IT manager comes up with solution to ‘The Italian Job’ cliffhanger

By Calvin Palmer

The 1969 classic version of The Italian Job ends with Michael Caine’s character, Charlie Croker, saying “Hang on a minute lads – I’ve got a great idea,” as the bus, laden with gold bullion, precariously see-saws on the edge of an Alpine ravine.

The idea is never revealed.  The camera pans to a long-shot and the closing credits begin to roll.

It is a conundrum that has baffled cinema-goers, more recently DVD viewers, for 40 years, usually in the lounge bar of the Dog and Duck on a Friday night after several pints of Boddingtons, Marston’s or some other tipple.

Last October, the Royal Society of Chemistry asked people to work out a method to extract the gold within 30 minutes without using a helicopter, and prove it with maths.

Some 2,000 solutions came in and an IT manager from Godalming, Surrey, emerged as the winner.

John Godwin, 39 worked out how to extricate the 3.2 tons of gold without toppling the 1964 Bedford VAL14 coach and the gang into the ravine.

Godwin’s solution is relatively simple.

First, four windows should be smashed: two large central windows just ‘air-side’ of the pivot should be knocked outwards; then two smaller windows above the twin front axles, inwards.

Then a man should be lowered through the smaller windows to let down the four inflated front tyres, which Godwin said were acting as “springs” and exaggerating the rocking motion.

Third — and most importantly — the near-full fuel tank should be emptied, which would enable one of the ten-man gang to get off and gather rocks to further weigh the bus down.

Removing an estimated 36 gallons of remaining fuel, weighing about 300lb (139kg), “is the key to surviving this predicament” he wrote.

Godwin even tracked down one of the last existing VAL14s buses to a depot near Cambridge to check his details, confirming that the fuel tank was located towards the overhanging rear.

Croker could have emptied the tank by removing an access plank on the bus floor and reaching down to take out the drainage plug, he suggested.

Godwin, who said he had watched The Italian Job “dozens of times” won a fitting prize for his ingenuity — a three-night stay in Turin, the city where the gold is stolen in the film.

He said: “I’ve always felt there had to be an answer to get the gold out.”

Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the RSC and one of the judges, said he was “extremely impressed” by Godwin’s entry.

“It is just the kind of practical thinking Croker would have used – but he ably demonstrates the science behind the idea as well,” he said.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and AFP news agency.]

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