Double-Oh-Who? The Other Agents in James Bond’s World

007 is the code-name of the world’s most famous spy – which kinda implies that he’s not very good at his job, but we still love him. As the codename implies he is but one of an elite group of secret agents employed by MI:6. But who are the ones who don’t spend their days swilling watered down vodka martinis? Going by the scene in Thunderball in which all the double-oh agents are summoned to a meeting together we can surmise that there are at least nine in total. We’ll take them chronologically…

For this feature we’ll be looking at the film franchise – the novels feature a different group of characters.

001

Unknown

Getting us of to a rather poor start, 001 has never been mentioned in the movies. We promise more interesting write ups from here on out. Except for 005.

002

Bill Fairbanks/Unknown

Two agents have adopted the codename of 002. At the beginning of The Man With the Golden Gun Bond follows a lead in his search for Scaramanga, who had also been responsible for the assassination of the original 002, Bill Fairbanks. Fairbanks was shot through the neck with a golden bullet that lodged into the wall and was retrieved by the belly dancer in whose arms he had died.

His replacement, whose name is not revealed, participates in the training exercise at the beginning of The Living Daylights, albeit briefly.

003

Jack Mason

003 had been killed in action before the events of A View to a Kill whilst in Siberia. 007 had been dispatched to find his remains and recover a microchip that he had been carrying. The microchip would lead Bond to uncover the actions of Max Zorin, and industrialist who intended to flood Silicon Valley. A locket containing images of a woman and child implied that 003 may have been a family man.

004

Aiden Flemings

During the opening sequence of The Living Daylights 004, 002 and 007 participate in a training exercise in Gibraltar. Whilst 002 fails the task, 004 is killed by an assassin posing as a KGB agent who cuts 004’s rope while he is scaling a cliff.

005

Stuart Thomas

005 has never participated in a mission during the Bond movie franchise, except for appearing in the meeting during Operation Thunderball.

006

Alec Trevelyan

Whilst James Bond was recruited into the service as an orphan whose parents had died in a climbing accident, Alec Trevelyan was orphaned when his parents were murdered by the British government. 006 and 007 worked together to infiltrate Arkhangelsk dam facility. During this mission 006 faked his death, but was left heavily scarred by an explosion set off by Bond. Staying underground Trevelyan plans to take control of a satellite laser weapon and using it to steal from the Bank of England.

008

Bill Timothy

Although 008 has never appeared on screen in any movie the brief mentions he gets implies an interesting relationship between him and Bond. On more than one occasion M threatens to take James Bond of a case and replace him with 008, a threat that always seems to get Bond’s back up. Perhaps one day we’ll get to see the two of them face to face.

009

Peter Smith

Agent 009 has a rather perplexing appearance in Octopussy when he is seen running through the woods while dressed as a clown. He is being chased down by circus knife throwers who eventually land a knife into his back, sending the dead clown through the windows of the US Embassy in West Germany clutching a Faberge Egg in his hand. This is the beginning of a puzzle Bond must solve when he replaced 009 on this mission.