Headscratchers / Goldfinger

Headscratchers for Goldfinger.

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• Goldfinger explains his whole heist scheme to his gangster suppliers under the pretense of paying those who still want in 10 times the agreed amount. One of the gangsters refuses to participate and leaves with his one million. Of course he's then killed off. But then it turns out Goldfinger kills off the rest of the gangsters anyway, which makes the whole car-crushing business wholly unnecessary, not to mention the 10-million offer and the entire exposition scene. Especially when it's later revealed that holding up Fort Knox was never even the plan to begin with, which means that Goldfinger had an entire elaborate exposition room built and disguised as a pool hall so he could sell his fake plans to people he was never going to pay only to immediately kill all of them. The closest thing to making sense this could possibly be would be that he originally did plan for things to go as he explains and then had the room built, only to change his mind later and figuring hey, the room's built anyway, might as well give it a spin just for giggles.
  • Roger Ebert drew the same conclusion in his review.
  • One possible explanation is that Goldfinger is just vain enough to rub his criminal genius in his rivals' faces before he kills them.
  • His speech to the gangsters is an excuse to get them all together, let them drop their guards with promises of riches, and then kill them all to tie up loose ends that could be traced back to him. Chances are he was probably planning on killing Pussy and her pilots after they outlived their usefulness for the same reason.
  • There's always the possibility that Goldfinger actually was NOT planning on killing the gangsters until one of them gangster refused to wait. After that, they all became expendable. Since his plan -if it succeeded- would've left him with riches beyond anybody's imagination, pay wasn't really an issue: he could've easily paid what he said he was going to.
  • Also possible is that the gangsters could still have caused trouble if they dispersed too quickly; he had to have SOMETHING flashy to keep all or most of them around so he could conveniently kill them. It's not like the car crusher trick would've been practical to do 10 times. It's explicitly stated that the gangsters' contacts helped with logistics, so it's plausible they could've potentially caused too much trouble if they left.
    • Well then, you run into more trouble explaining his actions. If he was that trigger-happy and wanting to eliminate anyone who knew of his plan, then it's hard to justify him letting Bond roam his property freely under any circumstances.
  • Possible Fridge Brilliance: the dialogue between the gangsters clearly indicates that there's no love lost between most of them and tensions between the East and West Coast families, the Chicago outfit, etc. — and Goldfinger's plan hinges not so much on robbing Fort Knox as sowing the seeds of chaos in the West. Wiping out all the heads of the organised families in one fell swoop leaves these organisations headless and, in all likelihood, blaming each other for the demise of their chiefs. Adding to the economic chaos created by the irradiating of Fort Knox is the potential social and urban chaos of a huge, nation-wide gang war.
  • In the words of Sherlock, genius needs an audience. He's spent all this time on a plan he is immensely proud of but he knows that he can never tell anyone about it. So he tells people he's planning to kill.
  Bond: I enjoyed your briefing Goldfinger.
  Goldfinger: So did I.
  • But that would only make sense if he told them his real plan. Why bother with what he knows to be a flawed plan?
  • Maybe that was (as in the book) his first plan. After all, telling them one genius plan (even if it's not the one you plan to use) is almost as good.
  • The only reason to have Goldfinger explain his plan to the room full of gangsters was for the audience (and James) to know what was going on. Likewise there was no reason whatsoever to destroy the car. But as Alfred Hitchcock famously said “the audience isn’t thinking about that while they’re watching.”
• Why do the soldiers fall down? Couldn't they just attack Goldfinger as he approaches, rather than allowing him to bring a nuclear device into Fort Knox?
  • Explained in the movie. Goldfinger specifically told Bond that, if his plan was thwarted, he would take his bomb and set it off in a major city. They had to trap both Goldfinger and the bomb with no hope of escape.
