Category: Goldfinger

After successfully blowing up a drug lab in Central America, Bond is vacationing in Miami Beach, Florida in the USA. There, Felix Leiter, a CIA agent who Bond is now friends with, tells him of a guy named Goldfinger who is involved with smuggling gold. Bond must monitor Goldfinger and find out what is going on. Doing so, he discovers a secret plan that involves the gold in Ft. Knox, Kentucky, where the United States of American keeps its main gold supplies.
See our related current on-site film location videos for Goldfinger, and related podcasts that talk about Goldfinger.

Assault on Fort Knox – Goldfinger Scene Examined

Assault on Fort Knox – The John Barry music during this entire Fort Knox assault cannot be any better. It is suspenseful, powerful and perfectly matched to what is unfolding on the screen. Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus unleashed the deadly gas as they fly in formation over Fort Knox. The devastating result is instantly killing thousands of soldiers and people.

When the leader gives the signal that the “baby is asleep” then Goldfinger and his team move in. They blow the gate, use a mobile laser to cut through the steel door, and gain access to Fort Knox.

While there were some exterior shots taken in Kentucky, the entire on-the-ground assault took place at Pinewood Studios. So don’t try getting close to Fort Knox for a film location visit!

The Deadly Gas

As we remember in the Goldfinger map room, where he unveils the Operation Grand Slam plan to the mob bosses, he unleashes the gas on them. This is in a closed room, it took awhile for it to take effect. On the assault on Fort Knox, the planes fly over, release the gases in the open air, and hundreds of people are falling over in each scene instantly.

OK, maybe they used more potent gas for this attack, or we just have to have a willing suspension of disbelief once again. Regardless, it is a classic scene, that foreshadows Blofeld’s planned unleashing of a deadly virus in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And similarly, Drax’s pods wiping out humanity in Moonraker. Or even the deadly virus that will be unleashed in Mission: Impossible 2. We will see similar themes in spy movies, as one influences another.

Assault on Fort Knox – the beginning of the end

Of course, Bond has somehow gotten to Pussy Galore, and she swaps out the deadly gas canisters for harmless ones. Thousands of lives saved! This is unknown to the audience, of course, at the time of the assault, and unknown to the Flying Circus team – and unknown to Bond. Felix Leiter and the CIA assault team and the army can then counter-attack Goldfinger. This clip ends before they bring in the nuclear device. But why would the US assault team wait for them to bring in and arm the nuclear device before attacking? Makes no sense, but creates the dramatic build-up in this assault sequence.

Goldfinger – Bond versus Oddjob at Fort Knox

Bond versus Oddjob – In this clip, we see three people left inside Fort Knox with the bomb: the guy who cuffed Bond to the device, Oddjob, and Bond. The guy who cuffed Bond, once realizing they locked him in and he is doomed, wants to disarm the bomb. Oddjob, totally dedicated to Goldfinger even if it means his life, stops the guard.

And he throws him over the railing to a platform below. This is the very platform that Bond is on. So the question here is: this guard who cuffed Bond to the nuclear device knows how to disarm the bomb? Or was he just going to try? In a few minutes, we see Bond sweating it out trying to figure out how to disarm it. OK, we will believe that the guard who cuffed him has special knowledge. Maybe.

Bond versus Oddjob

The battle between Oddjob and Bond here is a spy movie classic. This is a captivating scene, as the timer ticks down on the device (albeit very slowly) as Oddjob and Bond fight it out. Oddjob, knowing he will die with Bond, makes no attempt to disarm the device. Afterall, he stopped the guard who wanted to disarm it. You have to give Oddjob props for his dedication.

Oddjob’s hat-weapon, which has served him so well, is his downfall here. He throws it at Bond, misses, and electrical wires are severed and fall sparking and flaming to the floor. As we see, Bond retrieves the hat, hurls it at Oddjob, misses and it sticks in-between the metal vertical bars protecting the gold.

Oddjob goes to get it, Bond slides on the floor, gets the wires that are sparking and holds them against the metal bars and Oddjob is electrocuted. In reality, it was reported that Harold Sakata, who played Oddjob, was badly burned in real life while filming this scene, but held onto the hat through his pain until Guy Hamilton yelled CUT! In fact, Sean Connery, it has been reported, injured his back in the Fort Knox scene as well.

