10 Movies That Had The Balls To Do It Better (AND WANTED YOU TO KNOW)
9. Goldfinger
One of the biggest criticisms about Ian Fleming's Goldfinger novel is that the titular villain's big scheme, Operation Grand Slam, doesn't make a lot of sense.
In the book, Goldfinger plots to steal gold from the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, yet at the time of its release, many noted the implausibility of anybody attempting to rip-off Fort Knox in such a fashion, given the difficulty anyone would have in transporting and storing so much of a heavy metal.
As such, the film changes Operation Grand Slam into something much cleverer, with Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe) instead plotting to detonate a Chinese dirty bomb inside the vault to irradiate the gold inside, in turn rendering it worthless for decades and massively inflating the value of his own gold supply.
The movie goes one step further, though, by literally having 007 (Roger Moore) state the ridiculousness of Goldfinger's original plan out loud. He tells the villain:
"$15 billion in gold bullion weighs 10,500 tons. 60 men would take 12 days to load it onto 200 trucks. Now, at the most, you're gonna have two hours before the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines move in and make you put it back."
To this, Goldfinger replies, "Who mentioned anything about removing it?" before, in typical Bond villain fashion, detailing his decidedly smarter plan.
This was nothing if not a brilliant piece of screenwriting which pithily echoed the vocal criticisms of Goldfinger's paperback scheme, while coming up with something considerably better.