    • Not a good excuse. Felix would have to gather all the armed forces in the area and convince them to fall down and play possum for God knows how long? Nuclear threat or not, a commander would say to hell with that and just rush Goldfinger's ranch in an attempt to get the bomb. It would probably be somewhere on the ranch anyway. And that's not even counting the civilians in the area (the film shows a car crash). You're telling me Felix was able to go door to door to anyone who might be travelling in the area and tell them they have to figuratively drop dead, putting their life and property at risk because some rich crazy might try to rob Fort Knox? At best he'd get the door slammed in his face.
    • Felix is in the CIA, and it's the height of the Cold War, and it's a military town. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that he'd order the entire town to play along and they would. Most likely the military would blockade the entire area, too, so that there wouldn't be outsiders who aren't in on the scheme. The book even mentions that Eisenhower himself (so presumably Johnson in the film) was taking direct command of the operation. So the army and the locals are going to do what they're told. After all, the realistic alternative is the bomb going off right there at Fort Knox, either deliberately or by accident.
  • But why did the vehicles come nicely to a stop? I mean, they probably wouldn't suddenly accelerate, but they would coast and then continue rolling at an idle until they bumped into something (perhaps even a foot soldier who'd fallen down). Guess it's something they felt they needed to do for safety, and hoped the bad guys (and the audience) wouldn't notice.
  • It's been a while since I've watched the movie, but was Goldfinger closely watching? They may have stopped, counting on the fact that a person up in a moving airplane probably couldn't really tell fine details such as if a car stopped immediately. And if it was the Flying Circus that was watching, they were working for the good side, so they likely wouldn't report such discrepancies, simply telling Goldfinger and his men that "The baby is asleep."
  • Also, Pussy and the Circus didn't actually know it was nerve gas originally, and they really thought they were just putting the town to sleep. So even if the Circus pilots weren't in on Pussy's plan to switch out the gas, they would probably expect to see people collapse slowly, stopping cars and falling unconscious rather than dropping dead. Who knows, some of the more convincing details, like the car crash, may well have been faked precisely because they were on Goldfinger's route into town. They can't risk him aborting the mission or he'll get away with the bomb.
• There's a scene where Bond attaches a magnetic tracking device to Goldfinger's car. Later, it's shown that the car body is made out of gold. But gold isn't magnetic.
  • Well, gold is soft. The car must have steel to strengthen it, otherwise the whole body would start to bend hither and thither.
  • The car isn't literally made out of gold, just gutted internally and loaded down with it.
  • The gold is in the body panels, but the framework is still steel. Remember, that's an old model car; it still uses steel-frame construction.
• After Oddjob kills Mr. Solo, why doesn't he take the gold out of the trunk of the car before crushing it? Wouldn't that be easier than extracting it later?
  • Plot-wise, the tracker had to be disabled before Felix spotted Oddjob. Also, Oddjob had to dispose of the body and bring the gold, which the movie shows is very heavy, back to Goldfinger. Two birds with one stone I suppose.
• This has long bugged me. Goldfinger's plan is to irradiate the US's gold supply, thereby affecting its value and destabilizing our economy. This would require the U.S. Government to acknowledge that their gold had been contaminated. But the gold in Fort Knox is never handled or even seen by outside entities. Wouldn't this effect be neutralized by the Army and the Treasury Department denying this or covering it up?
  • It is * RARELY* handled, but it is occasionally handled. The ruse would only work until some creditor comes knocking demanding bullion or the Treasury decides to release gold to the public but there is no gold to release.
  • How was it supposed to work, anyway? Gold repels radiation.
    • By coating it in radioactive fallout from the nuclear explosion, or blowing it to smithereens. There's also the part where any attempted cover-up would face the problem of explaining why a tactical nuke went off on the grounds of Fort Knox.
    • The gold itself may be fine, but the gold's surroundings — including the city it's based in — are now radioactive and toxic for any living thing to enter. Which is is a bit of a problem if, as mentioned above, you need to get inside to access the gold.
