Q (John Cleese)
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Q played by John Cleese
Born in Weston-Super-Mare, England on 27th October 1939
Starred In The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002)
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John Cleese appears first in The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant, where Bond quips "If your Q, does that make him R?" Q's assistant is very sarcastic whilst demonstrating a number of gadgets, including telling Bond how to use a zip. Tired of his assistant's antics, Q pulls the tag on the inflatable jacket temporarily silencing him. He also appears at the end of the film when he is trying to find Bond and Dr Christmas Jones, cancelling the live feed when its revealed what he is doing.
In Die Another Day John Cleese, now playing the role of Q, briefs Bond on a number of gadgets inside the abandoned underground tube station. Bond quips about some of the previous gadget relics of years gone by, slyly implying that Q is also one of the those relics. After demonstrating a few gadgets, Q introduces Bond to his new transportation, the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish. He tells Bond to shoot through the Aston Martin manual, to which Bond does just that; he uses the Aston Martin's target seeking shotguns to destroy the manual into pieces. This prompts Q to tell him that he wished Bond would vanish. At the end of the film, Q catches Miss Moneypenny using the virtual reality simulator, causing her much embarrassment as she pretends she is just testing it.
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While John Cleese's Q shares the same disregard for Bond's treatment of his gadgets as Desmond Llewelyn's portrayal of the famous character, this is where the similarity ends. The traditional by-play between Bond and Desmond Llewelyn's Q is now lost, as Cleese is a much more sarcastic, comical Q, who is able to match every one of Bond's quips and witticisms with one of his own. Q does have some serious moments, but like in true Bond style, he doesn't pay Q too much attention, thus taunting him even more. §
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