We have some news on the movement of the next James Bond. According to reports, we are looking at the final four (we know of three). Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk), Callum Turner (Eternity, One Night Only), and Josh O’Connor (The Crown, Challengers) are all in the final running to portray the next 007. We also, allegedly, have a fourth, unannounced actor in the running. But of course we do. And since we have news and movement on the James Bond front, I started thinking about what the next movie will be about. That took me down a rabbit hole, and I landed on a question. What is MI6? James Bond’s employer is a shadowy government agency, like Jason Bourne’s Treadstone or Ethan Hunt‘s Impossible Mission Force (IMF). But there is one major difference between them and the organization that signs 007’s paychecks.
His is real.
What is MI6
Let’s start with the real. MI6 is Section Six of Military Intelligence. It is also known as the Secret Intelligence Service and is similar to our CIA. While there is most likely a non-official cover operative element to the service, the same way we have black operators in the CIA, how similar they are to James Bond is more opaque. As it should be.
Established in 1909 to combat the growing threat of the German forces, MI6 was designed as the foreign arm of the Intelligence Service and was headed up by Mansfield Cumming, a Royal Naval Officer. He famously signed all forms in green ink with a simple “C,” something the head of MI6 is still called today. In Spectre, the villain who merged the 00 program into the new communications arm and became their new boss was called “C” by Bond in a cheeky manner. A fun little easter egg.
The service collected intelligence across the globe throughout the two World Wars. They created a Section D, which is a little closer to the more violent part of the James Bond mythos, but for the most part remains an intelligence gathering service stationed in Vauxhall Cross in London.
Is there an MI1-MI5?
Ok, if there is a Section Six, there has to at least be Sections 1-5, right? Well, buckle up, because there were apparently nearly twenty sections. Here is a breakdown of what used to exist:
- MI1 – Codebreaking
- MI2 – Russia and Scandinavia
- MI3 – Eastern Europe
- MI4 – Aerial Reconnaissance
- MI5 – Domestic Security
- MI6 – Foreign Intelligence
- MI7 – Propaganda
- MI8 – Signals Intelligence
- MI9 – Escape and Evasion
- MI10 – Weapons Analysis
- MI11 – Field Security
- MI12 – Technical Liaison
- MI13 – Apparently, the British are superstitious, as this one went unused
- MI14 – Germany
- MI15 – Aerial Defense Analysis
- MI16 – Scientific Intelligence
- MI17 – Secretariat
- MI18 – Short-lived and unknown
- MI19 – Prisoner Interrogation
Now, all we hear about is MI5 and MI6, but the rest of these sound like they are across the board, from the very broad regional focuses to the extremely specific, like MI9, which specialized in helping POWs escape capture and get back home. But how many of these still exist?
Is it still around?
The truth is, they all still exist. Kind of. Over the years, these have all been absorbed by the two you know and have heard of. MI6 is the foreign arm of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). They are similar to our CIA as they spend all of their time and focus on operations outside the UK. They are also likely doing many of the field operations that once had their own MI Section. Things like MI’s 2,3,9, and 13 all likely fall under their umbrella.
MI5 is closer to our Department of Homeland Security. While they don’t do law enforcement like our FBI, they are focused more on the defense of the UK from inside its borders. They also are more focused on analysis and security, much like most of the rest of the Sections listed above. The military will also jump in and take care of a large amount of the responsibilities that fall between these two; they just may not do it quite as stylishly as James Bond does.
A suit and a martini may not come standard, even if Mansfield Cumming wanted them to all those years ago.
