The theories of Bond films! Why did Goldfinger host a gangster briefing before killing them all?

Comments

• thedove hiding in the Greek underworld

  August 2 Posts: 6,002

  Lets jump back to the earlier films and one of the gold standards of Bond films...GF.
  
  A classic Bond movie with all the elements. Including a scene that has left us all scratching our heads...the gangster briefing scene.
  
  What is your theory on why Goldfinger flies in the hoods from across America. He briefs them on Operation Grand Slam and asks that they delay their payments. He then kills them all, doing society a solid and likely pissing off the crime families in the process.
  
  Why does he take this step, other than the film needed him to so that he could explain his plot. Course he could have explained things to Bond on the veranda of his home. Yet he creates a model of Fort Knox and flies in some notorious figures from across America.
  
  Have at it,
  
  Why did Goldfinger host the gangster briefing in GF?
• slide_99 USA

  August 2 Posts: 801

  Auric's version of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre- wipe out everyone in one hit. They had played their part, and he didn't need them anymore. They'd just be liabilities. Briefing them on the plan was just his way of getting them to drop their guard.
• DEKE_RIVERS

  August 2 Posts: 2,280

  He needed to test if the gas worked.
• mtm United Kingdom

  August 2 edited August 2 Posts: 18,693

  Yeah I feel like the traditional theories on this are:

  1. He wanted to test the gas
  2. He wanted to show off in front of a lot of people
  3. He's mad

  I guess those pretty much work, but it is a little unsatisfying maybe. Especially when you have Mr Solo being killed in an entirely separate and quite expensive way, when you could have just had him sit in the corner and get gassed with the rest of them if you're planning to kill everyone. The only explanation is really 3), which is a bit rubbish really. But hey, it's fun. Just don't let me see anyone complaining that the plot of Skyfall doesn't make sense! :)
• Ludovico

  August 2 Posts: 15,946

  Like other people said, he wanted to test the gas, just to be sure. I also think he might have made the model and prepared his pitch before he decided to kill the mobsters, as precaution.
• SIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters

  2:27pm Posts: 4,043

  In the book, if my memory serves, this makes much more sense, because Goldfinger had gathered all of them to ask for help in his plot, he had even called for Pussy Galore's 'The Cement Mixers', they've all gathered there, Goldfinger promised them their shares if the plot succeeded.
  
  But in the film, maybe, he wanted to show how grand he could be that he had this connections to the mobsters and do a big time show off, as @mtm said, he's mad, he's a megalomaniac, he wanted to do things in big ways.