Something Different

James Bond is the world's oldest superspy.

Appearing in 23 movies in the past 51 years, you begin to wonder how one man manages to defeat evil masterminds so often, or how the world ends up in trouble so much.

A popular theory is that James Bond is a code name for whichever agent currently holds the 007 position, which also conveniently explains why one man is played by 6 different actors. However, this theory is wrong. First, in the early movies, M sometimes refers to Bond as Commander Bond, acknowledging his naval rank, because Bond first served in the navy before joining MI6. If James Bond was just a code name, his superior wouldn't attach a rank to it that he had earned outside of the Bond persona. Second, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond discovers his family crest and motto "The world is not enough." He also gets married in this movie, and his wife is gunned down in a drive-by. In License to Kill, Felix Liter tells his wife that Bond was once married, to explain Bond's negative reaction to catching the garter. In The World is Not Enough, Bond quotes his family motto and even states that it is his family motto. In all three of these movies, Bond is played by a different actor. If these three actors were portraying three different men with the same code name, why would the later two react to things that happened to the first? Third, in The World is Not Enough, when Q gives Bond his watch, Q comments "this is your 20th I believe." This statement would have had no meaning to a new agent who just assumed the code name of James Bond. Fourth, in Goldeneye, Bond makes a statement to M about her predecessor. How would he have known details about her predecessor if he had not interacted with the man? Goldeneye was the first movie to feature Brosnan as Bond and Judi Dench as M, so Brosnan's Bond was not seen in a movie with the previous M.

In conclusion, James Bond is a man, not a code name. Assuming Bond achieved the rank of commander and joined MI6 and became a 00 agent by the time he was 30, Daniel Craig looks good for playing an 80 year old man.