Thunderball (1965)
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James Bond must navigate a high-stakes underwater mission to recover stolen atomic bombs from the ruthless organization SPECTRE.
The story
The film follows Bond's mission to find two NATO atomic bombs stolen by SPECTRE, which holds the world ransom to the tune of £100 million in diamonds under threat of destroying an unspecified metropolis in either the United Kingdom or the United States (later revealed to be Miami). The search leads Bond to the Bahamas, where he encounters Emilio Largo, the card-playing, eyepatch-wearing SPECTRE Number Two. Bond must navigate a series of dangerous encounters and underwater obstacles to recover the weapons before they can be used to threaten the world.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
SPECTRE operative Emilio Largo plots to hold NATO ransom by hijacking two atomic bombs from an RAF Avro Vulcan bomber. During a training exercise, a pilot is replaced by a double, and the bomber is landed in the Bahamas. Bond, recovering from a previous assignment, notices suspicious activity and eventually heads to the Bahamas to contact Domino Derval, the mistress of Largo. Bond and Largo engage in a cat-and-mouse game while feigning ignorance of each other's identities. Bond teams up with CIA agent Felix Leiter and others, obtaining specialized underwater equipment. After discovering the location of the submerged Vulcan, Bond and his allies must infiltrate Largo's ship, the Disco Volante. An underwater battle ensues between the Navy and Largo's men. Ultimately, Bond and Domino confront Largo on the ship. During the final confrontation, Domino kills Largo with a speargun, and the trio jumps from the ship just before it explodes. Bond and Domino are rescued by a plane, while the fate of the physicist Ladislav Kutze remains unknown.
- First release year
- 1965
- Runtime (minutes)
- 130
- Production countries
- United Kingdom; United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Terence Young
- Writers
- Richard Maibaum · screenplay; John Hopkins · screenplay; Kevin McClory · story; Jack Whittingham · story; Ian Fleming · story
- Cast and characters
- Sean Connery · James Bond; Claudine Auger · Domino; Adolfo Celi · Emilio Largo; Luciana Paluzzi · Fiona Volpe; Rik Van Nutter · Felix Leiter; Guy Doleman · Count Lippe; Molly Peters · Patricia Fearing; Martine Beswick · Paula Caplan
- Genres
- spy film; action; adventure; thriller
- Themes
- Espionage; Nuclear threat; Betrayal
- Tone and mood
- Action-packed; Tense
- Premise and plot tags
- Spy Thriller; Underwater Action; Nuclear Warfare
- Source material / true-story basis
- Thunderball by Ian Fleming
- Franchise connections
- James Bond
- Content notes
- Violence
- Reception
- The film was exceptionally successful, earning $141.2 million worldwide, and was generally well-received by critics and audiences, though some noted the underwater sequences were repetitive.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 85% · scale: percentage · review count: 54; Metacritic · score: 64 · scale: 100
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Visual Effects · 1966 · win; Edgar Best Foreign Film · Edgar Allan Poe Awards · nomination
- Production trivia
- The film was the first Bond movie to have a running time of over two hours.; The underwater scenes comprise about a quarter of the film.; The original title song was 'Mr Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang'.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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