15 Film Adaptations Completely Different From The Book

11. Goldfinger

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MGM/UA

In the 1964 movie classic, Goldfinger is a German tycoon who plans to irradiate the gold of Fort Knox to increase the value of his own wealth. In the novel, Goldfinger is a Russian treasurer of the terrorist group, SMERSH (the novelised version of SPECTRE) who intends to steal Fort Knox's gold.

The first half of the film is pretty faithful but the second half just does its own thing. In the novel, Tilly Masterson and Pussy Galore are a lesbian couple. Not only that, Pussy leads a posse of lesbian trapeze artists.

The iconic laser designed to cut 007 in half was a buzzsaw in the book. Also, it's Oddjob who is sucked out of a depressurised airplane cabin, not Goldfinger. The titular villain is killed after Bond beats the crap out of him.

It's also worth mentioning that at no point in this story (or in any of the novels) does our hero say, "Bond. James Bond." nor does he ever order a Martini "shaken, not stirred".

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James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows