James Bond Gadgets - Goldfinger Gadgets
Table Of Contents
Introduction
Although From Russia with Love had quite a few interesting gadgets, it wasn't until Goldfinger that gadgets became a larger part of the action. Some of the gadgets were a little silly and outrageous, but that only served to heighten the fun. Below we showcase a selection of the best gadgets from the film. Enjoy!
Seagull Headgear
Goldfinger started the tradition of having an action filled pre-title sequence, that bares no relation to the rest of the film's plot. The idea was ingenious, as it allowed the producers to immediately spike the audience's interest with an over the top, fun bit of action. They could then introduce the main plot in a more relaxed fashion, without the worry of boring the audience.
The film opens onto the view of a lake, as the camera follows a swimming seagull. As it reaches the waterfront, Bond emerges from the water, and the seagull turns out to be a clever snorkeling device with a fake seagull attached to the top. Ingenious gadgets like this added a bit of humor to the film, and quickly became popular with fans.
Grapple Gun
Still in his wetsuit, Bond pulls out a grapple gun, and shoots a hook, attached to a length of rope, over the roof of the waterside complex. The hook attaches itself to a ledge, attracting a guards attention. But before the guard can reach for his own gun, Bond jumps over the ledge and crashes onto him, knocking him unconscious with a kick in the face.
Secret Panel
After getting past the guard, Bond enters a drug laboratory by activating a switch that opens a hidden panel in the side of a large silo. Inside, there are many packages of heroin, and several barrels of nitros, to which Bond squeezes out a large tube of plastic explosives. He attaches a timed igniter, and climbs back down to the riverside, removing his wetsuit to reveal a perfectly crisp and dry white tuxedo.
Complete with a red carnation, Bond walks into a nearby club, lights a cigarette with his Dunhill lighter, and checks the time on his Rolex Submariner. Right on cue, the explosion goes off and destroys the laboratory. As the club patrons run wild in panic, Bond remains coolly composed.
Heat Lamp
After successfully destroying the drug facility, Bond goes to take care of his final bit of business--a Serbian beauty named Bonita. As they're kissing, Bond sees a reflection in her eyes of a henchman about to strike him. He flips the girl around, using her as a shield and goes to fight the man. Bond throws him into a bath full of water, and the man reaches for Bond's gun. Just in the nick of time, Bond throws a nearby heat lamp into the bath, electrocuting the henchman to death.
What makes the scene so memorable, is Bond's remark to the girl as he leaves: "Shocking, positively shocking". Ok, a heat lamp isn't technically a gadget, but it's close enough, and the imagery is very impressive.
Q's Laboratory
Bond goes down to Q-Branch to pick up a bar of gold and the equipment he needs for his mission. Goldfinger introduced the now infamous grey concrete lab that would become a playground for introducing novel gadgets that didn't fit in elsewhere in the film.
As Bond walks in, he passes the window of a side-lab, behind which a man is fiddling with a parking meter. Suddenly, the meter propels out a stream of tear gas, that proceeds to fill the entire side room.
With a smirk on his face, Bond walks over to Q's desk and starts fiddling with a grenade that's housed in the bottom of a thermos flask. The gadget was never explained in the film, but has appeared in numerous Bond exhibitions since, paired with the original concept drawings.
As Q gets irritated, and returns the grenade to its flask, a man behind them fires a rifle at another technician, who opens his trench coat to reveal a bullet proof vest. Typical of Q's modesty, he proclaims that the vest isn't yet perfected.
Homing Devices
Q gives Bond two homing devices, a small one that will fit in his shoe, to allow Felix Leiter to keep a tail on him, and a large one for tracking vehicles over longer distance. As Bond jested, the device would allow a man to stop of for a quick one en route! The larger homer has a 150 mile range, and has a special receptor on the dashboard of Bond's Aston Martin DB5.
Oddjob's Trouser Pocket
Bond is playing Goldfingerin a high stakes game of golf. A £5000 bar of gold isn't the only thing on the table. Bond must impress Goldfinger if he is to gain his respect and infiltrate his operation. When Goldfinger misses a shot and his ball lands in the rough, his servant Oddjob slips an identical ball into his pocket, and it slides down his leg onto the grass.