OK, we can all relax. NO! The counter is ticking down on the nuclear device! And Bond is trying his hardest to figure out how to open the case and disarm the bomb. Too bad that guard is dead who cuffed him.

The Bomb Is Disarmed!

Eventually, Felix Leiter and the US team get into Fort Knox, Goldfinger escapes removing his gold overcoat to reveal an American service uniform. Yes. Gold buttons of course. But he is carrying a gold gun! While Bond fumbles to disarm the device, and there are only 007 ticks left, a CIA agent disarms it. Supposedly, it was going to stop at 003 seconds, but the director thought 007 would be more impactful. Bond still says “three more ticks Goldfinger would have hit the jackpot.”

Of course, they must track down Goldfinger now, but Bond was going to get an audience with the US President for saving the day. And he boards the plane to head to Washington, D.C., thinking all is good. But, as we have seen in many Bond movies to come, the ending is not always the ending! Bond gets surprised at times, like by Nick Nack in The Man With the Golden Gun, or by Tee Hee in Live and Let Die and more. And he will get surprised here.

Goldfinger Plays His Golden Harp

Goldfinger Plays Golden Harp – A little pomp and circumstance here as Leiter briefs Bond that the President of the United States wants to thank him. Bond ascends the stairway leading to the plane. Watch as he walks right past the cockpit, which seems open. You can see light shining in through the cockpit windows. He turns right and boards.

Bond is now safely aboard a private jet that will take him to Washington, D.C. to meet with the President of the United States. Of course, as he sits comfortably, and alone he reaches up and rings for assistance. Remember Felix told Bond that he ordered liquor for three, but when Bond asks who the other two are, Felix tells him there are no other two. All for Bond! But when Bond calls for a drini, who other than Goldfinger himself emerges from the rear of the plane. And with his golden gun in hand.

Bond warns him how dangerous it is to fire a gun in a pressurized aircraft, as he warned Pussy earlier in the film. Goldfinger’s intent was to be in Cuba in a couple of hours.

Where’s Pussy? And Goldfinger Plays Golden Harp

When Bond asks where Pussy is, Goldfinger indicates with his pistol that she is flying the plane. Bond did not notice as he boarded the plane – just a moment of relaxation perhaps. But why didn’t Bond see Pussy when he boarded? The cockpit door was open. Ah well. That’s when Bond jumps up and wrestles with Goldfinger. A shot goes off, blows out a window, and Goldfinger, a rather portly man, goes flying through the aircraft. As he is flying, he gets sucked out of the window (which seems very large for a smaller plane).

In the book, Oddjob gets sucked out of the window, and Goldfinger is just beaten by Bond.

They rapidly descend, so the danger of getting sucked out the window disappears as cabin pressure stabilizes. Then Bond makes his way to the cockpit, and they realize they cannot control the plane. As tower controllers at the airport look on their scope they see the plane plunging. But wait, they see another dot on the screen pop out above – they have parachuted! The plane plunges dramatically into the sea, yet, Bond and Pussy parachute safely to land.

Rescue Bond!

Helicopters are searching for them, Pussy tries to signal, and Bond is thinking this is no time to be rescued. And he covers them with the parachute and the fun begins. Goldfinger is dead, Fort Knox gold is safe, Pussy now likes men too or at least Bond – his charms are getting to her, and Bond is happy, Uh, a happy ending for all!

Note that of all the EON Production James Bond 007 films starring Sean Connery, this is the only one that ends where he and his Bond girl are on land, and not on some boat or raft in the water somewhere.

Dr. No – he is with Honey Rider on a small watercraft escaping Dr. No’s exploding complex, when Felix recuses him from another craft. Looking at From Russia With Love, and we find that he and Tania are on a gondola on the Venice canals.

Go to Thunderball, Bond and Domino are on a small, yellow inflatable watercraft dropped from a plane as they wait for the skyhook to swoop them up.

In You Only Live Twice, Bond and Kissy Suzuki are on a small, inflatable yellow watercraft dropped by a plane. And then they are rescued as a submarine surfaces from right below them and the watercraft rests right on the outer deck of the sub. (As they filmed this, they filmed it in reverse – the raft was on the sub, and the sub submerged). And lastly, Diamonds Are Forever, Bond and Tiffany Case are aboard a ship as Kidd and Wint try one more time to get Bond.

Goldfinger is one of our favorite Bond movies ever!