✓ | ||
This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being |
“ | No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die! | „ |
~ Goldfinger's most famous quote. |
“ | Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action." | „ |
~ Goldfinger warning Bond to stay away from him |
Auric Goldfinger is the eponymous main antagonist of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. He is a powerful gold smuggler, jeweler and metallurgist and the head of his gold company Auric Enterprises.
He was portrayed by the late Gert Fröbe, who also played Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the title character in the 1974 film adaptation of Der Räuber Hotzenplotz. In Goldfinger, his voice was dubbed over in post-production by the late Michael Collins.
Biography
Origin
Goldfinger was a wealthy jeweler who worked mainly with gold (as his name implies), being known as the biggest gold collector of the world. He had his own gold resources, but he was being investigated for smuggling illegal gold. James Bond was ordered to investigate him, discovering that Goldfinger smuggled gold in the parts of his own car, which was completely made of gold.
Meeting James Bond
When Goldfinger learned about the investigation, he invited Bond for a friendly golfing game, where he threatened 007 to stay out of his business, ordering his bodyguard Oddjob to give 007 a demonstration, so Oddjob took out his hat and threw it at a statue, cutting it by the neck. Despite the threat, Bond continued investigating, which led to his capture. Goldfinger only spared him thanks to a bluff from Bond, instead imprisoning the agent at his ranch. Overhearing a meeting of Goldfinger and his associates, Bond eventually learned that Goldfinger was planning to invade Fort Knox, the U.S.'s fortified gold reserve.
At first, Bond thinks that Goldfinger was planning to steal the gold, but after having a drink with Goldfinger (who said that he had no intention in stealing the gold), Bond soon learns that Goldfinger actually intends to destroy Fort Knox with an atomic bomb made from China (on behalf of Mr. Ling, Goldfinger's nuclear specialist from China), which would render the gold useless and validate the value of Goldfinger's gold, thus making him the richest man in the world. To ensure that his plan would be successful, Goldfinger plans to have his fellow band of female pilots to spray nerve gas around the vicinity that would kill thousands of citizens, which will allow him and his forces to enter Fort Knox without resistance. He also decides to bring Bond along (as he plans to have him handcuffed to the bomb to finalize his plan).
However, before the plot went into effect, Bond convinced Goldfinger's personal pilot Pussy Galore to help him thwart Goldfinger's plans. To that end, she secretly called Washington and switched the nerve gas to a more harmless one that would send citizens into a temporary sleep. At Fort Knox, Goldfinger has Bond strapped to the bomb and bids him farewell before learning out in horror that several U.S. soldiers have arrived to the scene. Posing as a U.S. army officer, Goldfinger betrays Mr. Ling by shooting him and Oddjob and Kisch by trapping them inside the vault with the bomb. Goldfinger manages to escape after shooting down several U.S. soldiers while Oddjob stays behind to ensure that Goldfinger's plan must succeed, even at the cost of his life and killing Kisch to ensure that no one disarms the bomb.
Fate
“ | I will deal with her later. At the moment she is where she ought to be, at the controls. | „ |
~ Goldfinger after James Bond asked what would happen to Glare and his final words before his death. |
Though Bond manages to finish off Oddjob by electrocuting him, he has trouble trying to disarm the bomb. After the U.S. soldiers manages to finish the rest of Goldfinger's men, they get in their bomb expert to successfully disarm the bomb for good, thus foiling Goldfinger's plot. After the battle is won, Bond is sent to Washington in a private jet to meet the president, only to find out that Goldfinger has boarded the plane earlier, left the tied-up pilots in the hangar and had Miss Galore pilot the jet. Goldfinger plans to finish off both Bond and Galore for ruining his plans, but during a moment of carelessness as he points his gun away from Bond, Goldfinger is attacked by Bond and the two fight in the airplane. During the fight, Goldfinger accidentally shoots a window of the cabin and is sucked out of the plane before falling to his death.
