This scene from The Living Daylights (1987) is how I like my Timothy Dalton James Bond: rough around the edges and disgruntled with superiors – has his own disagreeable opinions and agendas but in the end always wants to get the job done, and does.
This scene takes place in M’s office with M, Bond and Frederick Gray, the Minister of Defense assessing the catastrophic event that just occurred, where a defected Georgi Koskov was re-captured by the KGB and MI6 made a “laughingstock” in the intelligence community as a results, as relayed by Gray.
I like this scene so much because everyone expresses their own frustrations in unique ways. M grumpily cleaning out his pipe, Gray begrudgingly leaving to meet the Prime Minister evoking his disdain, and Bond defiantly bending to M’s orders to take out Pushkin. This is a relatively rare direct “termination order” issued by M to Bond in his office, and although Bond has a license to kill, in this case Bond is skeptical that Pushkin could be behind the plot. M senses his defiance instantly (you can sense this isn’t the first time this has happened between the two) and his “What? Do you think I don’t?” is expertly delivered as a “STFU, obey my orders” declaration to Bond.
M, Bond and Frederick Gray meeting in M’s office in The Living Daylights (1987)
Despite Bond’s pleas, M demurs and tells him to either do the job or leave for a fortnight and 008 will do it – since 008 will follow “orders, not instincts.” I always love when other double-oh agents are mentioned in Bond movies. 🙂 And it happens doubly so here, since 004 was killed in the Gibraltar training exercise at the start of the movie, as a result of the Smernt Spionom (Death to Spies) agenda that has commenced. So even though M attempts to allay Bond’s hesitations, Bond still relents and says he would like to delay the operation to obtain more information. M’s job transfer threat is all Bond needs to hear, and he takes the mission.
Knowing this James Bond, however, we know that his agenda will come before MI6’s, for better or worse.
In the above scene from Casino Royale (2006), Judi Dench’s M and Daniel Craig’s James Bond have a heated exchange at her abode about his disastrous, headline-grabbing mission at the start of the movie. His sloppy parkour chase ended with an unarmed man (albeit an international terrorist bombmaker) killed and a headache for MI6.
After grilling him for a bit, M is also perplexed as to how Bond found out where she lived. To which Bond replies that it was just as easy as finding out what the M actually stood for. M quickly interjected her disdain and threat of murder (!). I remember this exchange piquing a lot of interest in Bond fans when Casino Royale came out, but much to our chagrin her name was never referenced again for the remainder of the movie.
In later Craig Bond movies, however, her name is referenced a few other times, albeit in different circumstances and still leading to more questions than answers.
Most notably:
- “Mum” – In Skyfall (2012), Bond oddly (affectionately?) refers to her as ‘mum’ on several occasions. Maybe this is an MI6 inside joke/reference to her being a woman M, so “mum”? Or just British slang or a drawl?
- Emma/Em – Also later in Skyfall, Kincaid brazenly refers to her as “Emma” – leaving the question open as to whether that’s her actual given name, or just another English play on words of the letter M? Or does he think Bond is shortening “Emma” to “Em” and doesn’t know that M is her MI6 code name
But, all is not so. As seen in the below screenshot, Dench’s M’s real name is actually revealed at the end of Skyfall (2012), where Moneypenny hands Bond a box containing the dreaded figurine of Jack, the Union Jack bulldog.
The real name of M (Judi Dench) is revealed in Skyfall (2012) as Olivia Mansfield
It’s a single frame, but you can clearly see M’s full name Olivia Mansfield visible and the package recipient’s name, James Bond (here it is zoomed in):
The real name of M (Judi Dench) is revealed in Skyfall (2012) as Olivia Mansfield
As Olivia Mansfield was deemed as canon by EON Productions, the name speculation is put to bed. Some fans have gone a bit further though, and deemed the name a play on words of the male-dominated field of espionage and the head of MI6 (code named “C” in real life actually) as a “man’s” “field.” It would have been interesting to have heard Dench’s M finally referred to as Mansfield for once, but oh well.
Regardless, if the above revelation didn’t happen, I still like to guess what name Dench’s M could have possibly have been. Here are my top 007 “M” guesses (all of which according to Google were the most popular girls names in the 1930s, the decade when Judi Dench was born):
- Margaret
- Mary
- Marilyn
- Martha
- Marie
- Mildred
- Marjorie
The below is from TIME Magazine – June 25, 2001 – P.23, Milestones
DIED. DAVID SPEDDING, 58, who from 1994 to ’99 was the man known as C, the traditional designation for the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6); of lung cancer; in London. The post had its James Bondish arcana (C’s top-secret memos, for example, were supposedly written in green ink, which only C could use). But Spedding became a rather public spy, even though his photograph was never published until his death. The infamous Soviet mole Kim Philby revealed his name in 1971 during a Moscow-London spy spat. Spedding later reorganized the post-cold war service, focusing on his specialty, the Middle East. In 1984 he reputedly helped thwart an Abu Nidal attack on Queen Elizabeth when she was on visit to Jordan.
Britain’s top spy dies at age 58, was model for James Bond’s ‘M’
By Audy Woods
The Associated Press
LONDON – Retired spy chief Sir David Spedding, once the real-life embodiment of James Bond’s fictitional boss “M,” died Wednesday (June 13, 2001) at the age of 58.
The Foreign Office, which did not even publicly acknowledge the existence of the Secret Intelligence Service until 1994, said Spedding died after a long illness.
After nearly 30 years as a spy, Spedding had been appointed in 1994 to head the service long known to thriller readers and the general public as MI6.
He had been the youngest head of the agency since its founding in 1909.
An expert in Middle East terrorism, Spedding was the first MI6 chief not to be a Soviet Specialist, reflecting the post-Cold War shift of emphasis in the espionage agency.
Spedding, who had studied at Oxford University, was recruited into MI6 in 1967 and attended the Middle East Center for Arabic Studies, near Beirut, Lebanon – once a training center for British spies.
CIA director George Tenet called Spedding “a tremendous friend, colleague and mentor not only for me but for all the men and women of the Central Intelligence Agency and the entire Intelligence community.
“Sir David was a magnificent partner; together our nations fought the scourges of terrorism, destabilizing regional conflict, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and international narcotics trafficking,” the statement said.
Spedding, like his predecessors, was known in government circles as “C,” for Chief, the inspiration for “M,” the creation of James Bond author Ian Fleming.
Sir David invited Dame Judi Dench to MI6’s Christmas lunch in 1998 after the actress, who has played “M” in recent 007 movies, expressed an interest in learning more about her real-life counterpart.
Traditionally, “C” writes memos in green ink and is the only member of the service who is allowed to do so.
“C” is also the only MI6 member whose identity is made public, but Spedding discouraged the taking of his photograph.
This all=time one-liner at the end of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) gets me every time. As Bond (Roger Moore) and Triple X (Barbara Bach) are caught in the act in an escape pod, a stunned General Gogol (Triple X’s boss), M (Bond’s boss) and Sir Frederick Gray (Bond’s boss’s boss) can’t believe their eyes.
The exchange is legendary: “Bond!” “Tri-PULL X!” “Bond! What do you think you’re doing?” make the men sound more like disappointed parental figures rather than government intelligence. A speechless Q can only watch in awe, almost jaw-dropped.
And then 007 quickly quips a legendary James Bond line of lore. It ends with a celebratory-sounding chorus line version of the movie’s theme, declaring “nobody does it better” in a hilarious double entendre. HA! So awesome!
