Elliot Carver runs a media empire from a chair, and what he holds in Tomorrow Never Dies is a Bang & Olufsen Beo4. The Bang & Olufsen Beo4 remote control is a small, heavy, deliberately plain object, and it tells you as much about Carver’s taste as his office does.
In the film
Jonathan Pryce’s Carver uses the Beo4 as he watches the news of his failed satellite network broadcast and talks to Paris. It is a fleeting prop, though it is a real product.
Owning it now
The Beo4 is the key to Bang & Olufsen televisions and music systems made after 1994, and it is useful only if you own compatible equipment. The Mark I of 1994 has a central AV button; the Mark II of 1999 added DVD support; a Mark III followed in 2004 with extra buttons. Carver’s film dates from 1997, so a Mark I is the period-correct choice.
A retailer in our research describes the current-style Beo4 as having a solid aluminium body and a clean layout of physical buttons. The practical route is a second-hand search: working units appear on resale sites, and listings in our research ran from about US$20 to just under US$120.
For the feeling without the gadget, see the Tivoli Audio Model One, an alternative from another film.
Specifications
| Maker | Bang & Olufsen |
|---|---|
| Introduced | Mark I in 1994 (AV button); Mark II in 1999; Mark III in 2004 |
| Body | Solid aluminium (retailer description) |
| Works with | Bang & Olufsen systems made after 1994, and Beolink products |
| Availability | Second-hand |
The maker’s support page for the current remote is here. For the film see Tomorrow Never Dies and Pierce Brosnan’s Bond.