    • I disagree. The Depository at Fort Knox would likely contain the majority of the radiation, limiting it to just the gold. On the other hand, the Army would have to explain the deaths of thousands of soldiers and others from the deadly gas. Though they could still deny breach of the vault.
    • Which doesn't change the fact that the depository itself — where the gold actually is — is still full of lethally high amounts of radiation.
    • Even a small kiloton range detonation inside the depository will turn it into a crater, the gold will recieve a MASSIVE neutron dose and will be scattered over a huge area amongst highly radioactive dust. If we assume this is some sort of cobalt-style bomb it will be enormously expensive to ever go near the repository site for several years due to the radiation protection, after which a huge part of the gold will probably have dispersed on the wind or washed away (it wil be a fine mist of condensed gold vapour). How you hide something like that in a country that isn't in 1984 is beyond me.
  • The real problem with the plan is that it effectively accomplishes nothing for Goldfinger. So his gold is worth 10x as much. That's just due to inflation. Everything would cost 10x as much. Not only that, but ruining the U.S. economy would severely damage most of Europe as well (acknowledged in the film). That means Goldfinger's other businesses would probably be harmed as well.
    • Oddly, the plan might have worked better if it would have caused slightly less catastrophic damage to the economy - gold tends to increase in cost somewhat faster than the average level of the economy (that was, as it happened, one reason why the Bretton Woods system became harder and harder to maintain as its end approached - the US gold reserve was being steadily drained to keep the price of gold in terms of dollars steady, as the 'natural' price kept rising and more and more gold had to be sold to keep the supply/demand ratio steady), so if his plan had somehow 'just' broken Bretton Woods and removed the gold in Fort Knox from the equation (thus bringing the potential supply down), the price of gold might very well have gone up relative to the rest of economy. Of course, his plan *wouldn't* just have done that, it'd have caused a global severe economic crisis... which would heavily depress demand for non-essentials, like gold.
  • Nobody ever said that Goldfinger's plan would have actually worked; he IS stated by Bond to be completely mad, after all.
  • Perhaps it's the classic "If I can't have it, neither can you!"
  • I agree with the headscratcher. They point out that the gold would be irradiated - but even if the "for 58 years" were true, the USA would STILL have the gold, and could still use it even under terms of "when it's no longer radioactive". 58 years would be an inconvenience, but not exactly a "sudden loss of billions".
  • Though it would probably cover the rest of Goldfinger's life. Anyway, it's pointed out the Chinese are helping specifically to mess up the economy, which this would certainly do.
• If Pussy Galore was really bisexual (and not a lesbian as the book stated and the movie implied) why didn't they have at least one scene where she is shown being attracted to Bond prior to him "turning her.?" As it was, it looks like Bond raped her and THEN she "turned straight." I know that 60's weren't about subtlety...but come on...
  • And this is really what keeps me from considering Goldfinger one of the best Bond movies. Bond saves Fort Knox by sexually assaulting Pussy Galore into submission.
    • Of course in typical YMMV TV Tropes fashion this exact reason is why I consider this to be one of the best Bond flicks because that is exactly how a real agent would behave. The ends justify the means is how every single intelligence service works when it comes to protecting your country - it's the same way the early Bonds used to slap women about or Roger Moore essentially raping Solitaire. Later incarnations of Bond made him whiter than white until Daniel Craig and even he hasn't gone so far as to assault women yet.
    • But it isn't portrayed as morally ambiguous "ends justify the means" or anything. It's portrayed as him being heroic and macho by "turning" the frigid lesbian. The Connery Bond is meant to be cool and someone that all men want to be, and his sexual assault and hitting women is presented as manly "boys will be boys" stuff. That's the reason this aspect of the character was phased out (well, until Skyfall at least), not due to any attempt to make the hero "whiter than white".
    • Okay, first of all. The movie version has no actual hints towards homosexuality. She just claims to not be interested in Bond. Secondle, Bond was never supposed to be seen as "heroic". He is and was always a horrible role model. He was shown as a drinker, smoker, gambler, casual murderer. Definitely not a role model.
