00 Agents

James Bond and several other 00 Agents as seen in The World Is Not Enough.

006 Alec Trevelyan (left) and 007 James Bond (right), from GoldenEye.

The 00 Section, also called 00 Branch or the 00 program of MI6 is considered the intelligence service's elite black ops unit. This group of secret agents is tasked with uniquely complex assignments that most often concern global security in some way. Additionally, much like real-life miltary special forces, these individuals seem to be highly trained in hand to hand combat, use of weapons as combatants, infiltration, as well as having a talent for solving problems with unorthodox methods and other skills. Promotion to 00 status requires at least two kills of highly dangerous criminals. These highly skillful agents report directly to and receive orders from M who is the overall head of the agency. The super spies are also granted access to uniquely crafted gadgetry for each assignment made by Q branch as well as what appears to be a vast expense account as 00 Agents are seen to be well dressed (usually in tuxedos) and stay in the best accommodations in many instances; As famously seen in the case of 007, James Bond's classy appearance and demeanor in his missions attracted many beautiful women on his side (though a few are also enemies).

A 00 (typically read "Double O" and denoted in the novels by the letters "OO" rather than the digits "00") is a professional field agent that holds a licence to kill in the field, at their discretion, to complete any mission. This differs from standard agents who are authorized to kill in self defense or during the execution of a mission. Several characters in both the original novels by Ian Fleming and EON Productions films (such as Zhao in Die Another Day) have referred to Bond as an assassin; Julius No, meanwhile, refers to him as simply a policeman in Dr. No. Standard mandatory retirement age is 45, though various writers including Ian Fleming, Sebastian Faulks and John Gardner have contradicted this as a matter of poetic license and several actors who have portrayed Bond on film have been older than 45 at the time of playing the character (indeed, Roger Moore was 45 when he filmed his first Bond film, and continued to play the role until he was nearly 60, whereas Sean Connery's Bond was implied to have had retired - or, more precisely, moved into training - by the time of Never Say Never Again with the actor in his mid-50s). Although Fleming only mentioned five 00 Agents in his original books, others have been added over the years across various franchise media, specifically the films and video games.

Other MI6 agents seem to be given different code numbers rather than the usual "00-". In the You Only Live Twice novel, Bond transferred to the diplomatic branch of MI6 and given the number 7777. In the short story The Living Daylights, Bond is assigned to help Agent 272 escape from East Berlin. Zero Minus Ten opens with Bond on a training mission with agents 03 and 05. In Carte Blanche, Bond requests M assign several “Double-One” agents to assist him.

History

The following is a history of the 00 Agents, other than 007 himself, featured in the James Bond franchise.

Goldfinger (film)

"Hey, you're forgetting one thing, if I fail to report, 008 replaces me."
"I trust he will be more successful."

― James Bond and Auric Goldfinger

To be added

Thunderball (film)

"The Prime Minister has asked that your department take charge of the operation."

― Home Secretary to M

To be added

Octopussy (film)

To be added

A View to a Kill (film)

To be added

The Living Daylights (film)

"Gentlemen, this may only be an exercise so far as the Ministry of Defence is concerned, but for me it is a matter of pride that the Double O Section has been chosen for this test. Your objective is to penetrate the radar installations of Gibraltar. The SAS have been placed on full alert to intercept you, but I know you won't let me down. Good luck, men."

― M to 00 Agents

To be added

GoldenEye (film)

"Ready to save the world again?"
"After you, 006."

― Alec Trevelyan and James Bond

To be added

The World Is Not Enough (film)

To be added

Spectre (film)

To be added

No Time to Die (film)

To be added

00 Agents

The following list is of the known members of this elite order who have been referenced in officially licenced James Bond fiction: novels, films, video games, and comic strips (not including impostors).

