This quote is the final, hollow justification offered by Dr. Kaufman in Tomorrow Never Dies, and the efficiency with which Bond answers it, with “So am I!”, makes this brief exchange far more revealing than its runtime suggests.

With a gun pressed to his face, Bond feigns compliance by handing over his cellphone, only to weaponize it moments later. His cellphone’s electric shock gadgetry swiftly reverses the power dynamic and turns the tables on Dr. Kaufman. Kaufman himself is a curious figure: a sadistic professional cloaked in gallows humor and a deliberately ambiguous accent. His somber expression before death briefly humanizes him, or at least reminds us that he, too, operates under a morally bankrupt code and any claim of professionalism is not a plea for mercy, but a statement of his own excuses for his misdeeds.

Bond’s response, “So am I,” is therefore striking in its lack of moral posturing, and invites introspection. Bond does not deny the comparison, but accepts it, with the line suggesting an awareness that his license to kill makes his purpose uncomfortably close to a detestable torturer.