Goldfinger is the third film in the EON Productions James Bond series, and the third to star Sean Connery as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond 007. Released in September, 1964, the film was produced by Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and was the first of four to be directed by Guy Hamilton.

The film is one of the most critically acclaimed of all the James Bond films; for many, critics and fans alike, Goldfinger set the blueprint, the character archetypes, and the standard that the rest of the films of the series would follow.

In the pre-title sequence, James Bond infiltrates a Mexican drug lord’s base by water wearing a dry suit with a snorkel camouflaged as a seagull. He destroys a hidden building with explosives and defeats an assassin by electrocuting him in a bathtub. Bond destroying a heroin warehouse and killing a thug is mentioned in the novel but the setpiece has nothing to do with the main narrative.

Plot summary: The main story begins in Miami Beach, Florida, at the Fontainebleau Hotel with Central Intelligence Agency agent Felix Leiter delivering a message to James Bond from M to watch Auric Goldfinger. Bond foils Goldfinger’s cheating at gin rummy by distracting his employee, Jill Masterson. After blackmailing Goldfinger into losing, Bond and Jill consummate their new relationship in Bond’s hotel suite. Bond is knocked out by Goldfinger’s Korean manservant Oddjob, who then covers Jill in gold paint, supposedly killing her by epidermal suffocation.

In London, Bond learns that his true mission is determining how Goldfinger transports gold internationally. Prior to his assignment he is issued a Aston Martin DB5 from Q modified with several gadgets. He plays a high-stakes golf game with his adversary (with a recovered bar of Nazi gold as the prize); despite Goldfinger’s cheating, Bond wins the match. Goldfinger warns Bond to stay out of his business by having Oddjob decapitate a statue by throwing his steel-rimmed top hat. Undeterred, Bond follows him to Switzerland, where he unintentionally foils an attempt by Tilly Masterson to assassinate Goldfinger to avenge the death of her sister, Jill.

Pussy Galore’s all-female squadron.

Bond sneaks into Goldfinger’s plant and overhears him talking to a Red Chinese agent about Operation Grandslam. Leaving, he encounters Tilly as she is about to make a second attempt on Goldfinger’s life, but accidentally trips an alarm. Bond attempts to escape using his modified Aston Martin DB5 car. During their escape, Oddjob breaks Tilly’s neck with his hat. Bond is soon captured and Goldfinger has Bond tied to a table underneath an industrial laser, which slowly begins to slice the table in half. Bond then lies to Goldfinger that British Intelligence knows about Grandslam, causing Goldfinger to spare Bond’s life until he can determine how much the spy actually knows.

Bond is transported by Goldfinger’s private Lockheed JetStar, flown by Goldfinger’s personal pilot, Pussy Galore, to Goldfinger’s Kentucky stud farm near Fort Knox, Kentucky. He escapes and witnesses Goldfinger meeting with US mafiosi, who have brought the materials he needs for Operation Grandslam. At the end of the briefing, one of the mafiosi would like his payment immediately, rather than wait a few days for the larger return from Operation Grandslam, as Goldfinger has just outlined. Goldfinger accepts, and leads him out of the conference room. The rest of them are killed by poison gas. The dissenting mafioso is escorted to a Lincoln Continental, driven by Oddjob, under the impression he will be taken to the airport.

When Oddjob passes the airport exit, he pulls over and shoots the mafioso, continuing on to a wrecking yard where the car is crushed into a cube with the body inside. Bond is recaptured after hearing the details of Operation Grandslam, but soon learns additional information from Goldfinger himself. Goldfinger intends to irradiate the US gold supply stored at the United States Gold Depository at Fort Knox with an atomic device, thereby rendering it useless for 58 years and greatly increasing the value of his own gold. This will also give the Chinese increased power following economic chaos in the West.

Auric Goldfinger (right) cueing it right with henchman Oddjob.

Operation Grandslam begins with the women pilots of Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus spraying lethal nerve gas over Fort Knox to dispatch its garrison. However, Bond had earlier seduced her and persuaded her to contact the CIA, who had then replaced the poison with a harmless gas. The military personnel of Fort Knox convincingly play dead until they are certain that they can prevent the criminals escaping the post with the bomb. They choose this plan because Goldfinger had earlier suggested that if thwarted at Fort Knox, there was no telling where he might explode the device, so the CIA knew their scheme had to trap both Goldfinger and his bomb beyond any reasonable hope of escape.

Goldfinger’s Chinese agents gain entry to the vault. Oddjob handcuffs Bond to the atomic device and lowers both into the vault. As Goldfinger and his men prepare to leave, US Army forces surround them and all but wipe them out. Goldfinger has planned for every contingency, however: under his heavy coat is a colonel’s uniform, and from a pocket he retrieves a proper military head covering. He even kills his Red Chinese contact (with a gold revolver, of course) to cement his authenticity as a US Army brigadier-general that he is impersonating (and prevent the man from giving him away). He then grabs a machine gun dropped by one of his henchmen and shoots the US soldiers trying to open the vault.

Goldfinger’s henchman Kisch, forced to retreat to the vault, intends to shut off the bomb. Oddjob kills him by throwing him off a balcony before he can do this. Bond retrieves the man’s keys and frees himself from the handcuffs, but before he can disarm the bomb, Oddjob races down the stairs and attacks. Bond manages to duck under Oddjob’s lethal hat, severing a nearby electrical line, and the ensuing fight proves that Oddjob is the superior combatant. Finally, Bond retrieves the hat and tries to throw it himself without success. It wedges in between two of the bars of the vault. When Oddjob tries to recover it, Bond executes a sliding move that allows him to touch the high voltage cable to the metal gate, electrocuting Oddjob with current which is conducted through his own metal hat.

James Bond and Jill Masterson get close.

Turning to the bomb, Bond manages to force the lock by hammering on it with a pair of gold bars, but the mechanism inside baffles him. Nothing he tries seems to shut it off. Finally, he prepares to yank a wiring harness loose in desperation, but before he does a hand reaches over his shoulder. It belongs to an atomic specialist who reaches in and shuts off the device with a switch. The timer stops at “007”.

With Fort Knox safe, the US President (not named) invites Bond to the White House to thank him. Bond boards a military Lockheed JetStar for Washington, DC, but Goldfinger has forced Pussy Galore to hijack it. Bond and Goldfinger struggle for the latter’s gold-plated revolver and accidentally discharge it, shattering a window, and creating an explosive decompression of the aircraft, causing Goldfinger to get sucked out of the cabin. Bond rescues Galore, and they parachute safely from the aircraft before it crashes.

See also:

• Goldfinger: Film - Cast
• Goldfinger: Film - Crew
• Goldfinger: Film - Goofups
• Goldfinger: Film - Locations
• Goldfinger: Film - Soundtrack
• Goldfinger: Film - Trivia