  • Ultimately, it's Values Dissonance. The original James Bond novels and films were never among the most politically correct works of fiction to begin with, even by 1960s standards, liberalizing attitudes to homosexuality and gender roles haven't helped any, and ultimately they have to be watched with this in mind. They're products of their time.
    • Exactly! Watching this and being confused about why it doesn't hold to modern sensibilities is like reading Le Morte d'Arthur and wondering why it has such a huge boner for Christianity. There are so many more forces in effect on these works, political, economic and cultural, that have shifted since their creation, that it is easier to view them as artefacts of history than moral stories.
  • The devil's advocate explanation is that Bond- being a god-tier spy- correctly "read" Pussy and suspected that she'd respond to being dominated. With 60,000 lives at stake, and his appeals both by charm and moralism ("He's quite mad, you know.") getting him nowhere, he played the one card he had left that might actually work; forcing a kiss on a woman vs. letting Goldfinger murder a city is a no-brainer at a cost/benefit level. It's also an important distinction that he forced a *kiss* on her; she reciprocated after that. It's speculation to say that Bond would have gone any further than that, especially since if he's wrong about her, then forcing the issue doesn't help him stop Goldfinger, and the movie is pretty consistent from its very first scene about Bond putting the job first, and sex second. That all said, it's still not a scene that's aged super well.
  • I've always thought there was a level of Actor Allusion that mitigates it somewhat, but gets lost outside the UK, and due to the years since the film's release. At the time Goldfinger came out, Honor Blackman was best known as the Avenger Cathy Gale and as a judo black-belt. So there was probably a certain perception that nobody throws Honor Blackman around unless she lets them do it. (An accurate perception, too. Honor Blackman's a real-life badass, and could probably take Connery in a fight.) Certainly Blackman doesn't play the scene like she's really being forced - Pussy seems to enjoy (genuinely, non-euphemistically) "playing hard to get".
• Why exactly did Bond interfere with Goldfinger's game at the start of the movie? It got him nothing, alerted Goldfinger to his existence and (indirectly) led to the deaths of two women.
  • Bond doesn't like cheaters. Plus he (and, seemingly, Jill) seriously underestimated just how much of a sore loser Goldfinger was. He probably knew he'd be pissed but he didn't know he'd be that pissed.
  • In the book version, Bond was specifically hired (by the person Goldfinger was cheating) to find evidence that Goldfinger was cheating him at cards.
  • At this stage in the movie, to be fair, he's also got no idea that Goldfinger's a complete nutcase who's happy to murder thousands of people, never mind two women. He figures at most he's probably some kind of sketchy businessman who likes to cheat at cards.
    • Yes, but he's also under orders to watch Goldfinger, presumably in secret. This gives away to Goldfinger that someone has him under surveillance. At this point, Bond has no idea what M's interest is and revealing himself potentially endangers any future operations.
    • If memory serves, the scene in question is a holdover from the book, which is arranged slightly differently; in the book, Bond more or less coincidentally crosses paths with Goldfinger before being assigned to follow and investigate him, and this scene takes place before Bond gets his orders. In the film, Bond gets his orders directly from M before this scene, which gives rise to the plot-hole. As for why Bond does it regardless... well, in the films he's always been a bit cocky about letting the bad guys know he's watching them. As mentioned above, he probably just assumes that Goldfinger won't be bold enough to try anything.
• How exactly is somebody supposed to suffocate through their skin, I have heard that this was an urban legend but just about anybody who has done something like diving can tell you that is bs unless you are a frog. True you might overheat but that would take a much longer time.
  • It's fictional. It's not an actual medical effect.
  • People still believe the 10% of your brain nonsense. Once a false piece of information enters the public consciousness, it's then hard to convince them it's untrue.
