if you know he's the best agent you have. Also, I think at this point it's a running joke between them. And I'm pretty sure he didn't want Bond destroying the Sandwich-looking gadget in GoldenEye. "Don't touch that! That's my lunch."
  - Maybe it's a Truth in Television. It seems to be a common characteristic among people in charge of signing out equipment to be somewhat resentful of having to let it out of their sight at all, let alone getting it back in less than pristine condition.
- I get the feeling Bond just throws away the stuff he doesn't need, while the other agents ensure they're brought back in one piece.
- This is a Headscratcher? Gadgets cost time and money to build. Q is a public servant working for a government department which, for all that it involves spies, doubtlessly has to worry about budgets, supplies and manpower just as much as any department. Every time Bond destroys or loses a gadget, it's something that has to be rebuilt or replaced, which consumes time, manpower and resources that could be better applied elsewhere. Hence, Q would like Bond to return the gadgets he's issued with in one piece and gets irate when Bond doesn't.
- It is even more than this. Gadgets, especially in the early instalments could have been based on new technology and Q (along with M) are understandably concerned that discarded items or their parts could have been used by enemies (say, Soviets in Cold War era movies) to reverse-engineer and use them against their original developers.

Q's ability to predict the future

How does Q always give Bond the exact right gadgets? I know Bond improvises sometimes, but he never gives Bond a Watch Magnet Attract feature that he never needs or an EMP Pen that winds up useless.
- The car accessories sometimes get neglected. In GoldenEye, he simply didn't use any of them. In The World Is Not Enough, the car got sliced in half before he got to fully use it.
- Law of Conservation of Detail.
  - I'll see that and raise you a Plot Tailored to the Party.
- Same way a modern military force decides how to equip their covert agents, I imagine. They assess the intelligence, calculate the most probable needs of their field agents, and equip them accordingly. If Q thinks Bond is likely to be rappelling down skyscrapers he'll give him a miniature grappling hook launcher hidden inside a wristwatch. If Q thinks Bond is going to have to blow out a wall or a window he'll give him a toothpaste tube full of plastique.
- I remember reading somewhere that the Q scene is always written last in the screenplay, to introduce the gadgets Bond just so happens to find useful during the movie.
- Once or twice Bond was given a gadget he never used, or he didn’t use all the functions of his watch or mobile.

Q's job brief

How many agents does Q outfit? If he's MI6's quartermaster, be he only seems to deal with 00 agents. Do the average MI6 agents get weapons from a different person or something?
- In From Russia With Love, Captain Nash (actually Red Grant) has the same type of attache case as Q gave Bond.
- Well, we only see him outfit double-0 agents because the series happens to be about a double-0 agent, remember. He's probably dealing with all kinds of things in between snarking at Bond to return his gadgets, we just don't see it because the stories aren't about him.

Q's Replacement

If Q stands for Quartermaster, what does R stand for? Robert? Rubiks Cube? Rock and Roll?
- There is no "R". This is just a feeble joke made by Bond in The World Is Not Enough about Q's replacement.
- Replacement?
- Alphabetically, R comes after Q. It makes sense. Except for Craig's jokes, we never know what M stands for either (especially when M was cast as a female.)
  - In the novels the male M is called Admiral Sir Miles Messervy, with the female M being called Barbara Mawdsley. The M designation is possibly a reference to Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who was known as "C"- as all his successors as head of SIS.
  - This makes sense in the movies, given that the names of characters played by Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes are Mansfield and Mallory, respectively.
- Pierce Brosnan was actually glad that the name "R" didn't stick, as it would have come out in his Irish accent more like "air," most decidedly un-British.

Seriously, why don't they just shoot him?

Incidentally, why DON'T the villains just shoot him?
- Because they're egomaniacs. They need to him to thoroughly humiliated before they kill him. It's the same principle as supervillains wasting money making sure all their weapons are thematic - it hinders them but it adds to the spectacle.
- Dude, if you're gonna make an elaborate super-base or a killer satellite or anything that outlandish, you're sure as hell not just going to shoot him. If you're that sensible and practical you'd never make a super-base or something in the first place.
  - Having Bond die a painful, humiliating death is as much a message to his people as much as it is to stroke their own ego. Killing a living legend in such a manner is basically a way of telling British Intelligence "That's what happens. Don't fuck with me again." A dead spy is just that. A humiliated spy damages the aura of the agency that handled him and may lead to loss of credibility, particularly if they're trying to turn enemy spies or work with organizations they otherwise may not be able to deal with (like drug rings, terrorist cells, guerrilla groups, mercenaries, etc.).
- Honorable mention to Auric Goldfinger, who was indeed just going to have Bond killed until Bond bluffed him into believing that Goldfinger needed him alive.
- At least in Thunderball, they have a reason for being cautious about killing Bond at first. If Largo just snuffs him out early, it will result in a big, shiny "NUKES ARE HERE" sign. That's why Volpe is trying to kill him quietly, without drawing too much attention, at least until the point where Bond is spotted infiltrating the mansion and they switch over to "Bond must die" mode.
- He does get shot at plenty of times, but they always miss (obviously). Blofeld was going to shoot him, after pulling the Blofeld Ploy, but the head of Japanese secret service pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment. Other times the villains just want Bond to die somewhere else. Usually, though, Bond has simply pissed them off by this point.
- It's justified in a number of Bond films. As noted, in Goldfinger Auric Goldfinger thought he needed to keep Bond alive. In On Her Majesties Secret Service, Blofeld keeps Bond alive as independent testimony that Blofeld can do what he is threatening. And in From Russia With Love, it is crucial for SPECTRES plan that Bond be kept alive until the end.
- Well, as of No Time to Die, we have a villain who did just shoot him. And was the one villain to finally kill him.

Meeting old friends

He goes all over the world. Runs in the same wealthy circles. He's been everywhere. But... he never runs into a family member or an old friend who isn't important to the plot. You'll never see "I'd like a martini, shaken not sti-" (drunk frat buddy chimes in) "JIMMY! Man, I haven't seen you since graduation, you old dog, what's happenin'??"
- Simple, Bond is an orphan and a sociopath. He doesn't have friends. The few people who can stand his presence (006, Felix, Moneypenny) are in the same business and know enough not to draw attention to him.
  - He's not a sociopath; he's just a secret agent. And he has plenty of friends, even if they are all in the same business. Most of his co-workers like him and he is on good terms with them (for example, he's upset when he learns Q is retiring).
- Aside from Tomorrow Never Dies, when he runs into his old flame who is now dating the villain? And it's a major plot point because it blows his cover and gets her killed?
- In The Spy Who Loved Me his first contact in Egypt turns out to be an old friend from Cambridge. Licence to Kill starts with him attending Felix Leiter's wedding, and he was friendly with Leiter's fiancée (as in, actually friendly) as well as Sharkey.
- It's not unreasonable to assume that Bond has intentionally lost touch with old friends (for their safety, if nothing else). A college drinking buddy might be looking at 20 years or more since he last saw Bond in the flesh. Plus any spy worth their salt can fake an accent on the fly and tell them they're mistaken
- I imagine that most black ops-style secret agents tend to be the kind of people who don't have a lot of close attachments in their 'real' lives outside of the service — the kind of people with few family or friends to notice or miss them if they just suddenly up and disappear one day or fail to come back. In short, Bond's old friends don't usually recognise him because Bond doesn't have a lot of friends, and those he does have are in the life somehow.
  - It's like Trevelyan says in GoldenEye: "Mr. Bond here will have a small memorial service, with only Moneypenny and a few tearful restaurateurs in attendance.". A previous "M" from The Man with the Golden Gun would have added "Outraged chefs" to the list though. It isn't exactly a close or a full social calendar though.
- This is actually Lampshaded in Bond's last book, Solo. A former classmate of Bond's, whose first name Bond doesn't even remember, comes up to him on some random street in America and asks him if he wants to hang out sometime. The ensuing monologue basically consists of Bond wondering, irritatedly, "Did that just fucking happen?"
- Amusingly, the novel version of Goldfinger starts off the main plot by the coincidence of having Bond, while stuck in an airport lobby in Miami, run into the guy who was sitting next to him when he was busy breaking Le Chiffre's bank in Casino Royale. Remembering Bond from that instance is what prompts Mr. DuPont to offer him a short-term job, as Mr. DuPont suspects he is being cheated at cards (which he is, by Goldfinger) and knows Bond is a world-class card player.

