History Main / GoldFever

->''"O cursed hunger of pernicious gold! \\
What bands of faith can impious lucre hold?"''

The hero and his ragtag band of adventurers are inching ever closer to the spot on their map where the Fantabulous Cave O'Treasure is said to be located. They can almost taste it, and it tastes just like gold. '''GOOOOOOOLD!''' The word itself is enough to conjure bouts of hallucinatory euphoria. [[WingdingEyes Dollar signs]] appear in their eyes to the sound of a cash register. Even the most strait-laced and serious members of the band find their steps getting a little springier, their faces sporting predatory, out of character smiles.

Soon...''soon'' they'll be richer than their wildest dreams.

If only they didn't have to share it with all these ''other'' fellows...

...after all... this is '''GOLD''' we're talking about. And there will probably only be ''so much'' to go around...

-->'''Nami''': ([[WingdingEyes with Beli Sign eyes]]) [[BlatantLies I am not in it for the money]].

* ''That Man From Rio'' centers around a drab, academic archaeologist who, in pursuit of a lost civilization's horde of diamonds, murders his two associates and abducts the daughter of one of them in his quest for the gems.

** The dwarves of Moria, as Gandalf implied, 'dug too deep'. Justified in that their 'gold' had military applications needed during the orc assaults, and they had no way of knowing they could dig up a balrog.

* The ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode, ''Film/ThePaintedHills'', has this trope in both the film and the host segments. The film averts it with Jonathan, the old prospector who has more concern for his recently-deceased partner's family than his own welfare, but plays it straight with Taylor, the lawyer of Jonathan's late partner who [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident stages an "accident"]] for Jonathan, only to eventually be [[KarmicDeath brought to justice]] by Lassie. One of the segments from that episode has Tom Servo becoming similarly infected with Gold Fever and melting Crow down into an ingot, in the mistaken belief that because Crow was colored gold, that he must be ''made'' of gold. Despite being melted into an ingot, Crow also becomes infected with Gold Fever and begins wanting ''himself''.
** Fun Fact: Crow is made of molybdenum.

* Dragons suffer from this in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', acquiring and nesting on the classic DragonHoard. At first it was believed that they suffered from a magpie-like obsession with shiny objects, but ''Draconomicon'' reveals that they are just as likely to hoard ''any'' valuables, even things like paintings or rugs. It seems that any object other creatures consider precious, a dragon will too, even if they have no use for them other than bedding. You could encounter a dragon sleeping on a stamp collection.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': Happens to you in the end of "Dead Money", filled with pre-war money and enough gold bars to buy yourself a small town in the NCR you are tempted to take it all. But to survive without being a munchkin is to let go most of of the wealth in the vault.
** Indeed, Gold Fever decided the fate of almost everybody who ever found the Sierra Madre; either they fell prey to the various and horrible dangers surrounding it, or they were killed by somebody ''else'' who had found the Sierra Madre and didn't feel like sharing. Numerous characters comment on how it almost seemed to be a sickness. Because of this, [[BadBoss Elijah]] made it a point to link the {{Explosive Leash}}es of you and the companions so that killing each other is out of the question.
** Unfortunately, money is the least of the worries of companions. They all want something else other than money.

* While there's other motivations at work, one of the main plot points of the Sierra adventure game ''[[GoldRush]]'' is the 1848 California gold rush, and all the accompanying "Go West" fervor that came with it.

* Every so often in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', the focus goes to a sub-plot involving a gold, jewel-encrusted turd that evokes this in anyone who sees it. What comes out of it is a long string of murders, guilt-ridden suicide, and other betrayals as everyone involved tries to be the sole owner by whatever means necessary.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' parodies ''Film/TheTreasureOfTheSierraMadre'',in "Three Men and a Comic Book", with a rare first issue of ''Radioactive Man'' taking the place of gold.

* In the late 1990's, a Canadian mining and geology company called Bre-X [[ExactWords claimed]] to discover what was assumed to be the largest gold deposit in history on the Indonesian island of Borneo. The problem was that Bre-X was not nearly large enough of a company to fully extract the amount claimed to exist. Cue months of deals and brokering over which company would have the privilege of assisting with the extraction as everybody involved attempted to attain a piece of the action. These shenanigans involved such figures as former President George H. W. Bush, Indonesian President Suharto and former Canadian Prime Ministers. [[TheCakeIsALie As for the actual gold, however...]]
* Hernan Cortez kick-started a genocide against the Aztec Empire, all for GOLD. (well, that and they wanted new land too.) The funny thing is that Cortez went bankrupt multiple times in his life, and died heavily in debt. The not so funny thing is that 90% of Aztecs died, although mainly from epidemic, it is believed that the Spanish purposely increased the strength of the epidemic.
** For that matter, a lot of conquistadors were like this - Gold was a ''big'' motivation for them. There's a reason the myth of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold, was so pernicious.
** Christopher Columbus, too.
* The Gold Rushes of the 1850s in New South Wales and Victoria are credited as ''the'' most important moment in the development of the Australian colonies. Victoria's population grew up a factor of seven in a decade, and by 1880 Melbourne was one of the largest and most important cities in the British Empire. The allure of gold was so great that reportedly men would throw down their tools, abandon their families, and travel hundreds of kilometers in the days before anything more reliable than the bullock train for even the slightest chance of striking it rich.

