Goldfinger

[SuperMappy]

One thing bothers me in this movie. When Goldfinger want to detonate a nuclear bomb in Fort Knox to make all the gold radioactive and his worth alot more, wouldn't the bomb, even a smaller one, just vaporize all the gold anyways?

[Chaos]

Best not to look for logic or scientific veracity in a Hollywood movie.

[bettertomorrowamy]

So Goldfinger was why Nixon eliminated the Gold Standard.

[YoohooRiffer]

One thing bothers me in this movie. When Goldfinger want to detonate a nuclear bomb in Fort Knox to make all the gold radioactive and his worth alot more, wouldn't the bomb, even a smaller one, just vaporize all the gold anyways?

I'd say there are 2 possible explanations:
1.  The strength of the bomb would not cause an explosion hot enough to vaporize 24k gold.  Melt it possibly but I never thought that little suitcase bomb thing had the ability to cause an extremely large scale explosion.  Goldfinger wasn't setting off a bomb the size of Little Boy that would wipe out the whole city, just something that would destroy the building and leave a radioactive signature. 
2.  The bomb he used wasn't a nuclear bomb per say but more of a "dirty bomb".  Dirty Bombs are minor explosives compare to nuclear bombs that are packaged with radioacive materials that are dispersed upon explosion.  This would cause damage to the building but more importantly cause it to be radioactive.

That's what I can think anyway.

[mrbasehart]

One thing bothers me in this movie. When Goldfinger want to detonate a nuclear bomb in Fort Knox to make all the gold radioactive and his worth alot more, wouldn't the bomb, even a smaller one, just vaporize all the gold anyways?

I'd say there are 2 possible explanations:
1.  The strength of the bomb would not cause an explosion hot enough to vaporize 24k gold.  Melt it possibly but I never thought that little suitcase bomb thing had the ability to cause an extremely large scale explosion.  Goldfinger wasn't setting off a bomb the size of Little Boy that would wipe out the whole city, just something that would destroy the building and leave a radioactive signature. 
2.  The bomb he used wasn't a nuclear bomb per say but more of a "dirty bomb".  Dirty Bombs are minor explosives compare to nuclear bombs that are packaged with radioacive materials that are dispersed upon explosion.  This would cause damage to the building but more importantly cause it to be radioactive.

That's what I can think anyway.

I think there's that sort of conversation in the movie between Bond and Goldfinger. 

[Tripe]

2.  The bomb he used wasn't a nuclear bomb per say but more of a "dirty bomb".  Dirty Bombs are minor explosives compare to nuclear bombs that are packaged with radioacive materials that are dispersed upon explosion.  This would cause damage to the building but more importantly cause it to be radioactive.

Yep I think that would be the case and it's why a working Dirty Bomb is much more effective than a traditional nuclear reaction weapon.

[Scrivener]

The "nuke Fort Knox" plot was actually a change from Ian Fleming's book version.  There, Goldfinger was just robbing Fort Knox.  Of all its gold.  Which in total weighs thousands upon thousands of tons.  Somebody in the studio realized how impractical this was, and noodled out a different way for Goldfinger to get rich from the scheme. (They even had Bond interrupt Goldfinger's "spilling the beans" spiel to say how it'd be impossible to get all the gold out of there.  If Fleming wasn't dead by this time, that deliberate slap at his book may have pushed him over the edge.)

So believe it or not, detonating a nuclear weapon in Fort Knox was done to be more plausible than the book.  And it's actually pretty creative, so yeah, I roll with it.  Irradiating, vaporizing, the plan works either way.

[mrbasehart]

I think the book's ending is completely different as well, as Goldfinger never actually gets into Fort Knox.  He gets arrested just outside by guards who pretended to be knocked out.

[YoohooRiffer]

I think the book's ending is completely different as well, as Goldfinger never actually gets into Fort Knox.  He gets arrested just outside by guards who pretended to be knocked out.

Well I guess that makes sense.  Since Felix and all the army troops were just pretending to be knocked out.  I have a question though, the gas was supposed to kill them all right?  Just like Goldfinger killed all the guys who gave him money with it.  You would think that Goldfinger or one of his pions would notice that the people were breathing and not dead.  That's what bothers me.  No one sees anyone breathing?