Whatever happened to SPECTRE?

What the hell happened to SPECTRE? One minute, they're a global power on par with the US and USSR. Then, they disappear. Last we heard was when Bond killed Blofeld, but considering he always has a number two to replace him if he dies, why would that mean they just dissolve? Where the hell did they go?
- I don't think his Number Two is meant to replace him. He's a diabolical criminal mastermind out for power and profit, I doubt he has the slightest care what happens to SPECTRE after he's dead. And I imagine he's careful not to have a Number Two who's too suitable to replace him, because that leads to Klingon Promotion. So I suspect SPECTRE simply fell apart into feuding factions when he no longer had the strength to rule it with an iron fist - just like most empires, really.
- The real-world answer: The SPECTRE in the films is usually credited to the screenwriter who originally adapted Thunderball (which was remade as Never Say Never Again), and the producers chose to quit using it. Even as indicated below, we see the death of Blofeld who is not referred to by name in the film For Your Eyes Only, nor is SPECTRE mentioned.
- After Blofeld's death in For Your Eyes Only, in which the organisation was already suffering (Blofeld's scheme involved one mook and a remote control operated by him), it collapsed entirely. The surviving members who wanted to carry on formed a new super secret evil organisation. It's name? QUANTUM.
  - Nope. Ironically, it's exactly the opposite way around! But you're sort of techically correct. The best kind of correct!
- Most likely Thunderball & You Only Live Twice cost them a great deal of money, leading to collapse. Volcano bases and custom spaceships don't come cheap. In OHMSS, he's trying to get himself declared a Count, probably for some sort of inheritance. In Diamonds are Forever, he's using Willard Whyte's resources to finance his operation.
- The organization likely fell apart bit by bit through out the run of the Connery/Lazenby era. Think about it, from Dr. No to Thunderball Blofeld has enough lieutenants to leave the running of individual operations to without having to get involved too much himself, but by You Only Live Twice he's started overseeing them himself and we only ever see SPECTRE operations run by him after that. Perhaps after repeated failed endeavors due to Bonds interference, the other members of SPECTRE lost faith in Blofeld and left to sell their talents to other crime syndicates, world powers and genocidal megalomaniacs. SPECTRE goes from being the worlds most powerful international crime syndicate to simply Blofelds private army. After Diamonds are Forever, Blofeld is crippled both physically and financially and it takes him ten years to finally have an other crack at Bond and all he can muster up is a remote controlled helicopter, a disposable pilot and maybe the priest at the cemetery. Bond drops him down a smoke stack and that's it, SPECTRE is well and truly finished.

"SPECTRE does not tolerate failure"

