List of fictional espionage organizations
Fictional espionage organizations with fancy-sounding acronyms are a common theme in spy fiction.
Overview
During the 1960s trend for action-adventure spy thrillers, it was a common practice for fictional spy organizations or their nemeses to employ names that were contrived acronyms. Sometimes these acronyms' expanded meanings made sense, but most of the time they were words incongruously crammed together for the mere purpose of obtaining a catchy acronym, traditionally a heroic sounding one for the good guys and an appropriately menacing one for the bad guys. This has become one of the most commonly parodied clichés of the spy thriller genre. They were presumably inspired by SMERSH, which appeared in the James Bond stories and sounded fictional, but really was a branch of Soviet intelligence. These acronyms are often spelled with periods/points/stops to make it clear that they stand for longer terms and are not simply the usual English words that they resemble, even though the punctuation would otherwise seem to indicate that the abbreviations should be pronounced as the names of the individual letters.List
Among the most popular:- A.C.M.E., a fictional crime intelligence agency in Carmen Sandiego.
- A.C.R.O.S.T.I.C., enemies of the Zoo Crew.
- A.I.M., a fictional Marvel Comics terrorist organization, whose members are memorable for wearing yellow Hazmat or radiation suits as uniforms, which make them resemble an army of beekeepers.
- A.N.V.I.L., a fictional agency representing China and southeast Asia in the video game Evil Genius
- A.P.E. and C.H.U.M.P., from Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp
- A.R.M.O.R. a fictional branch of SHIELD in Marvel Comics founded to keep an eye on parallel universes.
- A.P.O., a fictional black-ops division of the CIA on the television series Alias
- B.L.U., a front for one of the two warring companies in Team Fortress 2. Blue uniforms.
- B.R.U.T.E. , a terrorist organization in the Micro Adventure series of kids' books.
- C.I.S.O., from Richard Comely's Captain Canuck comic book series.
- C.L.I.T.O.R.I.S., from Red Dwarf
- C.M.D.F., from the movie Fantastic Voyage. In the television animated cartoon series, the acronym stood for Combined Miniature Defense Force.
- C.O.B.R.A., an international terrorist organization, headed by Cobra Commander, from the G.I. Joe series.
- CONTROL, the fictional government agency in the TV Show Get Smart.
- C.O.P.S., the crime-fighting organization from the 1988 animated TV series of the same name.
- D.A.R.C., from the television series '
- E.R.I.S., from the movie Agent Cody Banks
- F.E.A.R., in the horror-themed first-person-shooter computer game F.E.A.R..
- F.I.R.M., from the Airwolf television series
- F.L.A.G., from the original Knight Rider
- F.O.W.L., in cartoon series, Darkwing Duck. This organization originated in the DuckTales episode "Double-o-Duck", but was called the Foreign Organization there.
- G.A.G., a secret police force commanded by Darth Caedus in the Legacy of the Force series
- G.A.S., from the Fate of the Jedi series
- G.A.R., from Star Wars prequel trilogy
- G.D.I., from the Command & Conquer video game series.
- G.L.A, from the Command & Conquer video game series.
- G.R.A.M.P.A., an international intelligence agency in Marvel Comics.
- G.R.O.S.S., an organization founded by Calvin from the Calvin and Hobbes comic series which seeks to exclude girls because of their inherent slimy nature.
- H.A.M.M.E.R., a fictional agency representing former USSR territories and Cuba in the video game Evil Genius
- H.A.R.M., from the No One Lives Forever series of computer games, which were released in the 1990s, but were based in 1960s pop culture. What H.A.R.M. actually stands for is never revealed, and speculation about its true meaning is the subject of several jokes in both games.
- H.A.T.E. from Marvel.
- H.E.A.T., from Angel of H.E.A.T.
- H.E.A.T. from Acapulco H.E.A.T.
- H.I.V.E., a villainous organization that combats the Teen Titans and other DC Comics superheroes.
- H.U.N.T., from Rise of the Triad
- HYDRA is an exception in that the name is not an acronym but rather a reference to the mythical Lernaean Hydra; the name's capitalization exists per Marvel's official spelling only.
- IAA GTA V
- I.C.A. is the secret organisation that is the backbone of the Hitman games
- I.S.I.S. is the agency employing the lead characters in Archer.
