[Spoilers] "Mi6 AGENTS" on YouTube

AMC Hornet wrote:

In a word:

Maguffin.

It's obviously a plot element. Silva steals the MI6 case roster, then speciically leaks the names of these eight agents before attacking MI6 and killing them. Evidently, they're all connected, and given the threatening message to M, she's a part of it.

I'd hardly say it's a MacGuffin, though, because it fails the Guiness Test. If a plot element can be replaced with a pint of Guiness and the story works equally-well, then it's a true MacGuffin. The briefcase in RONIN is a true MacGuffin, because it can hold a pint of Guiness, and nothing else changes. But the Rabbit's Foot in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 is not a MacGuffin because if it were a pint of Guiness, the story does not work.

The same thing holds true here. I seriously doubt SKYFALL would work if the videos of the agents were replaced by a pint of Guiness. Therefore, it's not a MacGuffin.

Mansur dimka doesn't even sound British, he will be probably be the one who plants the bomb at vauxhall

Is that you, j7?

Brick, please tread carefully with whatever it is you're implying. Even if it's meant humorously, we've recently had a member banned for being accused of racism. We seriously don't need any repeats of that.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Did anybody else notice that there's only eight names that get leaked? There are ony eight videos down the side menu.



M gets videos showing the names and faces of eight agents, followed by the message THINK ON YOUR SINS. Cut to an explosion at MI6, and there are eight agents killed in the attack. Coincidence?

Look at the trailer again. The YouTube video shows about 5 agents, and the trailer cuts to another scene. The video's been played nearly all the way through, too, suggesting that many agents' names/faces are leaked per video. Fiennes's character says, "Every agent embedded in terrorist organizations across the globe." I'd guess that's far more than eight.

But if Silva acquires the drive holding the identies of every agent, Fiennes' statement still holds true, even if Silva only picks out eight of them to send to M. He goes after the whole drive, because if he specifically targeted the eight agents, MI6 could predict what he was going to do - and by controlling the entire case roster, MI6 is even further compromised than if Silva simply compromised eight of them.

I just don't think that it's coincidence that there are eight videos (seven down the side, plus the one being played) and eight coffins.

Louis Armstrong wrote:

I still can't get over the idea of a drive containing all those names.

P&W were probably just playing FIFA 12 on their PS3 and thought it was cool how you could save the entire game onto the one memory card but, idiots as they are, failed to take into account the importance of national security when it came to equating their data storage into a Bond film.

Control wrote:

Fiennes's character says, "Every agent embedded in terrorist organizations across the globe." I'd guess that's far more than eight.

With M being as silly as she is and not having a clue about the agents in her own organisation (eg, most of them turn out to be traitors), it makes sense that she'd only know about eight of her agents even if there were actually eight hundred. Combine stupid scriptwriters with a stupid character and the result is this thread.

So 'agents embedded in terrorist organizations' means they're all traitors?

Thanks for clearing that up - I thought that the opposite was true.

Combine stupid scriptwriters with a stupid character and a couple of million stupid people who think that they're real James Bond fans and are easily dazzled by a stupid trailer and the result is this thread.

AMC Hornet wrote:

So 'agents embedded in terrorist organizations' means they're all traitors?

Think Laz is referring to Mitchel, Vesper, Frost, Trevelyan etc

Largo's Shark wrote:

AMC Hornet wrote:

So 'agents embedded in terrorist organizations' means they're all traitors?

Think Laz is referring to Mitchel, Vesper, Frost, Trevelyan etc

Exactly.

Lazenby. wrote:

With M being as silly as she is and not having a clue about the agents in her own organisation (eg, most of them turn out to be traitors), it makes sense that she'd only know about eight of her agents even if there were actually eight hundred. Combine stupid scriptwriters with a stupid character and the result is this thread.

I like the use of Fiennes's character because of this, though. When he tells M, "You lost a hard drive containing the names of every agent embedded in terrorist organizations across the globe.", I take it as a rather sarcastic remark. Almost as if he's saying, "You're the head of British Intelligence and you fucked up this badly?"

Old M wouldn't have done this. Old M wouldn't even know how to use a computer, either.

I dunno. Most of the other 00s under Old M's charge are pure and utter shithouse and just... die all the time.

Yeah, but they died for their country and stayed loyal to M. Dench's M is so f*cking useless that, of the agents we've seen during her reign, there's probably only Bond who hasn't buggered off and turned traitor.

Lazenby. wrote:

Yeah, but they died for their country and stayed loyal to M. Dench's M is so f*cking useless that, of the agents we've seen during her reign, there's probably only Bond who hasn't buggered off and turned traitor.

And Auto-Tanner.

FourDot wrote:

Most of the other 00s under Old M's charge are pure and utter shithouse and just... die all the time.

Yeah, that appeared to be a contrived way to make Bond look better. Most of them lasted all of five minutes; Alec Trevelyan was the only one who came close to rivalling Bond, and even then, he still "died" during an operation.

And he wasn't an agent on Ms. M's watch.

