For me the death of Jill Masterson is still the most upsetting. Covered in gold and allowed to suffocate, creepy and unsettling.
Problem I've alway had with Carver's death is that the way it was shown on screen, the timing of it, it seems like he had the time to basically just casually step to the side and avoid the drill.
Yeah I know what you mean. I don't think he had many options but he did just seem to sit there and take it...reminds me somewhat at the henchman and the steamroller in Austin Powers!
Dying from gold paint sounds a bit too implausible and I haven't heard of any body paint related deaths, even though it's not pleasant and causes chronic health problems (just ask Virginia Hey during her tenure on Farscape). More plausibly Oddjob murdered poor Jill by strangulation or smothering or neck breaking, then dragged her corpse into the bathroom suite to apply the gold body paint there, then dragged her onto the bed for that iconic corpse pose.
Nah, the gold paint per se is not what supposedly killed her. When the movie was made, a lot of people believed that humans breathe through their pores. Supposedly, covering up your entire skin surface would cause suffocation. Apparently it didn't matter what you covered it with. Bond says something to this effect when she's discovered. I haven't seen the movie in a long time and I can't find the quote. In the past I had watched the scene any number of times without paying attention to the dialogue. My assumption was that Goldfinger had simply encased her mouth and nose (along with everything else) in some sort of quick-hardening gold solution (referred to as "paint" for simplicity), and she suffocated the normal way. These days I take it he did not close off her airway with the gold; otherwise, this skin myth wouldn't have come up.
Plausible that Jill could continue breathing normally through her mouth and nose but asphyxiate anyway??? How does that work exactly? I didn't see the episode, but reading online it looks like Mythbusters agreed that insufficient skin ventilation could cause dangerous spikes in temperature or BP. Plus there's the risk of toxic or allergic reactions. But none of those have to do with asphyxiation.
It was deemed plausible, not confirmed. In either event, this film was made in 1964 and featured: A man who's thrown hat can decapitate you A laser that can chop your balls off (in 1964) A radioactive bomb that will irradiate gold, supposedly cornering the market A aerosol chemical that knocks you out, then disperses safely Bond successfully seduces a lesbian A gadget-laced car, many features of which Mythbusters "Busted"
Strawberry Field's death through crude oil, though often derided as a clumsy homage to Jill's death, was more gruesome and realistic. Watching through YOLT on DVD again recently, I still think the emotional impact of Aki's death is underrated, but it doesn't help that the movie feels very fast paced for a 1960s movie, seemingly forgetting about her (maybe there should've been more breathing space, to let the impact of her death set in, like have a silently brooding Bond in the castle grounds watch Tiger's staff wheel away Aki's body in a shroud or body bag as the sun rises, before it cuts to the silly ninja training stuff and sham wedding). From what I've read about poisoning, I get the impression that Aki died from a cyanide substance (first with her inability to breath properly, then her apparent cardiac arrest, followed by sudden unconsciousness and death within minutes). And speaking of cyanide, I nearly forgot about poor Paula in Thunderball (who in captivity took a hidden cyanide pill to avoid brutal interrogation).
Well, I'll accept that it's plausible by movie logic and compared to all that other stuff. But that's a pretty relative statement.
I read some production notes for that film that stated that the two actresses cast for Kissy and Aki spoke no English prior to being cast in the film. I think part of the problem with developing either character was their limited understanding of English, which can understandably make it difficult to convey any kind of emotion to an English speaking viewer.
I agree. I love Onatopp's character. But there's nothing tragic about her death. I actually remember laughing when I realized she was being crushed against the tree after the cable caught. --Sran
My understanding is that the girl playing Aki was supposed to play Kissy, but the other girl (the one who wound up barely registering as Kissy) threatened suicide, so she got the part (greatly reduced) and they bumped the other girl to Aki (presumably with an expanded role.) I've actually seen that come up a few times, I think in print as well as on Bond sites, and I haven't seen anything that calls the whole story into question in any definitive dismissive fashion.
Dear God, I don't feel as sorry for Onatopp as I do for her many unfortunate, innocent victims and her death was one of the more amusing examples of being hoisted by one's petard, however I did sense something unhappy and dysfunctional about her when Bond socialises with her at the casino.
I did have a hard time understanding how or why she put with Trevelyan and was hoping she'd crush him just as easily as she did her victims. Alec was bitter because of the way England treated his parents, sending them back to Russia after the war. But why would someone like Onatopp help him? I've never had the chance to read the Goldeneye novel. Does the book expand on her character at all? We know she was a fighter pilot in the former USSR. But what were her motives for aiding a terrorist? --Sran
She probably thought that Trevelyan was just going to cause a lot of death and destruction and she wanted to be there to witness it. Like they said about the Joker - some people just want to sit and watch the world burn. Xenia was one of those people.
That and Xenia was being paid and would be paid very handsomely by the sprawling Janus crime syndicate, especially when it was aiming to steal billions from England's bank mainframes, so why would a mercenary like Xenia give two craps about trumped up historical grievances?
I wouldn't necessarily say it's upsetting (although it really sucks that she dies on her wedding day), because we didn't really ever get to know her as a character. She dies at the beginning of the film, we don't see Felix again until the end of the movie, and even then he doesn't seem too upset that she's dead (probably because he's just happy to be alive, minus a few limbs). We never see Leiter again in the classic Bond films, so we never get to see him with his appendages. It'd be nice if they introduced this aspect of his character in the re-incarnation.