Thunderball (1965)

James Bond heads to The Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.

Director:

Terence Young

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay), John Hopkins (screenplay),

Stars:

Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi

Won 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	...	James Bond
Claudine Auger	...	Domino
Adolfo Celi	...	Largo
Luciana Paluzzi	...	Fiona
Rik Van Nutter	...	Felix Leiter
Guy Doleman	...	Count Lippe
Molly Peters	...	Patricia
Martine Beswick	...	Paula
Bernard Lee	...	'M'
Desmond Llewelyn	...	'Q'
Lois Maxwell	...	Moneypenny
Roland Culver	...	Foreign Secretary
Earl Cameron	...	Pinder
Paul Stassino	...	Palazzi
Rose Alba	...	Madame Boitier

Storyline

James Bond continues on his fourth mission, with his aim to recover two stolen warheads. They have been taken by the evil SPECTRE organisation. The world is held hostage and Bond heads to Nassau. Here, he meets the beautiful Domino and is forced into a thrilling confrontation with SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo, on board his boat, the Disco Volante. Will 007 prevent the killing of millions of innocent victims?

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Plot Keywords:

nassau | british | bahamas | nato | extortion | 

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Taglines:

007 et voici le plus explosif de tous les James Bond (French) (OO7 is here and its the most explosive James Bond of all)

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

UK

Language:

English French

Release Date:

22 December 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

Operación Trueno

Filming Locations:

Anet, Eure-et-Loir, France

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$63,600,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eon Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ford produced a promotional film A Child's Guide to Blowing Up a Motor Car as a promotional film to tie-in with the release of the movie. The seventeen minute gently humorous short film was about a boy's visit with his godfather Uncle Denis to one of the movie's filming locations at Silverstone Racetrack, Northamptonshire, England. The end credits state "Made for the Film Library of FORD OF BRITAIN". It is available on the Thunderball DVD Ultimate Edition.

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Goofs

Bond's Aston Martin's boot (trunk) lid is clean when lifted to deposit the jet pack, but has a huge amount of dust (apparently from the landing) when seen a few seconds later in the view into the car through the rear windscreen.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Madame LaPorte: The coffin - it has your initials: J.B.
Bond: At the moment, rather him than me.
Madame LaPorte: At least you've been saved the effort of removing him. Colonel Bouvar passed away in his sleep, so they tell me.
Bond: Mm...
Madame LaPorte: You sound disappointed you did not kill him yourself.
Bond: I am. Jacques Bouvar murdered two of my colleagues.

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Connections

Referenced in QI: Games (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Thunderball"
Written by John Barry
Lyrics by Don Black
Sung by Tom Jones

User Reviews

excellent Bond adventure - Connery on form again

Sean Connery (Indiana Jones) reprises his role as the cool clever 007 as he uses his charm and skill to full effect on a mission to recover stolen bombs from evil villains.

Connery has always been my favourite Bond and I personally believe this is one of his best performances as the agent. Whenever I see him on screen in this role I instantly smile as he is such a well placed actor, always suited to this particular role.

Connery has always been my favourite Bond character.

Connery I believe carries this film and is well juxtaposed with the Bond stereotyped women and gadgets again but that's what we expect and love from Bond films, that and tons of cool cars, action, fighting and adventure, which Thunderball delivers throughout.

This gripping slightly less action based plot is always entertaining through a snappy quickly written plot with many action scenes to sustain audience interest. There are less action scenes, gun fights etc then the more recent Bond films such as Tomorrow never dies and The World is not enough but in my opinion having less is probably best as it gives a more accurate portrayal of the agency, not an idealist world which more people nowadays may hope for.

However there are many action scenes which play a great part in this film, such as a shark pool, a car chase, corpses and boats. It's a thrill ride throughout, maintaining an interesting dialogue from the very beginning.

The setting out at sea was great. A large proportion of the film is set out at sea with its many creatures and wonderful scenery and captures a great essence of beauty, even with what's taking place when it appears.

Compared to other Bond films I think this is one of my favourite as it is mysterious, action packed, beautifully directed, has great characters (even though confused at times wondering who was who) and the narrative is consistent and energetic, one of the best Bond films.

as with all other Connery Bond films, this is worth watching a few times for sheer enjoyment