Q (Desmond Llewelyn)

## Geoffrey Boothroyd

**Q** (standing for Quartermaster), like M, is a job title rather than a name. He is the head of Q Branch, the fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service.

## Film biography

### From Russia with Love

Q first appears in From Russia with Love giving James a suitcase which is now standard issue to 00-Agents containing an AR-7 with and infrared sniper scope, with .25 ACP ammo for the gun (AR-7s in real life, don't take .25 ACP ammo), coins and a tear gas cartridge in a talcum powder tin.

### Goldfinger

In Goldfinger, Q replaces 007's Bentley with an Aston Martin DB5 with bullet-proof windows, revolving number plates, arm rest triggers with smoke screen, oil slick and machine guns. He also showed Bond the gauge lever's secret weapon, a passenger ejector seat. Upon being told about the seat, James thinks Q is joking, but Q replies "I never joke about my work, 007."

### Thunderball

In Thunderball, Q appears in the field- dressed in an outlandish Hawaiian shirt with pineapples- providing him with equipment such as a small tracer and a personal breather that provides Bond with four extra minutes of air.

### You Only Live Twice

In You Only Live Twice, Q appears in the field once again, providing Bond with access to 'Little Nelly', a small mini-helicopter that is nevertheless able to fly and heavily armed, allowing Bond to spy on Blofeld's Japanese base.

### On Her Majesty's Secret Service

At the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Q also attended James and Tracy's wedding and when James left after tossing his hat to a tearful Moneypenny, he took it away from her, because it was probably "government property."

### Diamonds Are Forever

Q provides Bond with Peter Franks' fingerprints and after a meeting with Tiffany Case, Q informs 007 that Franks has killed his captors and escaped, leaving Bond to run after Franks without hanging up.

### Live and Let Die

Q was mentioned by Moneypenny when she gave James his repaired watch in Live and Let Die.

### The Man with the Golden Gun

He also appeared in The Man with the Golden Gun, where he identifies the bullet that Bond recovered from Saida and gave him the name of the manufacturer: Lazar. After Hip escorts 007 from the streets after Gibson was killed and Scaramanga was the killer hired by Hai Fat. In an attempt to get close to Hai Fat, Bond had Q design a fake nipple to fool Hai Fat into thinking 007 is Scaramanga (as Scaramanga has a third nipple). When Goodnight was kidnapped by Scarmanga and Nick Nack, in a car that sprouted wings, Q told M that it is plausible because Q Branch is working on one only to be told to shut up. Bond also mentioned that Q's homer isn't picking it up and Q cuts him off by saying the efficiency is disabled, only to be told by M to shut up again.

### The Spy Who Loved Me

Q appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me where in Egypt, he is showing off several gadgets, including a tea tray decapitating a dummy. He soon showed up to James and Anya's location with a Lotus Esprit capable of going underwater, and Anya refers him as "Major Boothroyd".

After getting into the car, Q tries to explain the car but James simply says "Q, have I ever let you down?" Which Q furiously replies "Frequently" and closed the driver's side door as James drove off and Q was left behind. Later, at the end of the film, Q was among M and KGB General Gogol to see 007 and XXX in the escape pod's bed.

### Moonraker

In Moonraker, Q gives James a wristband that triggers a dart when Bond moves his wrist in a certain manner. When James tried it in M's office for the first time, hitting a painting, Q asked for him to be careful. Later, when James escaped from a false ambulance truck, Q was seen testing out explosive Bolas, a machine gun disguised as a sleeping cowboy and laser guns when James comes out during the before the bolas throw and 007 confusingly asks "Balls, Q?" Q soon replies "Bolas, 007." After realizing Drax was planning on killing the population with a dangerous plant, Q gives James a speed boat which has an emergency hang glider. Later at the end of the film, upon finding James and Dr. Goodhead making out, Q doesn't pay attention to the screen and when asked what Bond was doing, Q just said "I think he's attempting re-entry, sir."

### For Your Eyes Only

Q also appeared in For Your Eyes Only, where an assistant named Smithers tests an arm cast battering ram when Bond comes in, wanting to identify a man who payed Melina Havelock's parent's killer and when 007 observes an umbrella that can bring out stings when wet, Bond jokingly asks "Stinging in the rain?" Which Q doesn't find funny. Bond was also amazed at how Q Branch managed to get Bond a new Lotus after the old one was destroyed. They head into the identification room and Q was annoyed when 007 pressed a few buttons on the code after finding it catchy. During the identifying, Q makes the nose look bigger making Bond say "A nose, not a banana, Q" which Q apologises and also accidentally makes the lips to small.