- I.C.E. is the agency that employs Matt Helm in the Matt Helm movie series starring Dean Martin.
- I.M.F. from the ' series and the movies that it inspired.
- K.A.B.O.O.M., from the movie '.
- KAOS, the enemy organization in the TV Show Get Smart.
- L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. from the series Phineas and Ferb, is an organization dedicated to promoting evil. It was presumably founded by Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
- M.A.S.K., the good mask-wearing cohort from the 1980s Saturday-morning cartoon M.A.S.K.
- N.I.D., from Stargate SG-1.
- N.R.I, from Star Wars
- O.D.I.N. is a rival European agency that the lead characters in Archer are frequently competing with.
- O.R.A.C.L. This is a government agency from the Demon Accords series by John Conroe. It is dedicated to the study of the supernatural. Also called ORACLE.
- O.S.I., a fictional intelligence Britannian affiliated agency in the Code Geass universe. Its main tasks are espionage, black ops, intelligence gathering, counter-intelligence and assassination.
- O.S.I., a fictional intelligence agency in the Six Million Dollar Man universe. It was headed by Oscar Goldman of which Steve Austin and later, Jaime Sommers, were its primary agents.
- O.W.C.A., a top-secret organization that uses animals for secret agents, from Phineas and Ferb
- P.A.T.R.I.O.T., a fictional agency representing the US and Japan in the video game Evil Genius
- P.R.F., a terrorist agency from the TV show Alias
- R.A.S., from the movies The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under
- R.E.D., a front for one of the warring companies in Team Fortress 2. Red uniforms.
- S.A.B.R.E., a fictional agency representing the UK, Australia, and India in the video game Evil Genius
- S.A.V.A.G.E., from the animated TV series '
- S.CORP.I.A., a criminal organization from the fictional series, Alex Rider.
- S.H.A.D.O. in the Gerry Anderson television series UFO.
- S.H.I.E.L.D., from the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Marvel Comics.
- S.H.U.S.H., from Darkwing Duck.
- S.K.O.O.L. in the Hardy Boys book, Secret Agent of Flight 101.
- S.M.A.S.H., a fictional agency representing Africa, South America, and Antarctica in the video game Evil Genius
- S.M.E.L.L.Y., the antagonist of the children's video game
- S.N.A.F.U., a terrorist organization from the short-lived Nickelodeon animated series, The X's
- SPECTRE, from the James Bond series.
- S.T.E.N.C.H. in the film Carry On Spying and the radio series Round the Horne.
- S.P.I.D.E.R., the adversaries of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents from Tower Comics.
- S.S.S.S.S. Squad from The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
- S.P.I.D.E.R. : a criminal society that once tried to recruit Catwoman. But, who were brought down by her, instead.
- S.T.A.R.S., from the Resident Evil video game series.
- S.T.R.I.K.E., a fictional counter-terrorism and intelligence agency in the Marvel Comics Universe.
- S.W.A.M.P., from ', a future Netflix animated series
- S.W.O.R.D., from Marvel Comics.
- T.H.U.N.D.E.R., from Tower Comics.
- T.I.A. translating into "Aeroterraquatic Investigation Technicians", from the Spanish comic strip Mortadelo y Filemón.
- U.G.L.I. in the Hardy Boys book, Secret Agent of Flight 101.
- U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. from Marvel Comics.
- U.N.C.L.E. and T.H.R.U.S.H., from The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
- U.N.I.T. A military organization formed to investigate and combat paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to the Earth in the series Doctor Who. UNIT was rebranded as the UNified I'ntelligence Taskforce in 2008, after the United Nations expressed its discomfort with being associated with a fictional paramilitary organization.
- V.A.C.U.U.M., from the Donald Sobol book Secret Agents Four.
- V.E.N.O.M., the evil mask-wearing cohort from the 1980s Saturday-morning cartoon M.A.S.K.
- V.F.D., a secret organization from the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events and its adaptations.
- V.I.L.E., Carmen Sandiego's band of international thieves.
- V.S.S.E., from the Time Crisis video game series.
- W.A.S.P., from the Gerry Anderson TV series, Stingray
- W.C.P.O., from the Rolling Thunder video game series.
- W.O.O.H.P., the fictional organization from Totally Spies!, an animated series on Cartoon Network.
- Z.O.W.I.E., from the movies Our Man Flint and In Like Flint