Samuel Wu
Period 5
ENGLISH 10 HONORS
10/11/12
Finger of Gold

Goldfinger is Ian Fleming’s seventh James Bond novel. Goldfinger is a spy fiction book published on March 23, 1959 by Jonathan Cape. James Bond is a secret agent for the British secret service, MI6. He is sent to the United States to investigate suspicious gold smuggling activities. Auric Goldfinger is suspected behind this operation; he is also suspected of being connected to the SMERSH, the Soviet secret service. Bond infiltrates the gold- smuggling operation and uncovers an even larger plot. Bond learns of Goldfinger’s plan to raid Fort Knox, the largest reserve of gold in the world. In Miami airport, James Bond is confronted by Junius Du Pont, a wealthy American businessman. Junius Du Pont suspects that Auric Goldfinger cheats in Canasta. It is indeed true that Goldfinger cheats at cards, with the help of his assistant, Jill Masterton. Bond than blackmails Goldfinger into returning the money he cheated Du Pont out of and returns to England with Masterton. M, Bond’s superior, explains Goldfinger’s smuggling operations and his next mission. Then, James Bond visits his usual golf course to practice a game. Coincidentally, Auric Goldfinger visits for his planned golf practice. Band and Goldfinger have a round of golf. Goldfinger tries to win by cheating; however, Bond outplays him on the last hole to win the game. Goldfinger invites Bond to his mansion as a guest where Bond barely escapes being caught by dozens of hidden cameras. There, Bond also meets Oddjob, a martial art expert and Godlfinger’s personal assistant. Because Bond was sent to investigate Goldfinger’s smuggling operations, Bond trails Goldfinger in his Aston Martin to Goldfinger’s warehouse in Geneva. Bond discovers that the armor plating on Goldfinger’s Rolls- Royce is actually gold plating. The gold from the car is melted down into airplanes seats and then sold in India or a healthy profit. Tilly Masterton, Jill Masterton’s sister attempts to assassinate in revenge the murder of her sister by Goldfinger. However, both Bond and Tilly are captured by Oddjob and tortured. Before Bond passes out, he offers to work for Goldfinger. Goldfinger initially refuses, but accepts and flies Bond and Tilly to New York City. Bond and Tilly work as secretaries in a meeting between Goldfinger and multiple national gangs. Goldfinger has an elaborate plan to infiltrate Fort Knox and steal all the gold. He plans to poison the water supply of the areas surrounding Fort Knox. Goldfinger then plans to go in disguised as the Red Cross with dozens of trucks to load in the gold. Helmut Springer, the leader of the Springer gang, refuses to join in and “accidentally” falls down the stairs and dies. Bond conceals a message on his thigh and manages to get it to Felix Leiter, a close friend and private detective of Pinkerton Detective Agency. The operation to invade Fort Knox commences and with no action taken, Bond fears that Leiter did not get the message. The civilians in the Fort Know area all appear to be dead and Bond finds out that Goldfinger’s real plan is not to steal all the gold in Fort Knox, but to detonate vaporize all the gold with a nuclear weapon, thus driving up gold prices. At the last second, Felix Leiter arrives and a battle ensues. Oddjob kills Tilly Masterton and Bond is drugged before he escapes. Bond wakes to find himself on a hijacked plane bound for England with Pussy Galore, a lesbian mafia leader, Oddjob, and Goldfinger. Bond breaks a window with a knife supplied by Pussy, causing depressurization that sucks Oddjob out. Bond forces the crew to ditch in sea at gunpoint and is rescued by a nearby ship.