This took several hours and he told the last assistant to go home, saying he will lock up. After the description, they manage to identify him as Emile Leopold Locque. After Bond and Melina managed to escape from Aristotle Kristatos, Bond went to a church where Q, disguised as a reverend surpirses Bond by removing his fake beard and informs him where Kristatos might be. After Milos Columbo killed Kristatos, Q managed to contact Bond, who was about to go skinny dipping with Melina, via his watch and connected him to the Prime Minister, but Bond left the watch on Melina's pet parrot's perch and the parrot insulted the Prime Minister. Thinking Bond went mad, they try to contact him but the parrot throws the watch in the ocean.

### Octopussy

Q appears in the field in Octopussy, very unhappy because of Bond as India has no proper facilities. 007 asks Q to fix his dinner jacket and give him a new gun, which he has his assistants do. Q shows him and Vijay a rope that could extend skyward when a button was pressed, but it malfunctions. After observing Smithers' successful demonstration of a thorn laced door, He puts a homing device and hearing piece in the Faberge egg and gives Bond a pen that can dissolve all metals and hear into the device. He was furious when Bond played with a camera on a lab tech. After getting his jacket back, Q had work to do and Vijay asks if he can help him and accepts. He observes Octopussy's island while Bond was on it and Vijay took over while Q took a break. By the time Q came back, he found Vijay wounded and before he died, Vijay managed to inform Q it was Kamal's men. He later aids Bond in infiltrating Octopussy's old compound in a hot air balloon, although he is left behind to be kissed by girls that he saved from a henchman with a gun and when Bond departs to save Octopussy.

### A View to a Kill

Q appears again in A View to a Kill. At the film's conclusion, he uses a portable camera device to find Bond when he was presumed dead, eventually finding him in the shower with Stacey Sutton, Q contacting M to inform him that Bond has been discovered but requests that they leave Bond alone for the moment.

### The Living Daylights

In The Living Daylights, Q helps (false) defector Georgi Koskov by getting him into a plane and back to London. After a failed attempt to find the sniper that Bond doesn't kill, he shows him and Moneypenny a gadget that Q Branch is making for the Americans "It's called a ghetto blaster!"

After Koskov was 'captured' by Necros, Bond comes down to Q who gives him a key ring finder which beeps when Bond whistles. The key ring can give off stun gas when Bond whistles 'Rule Britannia' and can explode if Bond does a wolf whislte. Before 007 could do the wolf whistle, Q stops him and before he went off after being called by Moneypenny, Q shows the key ring has a lock pick that can open 90% of the world's locks.

Along the way, Q has a tech to sit down on a couch and when the tech sits down, the couch soon swallows him and turns around to look like nothing was on it. After finding the identity of the sniper, Bond ran out as Q came in, taking the Aston Martin V8 Vantage with him and tried to warn Bond that the car "just had a new coat of paint."

### Licence to Kill

In Licence to Kill, Moneypenny asks Q to go to Isthmus, under the pretense of being on leave and assist James who went rogue after being fired from MI6. He went to 007's hotel, posing as James' uncle. When James and former pilot Pam Bouvier, posing as Ms. Kennedy, came back from Franz Sanchez' casino and going in the hotel elevator, Pam gives James one of her Beretta 950 Jetfires and when James rings the doorbell, Q prepares to open it and Bond barges in and pushes Q into a chair and as Q gets up and explains his reasons, Q shows James some plastic explosive and when the door opens, Pam comes in waving another gun and James introduces her to Q as his cousin and Q kisses her on the cheek. He soon shows them a signature gun, disguised as a camera that can only take Bond's palm print and Pam soon gets out a camera and Q tries to warn her not to "use the flash!", but it was too late and a laser appears and hits a picture and Q soon grabs it from her and scowls her for fiddling with the camera.

Bond soon tries to get into the master bedroom with Pam but when she closes the door, Bond goes into the other room with Q and says "I hope you don't snore, Q." Posing as Bond's driver, Q waited while 007 sets the plastic explosive onto Sanchez' office window and soon drove him to the vantage point and was forced to leave him. After James was captured by the Hong Kong Narcotics and was rescued by Sanchez, James soon escaped Sanchez' place with the help of Sanchez' girlfriend Lupe, Q was told to try and leave but soon after Pam and James talked about her mission and soon helped Bond by putting back the $5 million that Bond stole and frames Milton Krest for the theft and after being dropped off by Bond, Q and Pam left to head back to the hotel.

The next morning, Q and Pam were informed by Lupe that Sanchez has hired Bond and takes him to his drug factory. Q informs Pam, via a rake with a radio, posing as a Mexican gardener and after informing Pam, he tosses away the rake and walks away.