James Bond Jr.
Goldfinger appears in the show, a spinoff of the movies. How he survived his death is never explained. He is shown as an of ally of S.C.U.M. His characterization on the show is somewhat closer to the book, as he now wants to procure gold rather than destroy it.
Personality
Auric Goldfinger is a greedy man who is completely obsessed by gold. Under his jovial appearance, Auric Goldfinger is in fact an extremely dangerous individual who is ready to do anything to achieve his ends, for example by manipulating a group of American gangsters or world powers such as China, or to eliminate in a way monstrous or not, all those who would have the audacity to stand in his way or betray him, even if the betray is a totally trivial matter. This is clearly showed when he ordered Oddjob to kill Jill Masterson for betraying him in a Canasta card game in which he lost 10,000 USD. This fact clearly points out his boundless greed and his incredible pettiness as he willing to cheat for a small amount of money compared to his vast fortune. He also often uses gold in his assassination methods. In addition to this, Goldfinger is protected by his very numerous resources and his goons. He is also shown to be a very intelligent man, having numerous skills at his disposition. He prefers to avoid fighting by himself, but at the end, he ultimately fights with James Bond.
Gallery
Images
Videos
Trivia
- In the series' usual style of non-subtle names, "auric" is the literal German word for gold and thus his name is literally "Gold Goldfinger."
- Goldfinger was dubbed over by Michael Collins since Gert Fröbe, being German, was not a very good English speaker. Gert does however speak some lines in the movie, most notably screaming "EXCEPT CRIME!" when introducing his plan to the mobsters.
- In the original novel, Oddjob was killed by getting sucked out of the plane window whereas Goldfinger was strangled by Bond's bare hands
- This was changed due to how horribly violent slowly strangling someone to death with your bare hands would look on film and the film creators created the scene of Oddjob's death by electrocution was for the movie with Goldfinger being given his method of death instead.
- Goldfinger is ranked #49 on AFI's list "100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains".
- Goldfinger is one of the most iconic Bond villains in history, due in part to the legendary Goldfinger theme which has been considered by many as one of the best themes to any Bond film.
- Goldfinger is the first main villain to appear that is not affiliated with SPECTRE and the only one to appear before Blofeld's defeat in Diamonds Are Forever.
- Originally, the main villain in Diamonds Are Forever was supposed to be Goldfinger's twin brother but Fröbe refused to play him so he was replaced by Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
- In the original novel, Goldfinger's plan was to rob Fort Knox's gold depository, but this was changed in the movie after critics pointed out the flaws of said plan, most notably how would he get the hundreds of tons of gold out of Fort Knox? It took a lot of lorries and supply trains to get them there in real life.
- Then again, the plan in the movie barely makes much more sense given that making Fort Knox's gold worthless would destroy the US economy and thus also dramatically lower the worth of Goldfinger's own gold.
- In the film, Bond, under the assumption that Goldfinger's plan is the same as it was in the novel, even explains the unfeasability of Operation: Grand Slam before learning Goldfinger's true intentions.
- Then again, the plan in the movie barely makes much more sense given that making Fort Knox's gold worthless would destroy the US economy and thus also dramatically lower the worth of Goldfinger's own gold.
- Goldfinger's name was taken from Erno Goldfinger, a Hungarian architect who lived in London. Fleming had previously objected to the pre-war demolition of Victorian cottages to make way for Erno's modernist designs. When Erno consulted his lawyers following the publishing of Goldfinger, Fleming threatened to rename the character "Goldprick" but eventually Erno decided not to sue Fleming, whose publishers had agreed to pay his costs and gave him six copies of the book.
- Goldfinger was initially banned in Israel due to Gert Fröbe's past affiliation with the Nazi Party. However, Fröbe had left the party before WWII and the ban was lifted several years later after it came to light that he had helped two Jews by letting them hide in his basement during the war.
External Link
- Auric Goldfinger on the Pure Evil Wiki