Agent #	Name	Description
000	Conrad Harthrop-Vane	Mentioned in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing Chapter 4 as having recently been on a mission with 005. He is nicknamed Triple-O.
001	Unidentified	An apparent 001 is seated to the far left of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	Edward Donne	Referenced in the Raymond Benson novel, Doubleshot.
002	Unidentified	An apparent 002 is seated to the left of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	Unidentified	In John Pearson's novel, James Bond: The Authorised Biography, an alternate-continuity 002 ended up in a gaol in Canton. Bond is sent to extract him after he escapes, kills several Chinese guards and somehow crosses the border between China and Portuguese Macao.
	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).
	Unidentified	In The Living Daylights (film version), another 002, played by Glyn Baker, was in the training exercise at Gibraltar, with 004 and 007.
	Unidentified	The game Lord Bromley's Estate (1990) mentions a 002, whose corpse had been washed up in the south of France, after uncovering a plot in Turkey by the counterespionage organisation "SPIDER".
	Elizabeth Dumont	Mentioned in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing Chapter 4 as having recently been killed in Dubai.
003	Unidentified	An apparent female 003 is seated several seats to the left of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	Unidentified	In John Pearson's novel, James Bond: The Authorised Biography, an alternate-continuity 003 is severely injured in early 1951 after being dragged from a blazing car outside Belgrade.
	Unidentified	Found dead in Siberia, in the 1985 film A View to a Kill. Had been investigating the Soviet Union's use of EMP-resistant microchips prior to his death.
	Jack Mason	Another MI6 agent, referred to as 003, or "Jack", is captured and shot by the primary antagonist, Nikolai Diavolo, in the 2004 video game Everything or Nothing.
	Unidentified	In Dynamite's 2020 graphic novel, Reflections of Death, Bond attempts to break an unnamed 003 out of a black site in Olgetsk - only to discover that he was a traitor and part of the facility's senior management. He was incarcerated.
	Johanna Harwood	Appears in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing as a main character. She was formerly a surgeon and girlfriend of James Bond before coming to MI6. She is named for the screenwriter of the same name who had contributed to some of the early Bond films.
004	Unidentified	An apparent 004 is seated to the left of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	Unidentified	Accompanied fellow agents 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.
	Unidentified	Another 004 appears in the Benson novel The Facts of Death.
	Unidentified	In the 1997 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.
	Scarlett Papava	In the Sebastian Faulks novel Devil May Care, Bond girl Scarlett Papava is unveiled as 004, replacing the previous agent who was killed in Berlin.
	Joseph Dryden	Joseph Dryden appears in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing as a main character. He was formerly an SAS soldier in Afghanistan before being injured and moving to MI-6.
005	Unidentified	An apparent dark-haired 005 is seated to the left of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	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 (1968).
	Unidentified	In Dynamite Entertainment's 2018 comic James Bond: M, an unnamed 005 was chastised by M for severely bungling a mission to save a Duchess from her captors.
	Ventnor	Ventnor is mentioned in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing Chapter 4 as having recently fallen to his death on a mission with 000 Harthrop-Vane.
006	Unidentified	An unnamed 006, a former Royal Marine commando, is mentioned in the Fleming novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
	Unidentified	Another apparent 006, a bearded gentleman, is seated directly to the left of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	Alec Trevelyan	Main antagonist 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 system, 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.
	"Hutcheon"	Another active 006 is mentioned in the 2015-2016 comic VARGR, and at one point in his career, he used the pseudonym "Mr. Hutcheon".
007	Unidentified	In Anthony Horowitz's 2018 James Bond continuation novel Forever and a Day, the 007 preceding James Bond was shot three times and killed on assignment in the South of France in the year 1950. His body was discovered in the waters of Marseille. This man was the first to hold the 007 title, and was in the first batch of 00 Agents. He was a personal friend of James Bond before his death.
	James Bond	Until 2018, since the franchise's debut, James Bond was the only agent known to have had the iconic 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. Bond was initially offered the title of 009, but out of respect to his personal friend the previous 007, he asked for his number instead.
	Nomi	Major character in No Time To Die. After Bond has retired, she got the code number 007. Later she gave back the code number to Bond, getting re-assigned as 005 in the process and helping to find Lyutsifer Safin and destroy his lab. It is not revealed if she is reassigned 007 after the mission or another number.
