In the film "Die Another Day" M tells James "you had the cyanide". What does this mean?

My husband says it's a phrase meaning that James had his fair share of beatings fromt the Koreans for 14 months and should have died.

I thought she literally meant he should have swallowed the cyanide and killed himself.

Who is correct??

You're right. Cyanide was supposedly given to intelligence agents by their employers so they could kill themselves and avoid torture and giving up vital information if they were caught.