FAQ

When the Bank of England learns that horsebreeder and international jeweller Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) is stockpiling huge amounts of gold and suspects that he is smuggling it out of the country for sale on the international market, M (Bernard Lee) sends 007 agent James Bond () to investigate. Bond discovers that Auric is planning Operation Grand Slam, an attack on Fort Knox, which holds the U.S. gold reserve.

Most of the James Bond movies are based in some part on the novels of Ian Fleming (1909-1964). Goldfinger is based on Fleming's 1959 novel of the same name. It was adapted for the screen by Richard Maibaum and Paul Dehn. It is both the third film in the Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as James Bond.

Goldfinger is sung by Welsh singer Shirley Bassey. This was her debut in the series and to date, she is the only performer who has sung more than one Bond theme, a total of 3: she also sang the themes for Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Moonraker (1979).

In the opening precredit scenes, Bond is shown infiltrating and destroying the house of a drug lord in Mexico. The story then moves to Miami Beach where Bond's holiday is interrupted by Felix Leiter (Cec Linder) with orders from M that he should keep his eye on Auric Goldfinger. After catching Goldfinger cheating at gin rummy, Bond returns to London where M briefs him on his next assignment: to find out how Goldfinger transports his gold internationally. After catching Goldfinger cheating at golf, Bond follows him to Geneva, Switzerland. While there, he infiltrates Auric Enterprises, hears about Operation Grand Slam, and twice foils attempts to assassinate Goldfinger by Tilly Masterson (Tania Mallet), sister of Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), whom Goldfinger murdered back in Miami Beach by having her covered in gold paint. Unfortunately, both Bond and Tilly are captured, and Tilly has her neck broken by Oddjob's (Harold Sakata) hat. Goldfinger spares Bond's life when Bond informs him that he knows all about Operation Grand Slam. Bond is flown to Baltimore, Maryland and then on to Auric Stud Farm near Bluegrass Fields, Kentucky where he discovers that Operation Grand Slam involves an attempt to irradiate the U.S. gold supply in Fort Knox, making the gold radioactive for 58 years, thereby increasing the value of Goldfinger's gold and plunging the U.S. into economic chaos.

Of course not! The myth goes that Eaton, who played Bond's love interest, Jill Masterson, died from asphyxiation after her body was covered with gold paint, because the body "breathes" through the skin. So long as a person is breathing through his or her nose or mouth, she will not die from asphyxiation, no matter how much the body is covered in paint (or any other substance). Shirley Eaton is still alive. For the effect in the film, the producers and makeup people must have taken into account that even though a person can't die from the process, the amount of time they'd need to film the scene and probably did it as quickly as possible to avoid any harmful effects. Mythbusters did an experiment where Jamie Hineman was painted in gold paint. Though there was no evidence that he was suffering any effects of skin asphyxiation, the paramedics on the show did measure his blood pressure following a short run on a treadmill and found it was quite high.

Bond's Bentley from From Russia with Love (1963) is replaced with a silver 1964 Aston Martin DB5. It comes equipped with bullet-proof windows, revolving license plates, and a homing device with a range of 150 miles. For defense mechanisms, it has a smokescreen, oil slick, rear bullet-proof screen, left and right front wing machine guns, and a passenger ejector seat.

Yes. While the left rear tail-light cluster dispensed oil, the right rear tail-light cluster would have dispensed caltrops (four-pronged spikes for puncturing an enemy's tires). The front and rear bumpers could extend to act as overriders. Inside the car, there was a telephone built into secret compartment in the door. Finally, augmenting the twin machine guns, Bond had a weapons tray beneath the driver's seat containing a Mauser machine pistol, an AR7 folding rifle, a telescopic sight, a silencer, a hand grenade, and a throwing knife. There have been suggestions that the caltrops were dropped from the script as they might have encouraged kids to puncture tires, though the idea was resurrected for Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) 33 years later.

No, because Goldfinger is not using an actual nuclear bomb but a "dirty bomb"—a standard explosive which disperses radioactive materials over a wide area without any actual nuclear fission taking place. Goldfinger just wanted to make the gold inaccessible to the US government, rather than destroying it completely. It's probably GF's obsessive love of gold itself that keeps him from destroying it.

Bond's mission to Mexico is a little different, he only kills a drug crazed Mexican bandit. Later, Junius DuPont from "Casino Royale" approaches Bond and asks him to expose Goldfinger as a card cheat. Jill and Tilly's last name is Masterton. Bond and Jill don't make love in Miami but on a train going to New York. Jill isn't killed immediately after the love making scene. Goldfinger isn't working for the Chinese but for SMERSH, of whom he is the treasurer. After the golf game, Goldfinger invites Bond to his house. Bond snoops around and finds Goldfinger is filming him. He exposes the film and makes it look like Goldfinger's pet cat is to blame. Goldfinger is wise to this and lets Oddjob have the cat for supper. In Switzerland, Bond witnesses Goldfinger making a gold bar drop for SMERSH, which he intercepts. Tilly only tries to kill Goldfinger outside his factory at night, there we learn about Jill's demise. The two are caught outside. Once inside, Bond repeatedly head butts Goldfinger but is knocked out by Oddjob. The laser is a table saw. While it gets closer, Oddjob works Bond's pressure points. After Bond says he'll work for Goldfinger, he's knocked out again. Once in America, Bond is put in a small room next to Tilly, who is still alive at this point. They are told to do secretarial work for "Operation Grand Slam". The plan is to actually rob the U.S. Gold Depository while beforehand poisoning Fort Knox's water supply. Pussy Galore is a straight-out lesbian and Tilly has a crush on her. Pussy does not work directly for Goldfinger, she is another gangster hired for the job. The gangsters are not gassed, they are merely a way to find groups to pin the crime on while Goldfinger gets away with his share of the bullion. While on a reconnaissance flight, Bond tapes a distress message to the inside seat of the plane's toilet. The first part of the plan appears to be a success and all of Goldfinger's team, dressed as doctors and nurses, go through the town in a train. The entire town appears to have died as bodies have littered the streets. The gang never enters the depository, a helicopter sounds an alarm that signals the soldiers to spring to life just as the bomb placing unit begins to move in. During the shootout, Tilly is killed by Oddjob's hat and the gang escapes in the train. Felix Leiter shows up, having gotten Bond's message, and hands Bond a missile launcher. Bond fires but only hits the back of the train. Before Bond gets on a plane for home, he is forced to get a typhus inoculation which knocks him out. He wakes up tied to a seat in the plane, Goldfinger and his crew having taken it over. Pussy Galore, dressed as a stewardess, tells Bond she's with him. After Bond notes Oddjob is relaxed, he punctures the window next to him with a knife which sucks Oddjob out of the plane. Goldfinger then attacks Bond, but Bond strangles him to death. He has the pilots crash the plane and only he and Pussy survive. On the trip home, Pussy tells Bond she is only a lesbian and a criminal because, as a child, her uncle raped her. The two then make love.

Including Goldfinger, Connery made seven movies in which he played James Bond: Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger, Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Never Say Never Again (1983), the latter of which wasn't produced by EON and is therefore not considered an official film of the series.