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Q (James Bond)
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Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. Q (standing for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch (or later Q Division), the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service. The character actually appears only fleetingly in Ian Fleming's novels, but comes into his own in the successful Bond film series; he is also mentioned in the continuation novels of John Gardner and Raymond Benson. The character, Q (although he is not always identified by that title), has appeared in every 007 film in the original EON continuity except Live and Let Die (as Desmond Llewelyn, who was playing Q at the time, was bound by commitments to other projects).
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Encyclopedia
Q is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. Q (standing for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch (or later Q Division), the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service. The character actually appears only fleetingly in Ian Fleming's novels, but comes into his own in the successful Bond film series; he is also mentioned in the continuation novels of John Gardner and Raymond Benson. The character, Q (although he is not always identified by that title), has appeared in every 007 film in the original EON continuity except Live and Let Die (as Desmond Llewelyn, who was playing Q at the time, was bound by commitments to other projects). Q has not appeared in the films in the rebooted continuity, Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (as there was no place for Q in the script). Casino Royale showcases a number of gadgets and sophisticated tools used by Bond; however, the film does not indicate whether a Q Branch exists per se in the rebooted Bond universe.
Development
In Novel
The ancestry of the Q character is rather complicated. In the Fleming novels there are frequent references to Q and 'Q Branch' with phrases like "see Q for any equipment you need" (Casino Royale) and "Q Branch would handle all of that" (Diamonds are Forever), with a reference to "Q's craftsmen" in From Russia with Love. In the sixth novel, Dr. No, the service armourer Major Boothroyd appears for the first time. Fleming named the character after Geoffrey Boothroyd, a firearms expert who lived in Glasgow, Scotland. He had written to the novelist suggesting that Bond was not using the best firearms available. Boothroyd is also referenced occasionally in the Bond novels of John Gardner, but the author preferred instead to focus on a new character (see "Other Qs", below).
In Film
In the films, Major Boothroyd first appears in Dr. No and later in From Russia with Love, although played by different actors. Beginning in Goldfinger and in each film thereafter Major Boothroyd is most often referred to as Q; however, in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) he is referred once again as Major Boothroyd in dialogue. Some sources, most notably the 1980s James Bond 007 role-playing game suggested that Boothroyd's first name was Geoffrey (the real Boothroyd's given name), although no first name was ever mentioned in the novels or on screen. In the non-canonical James Bond Jr. cartoon series, Boothroyd's grandson was Horace Boothroyd III (and was known to his friends as "I.Q."), suggesting that Major Boothroyd was also named Horace.
Official James Bond film series
Peter Burton as Major Boothroyd (1962)
In the first film, Dr. No, Boothroyd is played by Peter Burton in only one scene in which he replaces Bond's Beretta .25 pistol with Bond's signature .32 Walther PPK handgun. The character later appeared in From Russia with Love played by Desmond Llewelyn, due to scheduling conflicts that kept Burton from reprising. He is referred to by M as "the armourer."
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Desmond Llewelyn as Q (1963–1999)
Desmond Llewelyn portrayed the character in every film after (except Live and Let Die) until 1999 in which he is shown to retire and be replaced by John Cleese in The World is Not Enough. Famously, he tells the agent, "I never joke about my work, 007" (a line referenced by his successor in Die Another Day).
However, on occasion, Q has shown a warm and fatherly concern for 007's welfare, such as at Bond's wedding in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and when, at the behest of Miss Moneypenny, he secretly sneaks gadgets out of MI6 to help Bond survive his vendetta against the drug tyrant Sanchez in Licence to Kill. Arriving unannounced in Isthmus City (posing as Bond's uncle – similar to how he posed as Bond's father in You Only Live Twice), he flatly tells the agent, "If it hadn't been for Q Branch, you'd have been dead long ago" — to which Bond has no answer.
The growing respect is also evident in GoldenEye when Q actually shares a joke with Bond for the first time, and when in The World Is Not Enough he reveals his plan to retire. Bond is clearly crestfallen at the thought, and Desmond Llewellyn's Q signs off with some touching last words of advice, "I've always tried to teach you two things: never let them see you bleed; and always have an escape plan" — before he is lowered out of view. This is the final film appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Q in the James Bond series, although he would revive the role once again as Q in a Heineken commercial, a TV cross-promotion for The World is Not Enough. Llewellyn died later that year in an car accident.