"SPECTRE does not tolerate failure." Then pray tell, how come after Bond has foiled two plans Blofeld was personally overseeing, he is still in the position to be running a project that involves SPECTRE's own satellite?
- He's the boss. Double Standard, perhaps.
  - That explanation occurred to me, but it opens up another question: why doesn't anyone challenge Blofeld's leading position when he repeatedly fails against the same person and brushes aside the rules he himself has set? Then again, maybe they did, and it contributed to SPECTRE's downfall, which is speculated above.
  - The moment someone challenges Blofield, they learn why you do not challenge Blofield. Generally, right before they die horribly.
- Well it's Blofeld. Maybe his minions still have respect for him even after all the stuff ups he has caused.
  - On the same theme, in 'From Russia With Love' both Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen try to shift blame for the plan to kill Bond failing. Blofeld decides to kill Kronsteen as punishment for the plan failing. However, as far as I can see, the plan worked perfectly, Bond was unaware of what was going on, they had the film of him and Tatiana as well as the Lektor. The only flaw in the plan was that the agent hired to carry out the assassination was a total psycho who wanted to see Bond crawl for mercy rather than just shoot him and make it look like suicide... and the choice of agent was entirely Klebb's responsibility. Is Blofeld the worst judge of performance or what?
  - He was probably just sick of Kronsteen's smugness and egotistical boasting and Bond still being alive was a good excuse to shut him up. I know I was.
  - Plus, the only two people who know what actually happened between Grant and Bond are Grant and Bond. Since Grant is dead and Bond isn't going to tell them what happened, all they have to go on is guesswork. It's noted that Grant was their top field agent, so what could have happened? Kronsteen's elaborate plan screwed it up somehow.
  - Kronsteen's plan hinged on sending a single operative to defeat James Bond, with no contingencies for if that operative failed. Any plan that doesn't allow for the possibility of human failure is not a very good plan.
- As pointed out above, it seems that there wasn't much of Spectre left after Blofeld failed for the first time. No matter who you are, volcano bases, custom spaceships and hundreds of soldiers don't come cheap. After YOLT, most of the people who could have challenged Blofeld for leadership probably pulled a Screw This, I'm Outta Here before they lost what little they had left and/or were arrested in their weakened state. All his following failed schemes, the last of which resulted in his death, were increasingly low key, involving less and less potential competitors.

Bond's still working for MI6

FYI, in real life the term MI6 (Military Intelligence Section Six) had fallen into official disuse after World War I. So when will the show use the current official name of British foreign intelligence, that is Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)? I thought that, since the series has been rebooted, the writers will finally use SIS instead of MI6.
- They'll keep using MI6 because that's the organization that James Bond has been working for in the public consciousness for the last 50 years.
  - Fair point. But the thing is, James Bond and M are SIS agent themselves. They should refer their own service correctly, yes? Bond saying that he's MI6 is like CIA Director saying that he works for OSS.
  - Bond isn't an SIS agent. He's an MI6 agent. In whatever universe Bond takes place in, MI6 never fell into official disuse.
  - What, is Bond working In a Galaxy Far Away? The James Bond films are supposed to happened in the real world, e.i. our universe.
  - Maybe MI6 is in official disuse, but that doesn't stop it from being in operational disuse.
- In most films they actually refer to it as "the British Secret Service" or "British Intelligence", and often "Universal Exports" though that is actually its cover name. It was actually as late as GoldenEye that they started calling it MI6. The existence of the organization wasn't officially confirmed until the 70's or 80's ('course, few people were surprised), long after Bond began his run, and they probably messed up the name from that.
- Bond works for MI6 the same way that George Smiley works for the Circus - it's the name the creator used and it's got name recognition.
- In real life, the SIS’ own logo and website refer to it as MI6, so it’s hardly out of order.

He's wearing a Nehru jacket, he's obviousy evil!

When Bond sees the Big Bad he's always wearing a Chairman Mao style jacket. One would think before he knows that he's dealing with the Big Bad, he'd recognize him as such just by this dress. Seems like they all favour this outfit at some point in the films.
- Only two villains wear this from what I recall; Blofeld and Dr No. And both of them are encountered by Bond precisely at the moment when he discovers that they are the Big Bad.
- And in fact, those are Nehru jackets, not Mao jackets - the Mao jacket has the four pockets on the front.

