Thousands of characters have come and gone in the 25 James Bond movies that have been released in the last seven decades, but there are a few faces that show up again and again. Most of them have been Bond's allies, while a few have worked against him. Each has a rather unique personality, too.
The Bond movies have mostly relied on action sequences to drive the narrative, but the dialogue has been a key ingredient too, with numerous great quotes popping up in each installment. Most of the time, the pronouncements the characters make define who they are, but there's always a single quote that highlights their mannerisms and beliefs.
Mr. White
"You're A Kite Dancing In a Hurricane, Mr. Bond"
Bond goes looking for Mr. White, aka "The Pale King" in Spectre after he falls afoul with Blofeld. He locates him in Altaussee, Austria, where he realizes the once-powerful Q.U.A.N.T.U.M. boss is dying of thallium poisoning. Struggling to speak, Mr. White warns Bond that he'll never defeat the world's most powerful individuals.
As one of the most intelligent S.P.E.C.T.R.E. members, Mr. White has always held the opinion that villains like him are too sophisticated for spies. Getting ousted from Blofeld's inner circle, as well as the organization he once headed, doesn't make him stop believing in the cause. Most importantly, Mr. White doesn't like Bond and he strongly believes the MI6 agent's forays will never lead him anywhere, something he is wrong about.
Felix Leiter
"Harder To Tell The Good From Bad, The Villains From The Heroes These Days."
After missing out on two consecutive movies of the Craig era, Felix reemerges in the latest installment, where he meets Bond in the Jamaican town of Port Antonio and seeks his help in locating Obruchev. As they chat over drinks, Felix laments that modern-day villains have become too good at subterfuge.
As a long-serving CIA agent, Felix enjoys discussing new trends and developments in the world of espionage. He's never been too happy about the changing times, and as such, he takes any opportunity to reminisce about the good old days. Unlike Bond, he is more of a talker than a fighter. What he isn't good at is seeing what's right in front of him. In one of No Time To Die's biggest plot twists, Logan Ash, the agent assigned to assist him, is revealed to be on Safin's payroll too.
Q
"I Answer Directly To M. I Also Have A Mortgage. And Two Cats To Feed."
Bond and Swann go to Q's apartment in Spectre to get more details about Sciarra's ring, but the techie is skeptical about telling them anything. Since the request hasn't been approved by the agency, Q is afraid he might lose his job.
Bond has a habit of coming to Q with unofficial requests, and the pattern always plays out the same way: Q laments about the request before offering to help anyway. As an intelligence analyst, Q prefers to tread on the side of caution, not doing anything that will put his job or his nation at risk. Underneath the lamentations always lies the belief that Bond will never let him down.
Bill Tanner
"He Says It Was A Dead End."
As soon as Bill Tanner meets Bond in Quantum Of Solace, his boss, M, starts instructing him on what to say over the radio. He tells him to ask about Slate, the hitman sent to kill Camille Montes by one of the worst Bond villains, Dominic Greene. Tanner immediately relays Bond's answer.
Everything Tanner does in the Bond movies revolves around him taking orders. As M's Chief of Staff, he has proven to be the perfect subordinate, never one to seek power for himself or be corrupted by dark forces in the world of espionage. Bond and M sometimes clash, and on those occasions, Tanner is always more than happy to ask as a conveyer of information between the two.
Moneypenny
"Heartless, Brute! Letting Me Pine Away Without Even A Postcard."
Bond refuses to tell Moneypenny where he has been when he returns from a mission in Portugal in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. She understands but cheekily calls him out for not remembering her while he was away.
Playful banter is what Moneypenny and Bond are all about. M's secretary is one of the few people who know Bond better than he knows himself and this makes her frequently joke about his negative traits. Sometimes, their conversations spill into the inappropriate, but the two colleagues normally refrain from going there.
Sir Frederick Gray
"My God, What's Bond Doing?"
Gray, the British Minister of Defence, is astonished when the monitoring screens show Bond making love inside a spaceship in Moonraker. To confirm that he isn't hallucinating, he asks Q if he's seeing the same thing.
All of Gray's scenes involve him being shocked by Bond's actions. As a spit and polish government official with traditional views, he has never wrapped his job around how Agent 007 manages to get the job done by being so hedonistic and reckless. Gray's moments of befuddlement normally come off as comical, adding to the general humor of the franchise.
M
"He’s The Best We Have, Though I’d Never Tell Him."
Before sending Bond to go after the heiress Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough, M admits to her fellow superiors that Agent 007 is the best they've got at MI6. She also swears to never tell him that in person.
No one knows how to keep Bond on a leash better than M. She knows just how gargantuan his ego is and she'd never make it swell any further by telling him he is the MI6 superstar. Furthermore, she's the only one who is ever brave to reprimand him when he is wrong. Her toughness has never put a dent in their relationship, as he appreciates the fact that she doesn't suck up to him, like everyone else.
Ernst Stravo Blofeld
"I've Really Put You Through A Lot, Haven't I?"
As Spectre comes to a close, Blofeld gives Bond two options. He can either continue to pursue him or attempt to save his lover, Madeleine from a building rigged with explosives. He then proceeds to mock Bond upon noticing his dilemma.
The overarching villain understands that Bond is the biggest threat to his criminal empire therefore he never hesitates to drag him through hell whenever he can. He loves seeing Bond suffer because a suffering Bond is a toothless Bond. As he brilliantly puts it in another scene, he has always been the author of Bond's pain.
James Bond
"My Name Is Bond, James Bond."
Being one of the most famous fictional spies in the world never stops Bond from introducing himself wherever he goes. "Bond, James Bond," is a line that has been included in all the 25 Bond movies that have been released to date.
The line sprouts out of Bond's self-love. Espionage requires stealth but Bond is always more than glad to let everyone know his identity because he is very proud of who he is. He has the option of simply introducing himself as James, but he never does because he'd be easily forgotten. The MI6 agent is ever keen on not only making a mark, but leaving a legacy.
General Gogol
"How Can I Sleep? Nothing But Problems. Problems, Problems."
In Moonraker, Colonel Scott calls KGB boss General Gogol from the Vandenburg Air Force Base to tell him that Hugo Drax's space station, and overall one of the best Bond villain bases, is now appearing on radars. Scott asks him if he's sleeping, to which Gogol lies that he isn't. The next scene shows that he is actually in bed with a woman.
In the entire Bond franchise, Gogol's nonchalance remains unrivaled. Threats are always of little concern to him because there never lacks someone capable of dealing with them. That he remains in his position for six movies is baffling since active participation is necessary for those that have been granted as much power as him.