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Thunderball
Thunderball film poster
James Bond	Sean Connery
Also starring	Claudine Auger Adolfo Celi Luciana Paluzzi
Directed by	Terence Young
Produced by	Kevin McClory
Novel/Story by	Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham
Screenplay	Richard Maibaum, John Hopkins
Cinematography by	Ted Moore
Music by	John Barry
Main theme	Thunderball
Composer	John Barry Don Black
Performer	Tom Jones
Distributed by	United Artists
Released	December 21, 1965 (USA) December 29, 1965 (UK)
Running time	130 min.
Budget	$5,600,000
Worldwide gross	$141,200,000
Preceded by	Goldfinger (1964)
Followed by	You Only Live Twice (1967)
IMDb profile

Thunderball, released in 1965, is the fourth spy film of the British James Bond series, and the fourth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent Commander James Bond. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. It was directed by Terence Young with screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins.

The film follows Bond's mission to find two NATO nuclear bombs stolen by SPECTRE, who hold the world to ransom for £100 million in diamonds, in exchange for not destroying an unspecified major city in either England or the United States of America (later revealed to be Miami). The search leads Bond to the Bahamas, where he encounters Emilio Largo, the card-playing, eye-patch wearing SPECTRE Number Two. Backed by the CIA and Largo's mistress, Bond's search culminates into an underwater battle with Largo's henchmen.

Thunderball was associated with a legal dispute in 1961 when former Ian Fleming collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham sued him shortly after the 1961 publication of the Thunderball novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had earlier written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond.^[1] The lawsuit was settled out of court and Broccoli and Saltzman fearing a rival McClory film allowed him to retain certain screen rights to the novel's story, plot, and characters.

The film earned a total of $141.2 million worldwide^[2] exceeding the earnings of the three previous Bond films and broke box office records on the first weekend of opening in France and Italy. The film won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects awarded to John Stears in 1966 and Ken Adam the production designer was also nominated for a BAFTA award.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Legal disputes 3.2 Casting 3.3 Filming 3.4 Effects 3.5 Music 4 Release and reception 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

In the prologue, James Bond attends the funeral of Colonel Jacques Bouvar, a SPECTRE operative (Number 6), who had murdered two British spies.^[3] Bouvar is actually disguised as his widow but identified by Bond. Following him to a château, Bond kills him and then escapes flying a jetpack to his Aston Martin DB5 parked outside.

Bond is sent by M to a health clinic located by a nearby NATO airbase to improve his health. While massaged by physiotherapist Patricia Fearing, Bond encounters Count Lippe, a shifty man with a criminal tattoo (Tong- Red Dragon of Macau) on his left wrist. The suspicious Bond searches Lippe's room, but is seen leaving it by Lippe's clinic neighbor who is bandaged because of plastic surgery. Later, Lippe tries to murder Bond with a spinal traction machine but the attempt is foiled by Fearing. Bond soon finds a dead bandaged man, and survives a second murder attempt. The dead man is François Derval, a French NATO pilot due to be part of the crew flying an Avro Vulcan jet bomber loaded with two nuclear bombs for a training session. He is replaced by a SPECTRE henchman named Angelo, surgically altered to resemble him and heavily trained as a pilot.

Before leaving Angelo demands a higher fee for his mission on which his cohorts relunctantly appear to agree to. Angelo successfully poses as Derval and hijacks the plane during its training flight, gassing the crew and eventually sinking the plane is a designated location with underwater landing lights near the Bahamas. He is killed underwater by Emilio Largo (SPECTRE No. 2) for considering himself underpaid, and following this Largo and his henchman steal the atomic bombs on the seabed. The theft summons Bond and all other double-0 agents to Whitehall. En route, Lippe chases Bond but is killed by a motorcyclist for failing to foresee Angelo's greed.

At the meeting, Bond recognizes Derval as the cadaver he encountered in the health clinic from a photograph. Since Derval's sister, Domino, is in Nassau, Bond asks M to send him to the Bahamas. Domino turns out to be Largo's mistress. Bond exploits the connection to approach Largo after meeting Domino while scuba diving. Bond and Largo immediately recognize each other as enemies but play a mutual psychologic cat-and-mouse game. Bond's assistant Paula is eventually abducted by Largo and later poisons herself.