The Bond-As-Codename theory

I realize the Daniel Craig films (Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace) have effectively rebooted the series, but this brings up an interesting continuity question about the Bond movies from Sean Connery to Pierce Brosnan. Is Brosnan's Bond supposed to be the same person as Connery's Bond? Is the Bond in GoldenEye supposed to be the same guy that faced Dr. No?
- It's never explicitly stated one way or the other, but the probable inference is that he is. In the EON-licensed video game Everything Or Nothing, in which Brosnan plays Bond, the villain is the protege of Max Zorin, the big bad from A View to a Kill, and Bond explicitly mentions his encounter with him ("We played a game of Bridge together. He lost.") A common fan theory that reconciles the different actors playing Bond is that "James Bond" is actually a code name given to Agent 007.
  - Common, but wrong fan theory. If 'Bond' is a codename; why do people never refer to him as anything other than "James Bond" even if they are close associates, even at points where he has supposedly resigned from the secret service (License to Kill) or hasn't become a 007 (Casino Royale). And how come his wife was clearly called Theresa Bond?
  - Additionally, ask yourself: is it really satisfying to think of this series not as a chronicles of one man but of a succession of loosely-affiliated agents with the same code name?
  - Also, the "Bond is a code name" theory goes against the logic of code names. Your alias is no damn good if everyone knows to look out for the same name on a guest-list, even if the face is different. Whereas Johnny Mook is unlikely to recognise a face without a good photograph beforehand. And if it were true, it means they're also (counting only canon films only up to Die Another Day) giving these "codenames" to Q (two actors - Peter Burton in Dr No is also "Major Boothroyd"), Moneypenny (three actors), Bill Tanner (three actors) and possibly M/Miles Messervy (if they intended Robert Brown to be the same M and not his successor). The CIA have six Felix Leiters. Which stretches plausibility a bit.
  - Finally, it's definitely confirmed in Skyfall that Bond's name is not a cover or Legacy Character in Craig's continuity (yet, at least) as we clearly see his father's name as "Bond" on a tombstone, and the Old Retainer—who it's made clear doesn't know that Bond is a spy—refers to him as "James".
  - Skyfall is from the Craig era s/he's asking for the pre-Craig period. But anyway, in The Spy Who Loved Me is mentioned that Bond (played by Moore) was married and his wife was killed (something that happens in the Lazenby's movie) thus is, indeed, the same person.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall aside, It's general consensus that Lazenby and Connery are the same Bond, especially if you assume that the Cold Opening of Diamonds Are Forever details Bond's Roaring Rampage of Revenge over Tracy's death. It's further pretty clear that Moore's Bond is also meant to be the same character: The Spy Who Loved Me alludes to Tracy's death (XXX casually gives Bond her intel briefing on him and mentions his wife having been killed, over which Bond angrily cuts her off) and For Your Eyes Only explicitly shows her grave and suggests Bond finally gets his revenge on Blofeld. Moore's age of 58 when A View to a Kill was filmed actually lines up fairly nicely if you assume Bond is aging as normal between films. It sets up Bond as being born in 1927, making him 35 during Dr. No. Pretty reasonable if Connery, Lazenby and Moore are all meant to be the same character. The problem is with Dalton and Brosnan. If they were also supposed to be the same character, Bond would be into his seventies during Die Another Day unless there was significant Comic-Book Time involved. However that's likely not the case since the end to the Cold War is an outright plot point in GoldenEye.
  - Dalton definitely is, they mention his wife being killed in License to Kill. And Brosnan mentions the family motto.
- The fact that Brosnan's Bond meets the Bond Girl of a previous Bond, both have been recast, and both still recognize each other pretty much kiboshes the whole "it's a codename" fanon straight-out with no other justification needed. Most adherents of the fanon just get annoyed when you bring it up.
  - When did that happen? I can't recall any Bond girl who appeared more than once.
  - Never happened, someone's probably assuming Paris Carver appeared prior to Tomorrow Never Dies. She doesn't.
  - Actually happened once with Maud Adams. Twice if you count a brief uncredited appearance.
- Another possibly theory is that, pre-Craig, there is some kind of Comic-Book Time going on. The previous movies all happened to the current guy playing Bond, but they all happened within a particular time frame (say, ten years or so) and they all just get nudged along the timeline to account for how old the guy currently playing Bond is. This is actually kind of supported by the films themselves; Goldeneye begins with a prologue involving Pierce Brosnan running around Russia in 1986, which would be just before The Living Daylights when he was supposedly Timothy Dalton. So if The Living Daylights and License to Kill happened to Brosnan's Bond, it's not too much a stretch to suggest that events roughly corresponding to, say, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me all happened in some way for Brosnan's Bond as well, except instead of happening in the 1960s or 1970s, we shift them along the timeline a bit so they happened at various points during the 1980s instead. It's not a perfect theory, granted, but it seems to work okay, and it's just as plausible as five or six different secret agents all pretending to be the same man who had the exact same things happen to him or him being a Time Lord or anything.
- There is of course possibility that Connery is real James Bond who retired and provides deniability to MI6 for every Bond untill Craig (who is either reboot or Connery's son), as in "Sure we had an agent with that name, but he is retired here is his adress if you want to meet him." And after they visit Connery, someone suggests investigating possibility that some third party tried to false flag MI6 by impersonating retired agent.
- Of course, the real, Doylist answer is simple - EON don't care about continuity like that. Bond simply has "met" these people, and was once married and widowed shortly thereafter. That's all you need to know, on with the adventure.