Oddjob's Steel Rimmed Hat
Perhaps the most famous, and most parodied, gadget at all, is Oddjob's deathly steel rimmed bowler hat. After Bond wins the golf game, Goldfinger warns him off his path, by getting Oddjob to decapitate a statue with it. He manages this because his bowler hat has a sharp steel rim, and the slightly ridiculous threat fits in well with the megalomanical villain of the film.
Oddjob uses the hat again to kill Tilly Masterson, a women who tried to assassinate Goldfinger to avenge the death of her sister Jill Masterson. The hat itself was made by St. James hat maker Lock & Co, with the steel rim added by the prop team.
The hat appears again in Bond's final confrontation with Oddjob. Oddjob is too strong for Bond to beat him by braun alone, so Bond must outwit him. He manages to get the hat, but as he tries to throw it at Oddjob, he misses, and the hat lodges itself between some steel bars. As Oddjob goes to retrieve it, Bond touches a live power cable against the bars, electrocuting Oddjob to death.
Auric Enterprises Radar
Bond is hiding out in the woods outside Auric Enterprises, when he spots Tilly Masterson passing by with a rifle in her hand. He follows her and jumps on her, and her rifle barrel touches part of the metal of the perimeter fence. This triggers an alert as part of the complexes radar monitoring system, with a really cool backlit map in the security control room. The map offers a great visualization of which radial sector the intruder is in.
Trick Mirror
When Oddjob kills Tilly Masterson with his steel rimmed hat, Bond is caught off guard. He feels remorse for having gotten both Jill and Tilly Masterson killed, and he doesn't fight back, allowing himself to be captured. Bond is allowed to drive his Aston Martin, sandwiched in between two other cars, as they drive back to the complex.
Bond manages to escape from the convoy, and uses the ejector seat to get rid of his guard. He then engages in a fast paced chase through the back alleys of Auric Enterprises (which was actually the back lots of Pinewood studios.) He drives down a dead-end street and is tricked by a mirror mounted on the wall. He thinks the headlights are from another car, and swerves to avoid, driving through a brick wall and knocking himself unconscious.
Industrial Laser
In perhaps the most famous scene of the James Bond series, Bond has been captured, and wakes up strapped to a metal table. Goldfinger shows his hand, and the famous quote follows:
| Bond: | Do you expect me to talk? |
| Goldfinger: | No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die! |
Goldfinger then aims an industrial strength laser at the table, and it starts cutting through the metal, moving closer to Bond's crotch. With Bond's manhood in danger, he has to bluff to stay alive.
Goldfinger's Plane
While aboard Goldfinger's private jet, Bond goes to the bathroom to shave and change, but also to activate a homer device so that he can be tracked. The stewardess tries to watch him, but Bond manages to outsmart her. This series of gadgets is quite large, and has its own page. Read more about Goldfinger's Plane.
Goldfinger's Rumpus Room
In the comfort of his lavish rumpus room, complete with a trick pool table, a retractable wall-size aerial map, a secret floor compartment with a model of Fort Knox, and fatal Delta Nine nerge gas, Goldfinger divulges his plans to a group of mobsters he is about to kill. This room of gadgets has its own page, see Goldfinger's Rumpus Room.
Aston Martin DB5
The name Aston Martin is synonymous with James Bond, the most memorable model being the DB5. First introduced in Goldfinger, the DB5 was loaded with an extraordinary array of gadgets, from revolving number plates, to machine guns, to tire slashers. It proved to be a fan favourite, and the DB5 appeared in five more James Bond films: Thunderball, Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Casino Royale and Skyfall. It's quite a large gadget, and has its own Aston Martin DB5 page.
Atomic Bomb
In Ken Adam's grand set of Fort Knox, Bond is handcuffed to a live atomic Bomb, with a timer that's ticking away. Oddjob fights the man that has the key, and throws him over a railing to his death. Bond retrieves the key and unlocks himself, and after he takes care of Oddjob, he breaks open the casing of the bomb and tries to pull apart one of the cables. Just in time, an expert arrives on the scene and presses a switch that disables the bomb, with just 7 seconds left on the timer.
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