An additional cinema character, originally not in the novel, is Fiona Volpe. She is the SPECTRE assassin responsible for substituting Angelo for Derval, and for killing Count Lippe. She tries to kill Bond after a rendezvous with Largo in Nassau; but later, while chasing the escaped Bond, she is shot in the back with the bullet meant for Bond while dancing with him at a local nightclub's Junkanoo celebration; Bond leaves her body at a table, asking: "Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She's just dead."

In Nassau, Bond and CIA case officer Felix Leiter search for the Vulcan by helicopter, eventually finding it underwater, along with the crew corpses and Angelo the counterfeit NATO observer pilot. Afterwards, Bond tells Domino that Largo killed her brother, pleading for her help in finding the nuclear bombs. She tells Bond where and how to replace a SPECTRE agent on a mission with Largo, who is retrieving the bombs from a submarine hiding place. It is when Bond (in the frog suit taken from one of Largo's henchmen) discovers Largo's plans to detonate the bombs in Miami Beach.

En route to the bomb cave where the bombs will be temporarily stored, Bond's cover is blown by Largo. After an underwater fight with Largo's men in the bomb cave, from which Bond barely escapes, Leiter rescues Bond. Bond tells Leiter of the bombs' location and Largo's plans to strike Miami Beach; Leiter orders a unit of United States Navy SEALs to parachute to the area for underwater battle against SPECTRE frogmen. Bond joins the fray, killing several SPECTRE frogmen with high tech submarine weapons, and his knife and hands. The sudden appearance of sharks forces the SEALs and the SPECTREs to join forces against them; the surviving SPECTRE frogmen surrender.

Finally, Largo escapes to the Disco Volante (Italian: Flying Saucer), which still has one bomb aboard; Bond follows him and sneaks aboard. In the yacht, during their vicious hand-to-hand fight, Largo gains the upper hand and is about to shoot Bond, however, Domino shoots a spear into Largo's back. With the dying Largo death-locked to the uncontrolled yacht's wheel, Bond and Domino jump overboard as it runs aground and explodes. A sky hook-equipped U.S. Navy airplane rescues Bond and Domino from the sea.

Main articles: List of James Bond henchmen in Thunderball and List of James Bond allies in Thunderball

• Sean Connery as James Bond: An MI6 agent assigned to retrieve two stolen nuclear weapons.
• Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo: SPECTRE Number Two
• Claudine Auger as Dominique 'Domino' Derval: Largo's mistress. In early drafts of the screenplay Domino's name was Dominetta Palazzi. When Claudine Auger was cast as Domino the name was changed to Derval to reflect her nationality.^[4]
• Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe: SPECTRE agent
• Paul Stassino as François Derval/Angelo Palazzi: NATO pilot/SPECTRE agent impostor of Derval
• Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter: CIA agent
• Guy Doleman as Count Lippe: SPECTRE agent
• Molly Peters as Patricia Fearing: a physiotherapist ^[5]
• Martine Beswick as Paula Caplan: Bond's ally in Nassau
• Bernard Lee as M: The strict head of MI6
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q: MI6's "quartermaster" who supplies Bond with multi-purpose vehicles and gadgets useful for the latter's missions.
• Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny: M's secretary
• Philip Locke as Vargas: Largo's personal assistant and henchman who according to Largo abstains from alcohol, smoking and sexual intercourse emphasising his devotion as a killer. He is killed by Bond with a speargun on the beach after lurking in the palm trees.
• Anthony Dawson as Ernst Stavro Blofeld voiced by Eric Pohlmann (both uncredited)

Originally meant as the first James Bond film, Thunderball was the center of legal disputes, from 1961 to this day. Former Ian Fleming collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham sued him shortly after the 1961 publication of the Thunderball novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had earlier written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond.^[6] The lawsuit was settled out of court; McClory retained certain screen rights to the novel's story, plot, and characters. By then, James Bond was a box office success, and series producers Broccoli and Saltzman feared a rival McClory film beyond their control; they agreed to McClory's producer's credit of a cinematic Thunderball, with them as executive producers.