  • Also, it creates such huge plotholes. Why does Jill die of it if Goldfinger does it to people all the time? Is it only harmful if it stays on too long? And furthermore, if she "slowly suffocates to death in a hospital," why didn't the doctors at least try to remove it? ER physicians sometimes resort to unusual methods to treat unusual injuries; there was an episode of Untold Stories of the ER where cosmetic wax was used to remove cactus spines from a patient's skin. Why couldn't they just buy some paint thinner and attempt to remove the paint if its mere presence on her skin was what was killing her?
• Why is this considered one of the best Bond movies? In my opinion it is one of the weaker entries. The villain's plot makes no common sense: the gold is already off the market so irradiating it will not really affect the price. Bond sleeps with villainesses who turn on their master without reason (in all other movies I have seen bad women he slept with and turned were either unaware of or were unwilling participants in the Big Bad's schemes). The science of this world does not follow any laws of physics or biology that I have seen any place, even other Bond films. And that is just scratching the surface and not getting into things like the possible rape of a lesbian. I am not complaining about this film or trolling I just want to know what other people see in it that I can not which will hopefully clear things up for me.
  • FWIW, he doesn't rape her. He's not exactly a paragon of virtue, but she's clearly consenting just a few seconds into the kiss and there is nothing whatsoever to supporting that anything after that was forced on her.
    • He definitely sexually assaults her though. And many real life victims do "consent" when they realise that they can't overpower the rapist because they think they will be less likely to be hurt if they don't resist. The Pussy Galore scene is dodgy no matter how you slice it.
    • The movie clearly shows her enjoying it and not just pretending to do so. That gets even more clear later in the movie when she willingly makes out with Bond. Also his scumbag behaviour is not something to be seen as morally acceptable. That guy murders for a living. He is not a moral person.
    • There is a difference between "consent" and "non-resistance". It seems pretty clear from the scene that Pussy Galore isn't just rolling over and letting Bond have his way with her for fear of being hurt. She stopped resisting because she was enjoying it and wanted to keep making out with the hunky secret agent. The scene is still sketchy, just not for the reasons you just said.
  • It's entirely true that James Bond muddles through the entire movie and barely influences the outcome. Auric Goldfinger is always one step ahead of our hapless hero – and that’s what makes it awesome. Goldfinger’s plan isn’t particularly less common sense than most Bond Villain plots...
  • It's the broad scale, not the details. A lot of things are dated due to Values Dissonance and a lot more things have the problem of being seen as cliche when this movie was in fact the Trope Codifier. But this movie is really a spy movie done right; it has a villain with a great plot that is debatably insane (and thus larger-than-life) and isn't as cliche as 'rule the world' or something. It has a villain that is actually dangerous and carries out their operation quite intelligently. It has the hero getting by on his intelligence and talents, rather than taking advantage of the villain holding the Idiot Ball (even most Bond movies don't get this right!). And so on.
    • It's also chock full of classic scenes, like the laser between the legs, the Aston Martin, the gold paint, and the whole Fort Knox sequence. Goldfinger is also an awesome villain.
    • One can also argue that Bond, since this movie, became a something of an Invincible Hero, or at the very least a ridiculously hyper-competent, untouchable, unflappable super spy who easily triumphed over adversity. Goldfinger is interesting because, although Bond is still roughly the same character but he's a lot more flawed.
  • "Why is this considered one of the best Bond movies? In my opinion it is one of the weaker entries." Because people have different opinions than you. That's all it is, really. You're entitled not to like the movie, and provide valid reasons for why you don't, but it's still entirely subjective.
• In the movie (no idea if it happens this way in the novel) when the US Army stop playing dead and start shooting Goldfinger's men, Goldfinger changes into what looks like an Army General's uniform, then runs out and starts giving orders to the American soldiers. And this trick actually works. They turn their back on him long enough for Goldfinger to grab a machine gun and shoot them all to death. Why were none of these soldiers put off by this strange man dressed as an officer shouting orders at them in a pronounced German accent?