* In ''[[VorkosiganSaga Captain Vorpatril's Alliance]]'', the smuggler Vigo Imola, who's been hired to transport a bunkerful of hidden treasure dating back to the Cetagandan Occupation, decides instead to sell out his clients to their enemies. The consequences spiral out of control, and the government confiscates the treasure. It turns out to be worth ''billions''. Imola was to have received fifteen percent, which would have been far more than he ever could have got from his clients' foes. Instead he goes to prison, and his former clients get a nice fat finder's fee and the satisfaction of telling Imola what a terrible choice he made.

In vision beatific:''

[[/folder]]

* The ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode, ''The Painted Hills'' is a western that features a prospector getting Gold Fever, murdering his partner, and being brought to justice by Lassie. One of the segments from that episode has Tom Servo becoming similarly infected with Gold Fever and melting Crow down into an ingot, in the mistaken belief that because Crow was colored gold, that he must be ''made'' of gold. Despite being melted into an ingot, Crow also becomes infected with Gold Fever and begins wanting ''himself''.

[[/folder:Pinball]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* In Professional Wrestling, Gold Fever quite often manifests itself in the form of championship title belts often referred to as "Championship Gold". The idea is the same, men with otherwise strong moral principles will often be [[FaceHeelTurn driven to commit nefarious acts]] in order to obtain Championship Status. Similarly, the bad guys will often [[MoralEventHorizon commit acts that are even more dastardly.]]
[[/folder]]

See also ArtifactOfAttraction and {{Prospector}}.

** Amusingly, the people who profited the most during the Rush weren't the miners, but the people who exploited the miners' need for goods and services.

* An episode of ''Series/{{unforgettable}}'' has the detectives investigating a possible terrorist threat and instead discover a group of treasure hunters who are making explosives to blast their way into a sealed up room that they think is filled with old gold coins. They are so consumed by gold fever that they ignore the fact that the room is underneath a busy New York City subway station and the explosion is likely to injure or kill hundreds of people. By the time the detectives start investigating, two members of the group have already proven themselves to be TooDumbToLive and accidentally killed themselves while making the bombs. The leader of the group turns out to be [[spoiler: a transit cop]] who set things up specifically so his accomplices killed themselves off and left him with the whole treasure all to himself. Ironically, the treasure was HiddenInPlainSight and all the preparations and deaths were completely unnecessary.

[[folder:Film]]

* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the titular Aladdin is clearly warned to take "nothing but the lamp" from the cave full of treasure. His pet monkey, however, clearly falls for the Gold Fever as he drools over a large gemstone and grabs it, triggering the cavern collapse. [[spoiler:This has the unexpected result of saving Aladdin's life as Jafar was waiting for Aladdin to exit so he could murder him and steal the lamp for himself.]]

* Ditto ''BattlefieldEarth''. The OpeningScroll specifically states that the aliens are here for gold, [[ArtisticLicenseGeology the rarest and most valuable of all metals.]]

* Ditto ''BattlefieldEarth''. The OpeningScroll specifically states that the aliens are here for gold, [[ArtisticLicensePhysics the rarest and most valuable of all metals.]]

* Due to the state of economy there has been something of a gold fever in the stock market in the recent times, as gold is seen as a reliable investment when stocks are going down. As a result those who had good deposits of the stuff before the depression are easily raking triple profits to what they paid for it in the first place.

** For that matter, a lot of conquistadors were like this - Gold was a ''big'' motivation for them.

** As of August 2011, the price of gold is now higher than the price of ''platinum''. That's Gold Fever taken UpToEleven.

* The John Woo movie ''Film/BulletInTheHead'' features three would-be gangsters with a [[BloodBrothers bond of brotherhood]] who try to strike it rich in late '60s-era Vietnam while [[TheVietnamWar The War]] is in full swing. Things go right straight to hell, and Gold Fever, in addition to the experience of the war, is enough to break this bond, which in John Woo's other movies was all but unbreakable.

* In ''Film/TheHobbit'', Thrór, king of Erebor and Thorin's grandfather, is shown in flashbacks to be so obsessed with gold that it's even described to be a "sickness" and his obsession with filling his treasure rooms with enough gold to build a castle out of it implied to have attracted Smaug to Erebor in the first place.

* In Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the titular Aladdin is clearly warned to take "nothing but the lamp" from the cave full of treasure. His pet monkey, however, clearly falls for the Gold Fever as he drools over a large gemstone and grabs it, triggering the cavern collapse. [[spoiler:This has the unexpected result of saving Aladdin's life as Jaffar was waiting for Aladdin to exit so he could murder him and steal the lamp for himself.]]

* ''Series/{{Mash}}'' had a first-season episode in which Hawkeye and Trapper scheme to make Frank Burns think there's a fortune in gold buried beneath to 4077th. It's titled "Major Fred C. Dobbs", after Bogart's ''Treasure of the Sierra Madre'' character. It's also generally regarded as the show's Worst Episode Ever.

* Hernan Cortez kick started a genocide against the Aztec Empire, all for GOLD. (well, that and they wanted new land too.) The funny thing is that Cortez went bankrupt multiple times in his life, and died heavily in debt. The not so funny thing is that 90% of Aztecs died, although mainly from epidemic, it is believed that the Spanish purposely increased the strength of the epidemic.

* In ''Film/TheHobbit'', Thror, king of Erebor and Thorin's grandfather, is shown in flashbacks to be so obsessed with gold that it's even described to be a "sickness" and his obsession with filling his treasure rooms with enough gold to build a castle out of it implied to have attracted Smaug to Erebor in the first place.