The sources for Thunderball are controversial among film aficionados. In 1961, Ian Fleming published his novel based upon a television screenplay that he, and others developed into the film screenplay; the efforts were unproductive, and Fleming expanded the script into his ninth James Bond novel. Consequently, one of his collaborators, Kevin McClory, sued him for plagiarism; they settled out of court in 1963. The book The Battle for Bond, by Robert Sellers, details this as part of the Thunderball mythos.

Later, in 1964, EON producers Broccoli and Saltzman agreed with McClory to cinematically adapt the novel; it was promoted as "Ian Fleming's Thunderball". Yet, the screenplay is officially credited to Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, but also is identified as based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham and as based on the original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming. To date, Thunderball has twice been adapted cinematically; the 1983, McClory-produced Never Say Never Again, features Sean Connery as James Bond, but is not an offical EON production.

As the filming neared its conclusion, Connery had become increasingly agitated with press intrusion and was distracted with marriage difficulties in his marriage of 32 months to actress Diane Cilento. Connery refused to speak to journalists and photographers who followed him in Nassau stating his frustration with the harassment that came with the role; "I find that fame tends to turn one from an actor and a human being into a piece of merchandise, a public institution. Well, I don't intend to undergo that metamorphosis." In the end he only gave a single interview to Playboy as filming was wrapped up, and even turned down a substantial fee to appear in a promotional TV special made by Wolper Productions for NBC The Incredible World of James Bond.

Forty years later, on November 20, 2005, many of the surviving cast and crew gathered in London for a special 40th Anniversary screening.

Broccoli's original choice for Domino Derval was Julie Christie following her performance in Billy Liar in 1963. However on meeting her personally he was disappointed and turned his attentions towards Raquel Welsh after seeing her on the cover of the October 1964 issue of Life magazine. Welsh however was hired by Richard Zanuck of Twentieth Century Fox to appear in the film Fantastic Voyage the same year instead. Faye Dunaway was also considered for the role and came close to signing for the part.^[7] Saltzman and Broccoli auditioned an extensive list of relatively unknown European actresses and models including former Miss Italy Maria Grazia Buccella, Yvonne Monlaur of the Hammer horror films and Gloria Paul. Luciana Paluzzi initally auditioned for the role herself and was keen to play the character but eventually the former Miss France Claudine Auger was cast, and the script was rewritten to make her character French rather than Italian although her voice was dubbed anyway. Paluzzi later accpeted the role as the redheaded femme fatale assassin Fiona Kelly who originally was intended by Maibaum to be Irish and the surname was changed to Volpe in coordination with Paluzzi's nationality.^[8] Rik Van Nutter was hired to play CIA agent Felix Leiter and dubbed throughout.

Filming commenced on 16 February 1965, with principal photography of the opening scene in Paris. Filming then moved to the Château d'Anet, near Dreux, France for the fight in pre-credit sequence. Much of the film was shot in the Bahamas, Thunderball is widely known for its extensive underwater action scenes which are played out through much of the latter half of the film. Filming was shot at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, Silverstone racing circuit for the chase involving Count Lippe, Fiona Volpe and James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 before moving to Nassau, and Paradise Island in The Bahamas where most of the footage was shot and Miami.^[9]

On arriving in Nassau McClory searched for possible locations to shoot many of the key sequences of the film and used the home of a local millionaire couple, the Sullivans, for Largo's estate.^[10] Part of the SPECTRE underwater assault was also shot on the coastal grounds of another millionaires' home on the island. The most difficult sequences to film were the underwater action scenes and the first to be shot underwater was at a depth of 50 feet to shoot the scene where SPECTRE divers remove the nuclear warheads from the sunken Vulcan bomber. Peter Lamont had previously visited an air force base carrying a concealed camera in which he used to get close-up shots of the secretive missiles and those appearing in the film would not actually present.

