Anime / One Piece Film: Gold

Hit or Bust!^*Clockwise from the bottom left: Brook, Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, Nico Robin, Gild Tesoro, Franky, Vinsmoke Sanji, Tony Tony Chopper, and Monkey D. Luffy.

♫ One, two, three, kick off the beat, it's time to start the show.
Let's take it nice and slow.
Five, six, seven, are you ready to leave your cares behind?
Just let it all unwind.
An angel and a devil will open up the door.
They'll give you everything you want,
But keep you begging for more.
Like they say, life is a roulette, so let the money flow.
Gran Tesoro. ♫

— "Gold & Jive ~ Silver Ocean"

One Piece Film: Gold is the 13th film, and 3rd Film label, in the manga/anime series, One Piece.

The movie sees the Straw Hats arriving at the Gran Tesoro, a cruise liner so huge it's considered its own nation, that houses a massive casino, run by the Gold Emperor, Gild Tesoro. However, what starts off as a simple stop for some R & R and extra dough turns serious when Tesoro puts the crew in his crosshairs and they quickly find out that Gran Tesoro houses a dark secret beneath its glitz and glamour, leading into a battle against Tesoro and the Gran Tesoro staff.

As with Strong World and Z, Oda was on hand to help supervise the film. Also as with the aforementioned movies, first-time attenders in Japan received a special manga volume as a bonus; this time volume 777 (as in Triple 7, not a literal volume 777). It also has a tie-in special anime episode, Heart of Gold, which aired on July 16th, 2016, as well as the usual tie-in anime filler arc, The Silver Mine arc.

The film was released in Japan on July 23, 2016. In a major first for the series, the movie was also announced for numerous international releases (some nations dubbed and other using the original Japanese language with subtitles), including the United States. Eventually the U.S got a limited theatrical run of the movie from January 10-17 in 2017, complete with a fully English dub. This made Film Gold the fourth One Piece movie to be dubbed, following after Episode of Alabasta, Strong World, and Film: Z.

A Blu-Ray release of the dub, along with an English version of "Heart of Gold," was released on May 2, 2017.

Trailers

• The first teaser
• The second one.
• First official trailer
• the second official trailer
• And the Trailer for the English Dub

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Film: Gold provides examples of:

