Plot

After destroying a drug laboratory in Latin America, MI6 agent James Bond (Sean Connery) vacations in Miami Beach. His superior, M (Bernard Lee), via CIA agent Felix Leiter (Cec Linder), directs Bond to observe bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) at the hotel there. Bond discovers Goldfinger cheating at a high-stakes gin rummy game, aided remotely by his employee, Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), who prompts him using binoculars and a one-way radio. Bond interrupts Jill and then blackmails Goldfinger into losing. After a night with Jill, Bond is knocked out by Goldfinger's Korean manservant Oddjob (Harold Sakata). Bond comes round to find Jill dead, covered in gold paint, having died from "skin suffocation". Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell)

In London, the governor of the Bank of England Colonel Smithers (Richard Vernon) and M tell Bond that fluctuating gold prices are allowing someone to profit by selling bullion internationally (Gold costs $30/ounce in UK, but $110/ounce in Pakistan). Bond's objective is determining how Goldfinger smuggles gold across countries' borders. Goldfinger is a licensed jeweler which allows him to operate legal metallurgical sites where he can melt the Gold and shape it into any shape he wants. But how he transports it across borders is unknown. Q (Desmond Llewelyn) supplies Bond with a modified Aston Martin DB5 and two tracking devices. Bond meets Goldfinger at his country club in Kent and plays a round of golf with him, wagering a bar of recovered Nazi gold (provided by MI6) against £5,000 of Goldfinger's money. Goldfinger attempts to cheat (using a magnetic golf ball), but Bond tricks him (Bond switches Goldfinger's ball, which he doesn't notice, and as per the rules he lost for playing the wrong ball) into losing the last hole and the match. Goldfinger warns Bond against interfering in his affairs, and Oddjob demonstrates his own formidable strength and the danger of the steel-rimmed hat he wears. Bond trails Goldfinger to Geneva, Switzerland (Goldfinger travels with his Rolls Royce in the plane). There, Bond meets Jill's sister, Tilly (Tania Mallet), who attempts to shoot at gold-finger with a rifle and fails.

Bond sneaks into Goldfinger's refinery (by tracking Goldfinger via a tracking device that he put in his car at the golf club) and overhears him telling Chinese nuclear physicist, Dr. Ling (Burt Kwouk) (A Communist Chinese nuclear fission specialist who provides Goldfinger with the dirty bomb to irradiate the gold inside Fort Knox), that he always travels with his Rolls-Royce Phantom III, hiding some of his gold in secret compartments, and melting the rest to incorporate it into the car's bodywork. Bond also overhears Goldfinger mention "Operation Grand Slam." Leaving, Bond again encounters Tilly, who again tries to kill Goldfinger. An alarm is tripped and Oddjob kills Tilly with his lethal hat. Bond is captured and strapped to a table with an overhead industrial laser, the beam slicing through the surface toward him. Bond lies to Goldfinger, saying that MI6 knows about Operation Grand Slam. Goldfinger spares Bond's life so the MI6 agents keeping an eye on the compound can see him and think 007 is safe.

Pilot Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) flies the captive Bond to Goldfinger's stud farm near Louisville, Kentucky in a private jet. Bond activates his personal location beacon while he is on the plane and hides the transmitter in his shoe. Once there, Bond escapes his cell and witnesses Goldfinger's meeting with American mafiosi, who are supplying materials needed for Operation Grand Slam. Goldfinger plans to breach the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox by releasing Delta 9 nerve gas into the atmosphere, killing the personnel. Pussy recaptures Bond, and Goldfinger has all the mafiosi executed. Mr Solo (Martin Benson) is The lone gangster who refuses to take part in Operation Grand Slam and is later killed by Oddjob then crushing his dead body in the car in which he is riding. Bond has put his message (about the dawn raid on Fort Knox) to the Felix in Solo's pocket without him noticing, along with his personal location finder. When the car is crushed, the beacon stops transmitting and Felix loses the location.. Oddjob drives away with the crushed car in the back of his pick-up. Felix though tracks down Oddjob and reaches the ranch where Bond is being held captive.

Bond tells Goldfinger it would be impossible to move that much gold before American military forces intervened. Goldfinger hints he is not intending to steal it, and Bond deduces that Goldfinger plans to detonate a dirty bomb inside the vault to irradiate the gold, contaminating it with radiation for over half a century. Goldfinger's own gold will then increase in value and the Chinese gain an advantage from the resulting economic chaos. Goldfinger warns that any attempt to locate the bomb or interfere will result in the bomb being detonated at another vital U.S. location. That night Bond seduces Pussy and convinces her that Goldfinger is mad.

Operation Grand Slam launches with Pussy Galore's Flying Circus spraying gas over Fort Knox, seemingly killing the military guards and government personnel, including Felix Leiter. Goldfinger's private army breaks into Fort Knox (they blow up the main gate with dynamite and use the laser to cut into the vault) and accesses the vault as Goldfinger arrives in a helicopter with the bomb. In the vault, Goldfinger's henchman, Kisch (Michael Mellinger), handcuffs Bond to the bomb. Unbeknownst to Goldfinger, Bond seduced Pussy and convinced her to alert the American authorities, after which the gas was replaced with a harmless substance. As the troops attack Goldfinger's men, he locks the vault. He removes his coat to reveal a U.S. Army colonel's uniform and escapes.

Bond, Oddjob, and Kisch are trapped inside the vault. Kisch attempts to disarm the bomb, but Oddjob, loyal to Goldfinger, throws him to his death. Bond frees himself, but the physically stronger Oddjob batters him before he can stop the bomb. Bond electrocutes Oddjob to death, then forces open the cabinet containing the bomb but he is unable to disarm the complex mechanism. After killing Goldfinger's men, U.S. troops open the vault. An atomic specialist rushes in, and, with seven seconds left on the countdown clock, simply turns off the device.

Bond is being flown to the White House for lunch with the president. En route with Pussy, Goldfinger hijacks the plane. In a struggle for Goldfinger's revolver, the gun fires, shooting out a window, creating an explosive decompression. Goldfinger is blown out through the ruptured window. With the plane out of control, Bond and Pussy parachute safely from the aircraft before it crashes into the ocean. Sometime after, Leiter's search helicopter passes over the pair, who have landed in a wood, presumably close to the sea. Bond declares, "this is no time to be rescued", and draws the parachute over himself and Galore.