Connery's life was in danger in the sequence with the sharks in Largo's pool and one which he had been in fear of when he read the script. Sean Connery insisted that Ken Adam build a special Plexiglas partition inside the pool but despite this it wasn't a fixed structure and one of the shark's managed to pass through it and Connery had to abandon the pool instantly seconds from attack.^[9] Another dangerous situation occurred when Special effects coordinator John Stears brought in a supposed dead shark carcass was brought in to be towed around the pool. However at one point the shark revived and was not dead as had been originally thought. Due to the dangers on the set, stuntman Bill Cummings demanded an extra fee £250 to double for Largo's sidekick Quist as he was dropped into the pool of sharks.^[11]

The climactic underwater battle was shot at Clifton Pier was choreographed by Hollywood expert Ricou Browning, who had worked on many films previously such as Creature From the Black Lagoon in 1954. He was responsible for the staging of the cave sequence and the battle scenes beneath the Disco Volante and called in his specialist team of divers who posed as those engaged in the onslaught. Lamar Boren a, underwater photographer was brought in to shoot all of the sequences. Royal Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Russhon who had already helped alliance Eon productions with the local authorities in Turkey for From Russia With Love 1963 and at Fort Knox forGoldfinger 1964 stood by and was able to supply the experimental rocket fuel used to destroy the Disco Volante. Russhon using his position was also able to gain access to the US Navy's still experimental Skyhook rescue system which was used to lift Bond and Domino from the water at the end of the film. Filming ceased in May 1965 and the final scene shot was the physical fight on the bridge of the Disco Volante.

While in Nassau, during the final shooting days, special effects supervisor John Stears was supplied experimental rocket fuel to use in exploding villain Largo's yacht, the Disco Volante. Ignoring the true power of the volatile fuel, Stears doused the entire yacht with it, took cover, and then detonated the boat. The resultant massive explosion shattered windows along Bay Street in Nassau roughly thirty miles away.^[12] Stears went on to win an Academy Award for his work on Thunderball.

According to editor Peter Hunt, Thunderball's release was delayed for 3 months, from September 'til December of 1965, after he met Arnold Picker of United Artists, and convinced him it would be impossible to edit the film to a high enough standard without the extra time.^[13]

Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles and List of James Bond gadgets

In Thunderball's pre-title teaser, the Aston Martin DB5 (introduced in Goldfinger), reappears armed with rear-firing water cannon, seeming noticeably weathered — just dust and dirt raised, moments earlier, by Bond's landing with the Bell Rocket Belt (developed by Bell Aircraft Corporation). The rocket belt James Bond uses to escape the château actually worked, (and was used many times, before and after, for entertainment, most notably at Super Bowl I and at scheduled performances at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair).^[14]

Bond receives a spear gun-armed underwater jet pack scuba (allowing the frogman to manoeuvre faster than other frogmen). Designed by Jordan Klein, green dye was meant to be used by Bond as a smoke screen to escape pursuers.^[15] Instead Ricou Browning, the film's underwater director, used it to make Bond's arrival more dramatic.^[16]

The sky hook, used to rescue Bond at the end of the film, is an actual rescue system used by the United States Military at the time. At Thunderball's release, there was confusion as to whether or not such a rebreather existed; most Bond gadgets, while implausible, often are based upon real technology. In the real world, a rebreather could not be so small, as it has no room for the breathing bag, while the alternative open-circuit scuba releases exhalation bubbles, which the film device does not. In fact, it was made with two CO2 bottles glued together and painted, and a little mouthpiece put on;^[16] so, there is no answer to "How?" or "For how long does it work?" When the Royal Corps of Engineers asked Peter Lamont: How long can a man use the device underwater? The answer was: How long can you hold your breath?^[17]

Maurice Binder was hired to design the title sequence, and was involved in a dispute with Eon Production to have his name credited in the film. As Thunderball was the first film shot in Panavision, Binder had to reshoot the iconic gun barrel scene which permitted him to not only incorporate pinhole photographic techniques to shoot inside a genuine gun barrel, but also made Connery appearing in the sequence himself for the first time a reality as stunt man Bob Simmons had doubled for him in the three previous films. Binder gained access to the tank at Pinewood which he used to film the silhouetted title girls who appeared naked in the opening sequence and was the first time actual nudity however concealed had ever been seen in a Bond film.

