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Encyclopedia > 00 Agent

In the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming and the related films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the elite of the Secret Service. The original novels establish that the Section usually holds only three agents at a time (though this reference from Goldfinger could have only meant that there were just three 00s at this particular time); the movies (beginning with Thunderball) establish the number of concurrent agents to be less than a dozen (although this is based upon visual evidence only; no film has, to date, explicitly established a maximum or minimum number of 00 agents; also, this was all of the 00s in Europe, there could have been others outside of Europe). If Bond (whose updated biography says he's a former Special Boat Service operative), and what little is revealed about the other 00 agents in the novels is any indication, they are typically recruited from the Special Operations forces of the British military. Flemings image of James Bond; commissioned to aid the Daily Express comic strip artists. ... Ian Lancaster Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, journalist and Second World War Navy Commander. ... For other uses, see Goldfinger (disambiguation). ... Thunderball refers to a James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming and its subsequent cinematisation. ... The Special Boat Service (SBS) is the British Royal Navys special forces unit. ... Special forces or special operations forces is a term used to describe relatively small military units raised and trained for reconnaissance, unconventional warfare and special operations. ...

Contents

Description

Agents with the 00 prefix have proven themselves capable enough in the field to be entrusted with the licence to kill -- the authorisation to, at their own discretion, commit acts of assassination and other controversial activities in order to complete their missions, without having to seek permission from headquarters first (this differs from killing in self-defence or in the heat of battle, which are activities non-00 operatives are often depicted as doing in the books and films). In Casino Royale, the first Bond novel, Fleming was still developing the 00 concept; in that novel, rather than an actual license to kill, the 00 prefix simply indicates, in Bond's words, "that you've had to kill a chap in cold blood in the course of some assignment." Bond himself was rewarded a 00 number because he killed two men in two separate assignments, an apparent basis for the 2006 film version's slightly different requirement: to attain 00 status, an operative must perform two officially sanctioned kills. In the novel Live and Let Die the significance of the 00 number continues to be a past kill; not until Moonraker, the third Bond novel, does Fleming begin to shift towards the idea that a 00 number denotes a license to kill. Thereafter the novels contain some ambiguity as to whether a 00 agent has a blanket license to kill (see, e.g., Dr. No), or instead may be given a license to kill on a case-by-case basis (see, e.g., Goldfinger, The Man with the Golden Gun). Casino Royale by Ian Fleming was the first James Bond novel. ... Casino Royale, released in 2006, is the 21st film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Daniel Craig as MI6 agent James Bond. ... Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series. ... Moonraker is the third James Bond novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series. ... 2002 reissue of the original novel. ... For other uses, see Goldfinger (disambiguation). ... The Man with the Golden Gun is the thirteenth (counting the short story collection For Your Eyes Only) and final James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming and posthumously published in the United Kingdom and the United States by Glidrose Productions, in 1965. ...


The film The World Is Not Enough revealed that the 00 Section has its own area within MI6 headquarters and its own insignia, though it is not known if this has always been the case (the novels also stated that there was a 00-insignia). 00-level agents report directly to M. According to Ian Fleming in his novel Moonraker, 00 agents face mandatory retirement at age 45, however this is contradicted by the later Bond novels of John Gardner (who depicts a 50-something Bond) and the film series as both Sean Connery and Roger Moore clearly play post-45-year-old Bonds (Connery in Never Say Never Again), as does, arguably, Pierce Brosnan in his later films though Bond could have lied about his age, the rule could have been changed to allow older people to serve, or M could have broken the rule knowing that Bond was too good to let retire. ... Moonraker is the third James Bond novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series. ... Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930) is an Academy Award-winning Scottish actor and producer who is perhaps best known as the first actor to portray James Bond in cinema, starring in seven Bond films. ... For other persons named Roger Moore, see Roger Moore (disambiguation). ... Pierce Brendan Brosnan OBE [1] (born May 16, 1953) is an Irish actor and producer best known for portraying James Bond in four films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. ...


List of 00s

The following list is of the known members of this elite order who have been referred to in officially licensed James Bond fiction: novels, films, video games, and comic strips.