Then after Bond killed Sanchez and was reinstated into MI6, Q also attends the party and when Pam ran down to the pool side and Bond jumps in after her, Q looks at the two and soon just finishes his drink, scowling before he goes back to the party.

### GoldenEye

In GoldenEye, James comes down to Q Branch to see Q in a wheelchair with a cast on his left leg and asks if it was skiing but Q soon fires a rocket from the cast into a wall and grins as he replies "Hunting."

He shows James a BMW Z3 and after Bond joked about the Stinger missiles, Q reminded him that he has "a licence to kill, not to break the traffic laws." He also shows 007 a leather belt that has a rappelling cord designed only to support Bond's weight. During the belt gadget talk, Bond played with a laptop and soon closes it as Q asked if he was finished and they soon see a tech getting squished in an airbag payphone booth.

He also shows James an x-ray document scanner, disguised as a dinner tray. Q then showed James a pen which is a Class 4 grenade, three clicks arms the four second fuse, another three disarms it. When Bond pressed it three times, he jokingly asks "How long did you say the fuse was?" which Q soon snatches the pen back and disarms it while saying "Oh, grow up, 007." He shows the pen's demonstration and after it explodes and Q warns Bond not to say the joke, Bond just says "The writing's on the wall?" Which Q soon laughably replies "Along with the rest of him." After they witness a tech get airborne by and ejector seat, Q asks James to return some of the equipment in pristine order and soon discovers James touching a sandwich roll, Q takes it from him, saying "Don't touch that! It's my lunch!"

### Tomorrow Never Dies

In Tomorrow Never Dies, Q, posing as a car rental salesman, appears to Bond to sign the insurance damage waiver and after being told about the dangers, Q tells him to bring the car back to him. Q soon shows him a BMW 750iL and tells him about the car's weaponry and also added a female guide voice and showed him a phone to drive the car. After accidentally denting the back of the car while using the phone remote, Q gives the phone to James who drives the car out of the warehouse and back and slows it down in front of Q and James thinks that they understand each other and Q just says "Grow up, 007" and walks away.

### The World Is Not Enough

Template:Dialogue
In his final film The World Is Not Enough while working on a boat, he sees James run past Q Branch to try and stop Robert King from getting his money, but was too late. When the assassin gets away in a boat, 007 steals the unfinished boat and ignores Q's yelling as James soon chases after the assassin.

Q was frustrated when James destroyed the boat, he was hoping to use it for his retirement (away from 007). He introduced Bond to his successor by bringing him in from the 8-ball table elevator along with a BMW Z8 which 007 jokingly asks "If you're Q, does that make him R?" After R talked about the car and said "rather stocked" than "fully loaded" and also reminds R that he wasn't in Q Branch to think, he was in it to do what Q told him. When R went to put on a ski jacket for demonstration, Q was annoyed at R's tutorial on how to put a jacket on, rather than pulling a tag on the jacket and Q pulls it, causing R to be trapped in an inflatable ball. Before going down, Q gives 007 two final things, never to let them see him bleed and always have an escape plan before he activates the 8-ball elevator and is lowered down, never to be seen again.

## Behind the scenes

* Due to scheduling conflicts, Peter Burton was unavailable to reprise his role as Boothroyd in From Russia with Love (1963) and was replaced by Desmond Llewelyn, who would continue to play the role, with the exception of Live and Let Die in every James Bond film until his death in 1999. In the series, Boothroyd was preparing to retire during the events of The World is Not Enough and has clearly retired by the time of Die Another Day (2002).

* In the James Bond movies, the relationship between Q and Bond is one of fatherly exasperation ("Oh, do grow up, 007!") met with adolescent indifference. The exception is during From Russia with Love, Llewelyn's Bond debut, in which he simply introduces the gadgets, then makes sure Bond knows how to work the booby-trapped briefcase catches.)

* The gadgets supplied by Q are almost invariably destroyed as a result of Bond's use of them, and Q is constantly exhorting Bond to take better care of them and to occasionally read the instruction manual. Bond usually responds by displaying an instant mastery of whatever device Q hands to him.

* In addition to the tech laboratories, Q occasionally meets Bond in the field to deliver some equipment or to personally handle some specialized devices to assist Bond. This goes so far as in Licence to Kill where Q sides with Bond, supplying him with gadgetry and even helping him operationally despite Bond's having resigned from MI6.

* In a deleted scene in Tomorrow Never Dies, when Q was going to show James his new car, he opens the wrong box, revealing a jaguar.
* In real life (and in a twist of irony), Desmond Llewelyn was a complete technophobe and often times needed help on-set in explaining the gadgets; one interview includes him recalling a time he was staying in a hotel and asked another guest for help using his keycard, prompting an incredulous stare.