See also: Thunderball (soundtrack)

The original title credit theme to Thunderball was entitled "Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," which was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. The title was taken from an Italian journalist who in 1962 dubbed agent 007 as Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The song was originally recorded by Shirley Bassey, but was later rerecorded by Dionne Warwick, whose version was not released until the 1990s. The song was removed from the title credits after producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were worried that a theme song to a James Bond film would not work well if the song did not have the title of the film in its lyrics. Barry then teamed up with lyricist Don Black and wrote "Thunderball" which was sung by Tom Jones who, according to Bond production legend, fainted in the recording booth when singing the song's final, high note. Jones said of the final note, "I closed my eyes and I held the note for so long when I opened my eyes the room was spinning." ^[18] Country musician Johnny Cash also submitted a song to EON productions titled "Thunderball" but it was not used. ^[19]

The film premiered on December 21, 1965 in the United States - a first for a Bond film and opened 8 days later on December 29, 1965 in the UK. Thunderball was a major success at the box office with record-breaking takings. The gross rivalled that of the newly released The Sound of Music and was of a greater success than the epic Battle of the Bulge. 58.1 million admissions were recorded in the USA totaling a gross of $63.6 million a record and the film earned more in the first week than the previous three films combined. France and Italy also reported record takings, scooping $95,000 and $79,000 respectively within the first three days of screening. The film eventually earned a global total of $141.2 million which in 2002, was calculated to be the equivalent of roughly $950 million, taking inflation into account ^[20] .

In 1965 the film received mixed reviews although were generally positive. Dilys Powell of The Sunday Times remarked after seeing the film that "The cinema was a duller place before Bond." and the Kinematograph Weekly dated 20 December 1965 emphasised the enjoyment of the film particular the combination of humour, the Bond girls, and the effectiveness of the Caribbean location on the cinema screen. However she criticized part of the plot in that the explanation of SPECTRE's ransom plan took too long in explaining to the audience. Other critics like David Robinson of The Financial Times criticized the appearance of Connery and his effectiveness to play Bond in the film remarking "It's not just that Sean Connery looks a lot more haggard and less heroic than he did two or three years ago; but there is much less effort to establish him as connoisseur playboy. Apart from the off-handed order for Beluga, there is little of that comic display of bon viveur-manship that was one of the charms of Connery's almost-a-gentleman 007."^[21]

However film critics such as James Berardinelli praised Connery's performance and the femme fatale character of Fiona Volpe and in particular the underwater action sequences remarking that they were well choreographed and clearly shot. However he criticized the length of the scenes and believed they were too long and were in need of editing particularly during the underwater climax scene.^[22] At Rotten Tomatoes.com the film is given an 89% fresh rating,^[23] although like Berardinelli many film critics have also cited the length of the underwater action scenes as one of the flaws in the film.

Thunderball won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects awarded to John Stears in 1966 and Ken Adam the production director was also nominated for a BAFTA award. The film won the Golden Screen award for Best Film in Germany and won Golden Laurel Action Drama award at the 1966 Laurel Awards. The film was also nominated for an Edgar Best Foreign Film award at the Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

• Casino Royale history for further information on the James Bond legal battles between Sony and MGM.
• Chapman, James (1999). Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History Of The James Bond Films. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-387-6. 

• Thunderball at the Internet Movie Database
• Thunderball at Rotten Tomatoes
• Thunderball at Box Office Mojo
• Official James Bond website
• MGM's official site for Thunderball
• Universal Export's entry on Thunderball
• Thunderball Overview on The Ultimate James Bond Community
• Production notes for Thunderball — MI6.co.uk
• Thunderball — The Bond Film Informant
• "McClory, Sony and Bond: A History Lesson — Universal Exports
• Thunderball obsessional; a website devoted to all things, Thunderball

v • d • e The James Bond Films

"Official" (EON Productions) films Dr. No • From Russia with Love • Goldfinger • Thunderball • You Only Live Twice • On Her Majesty's Secret Service • Diamonds Are Forever • Live and Let Die • The Man with the Golden Gun • The Spy Who Loved Me • Moonraker • For Your Eyes Only • Octopussy • A View to a Kill • The Living Daylights • Licence to Kill • GoldenEye • Tomorrow Never Dies • The World Is Not Enough • Die Another Day • Casino Royale • Bond 22 Non-EON films Casino Royale (1954 TV) • Casino Royale (1967 satire) • Never Say Never Again