M's real name

Does your surname have to start with M for you to become M?
- No, that's just the franchise being cute. In real life the director of MI-6 was referred to as 'C' because that was the code name used by its first director Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, but his successors had the usual variety of surnames.
- Surprisingly, the reboot continuity is cuter about this than the old continuity: the old films never quite named Bernard Lee's M (The Spy Who Loves Me has General Gogol refer to M as 'Miles' - they're on first-name terms - and M's name in the novels was revealed to be Sir Miles Messervy); Robert Brown's M would be Admiral Hargreaves (if indeed they are the same character and not simply recasting Bernard Lee's M); and Judi Dench's M was never named. Whereas the new films are two for two, with Skyfall explicitly naming Judi Dench's character Olivia Mansfield, and her successor Gareth Mallory.

Bond's spare time

What exactly does Bond do when he's not on the job? I mean besides gambling, drinking, and banging women. (Surely that gets boring after awhile.) Does he ever read a nice book, or see a movie?
- Whenever we see Bond at leisure, he seems to be doing one of those, but considering the many not-directly-job-related skills that have come in handy for him (golf in Goldfinger, riding in A View to a Kill, fencing in Die Another Day), he clearly keeps very busy with other activities too. Since he's not mystified by mythological references when they come up (like 006 calling himself "Janus" in GoldenEye), he must occasionally read a book too; & we also know from several films that he enjoys classical music.
  - But not, apparently, modern music - one of the early films (I forget which one) as him refer to something as being "like listening to The Beatles without earmuffs".
- From what we see in the movies at least, he's also clearly very good at skiing, so presumably must practice it from time to time (my guess is that he spends at least some of his time off at the ski resorts). He's also clearly fond of driving classic cars.
- Casino Royale (the book) mentions that Bond's Bentley is "his only hobby", though he presumably does other things when he's really got spare time.

The name's Bond, James Bond?

What bothers me is the fact that MI-6 put effort into giving him a false ID, cover story and the like but every single time, he introduces himself by his real name, to the big bad, im pretty sure its established somewhere that alot of the criminal circles at least share info when they aren't being paranoiacs, so i'm pretty sure when they start seeing info that is basically 'cause of death: James Bond' start repeating itself, people would have gotten wise by now, didn't MI-6 at least try to give him a false name?
- Whew, that's a long sentence! I'll go bit-by-bit. Only occasionally does he get a cover ID in the films, and the only time he blatantly doesn't use it is in Casino Royale, because it's a deliberate attempt to mess with Le Chiffre's head by openly announcing his presence. Under his real name he technically has a full cover anyway - officially James Bond works for Universal Exports. In any of the stories involving SMERSH/SPECTRE they know who he is already because they're powerful enough to find out after his first encounter with them. Outside of the SMERSH/SPECTRE stories, I don't think anyone does ever recognise him - they might do some digging and discover his cover's false, or capture him so he confesses the truth, but that's a part of the story. They don't just know because their buddies told them "look out for a guy named James Bond!" offscreen.
- In addition to the above, creating a cover id is actually an incredibly difficult business if its to be done to make the ID in anyway convincing. Does the ID have documentation, tax records, appropriate social security/national insurance records for the country? Do they have a credit history? Do they have appropriate birth/marriage records? Records of relatives? If the cover ID is an academic or writer, do they have a history of publications? Constructing such an ID is a painstaking business and its generally only done for intelligence officers likely to be operating in one place for a long period of time. Now Bond isn't such an officer, his mission are generally 'get in, find the bad guy, kill 'em and get out again', as such its not going to be worthwhile going to the effort of constructing such a fake ID, instead they give him an ID that will pass cursory examination but nothing deeper...and equip him with gadgets to protect him when the cover is inevitably blown.
- Bond's standard cover is that he works for a company called Universal Exports. My guess is that MI6 has deliberately cultivated a shady reputation for Universal Exports, implicating them in stuff like smuggling, corporate espionage, even assassination. So when Bond, a Universal Exports employee, shows up asking suspicious questions, getting into gunfights, and sneaking around secured facilities, people will figure out he's a spy and assassin, but they'll think he's a corporate spy and assassin, not a government one.