• Action Prologue: The movie begins with the Straw Hats arriving at Gran Tesoro and entering into a dock/arena of sorts as Tesoro is putting on a show. A rival pirate crew attack the Straw Hats just as they enter as well. Tesoro, seeing this, decides to make a show of it, putting the spotlight on the two ships as the Straw Hats defend themselves and we're given a roll call of the crew and their bounties at the current time of the story (which was post-Dressrosa).
• Advertised Extra: Despite being announced in the film Rob Lucci and Sabo barely appear and at best just have a brief battle outside the Gran Tesoro. They don't even interact with the Straw Hats. Likewise Koala has one scene in the film talking with Sabo.
• All There in the Manual: Tesoro's backstory is explained in the Volume 777 book. In the film you just get snippets of it during Tesoro's breakdown but not enough to really elaborate. This is especially troublesome for folks outside of Japan where the book isn't available.
• Artistic License – Engineering: Much of Gran Tesoro is built out of solid gold, a metal well known for being soft and a poor choice for making huge casinos out of. His power might be able to negate that though.
• Badass Boast: After Tesoro uses his gold to make a giant golem of himself, he proclaims himself as a god. Luffy, however, shoots back...
  Luffy: The last god I faced ^note presumably referring to Doflamingo, though likely Eneru as well couldn't beat me! And neither will you!
• Badass in Distress: For a significant portion of the movie, Zoro is imprisoned by Gild Tesoro, the other Straw Hats needing to pay off the money they owe or else he'll be executed.
• Banana Peel: Just one of the ways Baccarat's stolen luck manifests- causing people to slip on these.
• Banana Republic: A variant. Gran Tesoro is recognized by the World Government as an independent nation despite just being an overly massive ship and its leader, Gild Tesoro, is certainly corrupt as they come.
• Berserk Button: Don't laugh in front of Tesoro unless he tells you to. Ever. He's the only one that can decide what is or isn't entertaining. This is because of the World Noble who brutally enforced the same sort of standards on him in his youth.
• Big Bad: Gild Tesoro. In the Silver Mine arc and Heart of Gold special, he was a Greater-Scope Villain and Bill's boss and Mad Treasure's client.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: A very rare example in the franchise. During his fight with Chopper & Brook against Baccarat, Usopp is flung from an explosion and faceplants on the screen.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Near the climax, Luffy, struggling to get up after being hit by Tesoro, is suddenly confronted by Spandam, one of the main antagonists from the Enies Lobby arc, who's naturally looking to get revenge on Luffy for spoiling his plans. Luffy, however, doesn't even remember the guy, much to his shock.
• Call-Back:
  • Just like Skypiea, Luffy's arms get stuck in gold by the Big Bad.
  • It's not the first time the Straw Hats found themselves in a popular vacation resort with a dark secret.
  • It's not the first time the Straw Hats dressed well, either.
• The Cameo: For some reason, Heracles (or at least a guy with a very similar-looking armor) is seen walking around the Gran Tesoro in the trailer. Also, Sabo, Akainu, Doflamingo (apparently in flashback before his defeat as this film was released after the Dressrosa arc finished) Rob Lucci and Spandam make an appearance in the movie. Wanze (a minor mook from the Enies Lobby arc) and Absalom (from the Thriller Bark arc) have a few blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos as well.
• The Caper: The second half of Gold focuses on this with the crew trying to pull off a heist to get the money to prevent Zoro's execution. Or so we think...
• The Casino: The main setting of this film is the Gran Tesoro, a cruise liner which doubles as a huge casino city. It's virtually Las Vegas on a boat!
• Casino Episode: The movie takes place on a casino-themed boat so large that it's considered its own country.
• Color Motif: The color yellow is everywhere, even having the word "gold" in the movie title. Yellow is a symbol of prosperity and wealth, and because the movie is set in a casino, gold is aplenty, enough to make the Gran Tesoro its own nation. However, yellow also represents greed (casino = gambling, as well as Tesoro's obsession with money) and caution (a darker side of Gran Tesoro; trailers hint at the presence of slaves and poverty, not to mention Tesoro being the movie's Big Bad and an utter whackjob).
• The Con: The Straw Hats fall victim to a con when they get lured to come to the VIP area of the casino they're in and tricked into playing a game of Craps against the owner of the boat they are on, Guild Tesoro. After they end up losing (thanks to one of Guild's associates having a Devil Fruit power to steal luck), Guild reveals that everyone in the room, the workers and the guests, work for him and the whole thing was to put the Straw Hats under his debt.
• Cool Boat: The Gran Tesoro is quite the behemoth◊, rivaling Moria's as one of the most massive ships in the series since it houses a city within it. It's even recognized by the World Government as its own nation.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Tesoro's is given snippets within the film and explained in more detail in the Volume 777 book. He came from a poor and abusive family and turned to a life of crime as he grew older until he met a slave girl name Stella. The two fell in love and Stella convinced Tesoro to go straight, to which he vowed to get the money to buy her freedom. But before he could, a World Noble brought her. He tried to stop him but in turned was likewise imprisoned as a slave as well. After weathering the World Noble's cruelty, he was freed by Fisher Tiger. However he found out that Stella had died during her servitude. This pretty much warped Tesoro's mind that money is the truest source of power in the world and, after swiping the Gold Gold fruit from Doflamnigo, he set about building his empire.
