# What would have actually happened to the gold in the "Goldfinger" scenario? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2025, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889 "2025-02-27T21:56:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/61 "2025-03-11T19:57:35Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > If I absolutely had to remake a Bond film, I’d remake Goldfinger. It’s one of the best Bond films, and yet if you redid it right, you could make it significantly BETTER, somehow. Unlike many Bond films it’s a reasonably compelling story. _A View To A Kill_ is essentially a stealth remake of _Goldfinger_, and despite its many weaknesses (a clearly aging Roger Moore, one of the weaker ‘Bond girls’, the cold open featuring a musical interlude of what is actually a cover of the Beach Boys _California Girls_, the high camp of the Paris chase scene after the Eiffel Tower assassination, the horse racing subplot that drags the pace of the film down and goes nowhere), Christopher Walken plays a great psychopath and Grace Jones commands the screen whenever she’s on, and [arguably has the best death of any henchman](https://youtu.be/DEu7xQeZ5qI?si=ouutaPdv4PLRri7n). Trying to remake _Goldfinger_ as-is is kind of a nonstarter; it is definitely a film of its time in not only the treatment of women (I mean, Bond literally rapes ‘Pussy Galore’ out of her lesbianism and into betraying Goldfinger) but in the basic plot elements. I think if there is one Connery-era film that could do with a modernized remake it would be _You Only Live Twice_, although a filmmaker absolutely needs to stay with Ken Adam-inspired set design and in camera practical effects for the volcanic lair; no CGI except for wire removal and to enhance things that can’t be done safely on-set with pyrotechnics and flame generators. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/62 "2025-03-11T21:34:23Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > apparently didn’t really understand the plot of the film Gert, it’s a great opportunity. You’ll be playing the villain, trying to get to the gold! No, **get to** the gold, this Auric fellow wants to irradiate it with a stolen nuclear bomb. Ya, I don’t know either but he’s assisted by a sexy aviatrix whose name I can’t say until after Lent. No, I only flipped through a few pages, why? Throws lethal hats, really?!? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/63 "2025-03-11T22:21:40Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > > Gert Fröbe, the actor who played Auric Goldfinger, was actually 50-51 during filming. > > He’s great in the film, a cheerful smile with murder behind the mask. I was disappointed to learn all of his dialog was overdubbed as his accent too heavy. Even still, _Goldfinger_ is only his second-best Ian Fleming penned performance. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/aak6BqNR150/maxresdefault.jpg "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) - Chu-Chi Face Scene (9/12) | Movieclips") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aak6BqNR150) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/64 "2025-03-12T02:14:07Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > the part where he tells Bond of COURSE it’s not gold I love, it’s MONEY and POWER, that’d be terrific. So a terrorist version of the Hunt Brothers only trying to corner the gold market? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/65 "2025-03-12T07:45:31Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > If I absolutely had to remake a Bond film, I’d remake Goldfinger. It’s one of the best Bond films, and yet if you redid it right, you could make it significantly BETTER, somehow. Unlike many Bond films it’s a reasonably compelling story. In the original story, Bond isn’t tied to a table with a cutting laser beam as a threat – it’s a buzz saw, as if Bond was a heroine in a Victorian melodrama and Goldfinger a moustache-twirling Snidely Whiplash. Some British TV show actually filmed the scene with the saw instead of the laser. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/66 "2025-03-12T08:53:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > And yeah, this is something I’d change, to make the plot make more sense. If you had a great Goldfinger, a perfectly cast guy, the part where he tells Bond of COURSE it’s not gold I love, it’s MONEY and POWER, that’d be terrific. Eh, that would just make him more boring and generic. A gold obsession makes him stand out from the villainous crowd instead of just being Greedy Bad Guy #7564. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/67 "2025-03-12T10:04:27Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Goldfinger doesn’t love gold because he can buy things with it; he loves gold just for its own sake. I realize the _song_ says ‘he loves only gold,’ but doesn’t the _movie_ show him wanting other things for their own sake? Like, at one point, we see him drinking a mint julep; he apparently used money that could’ve spent on _gold_ — or on equipment with which to acquire more gold — to instead get _a mint julep,_ which (a) maybe doesn’t work as a lyric but (b) is the choice he’s made: to have some gold, sure, but also to have some mint juleps, because he finds the latter to be satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/68 "2025-03-12T10:59:47Z")
Yep. Bond villains need to be just as over-the-top silly & monomaniacal as Batman villains. Just with more conventional costuming. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/69 "2025-03-12T13:48:32Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > the part where he tells Bond of COURSE it’s not gold I love, it’s MONEY and POWER, that’d be terrific. I just saw the “brandy scene”. The Bank of England tells Bond that Goldfinger moves his gold around to take advantage or the arbitrage form gold prices in various countries. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/70 "2025-03-12T13:52:52Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Eh, that would just make him more boring and generic. A gold obsession makes him stand out from the villainous crowd instead of just being Greedy Bad Guy #7564. You could write your way out of the boring part (you could have Goldfinger, for instance, have an ulterior motive for destroying the economy.) **It makes the story more logical**. That’s the only problem with the original film. I’m worried the remake would screw it up in some other way, by trying to modernize Bond somehow. I don’t want him rape-converting a lesbian character, which is now sickening, but he still needs to be James Bond. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/71 "2025-03-12T14:13:57Z")
I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of overlap between the posters in this thread and the one I’m about to cite. But as this topic spreads out past the fate of the nuked gold in _Goldfinger_, it’s starting to get pretty well overlapped with this other recent thread that is also spreading into a general discussion of Bond plots & actors. I don’t say that to object to either thread or to ask they be combined; IMO that’d be a bad move. I’m just thinking most posters here might want to see / participate in that thread too if they have not already. > [@Poll: Best Bond (non-Connery edition)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-bond-non-connery-edition/1014634): > > Continuing the discussion from [Amazon MGM takes creative reins of James Bond, ending an era of family control of 007](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-mgm-takes-creative-reins-of-james-bond-ending-an-era-of-family-control-of-007/1014588): In honor of (or memoriam for) the Bond franchise now that Prime has taken it over, I’m just curious who your favorite Bond is, apart from Connery. Why no Connery? Because if I include him I’m sure he’ll just be the runaway favorite. So choose your next favorite: [poll](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-best-bond-non-connery-edition/1014634/1) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/72 "2025-03-12T15:04:24Z")
Re: Auric Goldfinger’s mentality. Note that he cheats at cards and golfing. The first for thousands of 1960s dollars and the second for a small time bet. The money doesn’t matter. It’s about winning using any method. The amount of gold he has is just a way of keeping score. At least in the book, the purpose of embedding gold in the car was to send it to India where due to government restrictions gold fetched a higher price. I.e., he intended to sell it. But then the money could then be turned into even more gold. * * * I keep thinking about the thread question. Out in the open, a small nuclear device, even a dirty one, wouldn’t do much to gold ingots stacked on pallets directly underneath it. While the Trinity test tower lost a lot of steel, most of that was quite thin compared to gold bars, esp. ones that are stacked. The rods holding the feet of the tower survived nicely. So some of gold on the surface of the top outside bars would go away, it wouldn’t be a thick layer. As to the radiation, again, it would only affect a thin layer of the outer ingots. As to whether any of the above would apply to stacks of bars inside a concrete vault is a whole different question. The concrete might be solid enough to survive the blast, the heat would be much higher, the radioactivity would be unable to rise up with a mushroom cloud, etc. It might take some significant numerical analysis and simulation to even give a ballpark answer to the OPs question. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/73 "2025-03-12T21:27:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Yep. Bond villains need to be just as over-the-top silly & monomaniacal as Batman villains. Just with more conventional costuming. Yes, the “over the top” aspect is key to the Bond genre. The villains are supervillains without costumes, just as spy agencies have an equipment list that belongs on Batman’s utility belt and Bond is the most unsubtle, un-secret secret agent imaginable. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/74 "2025-03-12T21:32:44Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The villains are supervillains without costumes, just as spy agencies have an equipment list that belongs on Batman’s utility belt and Bond is the most unsubtle, un-secret secret agent imaginable. James Bond is really not a spy. He’s a professional killer. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/75 "2025-03-12T21:35:23Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > James Bond is really not a spy. He’s a professional killer. Well yeah; “license to kill” and all that. . . . “You _killed_ him! Can I see your license?” “…Everything seems to be in order. Good shot!” ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889/76 "2025-03-18T23:49:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In the original story, Bond isn’t tied to a table with a cutting laser beam as a threat – it’s a buzz saw, Fun fact. That laser effect was filmed by having a guy underneath with one of those torch-style cigarette lighters. This burnt the thin foil and the laser effects were added. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-actually-happened-to-the-gold-in-the-goldfinger-scenario/1014889.md?page=3)