008	"Bill"	In the novel Goldfinger, Bond thinks to himself that 008 would likely avenge Bond by killing Goldfinger. As Bond thinks this, he ruminates that 008 is "a good man, more careful than Bond." 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. A reference to 008 is included in the film version of Goldfinger when Bond warns Goldfinger that 008 will replace him if 007 is killed, the first direct reference on screen to another 00 Agent; Goldfinger presumes 008 to be male in his reply.
	Unidentified	In John Pearson's novel, James Bond: The Authorised Biography, an alternate-continuity 008 is found dead in January 1951 in a parked car fifty yards inside the Western zone of Berlin.
	Unidentified	An apparent 008 is seated immediately to the right of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	Unidentified	In the films, agent 008 is mentioned briefly when M threatens to replace Bond on an assignment, e.g. Goldfinger and The Living Daylights.
	Unidentified	In supporting materials created for the 1980s James Bond 007 paper-and-dice role playing game (to which Raymond Benson contributed), an unidentified female 008 is referenced.
	Unidentified	In the 1998 video game James Bond 007 for the Nintendo Game Boy, MI6 sends an unnamed agent 008 into Kurdistan to dismantle an arms smuggling ring. Soon thereafter, all contact was lost with 008. M makes a decision to send James Bond to investigate his whereabouts.
	Unidentified	In the 2014 Dynamite comic VARGR, Bond was sent to Helsinki, Finland to avenge a fallen 008. This 008 was confirmed as male, and was killed by a gangster for no other reason than because he loved killing.
	Donovan	Mentioned in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing Chapter 1 as having recently been killed in the Central African Republic.
009	Unidentified	M tells 009 to take care of the "00 Section" whilst 007 is sent to Shrublands in Fleming's 1961 novel, Thunderball.
	Unidentified	An apparent 009 is seated to the right of James Bond during the "00 Section" briefing in the 1965 film, Thunderball.
	Unidentified	In John Pearson's novel, James Bond: The Authorised Biography, an alternate-continuity 009 is murdered by a double-agent during 1955 in Hungary. Bond finds him with his throat slit.
	Unidentified	Assassinated by Mischka and Grischka in the film version of Octopussy. Played by Andy Bradford, this was the first time a 00 agent other than Bond was seen on screen in an Eon film notwithstanding the glimpses of others in the 00 briefing in Thunderball.
	Unidentified	Another 009 is mentioned in R.L. Stine's gamebook, James Bond in Win, Place or Die (1985).
	Unidentified	Another 009 dies in Issue: #7 of the Swedish James Bond comic James Bond, Agent 007 (8th July 1986) in story Dödlig Dubbelgångare (Deadly Double).
	Unidentified	Yet another unlucky holder of the title was experimented on and later killed in Peru in Dark Horse Comics' 1991 graphic novel Serpent's Tooth.
	Unidentified	M sent another 009, in the movie The World Is Not Enough, to assassinate Renard; despite 009's shooting him in the head, the Bond Villain lived.
	Unidentified	Another holder of 009 status was supposed to get the Aston Martin DB10 featured in Spectre, however the car was stolen by James Bond.
	Sid Bashir	Appears in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing as a main character. He was personally mentored by James Bond.
0010	Unidentified	Referenced in the Benson novel The Man with the Red Tattoo.
	Anna Savarin	Anna Savarin is mentioned in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing Chapter 4 as having recently been killed in Basra.
0011	Unidentified	Mentioned briefly in the Fleming novel Moonraker as vanishing while on assignment in Singapore. In John Pearson's novel, James Bond: The Authorised Biography, an alternate-continuity 0011 similarly disappears in the Far East; in this case, in early 1951 while passing through China on the so-called ‘Blue Route’.
	Harry Mace	Mentioned in the Kim Sherwood novel Double or Nothing Chapter 4 as having recently disappeared on assignment in Singapore.
0012	Unidentified	Simply identified as an "MI6 agent" on the big screen, the novelization and video games based on The World is Not Enough identified the unnamed character a 'Double-O' operative. He was killed over a confidential document, prior to the film's events.
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 was framed as being a double agent for China.
Unidentified	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.
	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.
	Various unnamed	Several 00-agents are also glimpsed in the Castle Thane briefing scene of The World Is Not Enough, but no additional information about them is provided. It is implied that at least one is female.
	Henry Fraser	In Anthony Horowitz's 2015 James Bond continuation novel Trigger Mortis, an unnumbered 00 agent named Henry Fraser was reassigned to the Communications Department where he serves as Duty Officer, following paralysis from a gunshot wound to the spine.
	Clive Woodslow	Another unnumbered 00 agent named Clive Woodslow was an ally to Bond in the 2015 video game James Bond: World of Espionage by Glu Mobile.

