Born from the pen of Ian Fleming in the 50s, theAgent 007named James Bondenjoys enormous popularity throughout the world, thanks to novels and films. Bond is a fictional characterbut it derives from real figures and, for some characteristics, is inspired by Fleming himself, who had been a secret agent during the Second World War. However, 007’s way of acting is very different from that of real agents of the intelligence services, whose work is less adventurous than that of their “colleague”. In some cases, the operations of the services may resemble those of Bond, but the way of operating of the agent created by Fleming is generally completely unrealistic.
Who is James Bond?
The character of James Bond, known as Agent 007, was created by the English writer Ian Fleming in 1953 and is the protagonist of numerous novels, written both by Fleming and other authors. The agent has become popular above all thanks to the cinematographic representations, in which he has been played by various actors: from Sean Connerywho was the first 007 on the big screen, until Daniel Craigprotagonist of the most recent films.
The Characteristics of Agent Bond
Bond works for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), the United Kingdom’s military intelligence agency, also known as MI6, and is often tasked with missions on which the fate of millions of people, if not the entire human race, depends.
He can use almost any type of weapon, primarily the inseparable Walther PPK pistoland is equipped with science fiction technological tools. During the missions, he always encounters women of great charmwho are often the lovers of his enemies, and inevitably conquers them and turns them into his allies. He kills the “bad guys” without delay, also because he does not risk legal consequences: he is equipped with a special licence to killrepresented by the two zeros of the 007 code. To understand how realistic the character is, we must start from its author.
Who inspired Fleming for his Agent 007?
Fleming knew the world of secret services well because he had been an agent himself. During the Second World War he had been recruited in the Navy Information Service and had often acted as a liaison officer with other intelligence agencies, including the SIS.
To create Agent 007 and the other characters in the saga, Fleming It is inspired by real figures encountered when he was in service. Some characteristics of the protagonist, such as the heavy consumption of cigarettes, reproduce the habits of the author himself. Even the character name It’s real, but it has nothing to do with espionage. The real James Bond was in fact an American ornithologist, of whom Fleming owned a book. 007, after all, is a spy “highly fictionalized”as Fleming himself admitted in 1962.
The Differences Between 007 and a Real Secret Agent
Much of Bond’s characteristics were born from author’s imagination. First of all, in novels and films they appear absolutely unrealistic scenesup to one in which the agent shoots laser beams from a spaceship. Even the less “science fiction” characteristics of the character, on the other hand, find little correspondence in the real work of the intelligence services. Let’s examine the main differences.
The License to Kill
First of all, the license to kill does not exist. Often the intelligence agencies of many countries have physically eliminated their enemies, under the cover of their respective governments, and in many cases the agents are authorized to carry out actions that would ordinarily be illegal. In the UK, a 1994 law provides cover for agents who carry out illegal acts abroad in the course of authorised missions. However, neither the British SIS nor, as far as is known, any other intelligence agency gives their agents a generic “licence to kill” or even a code, such as double zero, to identify them.
The relationship with other agents
James Bond is a “lone hunter”: he carries out his operations alone or, at most, with the support of people he meets in the places where he is sent on a mission. The reality is very different: espionage and secret operations are a team effortin which cooperation is fundamental, also because, if an agent acted without taking others into account, he would put his life and that of his colleagues at risk.
Work at the desk
Bond is always engaged in adventurous missions around the world. The work of the agents, on the contrary, is also a desk work: researching information, studying documents, writing reports. According to some sources, even Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB agent in East Germany from 1985 to 1990, was mainly concerned with gathering news from newspapers that could be of interest to the Soviet Union.
Weapons and technologies
Bond never leaves his gun, while real agents don’t necessarily go around armed. Furthermore, it is true that intelligence services have cutting-edge technology, but the sci-fi tools used by Bondlike the car that turns into a plane or the cigarette that shoots bullets, do not exist.
Changes over time
The work of intelligence agencies is changed over time and consequently, the comparison with 007 is not always possible. You cannot compare, for example, the Bond of the origins with today’s services, which carry out a significant part of their work through the Internet, at a time that did not exist.
Bond has not always been the same either. In the most recent books and films many characteristics have remained unchanged, but the tools available to the agent and the context in which he operates have been “updated”. Nevertheless, the character is very far from the real agents secrets.