• Death by Materialism: Gild Tesoro invokes this, citing that many treasure hunters met their ends against him trying to rob from his stash. What's more, those he doesn't kill are thrown down into an Ironic Hell of a prison where there is nothing but gold around them, but there's nothing to spend it on. Not even food or water.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Because one of Tesoro's men dares to laugh at something in front of him without his permission, Tesero promptly encases the poor soul's head in gold until he suffocates.
• Distressed Dude: Zoro gets kidnapped by Tesoro near the start of the movie and spends most of it trapped in gold, with most of the story focused on trying to save him alongside getting back at Tesoro for swindling the Straw Hats.
• Elemental Crafting: The henchmen/women's gold armor.
• Establishing Character Music: Carina and Tesoro are introduced singing "Gold & Jive - Silver Ocean" in the opening.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: During the Action Prologue, Nami pulls her eyelid and sticks her tongue out at several pirates who she'd just zapped.
• Flashback: Brief ones in the film.
  • There's one involving Carina and Nami's last meeting which ended with Carina abandoning her and taking some gold she had hidden. However it's later shown that Carina had actually saved her by acting as a decoy and luring her captors away from her.
  • And another that shows bits of Tesoro's past.
• Gambling Ruins Lives: Gild Tesoro's arc is about how he literally traps people in debts. Bill did his deeds mostly to pay Tesoro. Tesoro traps people with the help of Baccarat with the power of Lucky-Lucky Fruit. Gild Tesoro is himself a victim of gold and an obvious Expy of King Midas.
• Good All Along: Carina is revealed a woman of strong moral fiber when it comes to the lives of her friends and innocent people, putting her safety on the line to work with the strawhats so they can take down Tesoro and free his slaves.
• Gratuitous English: In addition to the various attacks, Tesoro is oddly fond of using English words or phrases, even counting in English during the opening song and his odd catchphrase of "it's entertainment!"
• Hellbent For Leather: New designs have the Straw Hats in variations of◊ black leather outfits◊.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: During the fight with Tanaka, Robin and Sanji look to be unable to stop the former at first. It turns out that Robin was simply hiding her devil fruit power at first, only bringing it out after Luffy asks her to catch Nami and Carina, after which she shows how easily she could have restrained Tanaka.
• Ironic Echo: Tesoro mockingly tells the Straw Hats that getting deceived on the Gran Tesoro makes you a loser, and relishes seeing Zoro's hope turn into despair as he gets executed before his crewmates can rescue him. After he gets Outgambitted, Nami repeats his line about getting deceived and Zoro repeats his line about hope turning into despair.
• Ironic Hell: Stated by Raise Max himself when Luffy and Franky end up a prisoner area of the ship which is surrounded by many golden trinkets. As there's no way out of the area and there's no food or water, there's nothing to spend the gold on and all that wealth is utterly meaningless.
• Kansas City Shuffle: The Caper is a big one. They get Tesoro to believe they're trying to rob him blind when the real plan is to connect the pipeline to seawater to mess up Tesoro's abilities and free Zoro.
• Kryptonite Is Everywhere: Quite literally in this case. The characters note the Gran Tesoro is constantly covered in gold dust, initially brushing it off as just the appeal of the city. However, it turns out this is part of Tesoro's power due to being an awakened Devil Fruit user, which makes him extremely powerful as he practically has control over every inch of the ship, and everyone who's been in contact with the gold dust.
• La Résistance: The Revolutionaries somewhat play a role in the movie. In addition to new non-canon member Raise Max being introduced, Sabo and Koala make a return.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: As it takes place after Dressrosa, it gives away that Luffy managed to defeat Doflamingo and that Rob Lucci and Spandam are back in the CP unit, in this case CP0 with the former now the latter's boss. Likewise that Sabo, Luffy's other adopted brother, is still alive and working in the Revolutionaries. As well as Luffy having gained a new move: Gear Fourth.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Once Tesoro is beaten, a countdown on the ship occurs which forces everyone to escape. Though it turns out to be a trick by Carina to get everyone off the boat while she takes it. All that happens when the countdown reaches zero is fireworks going off to celebrate her victory.
• Male Gaze: All over the movie. More than a few scenes featuring some of the lovely woman (implied to be paid concubines) Tesoro keeps around on his ship. Carina also deliberately puts some focus on her breasts to distract some guards midway into the film.
• Money Fetish: Tesoro really loves his gold, if having the power over it is any indication.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The heist might've gone off without a hitch if Luffy hadn't idiotically got himself seen by the guards in the surveillance room. Ethan Hunt, he isn't.
  • Later subverted — the Straw Hats are all fully aware their captain's an idiot. They were counting on him getting caught so they could enact their real plan.