In the series, Boothroyd was preparing to retire during the events of The World Is Not Enough (1999) and has clearly retired by the time of Die Another Day (2002), but it was not indicated on screen whether the character has since died. In the PlayStation game 007 Racing (2000) however, the character "R" (voiced by John Cleese) specifically says: "Q could drive better than that, and he's dead!".
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Llewelyn also portrays Q in the EON Productions-produced TV special Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond (1967).
Llewelyn portrays Q in the documentary Highly Classified: The World of 007, which is included on the Tomorrow Never Dies Ultimate Edition DVD.
To date, Llewelyn has appeared in more Bond movies (17) than any other actor.
John Cleese as Q (1999–2002)
In The World Is Not Enough an assistant to Q was introduced, played by John Cleese. His real name has yet to be revealed, but he is initially credited as R in The World Is Not Enough, stemming from a joke in which Bond asks the elder Q: "If you're Q, does that make him R?"
In Die Another Day, a reference to Monty Python's classical gag: The Ministry of Silly Walks is shown when R walks past the camouflaged Bond car making him appear to do the silly walk.
Between films, Cleese was still referred to as "R" in the video game 007 Racing (2000) and in Agent Under Fire (2001), though not all of the video games are canonical. He was officially referred to as "Q" in Die Another Day (2002) following actor Llewelyn's death in 1999. In 2004, Cleese was featured as Q in the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing.
Initially portrayed as rather clumsy, R has since become more self-assured and more in the style of his predecessor to whose job he has since been promoted. They both share the same attitude towards their professional work. In Die Another Day, Bond at first refers to R as "Quartermaster" but, silently impressed by the gadgets he is given, calls him "Q" at the end of their meeting. (The Die Another Day DVD reveals that Bond initially saw R as an 'interloper', only awarding the proper title of 'Q' after R has proven himself.)
According to an interview on the Die Another Day DVD, Pierce Brosnan was very glad to rename Cleese's character 'Q', rather than 'R', because his native Irish accent made it difficult to pronounce 'R' with a convincing "British" accent.
When Bond tries to joke with Q, Cleese's Q is a lot quicker at comebacks than Llewellyn's was, making him more of a match for Bond in terms of wit. Bond: "You're cleverer than you look." Q: "Still, better than looking cleverer than you are." or "Ah yes, the legendary 007 wit, or at least half of it."
In the 007 game, Everything or Nothing, Cleese's Q has an assistant, Miss Nagai, portrayed by Misaki Ito.
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Future film appearances
With the reboot of the Bond series in 2006's Casino Royale and its successor, Quantum of Solace (2008), the character of Q has, so far, not appeared. Bond actor Daniel Craig expressed concern over the absence of Q, and has said that he hopes Q will return in Bond 23.
Other Bond films
Geoffrey Bayldon as Q (1967)
In the "unofficial" version of Casino Royale (1967), Q is portrayed by Geoffrey Bayldon, but instead of outfitting James Bond, he provides gadgets for Evelyn Tremble (who is portrayed by Peter Sellers). Generally held to be one of the stronger sequences in the film, the famous gadget sequence is mercilessly lampooned. "It's an American idea," Q tells Tremble as he gives him a watch with two-way camera attached, "they got it from one of their comic strips," a reference to Dick Tracy. In this film, Q is assisted by Fordyce (John Wells).
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Alec McCowen as Q (Algernon) (1983)
In the 1983 film Never Say Never Again, Q Branch is headed by a man (played by Alec McCowen) referred to by Bond as "Algernon" and "Algy", though his opening line is "Nice to know old Q can still surprise you 00s." In the closing credits, he is named as "Q Algy". Q Branch itself is depicted as underfunded (per dialogue) and ramshackle compared to the high-tech surroundings of the EON films.
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Related characters
Q'ute
John Gardner, in his James Bond novels, introduced the character of Ann Reilly, a young female assistant to Q whose co-workers as well as Bond nicknamed Q'ute. Major Boothroyd himself was only mentioned a couple of times. During Licence Renewed and For Special Services, Q'ute and Bond maintained a brief romantic relationship. Afterwards, it was revealed a number of times that Bond and Q'ute were involved in a casual relationship.
By the time Gardner left the book series, Q'ute had taken over the running of Q Branch, but when Raymond Benson took over the literary series, he ignored much of Gardner's continuum and gave Q Branch back to Major Boothroyd with no explanation and no further references to Ann Reilly.
See also
Further reading
- Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, with Henry R. Schlesinger, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda, New York, Dutton, 2008. ISBN 0525949801
External links
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