Oddjob
From Double-Oh-Wiki
| James Bond Character | |
| [[Image: Harold Sakata playing Oddjob|center|250px]] | |
| Oddjob | |
| Role | Henchman |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | Mid 30s |
| Status | Deceased |
| Behind the scenes | |
| Portrayed By | Harold Sakata |
Oddjob is a henchman to the villain Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film and novel, Goldfinger. In the film he was played by the Japanese American actor Harold Sakata.
Oddjob is clearly far superior in strength and unarmed combat skills to Bond in both film and novel, and therefore is finally killed by a blend of pure good luck and personal cunning on Bond's part.
The character of Oddjob, from his unusual appearance, manners, strength and method of killing, forms the archetype for many henchmen of the Bond film series, including Tee Hee [[List of henchmen in The Spy Who Loved Me#JawsJaws, Nick Nack, Chang, and Gobinda.
Contents |
[edit] Novel
Oddjob, so named by Goldfinger, is Korean-born, and, much like in the film, is extremely strong, proven in one sequence where he breaks the railing of a staircase with his hand and the mantel of a fireplace with his foot. Expert at unarmed combat, Oddjob is also expert with a bow and arrow, and with his metal bowler hat. He is a ruthless killer, but also acts as Goldfinger's personal guard, driver, and manservant (though not his golf caddy). He has a taste for cats as food, apparently acquired in Korea when food was in short supply (Bond frames Goldfinger's yellow cat for destruction of surveillance film, and as punishment, sees the cat given to Oddjob for dinner). He is killed when Bond uses a knife to shatter the window next to his seat on an airplane, which depressurises the plane and sucks Oddjob out of the window, a fate transferred to Auric Goldfinger in the film version.
[edit] Film
Oddjob acts as Goldfinger's personal chauffeur, bodyguard and golf caddy in the film. He is extremely strong and durable, demonstrating his strength in a number of scenes, including one where he crushes a golf ball with one hand; later he is struck with a gold brick in the chest, scarcely flinching. He is expert at unarmed combat, but also uses a silenced pistol on a mobster. He wears what appears to be a bowler lined with a metal razor disk in the rim, using it as a lethal flying disc of sorts (this is a bowler hat in the novel, and as such, would have had a round top). Physically, Oddjob is practically invincible to Bond's hand-to-hand combat tactics, even when Bond uses a wooden object as a club. The only time Oddjob shows anything resembling fear or wariness in the film is when Bond attempts to use his own hat against him. Bond misses him with the throw, causing his hat to get stuck between the metal bars in the Fort Knox vault. Oddjob is then outmaneuvered when, as he reaches to retrieve his hat, Bond uses a severed live electrical cable to electrify the bars, causing a lethal current to run from the bars through the metal hat to Oddjob, killing him.
[edit] Other appearances
Oddjob has appeared in a number of James Bond games as a playable character that the player can choose for multiplayer. He was notable in Goldeneye 007 for being the shortest playable character (and thus hardest to hit) and became one of the more popular selections by players. This led to the classic "No oddjob" rule, where the phrase must be spoken before Oddjob is chosen as a character. In Nightfire, Oddjob can use his hat as a weapon (as in the film) for an instant kill. If the player uses the aim button, the hat homes in to its soon-to-be dead victim.
For the 2004 video game, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, he was resurrected for the game's story mode and is killed by being tossed over a rail into a pit with a seismic bomb at the bottom of Hoover Dam by the title character, GoldenEye. Oddjob also appeared in the animated series James Bond Jr. with a top hat, sunglasses and hip-hop style clothes.
[edit] Inspired characters
- In the film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Oddjob is parodied by a character called Random Task, who throws his shoe as a weapon.
- Another parody is in the game Fur Fighters, where a hat-throwing bear called Oddfelt appears in the last level.
- Leonardo Leonardo's publicist Plug is a parody of Oddjob in Clerks: The Animated Series.
- Oddjob's trademark hat-throwing technique can also be seen in Toy Story 2, in which Mr.Potato-Head throws his own bowler hat to prevent two doors from closing.
- In the Mortal Kombat video game series, a recurring character named Kung Lao has a similar blade-rimmed hat that can be thrown at opponents.
- In the video game Alone in the Dark 2, an undead pirate nicknamed Black Hat has a blade-rimmed hat that he can throw at the protagonist Edward Carnby.
- Spider-Man has fought in a one-page Hostess advertisement a supervillain called "Demolition Derby" who throws his derby hat that bounces and cuts Spider-Man's webbing [1].
- Daredevil once fought a supervillain called Torpedo, who threw a cutting hat just like Oddjob. Daredevil remarked that he didn't expect Torpedo to pull an "oddjob" on him.
- Also in one episode of the Warner Bros. cartoon show Duck Dodgers, Daffy Duck throws a hat to save himself during a mission and later says that he had learned it from someone called "Odd Ball", in which they cut to a scene where Oddjob angrily says "Odd Ball?!!" something that may prove that who Daffy meant is not a parody but the same Oddjob as in the movie/novel.
- Oddduck - a "F.O.W.L" (Darkwing Duck) henchman i parody of Oddjob.
- In the show Count Duckula, the villain called The Egg has a manservant called Oddbeak, who is a parrot made to resemble Oddjob, complete with bowler and suit.
- In the Stormbreaker film, the guard in Sayle Tower throws his hat away as he prepares to kill Alex. He also shares a resemblance with Oddjob.
- In The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "On Her Majesty's Sewer Service", a parody of the James Bond series, the character Mouser gains an appearance similar to Oddjob, even throwing his bowler derby hat as a weapon in one scene; instead of cutting people though, the bowler derby was shown to simply bludgeon them.
- The arcade video game Sly Spy, itself a homage to the James Bond mythos, features a bowler-throwing character as a boss in one of the levels.
