The relevance and usefulness of the 00 section (and by extension Bond) has been a theme of both Skyfall and Spectre. Personally, I feel these films have got it mostly wrong. Skyfall's exploration of the value of human intelligence over espionage via computers ("every now and then a trigger has to be pulled") was thoughtful, but M discussing the 00 section at a public inquiry didn't work for me. Isn't the 00 section meant to be a government secret? Wouldn't the head of MI6 acknowledging the existence of a secret murder squad cause a public uproar?
Spectre takes these ideas even further by having characters debate the value of the 00 section (now bizarrely renamed the "00 program") versus drone strikes, electronic surveillance, etc. I assume we're meant to agree that the 00 section is a safer bet than C's new world order. But it's hard to support the 00 section in the real world, which Spectre seems to ask for, as it drags the 00 section into a real-world context. I certainly can't get behind the idea of government-sanctioned killers who aren't legally accountable to anybody. And it gets even harder to be on Bond's side when he makes the call not to kill Blofeld! I don't think a Bond film should get the audience dwelling on the ethics of a licence to kill. I think the licence to kill was simply meant to be one of the character's "hooks" - something that made him stand out from other heroes in the '50s and '60s.
Lots more I could say, but I'll give it a rest. Okay, your turn... How would you like to see the 00 section handled going forward?
Comments
I mean the MI6 building really exists ...it's there not rubble. How you going to reconcile that?
Anyway, the OOs could be separate or housed separately and more secretive.
Then I think you are a sexist misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the cold war
Sorry, had to get in before someone else did
for the 60s.
During the meeting of the 00's? You can see nearly all of them, and they all are men.
Which is probably how it would be done: just for the sake of doing it.
Sadly, this is probably true. Given the way the films have been written over the past two decades, I can't say I'd trust them with such a plot device at this point in time.
Marvel films.
I do not want to see Bond on a joint mission with a OO in the same way I don't want to see 'team MI6' getting in on the action again.
I wouldn't be against a scene where we see another OO in passing played by Elba or Gillian Anderson as a gag like the painting in DN but Bond works alone. Bond films are not MI.
I can't believe people are still advocating the tiresome 'female agent who is the equal of Bond and works in partnership with him' idea. I thought that hackneyed concept had finally been killed off by the Jinx fiasco?
Yes, agreed, if that's the only reason for doing it - i.e. a box ticking female equality exercise then better not to do it at all. Just like the introduction of Q and Miss Moneypenny in the Craig films such a female OO agent would have to be earnt, not just there merely for equality tokenism.
You mean Suzie Kew?
Yes, that's the one. Read about it in The Bond Files (2000 edition) years ago! I don't have a copy of that particular strip (or strips?) though.
Yea I had similar idea. Let a C run MI6 and M run the 00 section under the guise of Universal Export. That way you got the real MI6 building and the cool old traditional office off somewhere else under a Universal Export or Exports marquee.
You're not going to get any accusations of nitpicking by me mate. Wanting to get rid of something that pisses on Fleming's grave is not nitpicking in my book.
I'm still at a loss as to why this happened. It was 'section' in SF. Did they do focus groups and decide Americans would understand 'program' more easily? Or were they trying to make things sound more Bourne-esque?
It's like Henderson saying 'stirred not shaken' in that I can't believe there wasn't one person on set who didn't say 'hang on that's f**king bullshit isn't it?'
it sound like a long established security department . In my view anyway. :)
Sounds like a great "Go M!" moment on paper but the officer shouldn't have a clue what the section is or who Mallory is in my opinion. By making them such an issue, I think it's taken away something from the whole Double-0 section that always felt special in the Connery years. I understand why Mendes did it thematically, but it didn't quite work in the end.
We need an overhaul of the secret operations division in MI6 when Craig comes back or a new Bond steps in to continue the new timeline. I think the current Double-0 section should be "disbanded in the interest of the public" or something along those lines and reshuffled into an underground section that almost nobody knows about going forward. Bond, after his break, could easily readjust himself into the new section while we can still acknowledge the plot details from CR-SP.
Yes. Everyone in the Met gets regular briefings on the 00 program and the names of who works for it do they?
Apart from anything else shouldn't the bloke go 'It's called the 00 program mate. We haven't called it section since 2012 so you clearly aren't who you state you are. Get on the ground now before I empty a clip into you!'
Yet another nail in the coffin lid of the third act writing. A coffin lid which is more nail than coffin.
I didn't like that part too. M is chief of MI6 not only the 00-section.
For me Mallory should say "Mallory, Secret Intelligence Service".
Remember we're talking about the same group that first tried to reincarnate Blofeld as an African warlord only to fix that blasphemy by making Blofeld Bond's foster brother.
I've always interpreted that scene as Henderson screwing up and Bond being too polite to correct him. Connery's delivery even sounds a bit sarcastic.
I have to agree with alot of that, sounds like the perfect way to update the double-oh section to a post-Snowden world. Stick M's office in a Universal Exports building off of Trafalgar Square and keep the whole operation off the books. After all, we are talking about a government hit squad with no oversight and a licence to kill with discretion.