Goldfinger was the first James Bond film to feature the Alps and the third film in the long-running movie series. Released in 1964, it was based on Ian Fleming's 1959 novel, the seventh James Bond book.
The film follows the novel more closely than many of the Bond films that followed. In the book, James Bond follows Auric Goldfinger down that well-driven route through France that generations of British visitors to the Alps have taken, although without the convenience of today's motorways. Bond makes it as far as Geneva, Switzerland, where he stays at the Hôtel des Bergues. His cover is that he works for Universal Exports, which has offices in Geneva. From here, Bond becomes involved in Tilly Masterson's assassination attempt on Goldfinger at Coppet, just along the lakeshore from Geneva, where Goldfinger's company, Auric Enterprises AG, is based. That's as far as Bond reaches into the Alps, really only skirting the edge of the Jura Mountains.
In the film, Goldfinger (played by Gert Fröbe) airfreights his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost from the UK to Switzerland after losing a round of golf to Bond. Bond (played by Sean Connery) follows, with the RAF transporting his Aston Martin DB5 to Switzerland. The Furka Pass scenes begin with Goldfinger's Rolls-Royce passing the Hotel Belvédère, with Bond following close behind. However, Bond is actually filmed at Realp, at the eastern end of the pass rather than near the summit.
Using the DB5's satellite navigation, Bond follows Goldfinger. Like Google Maps today, however, it is easily confused, showing Goldfinger on the lakeside road near Coppet outside Geneva rather than on the Furka Pass. Perhaps the sat nav designers had only read the book, not the script.
Bond is then overtaken on the top of the pass by Tilly Masterson (played by Tania Mallet). Tilly is the sister of Jill Masterson (played by Shirley Eaton), Goldfinger's assistant and the woman famously suffocated with gold paint in one of the film's most iconic scenes. Goldfinger then stops at a roadside fruit stall on the descent towards Realp, where Bond watches from nearby, narrowly avoiding being hit by a bullet fired by Tilly in her second attempt to kill Goldfinger.
A chase follows, ending when Bond forces Tilly's Mustang off the road with the Aston Martin. Bond then drops Tilly off at a petrol station in Andermatt. The petrol station closed around the film's 50th anniversary, and today the Hotel Aurora occupies the site. Whether still operating or not, the concrete plinth where the petrol pumps once stood remains the only obvious reminder of the location's cinematic history.
Much of the Furka Pass remains remarkably unchanged since 1964. The gravel road surface outside the Hotel Belvédère has been replaced with tarmac, the road has been widened in places, and many of the buildings on the pass, including the Belvédère itself, now stand abandoned and slowly deteriorating. The only notable additions are a "James Bond Str." road sign on the descent where Bond stopped to watch Goldfinger, and a memorial plinth dedicated to Sean Connery, who died in 2020.
Later in the film, Goldfinger's smelting factory uses the Pilatus Aircraft factory in Stans on the far side of Lake Lucerne. The company manufactured the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, the aircraft that Pierce Brosnan's Bond skydives into during the opening sequence of GoldenEye. Tilly's second attempt to shoot Goldfinger was also filmed at the factory, although the Aston Martin's subsequent crash was filmed on a backlot at Pinewood Studios.
During filming, Sean Connery stayed in Room 21 of the Bergidyll Hotel in Andermatt. He would scarcely recognise the town today, following the extensive redevelopment that has transformed Andermatt over the past decade.