  • A bigger concern would be how this supposed officer got so far inside Fort Knox before anyone else, but I suppose this can be written off as those soldiers being high on adrenaline and the rush that battle gives you.
    • Fort Knox is a US army base; it's staffed and operated by US soldiers. They probably just assumed he was one of the soldiers based there and had been playing possum from the inside.
  • Bavarian Fire Drill. He's counting on them seeing the uniform, hearing orders barked at them authoritatively, and reacting instinctively as junior soldiers.
• Goldfinger's plan involves massacring the entire garrison of a US Army base and then setting off a nuke behind him, meanwhile killing any witnesses who could explain what actually happened. This movie was filmed and released less then two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, wouldn't the first and most obvious conclusion the US Government would jump to is that it was a Soviet attack? Which would lead to a nuclear war? They don't even mention the possibility that I can recall.
  • First, there would have been no accompanying reports of any missiles or bombers in US airspace at all. Second, Fort Knox itself would not be a good target for a single Soviet attack by air - it may hold the US Bullion Depository but it's not a military threat against the Soviet Union (i.e., it doesn't house nuclear-capable missiles or bombers, which to the Soviets would be by far the much larger worry). Third, a single nuclear attack is also not something a superpower would rationally do, as reasoned by Stanislav Petrov: if you're going to attack with nukes, you're going to send your entire arsenal all at once. It does leave the possibility that the Soviets may have tried "limited" underhanded sabotage, but there's more than enough evidence (I think) to at least give pause to SAC and Washington about launching retaliation against possibly the wrong target.
    • In addition to the explanation provided by the poster above, Goldfinger likely knows that there is a small risk of this causing a war, but it's a risk he's willing to take.
• How would Goldfinger benefit if his plan succeeded? He wants to increase the value of his gold hoard. But Goldfinger isn't a gold dealer, he just acquires gold. He could only benefit if he was planning on selling off his personal hoard, which is something he wouldn't do. If anything, he would want the price of gold to go down to make it easier to acquire more of it.
  • Perhaps his ego was making this calculation?
  • It's essentially an attempt to "fix" the plot from the book, which was an actual robbery. In the film, Bond explains how ridiculous it would be to try and move that much gold. The writers saw this as a "more realistic" plan. However, it's not very good economically, either and as you pointed out doesn't really fit Goldfinger's particular obsession.
  • Likely that he doesn't just enjoy the size of his stockpile in volume terms, but in value. I can well imagine him crowing over the fact that his gold is now worth far more than it was, even if he never plans to sell any of it.
  • Maybe Fridge Brilliance: The plan would let him get into the gold-trading business because he could finally sell tiny ingots at a price that would make up for the psychological loss of losing a tiny bit of his supply.
• Why exactly does Goldfinger need the laser for his heist? It's big, bulky, presumably needs a big bulky power supply, who knows how complex it might be or how subject to malfunction. Yet all he uses it for is to cut through the main door into the building. Why not just dynamite the door? We know he had explosives and the men to use it, because that's how he got through the front gate. Hell, it looks like a pretty flimsy door anyway, just ram a truck through it if you need to.
  • Probably to avoid collateral damage.
    • That's it exactly - specifically, collateral damage to the control room. Goldfinger wants to get into the vault, and he can't do that if the controls are damaged - they're NEVER getting through that vault door if it's sealed. To move the 'flimsy' door they needed heavy duty steel chains and a truck - it looking 'flimsy' is just a bad film prop. It's sturdy enough that he doesn't want to risk the amount of explosive it would take to make a hole big enough for the bomb.
• How did Tilly buy Bond's "tire defect" explanation for her double blowout when the side of her car had been cut open like a tin can between the two tires?
  • Because as far she knew, he was just another motorist and had no reason to think his car was capable of doing that.
  • What other explanation CAN she offer? She looks over at his car and sees its pristine, and her car is absolutely destroyed. What explanation can a civilian offer other than some kind of defect or a freak accident?
• Kisch has a gun. Why does Bond make no effort to retrieve it? Bond could have shot Oddjob then taken the key to unlock himself. Or circled back to get it later?
• SPECTRE is absent from this film after being prominently featured in both the previous film and the next one in the series. But is SPECTRE actually financing or supporting Goldfinger's master plan? With all the chaos and economic woes that would follow the irradiating of the US gold supply, that could very well benefit them too.
  • In the book, you're not far off; he was connected to SMERSH and this was in keeping with the Cold War. However, in the movie, as you said, there's no evidence that he has or needs their help — we see who he's working with in some detail (the book calls them a "Congress of Criminals") and he obviously has more than enough money on his own. If anything, considering how far SPECTRE tends to be silently represented, there's the question of if they knew and would be okay with such an upheaval going forward or not.
• How did Goldfinger get the combination to the Fort Knox vault door?
  • It was the same as the combination for his luggage
  • Simply bribed/blackmailed one of the operators that knew it then disposed of him. Or alternately, the Chinese government got it for him through underhanded means.
• The one aspect of this film that everyone criticizes, including Sean Connery, is that the entire plot hinged on Bond's magic penis making Pussy have a Heel-Face Turn. Putting aside how badly that scene has aged (and even pushed some serious limits in 1964) it seems more believable that Bond could've simply had a frank discussion with her that: 1.) She would not be sedating thousands of people but killing them. It's certainly possible that she didn’t mind participating in a massive heist but would be less likely to commit mass murder. 2.) He knew that Goldfinger had just murdered an entire room full of very powerful men he no longer needed so Pussy and her pilots would likely suffer the same fate. Perhaps a little less dramatic, but less of a Deus ex Machina.
  • Pussy finding out about the lethality of the gas and that Goldfinger was lying to her is indeed why she turns in the film. Bond tells her in the same sex scene. She then went to Felix.
• So why did Oddjob crush the Lincoln Continental? Mr. Solo was already dead. He could have just driven it back.
  • Goldfinger didn't want to let that wonderful pun go to waste.
  • This is explained if you listen to Goldfinger's next line. He says something to the effect of separating his gold from Mister Solo. Considering the fact that he personally owns multiple smelting facilities, he was likely going to melt the car down, separate out the gold and other metals, and thus totally get rid of all evidence.
  • More Fridge Brilliance: the car had Bond's homing device in it. So, whoever was tracking it would make a tragic discovery.
    • There were two homing devices: the larger one that Bond put into Goldfinger's European car to track him in Switzerland, and the smaller one that fits in his shoe (which he slipped into Solo's pocket). Goldfinger likely didn't know about the homing device (except maybe the larger one once they started to dismantle his car), and it's unlikely he was trying to prevent Bond from getting a message out because he didn't know Bond had escaped until they had gotten to the car; Goldfinger had likely already planned to killed whichever mob boss that tried to leave. Also, the homing device, which was being tracked by Felix, stopped immediately once the car was crushed.
  • More practically, destroying compromised vehicles and bodies in smashers is a common tactic in wet works. Even if people know Solo is missing, not having his car or body be identifiable would help.
• In his review, Roger Ebert famously pointed out that the scene where Goldfinger explains his plot to the Mafia heads and then kills them has no purpose, since he's just going to kill them all anyway, he has no idea Bond's listening in and it's not even his real plan. He concludes that Goldfinger simply spent a huge amount of money on making the models and films for it and just wanted to show it off to someone.
  • This is a contingency plan made clearer by the fact that all the criminals clearly don't like being together, but together provided all the materials for the supposed heist. Goldfinger expected his lair to be found eventually, and he essentially framed the missing gangster as the mastermind by hiding the body and killing the others. Remember, Goldfinger had a plan to escape — had Bond not survived, Goldfinger would have covered his tracks so well that MI-6 would have been right back at square one.

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