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Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to read on. The world's a dangerous place, full of fiendish super villains and
underground agencies dedicated to the downfall of democracy and the West. The good news is, for every Blofeld there's a Bond.
For every T.H.R.U.S.H. there's an U.N.C.L.E. As teenage secret agent flick Stormbreaker explodes onto DVD, Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall
Julius presents a dossier of ten of the top spies in the business, from Bond and Bourne to Bristow and Banks. This introduction will
not self-destruct in ten seconds.
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Position: Junior agent, Special Operations Division, MI6
Quote: "I don't want to be a spy. In case, you haven't noticed I'm still at school."
Life And Times: Trained by his mysterious Uncle Ian ( Ewan McGregor) for life on the international spy circuit, Alex is just 14 when a personal tragedy forces him into the world-saving business much earlier than anticipated. Unwilling though he is, the boy's a natural.
Trivia: Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books have sold eight million copies across the world and been translated into twenty-eight languages. Back in 2000, when Stormbreaker was first published, it was named in a nationwide poll of children as the book they most wanted to see turned into a movie.
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Position: Team Leader, IMF (Impossible Missions Force)
Quote: "I need you to trust me."
Life And Times: A talented spy in charge of a dream team of specialists, Hunt's biggest adventures have seen him exposing an IMF traitor, destroying a genetically modified disease and taking down a sadistic arms dealer.
Trivia: Director John Woo's final cut of "Mission: Impossible II weighed it at an epic 3 ½ hours. Horrified by the length, Paramount insisted he cut 90 minutes, which explains most of the plot holes and continuity errors.
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Position: MI5 agent
Quote: "I have an idea, but it requires a woman who's ruthless, immoral, vicious and utterly lacking in human sympathy."
Life And Times: Driven and secretive, Carter is a perfect MI5 agent, willing to push his team to their limits in order to get the job done. He's also a fairly decent bloke. Losing his agent wife only made him more determined to bring down bad guys.
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Position: Retired spy
Quote: "Everything I found out, I want to forget."
Life And Times: An amnesiac spy on the run from his shadowy former employers, Bourne is a master of martial arts, subterfuge and surveillance, as dedicated to piecing together the mystery of his old life as he is to escaping it.
Trivia: Director Doug Liman told screenwriter Tony Gilroy not to read Robert Ludlum's original novel, insisting instead he worked solely from the story outline Liman had prepared.
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Position: Double 'O' agent, MI6.
Quote: "That's quite a nice little nothing you're almost wearing. I approve."
Life And Times: A ruthless protector of queen and country, Bond kills without compassion, a wizard with the ladies, a gifted card player and connoisseur of the finer things in life. Married once, his wife was soon bumped off by the opposition, a fate shared by many of his friends and co-workers.
Trivia: According to Sean Connery, when first Bond movie, Dr No (1962), opened in Japan, the title was translated as No Need For Any Doctors!
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Position: Junior Secret Agent, CIA
Quote: "What was my mission again?"
Life And Times: An undercover CIA agent assigned cases appropriate for younger heroes, Cody juggles his teenage angst with the responsibility of saving the world, first from deadly nanobots, and during a mission to London, from a brain-washing super villain.
Trivia: Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz was paid $5 million for the sequel, $3 million more than he got for the original.
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Position: International Man of Mystery
Quote: "Shall we shag now, or shall we shag later?"
Life And Times: Frozen in the Sixties and defrosted in the Nineties, swinging super spy Austin Powers travels through time and space in pursuit of arch-enemy Dr Evil. Mostly though, he wants to shag.
Trivia: Mike Myers says he based Austin Powers partially on Michael Caine's character in Alfie. Myers also claimed that Austin's glasses were fashioned after those worn by Caine in The Ipcress File. Appropriately cast as his dad in Goldmember, Caine wore his original Ipcress File glasses throughout the film.
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Position: U.N.C.L.E. operative
Quote: "People who straddle both sides of the street end up sitting in the middle."
Life And Times: Napoleon Solo and partner-against-crime Illya Kuryakin ( David McCallum) fight for the forces of good as agents of U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law-Enforcement) against the forces of evil representing T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity).
Trivia: On the set of an U.N.C.L.E. reunion movie, the actors were asked how the success of the show had affected their careers. David McCallum replied that he was often typecast and found it difficult to play other types of roles, while Robert Vaughn claimed the opposite, saying he'd played nothing but villains since the series ended.
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Position: Team Leader, IMF (Impossible Missions Force)
Quote: "As always, should you or any of your IM force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."
Life And Times: Saving the world every week for seven years, Phelps and a top squad of experts took on the missions deemed impossible by lesser security agencies. Members of the team included model Cinnamon Carter ( Barbara Bain) and masters of disguise Rollin Hand ( Martin Landau) and Paris ( Leonard Nimoy).
Trivia: Martin Landau turned down the part of Mr. Spock on Star Trek, which later went to Leonard Nimoy. When Landau's salary demands saw him booted off Mission: Impossible, he was replaced by Nimoy after Star Trek was cancelled.
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