If the plot of Operation Mincemeat sounds right out of a James Bond film, that’s because it sort of is: Bond creator Ian Fleming is a character in the film (played by folk rock star Johnny Flynn). He’s also the originator of the titular scheme. In an attempt to fool Axis forces into abandoning Sicily, leaving the island open for an Allied invasion, British forces planted falsified documents on a corpse and then strategically allowed the body to fall into enemy hands. It’s an idea straight from the pages of a spy novel, and Fleming knew it, admitting that the idea was one blatantly stolen from a novel by Basil Thomson.

Fleming’s presence in the story gave the filmmakers a structural opportunity to wink at the author’s future. “It enabled us... to put the frame around the story of this man who 10 years later was going to create the most famous body of work about espionage, of a certain kind, of course,” director John Madden tells Tudum. “He’s writing a story, hasn’t yet become a writer, but writing a story that we’re watching unfold, and therefore you’re understanding the act of writing and dramatization, because he doesn’t know how it ends.” Madden was careful not to overwhelm the film with Fleming references, but Operation Mincemeat tips its cap to the venerable Bond franchise in much the same way Fleming’s novels refer to the real-life events of his World War II career. Below, we break down just a few of those references.

Operation Mincemeat was not originally from a Bond book, Fleming admitted. The idea was borrowed from a novel by Basil Thomson.

Giles Keyte/Courtesy See-Saw Films/Netflix

Admiral John Godfrey is M. Admiral John Godfrey (Jason Isaacs) was the director of British naval intelligence during World War II, as well as the alleged inspiration for Fleming’s character M, Bond’s boss: Godfrey himself groused of Fleming, “He turned me into that unsavory character, M.” Fleming may not have referred to Godfrey as M while working for him, as the film depicts, but it does get one other detail correct: When Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth) asks Fleming why he calls Godfrey M, he responds, “Because I called my mother M.” And yes, he really did.

British Ministry of Supply provided equipment and weapons for the British military during World War II.

Giles Keyte/Courtesy See-Saw Films and Netflix

Q Branch  In the course of their operation, Montagu and his partner Charles Cholmondeley (Matthew Macfadyen) come to require the services of Q Branch, a section of the government that produces helpful tools like a waterproof tube to preserve their falsified documents. In reality, no such Q Branch existed; the closest analogue is the British Ministry of Supply, which provided equipment and weapons for the British military during World War II. Not featured in the film is Fleming colleague Charles Fraser-Smith, whose “Q Devices” served as the inspiration for Q in the Bond films. 

David Ainsworth (Nicholas Rowe) is a fictional character created for the film, but he’s pretty Bondy, if you ask us.

Giles Keyte/Courtesy See-Saw Films and Netflix

David Ainsworth is... James Bond? One of the most memorable sequences in Operation Mincemeat sees British spy David Ainsworth (Nicholas Rowe) embark on a desperate last-minute gambit to get the fake documents into German hands. In the process, he seduces both men and women, all in the name of British intelligence. While Ainsworth is a fictional character created for the film, he borrows quite a bit from two of the oft-speculated inspirations for Bond. His sexual proclivities seem drawn from Forest Yeo-Thomas, the war hero nicknamed “White Rabbit,” whom Fleming was fascinated with. And Ainsworth’s triple-agent status is shared with Serbian agent Duško Popov, who during World War II served MI5, MI6, the German Abwehr and the FBI. He even attempted to warn the US about an impending attack on Pearl Harbor, but was disregarded by Herbert Hoover, who disliked Popov’s lifestyle. That lifestyle was another huge inspiration for Bond — Fleming once accompanied Popov to a baccarat match, which would go on to inspire the climactic Casino Royale face-off.

Cholmondeley is a martini man, but does he like them shaken or stirred? 

Giles Keyte/Courtesy See-Saw Films and Netflix

Martinis At one point in the film, Cholmondeley requests a martini, an order we can only assume that he picked up from his co-worker Fleming. A stretch? Maybe. But hey, so was Operation Mincemeat.