• Non-Serial Movie: This film cannot fit anywhere in the manga or anime without continuity problems. The most obvious example being that the crew have their bounties gained during Dressrosa but not those from Whole Cake Island, even though the crew were separated for the entire time between those two events. For extra confusion, the anime added a prequel story arc immediately after Dressrosa.
• Outgambitted: When Nami's group goes to rob the vault after Luffy gets spotted. They open the vault door, only to find out there was no vault; Tesoro was just giving them false hope before trapping them in gold and forcing them to watch Zoro's execution in front of a huge crowd of onlookers. He even anticipated Luffy and Franky making their way to the pump room below the ship to wash off his gold dust, trapping them there and apparently drowning them. It seems like a complete victory for Tesoro... until it's revealed that the crew (sans Luffy as they didn't want him to spoil the real plan) knew all along it was a trap thanks to Carina warning them beforehand. They just played along to give Tesoro a false sense of security, allowing Franky to get to the water pump and jury-rig it to spray sea water over the ship, weakening Tesoro's gold power.
• Overly Long Name: The captain of the Long Long Pirates has a... well, long name. So much so that he never finishes stating it before Luffy beats him.
• Precision F-Strike: Luffy surprisingly puts a spin on his usual catch phrase in the dub as he fires his final attack on Tesoro.
  Luffy: I'm gonna be king of the damn pirates!
• Palette Swap: Sabo and Koala's outfits are recolors of their Dressrosa outfits.
• Prequel: The usual supplementary materials: This time we have the anime four-parter, Silver Mine arc. A TV special, Heart of Gold (which sets up how the crew get the Vivre Card to Gran Tesoro) and the smartphone special, Gold: Episode 0 (which, like Film Z's Glorious Island, just sees the crew having fun on the Sunny before the start of the movie).
• Red Baron: Tesoro is also known as the "Gold Emperor".
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Once the crew arrive at the Gran Tesoro, Baccarat welcomes them as honored guests and treats them to some spiffy new threads. Tesoro is impeccably dressed as well.
• Shout-Out: Tesoro's henchmen's gold armors look a lot like Gold Clothes.
• Spanner in the Works: Carina. For a moment in the climax, it looked like she had betrayed the Straw Hats when they had walked into Tesoro's trap. But in reality she had tipped them off what Tesoro was planning, allowing them to catch Tesoro off guard and even the playing field in the final battle.
• Spy Catsuit: Luffy and Franky wear some when the crew attempt to infiltrate Tesoro's vault. In the climax of the film, the rest of the crew wear spy like outfits.
• Theme Music Abandonment: Kohei Tanaka and Shiro Hamaguchi's themes from the TV series and previous films aren't used in Yuki Hayashi's score.
• Theme Naming: Several characters and elements are named after Spanish words, gold-related stuff or casino terms:
  • Gild Tesoro's name incorporates "gild", which means to cover thinly with gold, and Tesoro, which means "treasure" in Spanish and Italian. His Devil Fruit is called the Goru Goru no Mi in Japanese, from "gold".
  • The Gran Tesoro's name literally means "great treasure". Fitting for a great casino ship.
  • Baccarat is named after a card game played in casinos.
  • Dice comes from, well, dice.
  • Carina is Italian for "pretty". Fitting for a cute girl with a beautiful singing voice. It's also a play on "canary", fitting both her singing ability and Oda's tendency to name female characters after birds.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Dice. His upper body and arms are massive, but his legs are tiny in comparison.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Boat, in this case. Gran Tesoro looks like a nice little getaway spot where people can just relax, have fun and win at the numerous casinos. But in truth, many of its patrons and staff are stuck in debt due to Tesoro swindling or tricking people into playing their games and causing them to lose (mostly due to Baccarat's power to change luck) and enslaving them to try to work it off with any minor transgression only furthering the debt. The Straw Hats even end up becoming a victim of this when Tesoro kidnaps Zoro and sets to have him executed unless they pay an outrageous sum to free him. There's also a prison deep within the bowels of the ship where prisoners are surrounded by gold but given no food or water and left to rot.
• Trailers Always Spoil: For those who did not pass the Dressrosa Arc, the second official trailer spoils Sabo, Koala and Rob Lucci's return, as well as Luffy's Gear Fourth.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: most of the workers on the Gran Tesoro were former customers who ended up heavily in debt.
• A Truce While We Gawk: In the climax, Tesoro unleashes his Gold Splash attack on Luffy which can be seen from outside the ship. Lucci and Sabo, who were fighting a few moments before, halt their battle to watch before they ultimately stop when Tesoro lands on Lucci's Marine ship after Luffy defeats him and knocks him into the air.
• Wacky Racing: Luffy, Usopp and Chopper get into this at the start of the film when they participate in a event called "Hot Shell" which allows the competitors to attack each other.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Both Nami and Robin in the opening of the movie. Also Carina in a pool scene with Tesoro.
• With My Hands Tied: When dropped into the prison area. The prisoners point out that the only exit is guarded by golden bats which no one has been able to get past. Luffy, whose arms are encased in gold from fighting Tesoro earlier, manages to beat up all of them easily.
• Would Hit a Girl: Usopp shot Baccarat during their fight.