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"Game's up, mate! You're dead!"
― An SAS trooper to the imposter 00 agent[src]

The nameless imposter 00 agent (listed simply as Imposter in the credits) was a fictional unnamed assassin in the employ of rogue Soviet General Georgi Koskov and American arms dealer Brad Whitaker. A supporting antagonist, the character appeared in the pre-title sequence of EON Productions' 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights and was portrayed by British actor Carl Rigg.

Biography[]

Posing as a 00 agent of the British Secret Service, the unnamed assassin was sent by General Koskov and Brad Whitaker to assassinate one of its operatives during a training exercise in Gibraltar; hoping to prompt British retaliation against KGB Head, General Pushkin. Watching the three double-0 agents parachute onto the island, the assassin singles out 004 and attempts to execute the vulnerable agent as he scales the cliff face. He is interrupted by an unwitting SAS man, who mistakes the assassin for one of the 00s, and shoots him with a real bullet from his silenced pistol. He proceeds to slide a note marked "Smiert Spionem" (meaning "Death to spies" in Russian) down 004's climbing rope, before severing it and causing the agent to fall to his death.

James Bond finds the body of 004, and the body of the SAS man the impostor killed, and realizes that something is wrong. Trying to escape, the imposter kills a second SAS guard and steals a Land Rover 88'' Series III which (unbeknownst to him) is full of explosives. Bond runs after the Land Rover (despite being shot with paint by a third SAS man) and jumps onto his roof.

The imposter tries to make Bond leave, first by shaking him at the corner of the street, then pulling on him, but to no avail. The Land Rover runs on a fourth SAS officer, then a fifth SAS fires at the Land Rover with a real machine gun for a penalty by going out of bounds through the training simulation, which begins to detonate the explosives. Bond crosses the roof of the Land Rover, and the imposter and he fight. They miraculously avoid hitting civilians, but fail to stop the Land Rover breaking a security fence over a cliff.

By now, the Land Rover is partially on fire and Bond flees. He breaks the windshield with his foot and opens his reserve parachute, and he is sucked into the back of the Land Rover under cover. The agent of the imposter 00 is less lucky, because the explosives violently explode, destroying the Land Rover and killing the screaming imposter instantly. However, some of the debris tears Bond's parachute, and he is forced to land on a private yacht.

Behind the scenes[]

A stuntman was originally going to play the role of the imposter 00 agent, but after watching rushes, director John Glen decided that they needed a real actor for the part, and it was given to the actor Carl Rigg. At the time, Rigg was out of work and staying home, taking care of his baby, while his wife was away on business. Upon getting the call, Rigg left the baby with a neighbor, left his wife a note telling her he'd gone to be in a James Bond film, and caught the next plane to Gibraltar to start filming [1].

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References[]

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