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!