Anyway, M isn't the only cog in the screening process. There's supposed to be a whole vetting committee dedicated to keeping the rotten apples from slipping into MI6 (Bond mentioned that to Alec in GE, and since P&W didn't write that one, the dialogue must carry some weight).

But let's continue to blame Judi Dench's M anyway, like doubles and missing intel are entirely her fault ("I only left the sensitive data outside for a moment while I went in to do some shopping and when I came back it was gone!"). It's simpler and doesn't require as much independent thought.

Who are the other 00 agents? The other 00s in TWINE are just as competent as those in TB. Then the agents are: Miranda Frost
Special Branch Agent
Mitchell

The Special Branch Agent in QUANTUM OF SOLACE was never confirmed to be a Double-Oh. There are documents that suggest he was intended to be another Double-Oh, but they're not canonical because that never made it into the final film (as interesting as it would be to see how Bond would react to the knowledge that he was responsible for the death of another Double-Oh Agent).

Likewise, neither Miranda Frost nor Craig Mitchell were ever Double-Oh Agents. Miranda Frost approached MI6 willing to inform of Gustav Graves' operations, but she was never treated as anything other than a source. Her intelligence was so good (because she was working for Graves the entire time) that was was promoted to become Bond's handler in the field. And while she does show a willingness to kill, she never held Double-Oh status.

As for Mitchell, he was M's bodyguard. He was trained with weapons and like Frost, showed the willingness to kill, but there was never any evidence that he was ever a Double-Oh. Besides, the series establishes that Double-Oh Agents are something of a last resort, sent in to carry out the assignments other agents cannot (or cannot be seen to be doing). It makes no sense for a Double-Oh to be assigned as M's personal bodyguard.

These are the Double-Ohs, as they appeared in the films:

- 001 does not appear in any film (his only mention is in one of Benson's continuation novels).
- 002 was shot and killed off-screen by Scaramanga in TMWTGG. His successor was a member of the wargames exercise in TLD.
- 003 was killed in Siberia prior to AVTAK, trying to acquire the Zorin Industries microchips from the KGB. Bond later gets the sample from his frozen body.
- 004 first appears in TB, though his fate is unknown. He (or his successor) later appear in TLD; he is killed by the assassin at Gibraltar.
- 005 appears in TB.
- 006 first appears in TB. Alec Trevelyan later assumes the number, and we all know what became of him.
- 008 appears in TB, and is mentioned in GF and TLD as Bond's replacement if anything should happen to Bond (GF) or if Bond refuses his assignment (TLD).
- 009 appears in OP, where he is killed by Mischka and Grischka. A second 009 was sent to kill Renard prior to TWINE, but was killed himself.
- Bond is investigating the death of an unknown Double-Oh at the start of TWINE. The novelisation gives his number as 0012, though in the film it is implied to be 009.

I seem to recall reading soemthing during pre-production of CASINO ROYALE that would have seen the film establish the nature of the Double-Oh Section, specifically recounting how Bond came to become 007 instead of some other number. It suggested that the Section was only a relatively new establishment, and that there were only ever three agents active at any one time (lifted from Goldfinger). When an agent was killed, his or her number was retired. Bond became 007 because there had been six agents before him; seven was the next available number.

Personally, I'd like to see a film establish a little bit more about how the Double-Oh Section operates, and maybe set up some rules for how they go about doing what they do.

Thanks for that eloquent post, but if you reread mine, it says:
"Who are the other 00 agents? The other 00s in TWINE are just as competent as those in TB. Then the agents are: Miranda Frost
Special Branch Agent
Mitchell"

Meaning Frost, SBA and Mitchell are just agents as opposed to 00 agents.

A very comprehensive list, PM, but I'm still unclear on one point:

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

009 appears in OP, where he is killed by Mischka and Grischka. A second 009 was sent to kill Renard prior to TWINE, but was killed himself.

I've checked, and there isn't a line to that effect in either the film or Benson's novelization. All that was said was that Renard killed the doctor who couldn't remove the bullet.

So who killed 009?

I believe M said during the briefing that she sent 009 to kill Renard shortly after Elektra's abduction. Before he was killed - presumably by Renard - 009 put a bullet in Renard's head.

Nope.

"After Robert came to me I sent 009 to kill Renard. Before he completed the mission Elektra escaped. A week later our man caught up with the target. He put a bullet in his head. That bullet's still there."

One bullet (009's), one head (Renard's).

I'm right - again - as usual.

"A week later, our man caught up with the target."

One can assume that was 009, given that M has not mentioned any other agent being sent to deal with Renard.

That's what I'm saying too.

Lazenby. wrote:

... Yep, it's the kind of thing that would turn up in some half-assed fanfiction. Villain taunts M on YouTube. Way to go to have the law kicking down your door straight away. Why not just have Silva go on Facebook and click "like" on Bin Laden, Al Quaida, then post his status as "about to blow up half the world" while he's at it. Shame he couldn't have taken over MI6 Community while he was surfing.

If CASINOROYALE had a villain using YouTube to taunt M, everyone would have laughed their f*cking arses off at it and slated the poor kid. FACT.

I still think about this post and laugh.

Brilliant stuff.