00-agent Name Description
Agent 001 Edward Donner Referred to in the Raymond Benson novel, Doubleshot.
Agent 002 Bill Fairbanks Assassinated by Francisco Scaramanga, a.k.a. The Man with the Golden Gun, in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1969 (film version: The Man with the Golden Gun). In The Living Daylights (film version), another 002 was in the training exercise at Gibraltar, with 004 and 007.
Agent 003 Jason Walters Found dead, in Siberia, in A View to a Kill film. Another (presumably unrelated) MI6 agent is Jack Mason, 003 who is killed by Nikolai Diavolo, the villain, in the Everything or Nothing video game (2004). Ironically Diavolo shares a connection to the villian Max Zorin from A View to a Kill.
Agent 004 Frederick Warder Accompanied 002 and 007 to Gibraltar in The Living Daylights film; murdered by an individual pretending to be a KGB agent who left a tag on the body that read "Death to Spies" in Russian. Another 004 appears in the Benson novel The Facts of Death. In the GoldenEye video game on the Silo mission briefing, Q mentions to 007 to "remember to treat the timed explosives with respect - you remember what happened to 004 in Beirut" - whether this is another agent or the same one as above is unknown.
Agent 005 Stuart Thomas Was 005 until an eye defect had begun to impair his ability to use a firearm. Was transferred and is the head of Station G (Greece) in Colonel Sun.
Agent 006 Alec Trevelyan Major character in GoldenEye. One of Bond's best friends, he betrayed MI6 and Her Majesty's Government by faking his death and then, years later, in aiding the theft of the secret Soviet satellite, GoldenEye. His motive was avenging his parents, Lienz Cossacks, betrayed to the Communists by the British government after World War II. He also begrudged Bond's not allowing him time to escape unscathed from the Soviet chemical weapons factory they were to destroy in the mission shown in the teaser of GoldenEye. Portrayed by Sean Bean. Another apparent 006, a former Royal Marine commando, is mentioned in the Fleming novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service; this agent is never referenced by name so it is not known if this is also Alec Trevelyan. However, it is unlikely that they are the same person as the character of Trevelyan had not appeared in any media until after Fleming's death (though characters from an authors continuousy are more elaborated in other media).
Agent 007 James Bond To date, James Bond is the only agent known to have had the code number 007. During the timeframe of the You Only Live Twice novel, Bond was transferred into another branch and given the number 7777, suggesting there was no active 007 during that time frame (Bond was subsequently reinstated as 007 in the following book, The Man with the Golden Gun). In the John Gardner novels, 007 is the last remaining active 00-agent, the section itself having been dissolved by the 1980s; Raymond Benson later contradicted this in his novels.
Agent 008 'Bill' In the films, agent 008 is mentioned briefly when M threatens to replace Bond on an assignment, e.g. The Living Daylights. In the film Goldfinger Bond tells Goldfinger that if he killed him 008 would replace him. The James Bond 007 role playing game released in the 1980s suggests 008 is a woman. In the novel Moonraker 008 (called "Bill" by Bond) is mentioned as being on recuperative leave after returning from a mission behind the Iron Curtain.. In the video game James Bond 007, 008 (male) gives Bond an exploding pen before dying in Kurdistan. 008 is often referred to as the agent who would replace Bond should he be killed or taken off a case. In the film Goldfinger Bond tells Goldfinger "If I don't report, 008 replaces me"; in the novel, Bond thinks to himself that 008 would likely be the one to avenge Bond by killing Goldfinger. As Bond is thinking this, he also ruminates on the fact that 008 is "a good man, more careful than Bond."
Agent 009 Peter Smith Assassinated by Mischka and Grischka in the film version of Octopussy. M sent another 009, in the movie The World Is Not Enough, to assassinate Renard; despite 009's shooting him in the head, Renard lived. Another 009 dies in the graphic novel Deadly Double, while yet another unlucky holder of the rank is killed in Peru in the graphic novel Serpent's Tooth.
Agent 0010 John Referred to in the Benson novel The Man with the Red Tattoo.
Agent 0011 Cederic Mentioned briefly in the novel Moonraker as vanishing while on assignment in Singapore.
Agent 0012 Sam Johnston Although unmentioned on screen, the novelization of The World Is Not Enough, written by Raymond Benson, indicates that Bond is investigating 0012's death at the film's start. Nothing is known of 0012 except that a photograph of the agent (glimpsed in the movie) shows the late 0012 to be a male with dark hair.
Agent 0013 Briony Thorne A female 00-agent who appears in the comic strip Fear Face (published January 18, 1971 to April 20, 1971 in the The Daily Express). Thorne is revealed to be a double agent for China.
Unknown Jonathan Hunter "GoldenEye" A former 00-agent featured in GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. He was shot in the right eye, and was dismissed by MI6 for "reckless brutality". He joined up with Auric Goldfinger against the shooter, Dr. Julius No, and eventually received a gold-hued, synthetic orb as a replacement for his right eye. After killing Goldfinger and Dr. No, he becomes Ernst Stavro Blofeld's bodyguard. Unlike other 00 agents listed here, it is difficult if not impossible to reconcile GoldenEye with the continuity of the films, comic strips, or novels. The only possible conclusion that fits with the James Bond storyline is that Dr No and Goldfinger survived their 'Death', but still, this is virtually impossible-Dr No was electrocuted and Goldfinger was literally disintegrated.
Unknown Agent York Killed in the comic strip River of Death (published June 24, 1969 to November 29, 1969 in The Daily Express). Agent York is a 00 agent but his number isn't revealed.
Unknown Suzi Kew A recurring character in the Daily Express comic strip series of the 1960s and 1970s, Suzi Kew is a 00 agent but her number is not revealed.

