Thunderball (1965)

Director:

Terence Young

Writers:

Kevin McClory (story) and
Jack Whittingham (story) ...

Release Date:

29 December 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Look Up! Look Down! Look Out! Here Comes The Biggest Bond Of All! ["Look" is formed from the 007 logo]

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Ford Mustang | Surveillance | Fireplace Poker | Torture | Manta Ray

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Sean Connery	...	James Bond
Claudine Auger	...	Dominique 'Domino' Derval
Adolfo Celi	...	Emilio Largo - SPECTRE #2
Luciana Paluzzi	...	Fiona Volpe
Rik Van Nutter	...	Felix Leiter
Guy Doleman	...	Count Lippe
Molly Peters	...	Patricia Fearing
Martine Beswick	...	Paula Caplan
Bernard Lee	...	M
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Q
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Roland Culver	...	Foreign Secretary
Earl Cameron	...	Pinder
Paul Stassino	...	Major Francois Derval / Angelo Palazzi
Rose Alba	...	Madame Boitier

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's Thunderball (UK) (complete title)
James Bond, Secret Agent (International: English title) (original script title)
Longitude 78 West (UK) (original script title)
Opération Tonnerre (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Operación Trueno (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Åskbollen (Sweden) [sv]
Þrumufleygur (Iceland) [is]
007 - Operação Relâmpago (Portugal) [pt]
007 Contra a Chantagem Atômica (Brazil) [pt]
Agent 007 i ilden (Denmark) [da]
Agente 007, operazione tuono (Italy) [it]
James Bond 007 - Feuerball (West Germany) [de]
James Bond 007: Epiheirisi Keravnos (Greece) (DVD title) [el]
James Bond, praktor 007: Epiheirisis Keravnos (Greece) [el]
Kadur Ha-Raam (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
Operació tro (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Operacja 'Piorun' (Poland) [pl]
Operasjon Tordensky (Norway) [no]
Pallosalama (Finland) [fi]
Tüzgolyó (Hungary) [hu]
Yildirim harekati (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | Brazil:12 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Peru:14 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) (1987) | USA:Approved (original rating) | USA:GP (re-rating) (1970) | USA:PG (re-rating) (1994) | UK:A (original rating) (cut)

Filming Locations:

Anet, Eure-et-Loir, France

Company:

Danjaq

Trivia:

The budget for this Bond film was more than the combined budgets of the first three Bond films.

Goofs:

Continuity: Hand pulling on lever in "rack" sequence shown pulling lever to full position twice.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Featured in Thunderball Boat Show Promo (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

Thunderball

A Real Mixed Bag Of Good & Bad

A typical early James Bond movie, filled with beautiful women, a sexist and suave spy can who can do little wrong (Sean Connery as Bond), a few gadgets and a lot of action scenes. The gadgets, which are always fun, were fewer in number than usual, I am sorry to say. The action scenes, although interesting, had absolutely no credibility. Of course, that isn't anything new but they are particularly ludicrous here. Our hero eliminates almost everyone while no one hits him! Also, there are a number of scenes in which Bond escapes from impossible situations and they never show how he did them. All of a sudden, he's pictured somewhere else.

In addition, with so many foreign accents, it was difficult to understand the dialog, at least on tape when I last viewed this. Perhaps the DVD has English subtitles, which would help immensely.

Otherwise, the filmmakers keep this lively story moving fast most of the time and if you are a male who likes ogle pretty women, you have a lot to choose from here beginning with Claudine Auger.

Aftter a good start, the second hour of this film was disappointing. Overall, I'd have to say the same thing after watching the previous Bond class, "Goldfinger."