Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright)

Literary — Lord — Linder — Van Nutter — Burton — Hedison — Terry — Wright — Others

"I'm not screwing around. I wanna get back to my family, tell them I saved the world again. Don't you?"

― Felix Leiter to James Bond^[src]

Felix Leiter (d. July 2020) was an American CIA operative. He was a friend and ally of MI6 agent James Bond, and aided him on many of his missions over the years, notably helping him take down Le Chiffre, dismantle Quantum, and investigate the bioweapon Heracles.

Typically conducting his espionage work with a quiet but intense disposition, Felix was a skilled negotiator and possessed a great deal of charisma and wry wit, which he was known to use to diffuse a situation.

Biography[]

Casino Royale mission[]

2018-07-21 (21) — Felix meets James Bond

"I'll give you the money to keep going, just one thing. If you pull it off, the CIA bring him in."
"And what about the winnings?"
"Does it look like we need the money?"

― Felix Leiter and James Bond^[src]

At the Casino Royale in Montenegro, Leiter plays in the high-stakes poker game against James Bond and Le Chiffre. Unable to beat Le Chiffre, Leiter backs Bond with a five million dollar buy in, after Bond misreads Le Chiffre's bluff, under the agreement that the CIA be the ones to arrest Le Chiffre after the game.^[2]

Dealings with Quantum[]

"James... move your ass."

― Felix to Bond^[src]

Later, Leiter and Gregg Beam worked with General Medrano's regime to ensure America got the oil rights in Bolivia when Medrano became president by force. Beam indeed negotiated a deal with Quantum operative, Dominic Greene, to ignore his orchestrated coup in Bolivia in exchange for the oil, which the section chief assumed Greene had discovered; incorrectly interpreting Greene's bulk purchase of water piping.

He and Leiter travelled with the Quantum representatives to Austria and while discussing their business arrangements, Greene mentioned that he had a 'pest' he would like eliminated as part of the deal. Beam glanced at the photo of Bond and passed it to Leiter, duplicitously asking him to identify it. When Felix lied to the men, Beam identified Bond and told Greene he would deal with him.

Quantum of Solace - Bond and Leiter — Bond meets with Felix in La Paz

Later in La Paz, Bond phoned Leiter at their front office, Incan Exports, and arranged a meeting. Beam sent his men after Bond to kill him. However, Felix, disgusted by Beam's corruption, informed the spy of their dealings with Medrano and that their time window to talk was thirty seconds and warned him about his pursuers, allowing him to escape at the last minute. Following Medrano and Greene's demises, Beam was exposed for his crimes and Leiter replaced him as section chief.^[3]

Tracking down Obruchev[]

Felix returns — Suggesting a mission to Bond

"I had a brother. His name was Felix Leiter."

― Bond to Logan Ash^[src]

Years following Bond's mission in Bolivia, when MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev was abducted by SPECTRE, Leiter and his partner, Logan Ash, were sent to track down Bond, and convince him to help track down Obruchev. Bond refused to help; however, he changed his mind after discovering that Obruchev was working on Project Heracles, a bioweapon containing nanobots that spread like a virus upon touch and are coded to specific DNA strands, so they were only dangerous if programmed to an individual's genetic code.

No Time to Die - Felix Leiter’s death — Felix dying from his gunshot wound

Bond and another CIA agent named Paloma were able to capture Obruchev and the British agent brought Obruchev back onto a boat where Leiter and Ash were waiting. Despite Ash telling Bond that his mission was over, Bond refused to leave and angrily demanded to know who Obruchev was working for. Ash, realizing that there was no way out, revealed his allegiance by pulling out a gun and shooting Leiter in the stomach, before kicking him into the hull. The corrupt agent later sunk the ship with a limpet mine, before leaving with Obruchev and bringing him over to his boss. Leiter succumbed to his injury and bled out, before his body was lost within the wreckage of the exploded, drowning boat, much to Bond's distraught.

Following Ernst Blofeld's death, Bond faced off against Ash again, as he invoked Leiter's name as justification, just before Ash was crushed to death by an overturned vehicle, avenging Leiter's death. After killing Lyutsifer Safin and his remaining men, Bond joined Leiter in death by sacrificing himself in a missile explosion to foil Safin's plot.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Casino Royale allowed Felix Leiter to re-appear and he and Bond meet for the first time in the film. Early script drafts for Quantum of Solace gave Wright a larger role, but his screen time was restricted by on-set rewrites. Wright became the second actor to play the role of Leiter multiple times after David Hedison in 1973's Live and Let Die and 1989's Licence to Kill. He returned to the role in No Time to Die.

Gallery[]

Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright)/Gallery

Trivia[]

Oddly, in the 2012 game 007 Legends the Felix Leiter that appears in the Goldfinger and Licence to Kill sections of the game is played by and based on the likeness of Demetri Goritsas, as opposed to the Jeffery Wright, despite the in game universe being based on the Daniel Craig version of Bond. This game, though, came out in 2012 long before No Time to Die was made and hence Wright's return to the Bond franchise.

References[]

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 No Time to Die (2021)
↑ Casino Royale (2006)
↑ Quantum of Solace (2008)

[NoTime-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 No Time to Die (2021)

[Casino-2] Casino Royale (2006)

[Quantum-3] Quantum of Solace (2008)

[1]

[2]

[3]