00 diversity

Say what you will about it's Values Dissonance, competent female secret agents have been common in the series as long as it's been on film, so why, whenever another 00 agent is seen or mentioned, are they never female? A 00's jobs seems to be a combination of universal infiltration (they can go in without a cover story), and elite commando. Whatever disadvantage the average woman might have in a fist fight with the average man could easily be made up for with MI6's extensive training and arsenals, and seeing how much globe-trotting 00 agents do, wouldn't it be smart to have a more diverse set for different situations? We've never seen any black or Asian 00's either.
- I found my own answer. The series Wiki says there were female 00 agents in some of the novels.
- And as of No Time to Die, the new 007 is a black woman.
- 003 is shown as a woman as far back as Thunderball.

Bond's Cover

An above headscratcher brought up that James Bond has a go-to cover story as just a man working for Universal Exports. That's cute, but how does that fit with the You Only Live Twice headlines referring to him, in a half-truth, as a navy officer instead? What, couldn't MI6 keep their stories straight?
- James Bond does hold the rank of Commander with the Royal Navy (like Fleming, he joined Naval Intelligence during the war, though due to the Floating Timeline of the movies, that's not necessarily World War II). From Naval Intelligence he was recruited by MI6; the official story is that after leaving the Navy he took up a job with Universal Exports. The newspaper shown in You Only Live Twice obviously decided that "British Naval Commander Murdered" was a better headline than "Salesman murdered" even if it is slightly misleading.

Where are the other 00 agents?

Okay, I know that there are other 00 agents that shown up in previous films, but all of them are either glorified Red Shirts or turned traitor (006 and Raoul Silva, who's possibly a former 00 agent) they might as well dropped the whole 00 branch altogether, considering 007 seems to be the only agent who get things done. I mean, what's the point of 00 branch if 007 is the only competent agent, especially when it's implied by 006 in GoldenEye that every 00 agents are supposed to be equal in skill, yet every time they showed up (aside from occasional meetings) and didn't turn evil, they dropped like flies. Now, I realize that the series is called 'James Bond' so 007 is supposed to be the main character who gets to advance the plot, but most of the time he seems to be the only field agent MI6 has at disposal. Don't James Bond get support from time to time in his missions? He did get 006's help at the beginning of GoldenEye (even if he was planning to go rogue anyway) When SPECTRE was a threat, Bond seems to be the only one going up agaisnt them. Where are the other agents? When Raoul Silva bombed MI6 and other agents are recalled, none of them are present at their new secret underground base or even be M's bodyguards at the public inquiry? I could go on.
- I believe Thunderball has shots of all the double 00 agents together who are ordered to follow up different lines of enquiry, Bond just so happens to have stumbled on clues that leads him on the correct path. Also, there is another double o agent mentioned in The Living Daylights as ready to take over the mission should Bond be unwilling to do it. But the bottom line is, as you note, the series is called 'James Bond' not 'Agents of MI6' and therefore concentrates on Bond...if it helps just pretend the other 00 agents are off having their own missions at the time.
- In the novels we do encounter other 00 agents from time to time, usually in scenes where Bond spends time at the office. They have their own separate missions.

Headscratchers / James Bond

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