00 agents

Background

A 00 agent has proved capable enough in the field to be entrusted with the licence to kill: the authorisation to commit acts of assassination and other controversial activities at their own discretion, without first seeking permission from headquarters. Literature and comic strips refer to further agents numbered 001 to 0012, but a handful have been referenced on screen.

002 is named in The Man with the Golden Gun as Bill Fairbanks, killed by Scaramanga, and a different, unnamed 002 appears in the opening sequence of The Living Daylights, where 004 is also killed. 003's body is found in a snowbank at the start of A View to a Kill, and 005 attends a meeting in Thunderball. 006 is Alec Trevelyan, Bond's one-time friend presumed dead for nine years who becomes the primary antagonist of GoldenEye, and in No Time to Die the 007 codename itself passes to Nomi.

008 is mentioned by M in Goldfinger as a potential replacement should Bond fail, a threat Bond repeats to Goldfinger himself, and again in The Living Daylights as the alternative choice to assassinate General Pushkin. 009 is killed early in Octopussy by the twins Mischka and Grischka while still completing his mission to return a forged Fabergé egg, a death Bond avenges; the number is mentioned in The World Is Not Enough as the agent who initially shot Viktor Zokas and in Spectre as the intended recipient of the Aston Martin DB10 that Bond steals. Additional unidentified 00 agents are seen briefly in Thunderball and The World Is Not Enough.