The 10 Best Q Appearances in the James Bond Movies, Ranked

Q is short for Quartermaster, and he is the head of the research and development department at the Secret Service, where James Bond is agent 007. Q is integral to the success of the agency and all its agents, but the movies make it seem as if Q and Bond have a special relationship, a longlasting friendship. The smartest of any James Bond characters, Q is innovative, intelligent, quick-witted, and an invaluable ally to any Secret Service agent.

Among the twenty-six James Bond movies made from 1962 until now, Q was played by six actors – Peter Burton, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Bayldon, Alec McCowen, John Cleese, and Ben Whishaw. Gregg Berger voiced Q in the 2002 James Bond video game, Nightfire. Out of the six actors, Desmond Llewelyn is the most memorable Q; he served the role from 1963 to 1999, and remains the one and only Q to many of the franchise’s fans. Overall, Q’s parts in the movies are always ingenious, with some being downright legendary. Seeing the Quartermaster is always fun, but some of his appearances are much more iconic than others.

10

‘Never Say Never Again’ (1983)

Directed by Irvin Kershner

Never Say Never Again was a bit of a weird one. Sean Connery returned to the role once more since 1971, and the movie’s name was a pun on Connery’s return to the franchise despite him claiming he’d never play Bond again. It’s the first non-EON-produced movie (which produced all other Bond movies); this makes the movie not part of the official Bond movies canon. In fact, it was released the same year as Octopussy, which the media then named The Battle of the Bonds. Never Say Never Again is the second adaptation of the novel Thunderball.

Connery’s James Bond is brought back from retirement in Never Say Never Again, being summoned by M as the only agent that can take on Ernst Blofeld, the notorious SPECTRE agent and leader. Alec McCowan portrays Q, and he shows up to Bond’s shooting practice in the most Q way possible – with a close-up of him dialling up a seemingly regular fountain pen with the British flag on it. As he points it at Bond’s target, he triggers the pen, and it explodes, destroying everything in front of it. Bond, impressed, holds the pen and says “You could write a very banging contract with this.”

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9

‘The Living Daylights’ (1987)

Directed by John Glen

The Living Daylights was the first of only two James Bond movies that starred Timothy Dalton as 007. In this movie, Bond is tasked with organizing the defection of a KGB general, but is being chased by a beautiful Soviet agent. Once he accomplishes the mission, the general disappears and Bond realizes his defection was a ploy for a much larger mission involving mass weaponry. Bond joins forces with the beautiful Soviet agent, and they chase him around the world to prevent its destruction.

Desmond Llewelyn plays Q, and Caroline Bliss replaces Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny. In a scene where Bond and Q are looking at images of female Soviet spies, Q says one of them uses the method of “strangulation with hands or thighs,” potentially foreshadowing GoldenEye and its main villainness. Q, Moneypenny, and Bond then witness a new weapon test; loud music plays and one of Q’s men is holding a boombox on his shoulder. The boombox opens and launches a rocket at the target. Q gleefully says he’s developing the weapon for the Americans, chirping out the words “It’s called a Ghetto Blaster!” This is one of the times we see Q enjoying his work, and Llewelyn makes him all the more lovable.

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8

‘Octopussy’ (1983)

Directed by John Glen

The heavily overlooked Octopussy, starring Roger Moore, is his sixth and penultimate appearance as James Bond. In this movie, Bond must chase down a Soviet general who also works as an art thief, stealing valuable jewelry and art from the Kremlin art repository. His mission takes him to India, where he meets the elusive and seductive jewel smuggler known as Octopussy. She runs the Octopus Cult, consisting of deadly women she took in from the streets and trained to be alluring assassins.

In his twelfth appearance as Q, Desmond Llewelyn shows up in a scene after Bond escapes some henchmen through a fake advertisement wall. In Q’s India HQ, he can be seen testing numerous hidden weapons, such as a mechanic rope and a deadly door. When Q and Bond meet up in Octopussy, their rapport is filled with back-and-forth banter; Q continuously feigns regret that Bond survived the attacks against him, while Bond continues to throw jabs at his failed weapons (when the mechanic rope falls, Bond adds “Having problems keeping it up, Q?”). Llewelyn and Moore show great chemistry, and their conversation is classically British comical banter full of puns that must be seen in full.

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7

‘Thunderball’ (1965)

Directed by Terence Young

Thunderball was directed by thriller master Terence Young, and it’s the first Bond movie filmed in Panavision. Its widescreen projection became a special event, and Thunderball one of the most successful Bond movies. Sean Connery returns as James Bond with a mission to stop SPECTRE from launching two NATO atomic bombs, which they’ve stolen and threaten to blow up a city in the US or UK. Bond arrives at the MI6 headquarters in the Bahamas and meets with Q and his developers to learn about the weapons Q devised for his mission.

Q’s appearance here shows classic Bond-Q banter; when Q enters the room, Bond turns around and solemnly says “Oh no,” but Q retorts back by saying he’s just as surprised to be equipping 007 on the field. In a blue and green pineapple-patterned Bahama shirt, Q proceeds to show some of the deadliest weapons he’s ever devised, including a harmless radioactive device that serves as a homing signal. Q and Bond have a brief and direct, but witty and fun conversation, with Desmond Llewelyn delivering one of his most charming Q appearances.

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6

‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ (1997)

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

In the Pierce Brosnan-led Tomorrow Never Dies, Desmond Llewelyn shows up in his penultimate role as Q. He welcomes 007 in Hamburg, Germany, where he enters the scene as a car rental agent going through a checklist of questions with Bond. Though Q urges 007 to “grow up,” the two have a superb chemistry and warmth in their interaction. This is what makes Brosnan’s interactions with Llewelyn much more authentic and likable; there’s more than just a funny back-and-forth; Brosnan seems to embrace Llewelyn’s performance fully.

Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth James Bond movie produced by EON, and it follows James Bond visiting Germany, Russia, China, and Vietnam, in order to stop the corrupt media mogul Elliott Carver (Jonathan Pryce), from orchestrating a war between China and the UK. The Bond girl in this movie is Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin, one of the best Bond girls to date. Although her appearance is spectacular, the dialogue between Bond and Q is, as always, up to par and memorable.

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5

‘For Your Eyes Only’ (1981)

Directed by John Glen

Roger Moore’s fifth stint as 007 in For Your Eyes Only is also one of his better ones. After five movies, this one seems the most grounded and back-to-the-roots. Espionage is at the heart of the twelfth James Bond EON movie, where 007 is tasked to find a vanished missile command system while making his way around Greece. Bond is seemingly prevented from his mission by the local businessmen and the femme fatale Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet).

Q appears in several scenes, with For Your Eyes Only including one of his greatest hits. When Bond is summoned to a Greek church, he enters the confessional booth and starts off with the typical phrase “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.” However, when the other booth is shown, there’s Q wearing a false beard and a priest’s garment, responding to Bond “That’s putting it mildly, 007.” This epic scene entrance cements Llewelyn’s legacy as Q, a man serious about teasing and poking at Bond as much as he is serious about his job.

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4

‘Skyfall’ (2012)

Directed by Sam Mendes

Skyfall is part of the Daniel Craig-era of James Bond movies, and potentially the best in all of his five features, which are characterized as quite dark. Craig is a much different Bond than his predecessors, and his storyline is basically reset when he’s introduced in Casino Royale, his first Bond film. Though it’s the third Craig movie, viewers don’t meet his Q until Skyfall. Ben Whishaw plays Q in the youngest version of any movie so far; he’s a modern, highly inspired and skilled innovator with skills like hacking and gadget-making, though he does tell Bond the agency no longer “makes exploding pens.”

When Q and Bond first meet in Skyfall, their encounter is arranged by M (Judi Dench) to take place in London’s National Gallery. Bond waits and Q sits beside him, chatting him up about the surrounding art before introducing himself as the Quartermaster. His curly hair, large black glasses, and semiformal outfit make him look the part, but when he tells Bond he could “do more damage on his laptop in his pajamas than Bond can do in a year in the field,” this is what really establishes him as good old Q and marks a worthy entrance into the franchise.

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3

‘Goldfinger’ (1964)

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Potentially the best Sean Connery-led James Bond movie, Goldfinger also establishes Q more, giving him a defined role and Desmond Llewelyn the liberty to step into his legendary character with a little more sass and attitude. It seems like most Llewelyn-Connery scenes in the James Bond movies consist of Connery’s Bond touching things that Llewelyn’s Q absolutely hates. In this non-verbal part of their relationship, they’re established as a guiding figure (Q) and a careful but impatient listener (Bond). The best Q moment in Goldfinger is when he introduces Bond with his legendary car, the Aston Martin DB5.

As Q shows Bond all the functions hidden in the Aston Martin, from the radar to the bulletproof windscreen commands, Bond thinks of as many possible puns for each improvement. When he finally reveals a red button on the gearstick, he implores him not to press the button; he says that button blows up the car’s roof and ejects the passenger seat. When Bond scoffs at that and says, “You’re joking!,” Q seriously retorts with “I never joke about my work, 007.” This moment helped Q become one of the greatest side characters in a movie franchise.

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2

‘GoldenEye’ (1995)

Directed by Martin Campbell

GoldenEye follows Pierce Brosnan in his first role as James Bond. The franchise had lost some audience interest, since at that moment, seven years had passed since Timothy Dalton played Bond in Licence to Kill. Pierce Brosnan was a fairly new face for this kind of movie (having previously starred mostly in romantic movies and dramas), but GoldenEye later proved to be a successful (if not the most successful) revival of the James Bond franchise. Many would argue Brosnan was the best Bond, which seems to be true at least in his relationship with Q. Desmond Llewelyn returned to the franchise as the inspired inventor Q, in one of the greatest re-introductions to his character.

When Bond arrives at the Quartermaster’s test lab, he is in a wheelchair with a cast on his leg. As Bond expresses sympathy for his injury, Q launches a rocket from the cast and gets up as if nothing had happened. Behind them, a lot of other things are happening while Q explains gadgets essential to Bond’s mission – a man gets trapped in a phone booth by an airbag, while another man gets shot out with an ejector seat. The chaos of the innovation department is standard for Q. When, finally, Bond sees a bunch of gadgets, he reaches for a sandwich suspiciously; Q reprimands him, saying that’s just his lunch.

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1

‘Licence to Kill’ (1989)

Directed by John Glen

Generally, the favorite Q appearance in any of the James Bond movies is in Licence to Kill. Many fans consider his role in Timothy Dalton’s second and final Bond movie as integral to the plot and 007’s character development. In this movie, his role goes from having quips to every Bond’s move to expressing genuine concern for him, and even praising him, saying he’s one hell of a field agent. This may be because of the movie’s premise, as Bond retires from MI6 to exact personal revenge against the drug lord Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi).

While on a mission with DEA informant Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), Bond is set up in a fancy hotel; at the reception desk, he’s told he has a visitor. When he and Pam gear up, preparing for an armed confrontation, Bond barges into the room and sees Q. Q, caring for him, bringing a suitcase full of gadgets that will help Bond make his mission successful, including a laser-shooting Polaroid camera which almost kills both of them. This is the best Q appearance because his and Bond’s relationship is more closely defined; he also emphasizes the importance of his department for Bond’s survival, which everyone knows is true.

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KEEP READING: Every Portrayal of Moneypenny in the James Bond Movies, Ranked