Secret Intelligence Service

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Well, they don't have the license to break traffic laws...

"Semper Occultus - Always Secret" —SIS motto.

The Secret Intelligence Service, almost always referred to in media by the term "MI6" (Military Intelligence 6), is the external intelligence agency for the United Kingdom, roughly equivalent to the United States' CIA.

Formed as the Secret Service Bureau in 1909 under the leadership of Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, its existence was not officially acknowledged until 1994, although it now has a website.

Its reputation in media is inextricably linked to the James Bond mythos, and the agency's appearances in media tend to either play to, or directly contradict such notions.

By the way, the chief is known as "C" (after Smith-Cumming), not "M", although Ian Fleming, himself an ex-secret agent, was inspired by Smith-Cumming's use of green ink.

It has a rather cool base, namely its headquarters at Vauxhall Cross.

Works Involving The Secret Intelligence Service include:

Anime and Manga

• Several characters in Darker than Black work for the SIS. One of the agents, April, gets annoyed when it's called MI6.
• Been known to employ Golgo 13.

Comic Books

• Queen and Country
• Alfred Pennyworth, butler to Batman is usually depicted as having been an MI6 agent in his backstory.
  • Except in The Dark Knight Trilogy, where it appears that he was a member of the Special Air Service...which abbreviates to SAS.
    • Though it would not be too unlikely for someone to have joined the SIS after leaving the military.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were originally MI6 operatives, the "Black Dossier" also details the founding and history of the agency in that world.
• Shang Chi and various characters from his comic book work for MI6.

Fan Works

• Plays a role in Kira Is Justice by sending sixteen agents to Chicago to try to find the new Kira. Unlike most media, who are too lazy to look up the proper name, it is referred to by the SIS instead of the MI6. Take That!

Film

• James Bond in all his various incarnations.
• The film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Literature

• Alex Rider
• The works of John Le Carre. As matters were still classified when he wrote, he changed some things, such as using "Control" rather than "C" and having MI6 nicknamed "the Circus" because its headquarters were said to be on Cambridge Circus (in reality it wasn't).
  • A real-life ex-SIS officer too.
• The Bernard Samson Series.
• The Laundry Series by Charles Stross, although only in passing. The Laundry itself is the sole surviving section of the WW 2 Special Operations Executive. MI6 do not have a very high opinion of them, and the feeling is mutual.
• In the novel (but not The Movie) The Hunt for Red October, British and US cooperation in tracking down the titular submarine includes interaction between MI6 and the CIA.
  • As do many other Tom Clancy novels.
• Some works during the 1960s and '70s referred to the name being changed to DI6 (MI5, they indicated, was also renamed DI5). Whether there was any truth to this is uncertain—the SIS website doesn't seem to mention it at all—but more than one author used the new names (examples include Michael Gilbert's "Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens" stories and Martin Woodhouse's "Giles Yeoman" series).
• In one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Bashir plays James Bond in the holodeck.

Live-Action TV

• The Sandbaggers
• It is not certain, but it is usually assumed that Number 6 from The Prisoner is a former MI6 agent.
• Lie to Me: Cal Lightman is former MI6, as we find out in "Secret Santa", and was in the Yugoslavia Wars.
• Spooks is about MI5, but many episodes also include MI6.
  • In fact, Adam, Fiona, Zaf and Ros all came over from MI6.
• Danger Man
• The Piglet Files is a comedy about MI5.

Video Games

• Blake Stone, a futuristic FPS series of games by Apogee.
• An expository loading screen in Modern Warfare 3 has MI6, MI5, and the SAS working in tandem to stop a suspected terrorist plot in London.
• The Republic's Strategic Information Service in Star Wars: The Old Republic is almost certainly a reference to MI6.