Trivia

• A former 00 Agent candidate ironically nicknamed "GoldenEye" was featured in the video game 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 both Bond Villains 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 novels, films, or comic strips.
• James Bond is one of three agents who had been given the double zero assignation in Anthony Horowitz's 2015 James Bond continuation novel Trigger Mortis, set immediately after Goldfinger in 1957.
• As noted above, the various film versions of Bond have been seen in the presence of multiple other 00 Agents on three occasions to date - Thunderball, GoldenEye, and The World Is Not Enough. The latter establishes that not only do the 00's have their own section at MI6 headquarters, but even their own logo. However, other media, such as the comic strip Fear Face and the novel Devil May Care have as major plot points the fact that Bond doesn't recognize two characters as fellow 00 Agents, indicating that the agents (likely for security reasons) themselves are not always aware of each other's identities (see also the lack of interaction between agents in The World is Not Enough and during a similar scene in Thunderball). It is notable also that, when MI6 HQ is attacked in The World is Not Enough (soon after the aforementioned reveal of the 00 section of the building), James Bond oddly appears to be the only 00 Agent present during the incident.

  

  006 attempting to kill 007, in GoldenEye.

• Alec Trevelyan - 006, remains the only 00 Agent in the franchise to outright betray MI6 and become a Bond Villain himself, making him a notorious foe for Bond in the GoldenEye film due to them sharing the exact same elite training and are former friends. This is also the only case anywhere in the series where two 00 Agents were forced to fight each other to the death.
• In the 1997 Nintendo 64 GoldenEye 007 game, aside from Alec Trevelyan, one 00 Agent, 004, was mentioned in the Q Branch briefing in the mission "Solo", that 007 must be careful about using C4 explosives, as this particular agent had been injured or possibly killed by recklessly using them.

  

  Bond shooting Scaramanga just in time after being nearly killed by the professional assassin in The Man with the Golden Gun.

• Although 00 Agents are expertly skilled in combat and often successful in their dangerous missions, they are not invincible and there are rare cases of themselves being defeated or even killed in action due to an accident or by the antagonist they are ordered to kill successfully murdering the field agents. Francisco Scarmanga is the villain within the longtime series who makes the most kills against MI6's elite force; As revealed in The Man with the Golden Gun film, he had assassinated Bill Fairbanks (002) with a single shot from his infamous Golden Gun before he almost could against James Bond. In the 1965 novel, however, the professional killer shot down as many as five and maimed one (though these agents have the different code numbers of 267, 398, 943, 768, 742, and 098, respectively), a total of six. This terrifying feat prompts MI6's chief of staff to M not to send 007 out to assassinate the villain that was deemed impossible to stop, in order to not make James Bond suffer the same fate, as it would be nothing but a suicide mission (M, however, ultimately authorizes Bond as payback for being brainwashed by the KGB to kill his superior). Although Bond managed to disable the Golden Gun prior to a shootout against the hitman, a life-saving move, Scaramanga himself nearly got his seventh kill during the climax when he suddenly shot Bond with his backup golden Derringer, having a poisoned bullet, though 007 still ultimately retaliated and defeated the deadly assassin at the final moment with his Walther PPK, and Bond miraculously lived by a policeman arriving just in time to get the spy cured from the poison and his injuries.
• 00 Agents have been referenced in some media outside of the James Bond series. One example of such is in the popular Pokemon video game franchise's 2001 direct-to-video Mewtwo Returns, the secondary antagonist named Domino, also known as "The Black Tulip", is an elite member of Team Rocket with spying skills and a capable fighter, with a codename of 009. Her mission as an agent is to help her boss Giovanni (who also serves as a Gym Leader in the early games) capture the notorious and extremely powerful Legendary Pokemon Mewtwo for revenge after the events of the 1998 Mewtwo Strikes Back film, after pretending as a cheerful ally of Ash and his companions.
  • Ironically, outside of MI6's 009 agents, Thunderball has a girl nicknamed Domino in the film. Though the Pokemon anime character's usage of the code number is a strong influence by 007, she herself could actually be inspired by the 1967 Japanese manga 009-1 series, which featured female spies with a very similar codename.

Gallery

00 Agents/Gallery

See also

• Secret Intelligence Service