00 Agent

In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 are considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (typically read "Double O") agent holds a licence to kill in the field, at his or her discretion, to complete the mission. Goldfinger establishes that the section usually has only three agents at a time; the films, beginning with Thunderball, establish the number of 00 agents as fewer than 12.

Origin of nomenclature
In the British and Commonwealth armed forces, soldiers and officers are assigned identity numbers; the United States military does likewise. During Ian Fleming's work in Vichy France, an agent's anonymity was imperative, and, when the agent was military, it was convenient to use the last three digits of the agent's number as identification.

In World War II, Britain's Special Operations Executive agents did not have identifiers assigned to them such as the 00 or related 'systems' of nomenclature. Specific agents would be known to high command by their own names, and when deniability was at stake, their service numbers in long form, or else by invented codenames.

For the sake of romance and memorability, Fleming used the 00 and mystical number 7 for James Bond – himself a shell for the reader to inhabit.

Description
In the first novel, Casino Royale, and the 2006 film adaptation, the 00 concept is introduced and, in Bond's words, means "that you've had to kill a chap in cold blood in the course of some assignment." Bond's 00 number (007) was awarded him because he twice killed in fulfilling assignments. In the second novel, Live and Let Die, the 00 number designates a past killing; not until the third novel, Moonraker, does the 00 number designate a licence to kill. Thereafter, the novels are ambiguous about whether or not a 00 agent's licence to kill is limited, with varying accounts in Dr. No, Goldfinger, and The Man with the Golden Gun.

Per Fleming's Moonraker, 00 agents face mandatory retirement at 45; John Gardner contradicts this in his novels, depicting a fifty-odd-year-old secret agent. Sebastion Faulks' Devil May Care features M giving Bond a choice of when to retire.

Fleming himself only mentions five 00 agents in all. According to Moonraker, James Bond is the most senior of three 00 agents; the two others were 008 and 0011. Later novels feature two more 00 agents; 009 is mentioned in Thunderball and 006 is mentioned in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Other authors have elaborated and expanded upon the 00 agents. While they presumably have been sent on dangerous missions as Bond has, little has been revealed about most of them. Several have been named, both by Fleming and other authors, along with passing references to their service records, which suggest that agents are largely recruited (as Bond was) from the British military's special forces.

In the films, the 00 section is a discrete area of MI6, whose agents report directly to M (The World Is Not Enough). Bond's fellow 00 agents appear receiving briefings in Thunderball and The World Is Not Enough. The latter film shows a woman in one of the 00 chairs. In Thunderball, there are nine chairs for the 00 agents; Moneypenny says every 00 agent in Europe has been recalled, not every 00 agent in the world. As with the books, other writers have elaborated and expanded upon the 00 agents in the films and in other media.

List of 00s
This list is of the known 00 agents of the British Secret Service who exist in officially-licensed novels, cinema, video games, and comic strips.

In other media
In the 2006 movie The Pink Panther, Clive Owen played the character of Nigel Boswell, Agent 006 and was stated by Clouseau that he was "one short of the big time". This was a reference to him being rumoured to take the role of Bond for Casino Royale.

In the Lemmy Caution film Alphaville, Caution is – once – referred to as 003.

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, the original 007 is stated as being Prospero, who received the position upon being recruited to the English spy organisation of Sir Jack Wilton in 1558, during the start of the reign of Queen Gloriana. The earlier volumes had hinted that Campion Bond served as 007 as of 1898.

In the alternate history novel Back in the USSA, Agent 007 is an agent of SMERSH played by Rudolf Nureyev in a series of Russian movies including From America With Love.

In an episode of Cory in the House, Stictler mentions his father is Agent 001, which is strange, seeing as the CIA doesn't have 00 Agents or an equivalent, and Stictler is clearly not British.

In the GoldenEye 007 game for the Nintendo 64, the easy, medium and hard levels are respectively known as "Agent", "Secret Agent" and "00 Agent". Besides having a greater number of enemies, the "00 Agent" level requires all facets of a mission to be completed in order for Bond to advance to the next mission, whereas the other two have less.

In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will's grandmother is given the codename 0070, a likely reference to her age.

In The Basil Brush Show episode "Kiss And Tell", during Basil's spy sequence, Bingo Brush bursts in and says his codename is 00PS with Basil stating that Bingo has a license to leave little messages lying around.

In the Phineas and Ferb episode "A Hard Day's Knight", Perry the Platypus works with Agent 000 (pronounced "double-oh oh") while dealing with his nemesis, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, in London due to problems with the British Secret Service during his last mission in London.

In the Recess episode "Parents' Night", Spinelli's father, Bob Spinelli, is revealed to be Agent 006. He is also working with 003 and 005.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Elim Garak is jokingly called a Double-O agent, in reference to his former membership in a Cardassian intelligence service known as the Obsidian Order.

In The Beverly Hillbillies, Jethro Bodine sometimes refers to himself as a "double naught spy."

In The Goonies, Data is called "00-Negative" because of his always getting the group into trouble.

In Grey's Anatomy, after Dr. George O'Malley botches his first operation in the pilot episode, he is nicknamed "007," a play on Bond's "licence to kill."

In The Informant!, Mark Whitacre boasts himself to be Agent 0014. When asked why, he claims that he's twice as smart as 007.

In the novel by Samuel Shem, The House of God, some private physicians are referred to as "Double O Privates" because they are "licensed to kill" due to their incompetence.

In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Major Tom speaks about James Bond to Big Boss/Naked Snake. There's a part which he says: "What if I change your codename to Double-oh Snake?"