Casino Royale (2006)

Judi Dench: M

Photos 

Quotes 

• M : You don't trust anyone, do you?

  James Bond : No.

  M : Then you've learned your lesson.

• James Bond : I always thought M was a randomly assigned initial, I had no idea it stood for...

  M : Utter one more syllable and I'll have you killed.

• M : Sometimes we pay so much attention to our enemies, we forget to watch our friends as well.

• M : Who the hell do they think they are? I report to the Prime Minister and even he's smart enough not to ask me what we do. Have you ever seen such a bunch of self-righteous, ass-covering prigs? They don't care what we do; they care what we get photographed doing. And how the hell could Bond be so stupid? I give him 00 status and he celebrates by shooting up an embassy. Is the man deranged? And where the hell is he? In the old days if an agent did something that embarrassing he'd have a good sense to defect. Christ, I miss the Cold War.

• Villiers : He's logged into our secure website, using your name and password.

  M : [annoyed]  How the hell does he *know* these things?

• M : [standing in front of him in her apartment]  I knew it was too early to promote you.

  James Bond : [sitting down in front of her computer]  Well, I understand 00s have a very short life expectancy... so your mistake will be short-lived.

• Villiers : [calling M up in the middle of the night in her bed]  He's in the Bahamas.

  M : [through video conference]  You woke me to share his holiday plans?

• M : [as Solange's dead body is carried away]  I would ask you if you could remain emotionally detached, but that's not your problem, is it, Bond?

  James Bond : No.

• M : [sees Bond sitting by her computer in her apartment]  You've got a bloody cheek!

  James Bond : Sorry. I'll shoot the camera first next time.

  M : Or yourself. You stormed into an Embassy; you violated the only absolutely inviolate rule of international relations, and why? So you could kill a nobody. We wanted to question him, not to kill him! For God's sake! You're supposed to display some kind of judgement.

  James Bond : I did. I thought one less bomb maker in the world would be a good thing.

  M : Exactly. One bomb maker. We're trying to figure out how an entire network of terrorist groups is financed and you give us one bomb maker. Hardly the big picture, wouldn't you say?

• James Bond : You can stop pretending. You knew I wouldn't let this drop, didn't you?

  M : Well, I knew you were you.

• M : [to Bond]  Arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand in hand.

• M : When they analyzed the stock market after 9/11, the CIA discovered a massive shorting of airline stocks. When the stocks hit bottom on 9/12, somebody made a fortune. The same thing happened this morning with SkyFleet stock, or was supposed to. With their prototype destroyed, the company would be near bankruptcy. Instead, somebody lost over $100 million betting the wrong way.

• M : [to James referring to Le Chiffre, during briefing in the Bahamas]  Which would explain how he could set up a high stakes poker game at Casino Royale in Montenegro: ten players, ten million dollar buy in, five million dollar rebuy, winner takes all, potentially a hundred and fifty million dollars.

• M : Who's he looking at?

  Villiers : Alex Dimitrios.

  M : That slimy bugger.

• James Bond : [during briefing in the Bahamas]  So you want me to be half-monk, half-hitman.

  M : Any thug can kill. I need you to take your ego out of the equation.

• M : [to Bond]  She knew you were you.

• M : [to James, in her apartment, after he started a shooting at a African embassy]  Go and stick your head in the sand somewhere and think about your future. Because these bastards want your head - and I'm seriously considering feeding you to them.

• M : She was tortured first. As you'd already killed her husband, she must have been the only one left to question. Did she know anything that could compromise you?

  James Bond : No.

  M : Not your name? What you were after?

  James Bond : No.

• M : [to James referring to Le Chiffre]  We can't let him win this game. If he loses, he'll have nowhere to run - we'll give him sanctuary in return for everything he knows. I'm putting you in the game: replacing someone who's playing for the syndicate. According to Villiers, you're the best player in the service. Trust me, I wish it wasn't the case.

• M : [Briefing James]  Dimitrios was a middle man for a man named Le Chiffre, a private banker to the world's terrorists. He invested their money and gave them access to it whenever and wherever they wanted it, and he's also a chess prodigy and a mathematical genius and liked to prove it by playing poker.

• M : I have to know I can trust you and that you know who to trust. And since I don't know that, I need you out of my sight.

• M : [to Bond]  Quite the body count you're stacking up.