James Bond heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.James Bond heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.James Bond heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 5 wins & 5 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBond's jetpack was actually flown by engineer Bill Suiter. He was one of only two people in the world qualified to fly it.
- GoofsApparently, some of the locals wanted to celebrate their moment in a Bond movie, because during the chase through the Junkanoo parade, James passes a parade group, all of whom are wearing large yellow "007" headdresses.
- Crazy creditsThe opening titles is a sequence of female divers underwater.
- Alternate versionsThe first VHS release in Germany (from 1983) was cut to secure a "Not under 12" rating. The scene where Bond kills Vargas omits the brief shot showing the latter being perforated by the harpoon arrow (the previous shot showing Bond firing the harpoon was intact). Subsequent releases until 1991 were cut even more (the fight with Bouvar, the death of Quist, the pool fight, the underwater battle, the boat fight). Since then, the film has been released uncut on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Thunderball: James Bond Follows Beatles in Filming in the Bahamas (1965)
Featured review
Great to watch, but a definite step down for the franchise
THUNDERBALL was the fourth film in the James Bond series and unfortunately, it was a step down from the previous three--probably due to an overuse of gadgets and some poor supporting performances (particularly from the rather wooden "Bond girls").
The first third of the film was actually the most interesting to me but certainly was low on action. Bond was at a sanitarium recovering from his last mission. I thought this was a great touch--seeing him covered in scars so that you could see he wasn't superman! Here, he accidentally stumbles onto a horrible plot--one of the more exciting ideas from the Bond films. It seems that Number 2 (a BAD choice of names, I know) is hatching a plan to steal atomic weapons so he can blackmail the world!! Once Bond leaves for the Caribbean, the film becomes a little less interesting, though I must admit the entire sequence involving the airplane landing there was pretty high on the cool factor. What wasn't cool were the silly women he met--one malevolent lady who, as usual, Bond beds and a sweet one who, as usual, Bond beds! Both had very little personality and frankly were dull in almost every way (you can probably guess how they weren't).
Not a bad film at all, but certainly not among the best Bond movies.
By the way, due to a strange little copyright problem, this film was remade by an entirely different film company about two decades later and the film, once again, starred Sean Connery. It was very aptly named, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN--and frankly, it's a lousy knock-off of THUNDERBALL and is inferior in most every way.
The first third of the film was actually the most interesting to me but certainly was low on action. Bond was at a sanitarium recovering from his last mission. I thought this was a great touch--seeing him covered in scars so that you could see he wasn't superman! Here, he accidentally stumbles onto a horrible plot--one of the more exciting ideas from the Bond films. It seems that Number 2 (a BAD choice of names, I know) is hatching a plan to steal atomic weapons so he can blackmail the world!! Once Bond leaves for the Caribbean, the film becomes a little less interesting, though I must admit the entire sequence involving the airplane landing there was pretty high on the cool factor. What wasn't cool were the silly women he met--one malevolent lady who, as usual, Bond beds and a sweet one who, as usual, Bond beds! Both had very little personality and frankly were dull in almost every way (you can probably guess how they weren't).
Not a bad film at all, but certainly not among the best Bond movies.
By the way, due to a strange little copyright problem, this film was remade by an entirely different film company about two decades later and the film, once again, starred Sean Connery. It was very aptly named, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN--and frankly, it's a lousy knock-off of THUNDERBALL and is inferior in most every way.
- planktonrules
- Mar 22, 2008
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Feuerball
- Filming locations
- Sullivan Residence, Rock Point, Love Beach, off West Bay Street, North Shore, New Providence Island, Bahamas(Largo's Lair - Palmyra Estate)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $9,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $63,595,658
- Gross worldwide
- $63,607,066
- Runtime2 hours 10 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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