Raymond Benson (born September 6, 1955) is an American author best known for being the last official author of the adult James Bond novels. ... Categories: Literature stubs | 2000 books | James Bond books ... Francisco Scaramanga is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel The Man with the Golden Gun. ... For other uses, see Beirut (disambiguation). ... Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... “Siberian” redirects here. ... Everything or Nothing is a third-person shooter video game, where the player controls the famous spy James Bond. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... The Facts of Death, first published in 1998, was the third novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Flemings secret agent, James Bond (including Bensons novelization of Tomorrow Never Dies). ... GoldenEye is a 1995 spy film. ... Namcos Pac-Man was a hit, and became a universal phenomenon. ... 1978 reprint by Panther Books. ... Alec Trevelyan (006) is the primary villain in the James Bond film GoldenEye, portrayed by actor Sean Bean and is based on The Stourport Psycho Michael Waldron also known in the underworld as Mickey Woosh. ... Combatants Lienz Cossacks Allied Forces Strength >50,000 Casualties 45,000 - 50,000 repatriated The Betrayal of Cossacks refers to the forced transfer of Cossacks who fought against Allied forces in World War II to the Soviet Union after the war, including those who were never Soviet citizens (having left... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Shaun Mark Bean (born 17 April 1959 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England) is an English film and stage actor. ... The Royal Marines (RM), are the Royal Navys elite fighting forces. ... Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR is a fictional character created by novelist Ian Fleming, and the protagonist of the James Bond series of novels and films. ... You Only Live Twice is the twelfth novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series. ... The Man with the Golden Gun is the thirteenth (counting the short story collection For Your Eyes Only) and final James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming and posthumously published in the United Kingdom and the United States by Glidrose Productions, in 1965. ... This article is about traditional role-playing games. ... Warsaw Pact countries to the east of the Iron Curtain are shaded red; NATO members to the west of it — blue. ... James Bond 007 is a Game Boy video game, starring Ian Flemings secret agent, James Bond. ... For other uses, see Kurdistan (disambiguation). ... Trade paperback of Will Eisners A Contract with God (1978), often mistakenly cited as the first graphic novel. ... The Man with the Red Tattoo, first published in 2002, was the sixth and final original novel by Raymond Benson featuring Ian Flemings secret agent, James Bond (including film novelisations). ... is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. ... is the 110th day of the year (111th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Daily Express is a British newspaper, currently tabloid, and it is owned by Richard Desmond. ... GoldenEye, or Mr. ... GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is a first-person shooter video game from Electronic Arts using the James Bond license. ... Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel Goldfinger. ... Dr. Julius No is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel Dr. No. ... Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character from the James Bond universe. ... ... Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel Goldfinger. ... is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1969 (Stargate SG-1) episode. ... is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

In Film

Additional 00-agents are glimpsed in the briefing scenes of Thunderball and The World Is Not Enough, but no additional information about them is provided. Both films suggest that at least one 00-agent is a woman. (In Thunderball, two extras sitting behind Connery, one male and one female, have their faces visible. It is assumed by their actions they are secretaries recording the meeting.) There is fan speculation that suggests that M, being the head of MI6, is also 001, but this is not supported by any novel or film, and in fact Raymond Benson refers to a 001 in his novel, Doubleshot. Likewise, speculation that only nine 00 ranks are available (001-009) is contradicted by Fleming himself in Moonraker (in which he mentions a 0011), and likewise is contradicted by later writers. However, it is interesting to note that in the aforementioned scene in Thunderball, there are exactly nine seats for the double-0 agents. Bond, who arrives late, takes the only remaining seat: 7th from the door. This strongly suggests that the producers of that movie envisioned there being exactly 9 agents of 00 rank, numbered 1 through 9, except for the fact that in the previous scene, Moneypenny specifically states that every 00 in Europe has been recalled, not every 00 in the world.


In addition to the above, the John Pearson novel James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 mentions "real life" 00 agents 002 (named Bill Fairbanks as per Man with the Golden Gun), 003 (badly injured in 1951), 008 (died in 1951), 009 (died in 1955 in Hungary), 0011 (died in 1951). John Pearson (born May 10, 1930) is a writer best associated with James Bond creator Ian Fleming. ... 1986 British paperback edition. ...


See also



 
 

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