Thunderball movie storyline. When two colleagues of James Bond are murdered, James follows the widow of a double agent who has been killed, and a confrontation ensues. The double agent is part of S.P.E.C.T.R.E., and the organization’s meeting in a secret lair in Paris regrets the agent’s death as it deals with new criminal business. Emilio Largo, a ruthless and flamboyant one-eyed enforcer, has hatched a scheme against the North Atlantic Treaty powers that begins at a rehabilitation clinic near a Royal Air Force airbase.
Scheduled to pilot an R.A.F. Vulcan strategic bomber on a normal “fail-safe” flight is Francois Derval, who is having a passionate affair with the magnificently endowed beauty Fiona Volpe, an affair that S.P.E.C.T.R.E. exploits. Soon, the Vulcan and its warload of two nuclear bombs has been hijacked, the bombs seized by Largo, for use in S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’s most audacious extortion scheme yet.
James Bond, however, finds a key clue in the sister of Francois Derval, Dominique “Domino” Derval, a beautiful young woman who is a passionate scuba diver living in Nassau, The Bahamas. When James investigates Domino, he comes into contact with a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. operation on the island, and he gets help from H.M.S.S.’ man in Nassau, Pinder, and an old C.I.A. chum, Felix Leiter. But when James and Felix find out what S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is up to, it may be too late to save a major U.S. coastal city from nuclear annihilation.
Thunderball is a 1965 spy film and the fourth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the 1961 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. It was the third and final Bond film to be directed by Terence Young, with its screenplay by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins. The movie would have been the first of the Bond series if not for legal disputes over copyright issues.
Thunderball was associated with a legal dispute in 1961 when former Ian Fleming collaborators McClory and Whittingham sued him shortly after the 1961 publication of the novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond. The lawsuit was settled out of court and Bond film series producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, fearing a rival McClory film, allowed him to retain certain screen rights to the novel’s story, plot, and characters, and for McClory to receive sole producer credit on this film; Broccoli and Saltzman instead served as executive producers.
The film was a success, earning a total of $141.2 million worldwide, exceeding the earnings of the three previous Bond films. In 1966, John Stears won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and production designer Ken Adam was also nominated for a BAFTA award. Thunderball is the most financially successful film of the series in North America when adjusting for ticket price inflation. Some critics and viewers praised the film and branded it a welcome addition to the series, while others found the aquatic action repetitious and the film’s length excessive. In 1983, Warner Bros. released a second film adaptation of the novel under the title Never Say Never Again, with McClory as executive producer.
About the Story
James Bond (Sean Connery) attends the funeral of Colonel Jacques Bouvar, a SPECTRE operative (Number 6), with a young woman. Bond’s interest in the man stems from the deaths of two of James’ colleagues at Bouvar’s hand. He watches the widow of the man, wearing a thick veil, enter a car and be driven to her chateau, but Bond is already there, for he recognizes the “woman” as in fact Bouvar. He fights and kills him, escaping using a jet-pack and his Aston Martin DB5.
Later in Paris, a man, Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), also known as SPECTRE Number 2, attends an underground summit of SPECTRE operatives and their mysterious leader. When one operative is accused of embezzling funds, SPECTRE’s leader vows to expedite the proper punishment – and thus electrocutes a different man (who’d planted fake evidence implicating his colleague). Largo now steps forward to outline the criminal enterprise’s most audacious plan yet, a plan beginning at……….
…….a clinic where James Bond has been sent by M to improve his health. While massaged by physiotherapist Patricia Fearing (Molly Peters), he meets Count Lippe (Guy Doleman), a suspicious man with a criminal tattoo (from a Tong). He searches Lippe’s room, but is seen leaving by Lippe’s clinic neighbor who is bandaged after plastic surgery. Lippe tries to murder Bond with a spinal traction machine, but is foiled by Fearing, whom Bond then seduces. (Bond later gets his revenge on Lippe by locking him in a steam unit.)
Meanwhile, François Derval (Paul Stassino), a French NATO pilot, relaxes with a beautiful woman, Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) when he receives a call to report for a training flight aboard a Avro Vulcan stealth bomber. When he answers the door expecting his driver, he is instantly killed by Angelo, a SPECTRE henchman surgically altered to match his appearance. Volpe is also a SPECTRE agent, responsible for replacing Derval with Angelo. At the last minute, Angelo demands more money to complete his mission, telling Volpe that they wouldn’t be able to find anyone else to impersonate Derval after the plastic surgery, voice lessons and other training Angelo has gone through. Volpe agrees and sends him out.
The Vulcan that Derval was meant to fly on will be employed on a top secret mission with two British nuclear bombs aboard. Late in the flight, Angelo kills the crew with nerve gas and deliberately sinks the Vulcan near the Bahamas. He is then killed by Emilio Largo for trying to extort more money. Largo and his henchmen retrieve the stolen atomic bombs from the seabed.
With word of the brazen theft, all British double-0 agents are called to Whitehall and en route, Lippe chases Bond. Lippe is killed by SPECTRE agent Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) for failing to foresee Angelo’s greed. SPECTRE demands £100 million in white flawless diamonds from NATO in exchange for returning the bombs. If their demands are not met, SPECTRE will destroy a major city in the United States or the United Kingdom. At the meeting, Bond recognizes Derval from a photograph in the file. Since Derval’s sister, Domino (Claudine Auger), is in Nassau, Bond asks M (Bernard Lee) to send him there, where he discovers Domino is Largo’s mistress.
Bond takes a boat to where Domino is snorkeling. After saving her life when her foot is caught in a giant clam on a reef, the two have lunch together. Later, Bond goes to a party, where he sees Largo and Domino gambling. Bond enters the game against Largo, and wins. Bond and Domino leave the game and dance together.
Bond returns to the Hotel, uses a secret corridor to enter his room, and notices someone is also inside. Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) enters and is silenced by Bond, who finds and disarms a SPECTRE henchman in the bathroom. He releases the henchman, who returns to Largo’s estate, Palmyra. When he arrives, Largo immediately has him thrown into a pool where he keeps man-eating “Golden Grotto” (actually tiger) sharks.
Bond meets Q, and is issued with a collection of gadgets, including an underwater infrared camera, a distress beacon, a mini-re-breather, a flare gun and a Geiger counter. Bond is also informed that the Disco Volante may have been in the area where the Vulcan went down but could never have traveled there under her fastest speed.
Bond attempts to scuba dive under Largo’s boat and finds that her keel is of an unusual design. When he’s discovered, Largo’s men throw grenades overboard to kill him. Bond is forced to retreat. Meanwhile, Bond’s assistant Paula (Martine Beswick) is abducted by Largo for questioning and kills herself with a hidden cyanide capsule.
Bond returns to his hotel room and finds Fiona waiting for him. The two spend the evening in bed. As they prepare to leave for the local Junkanoo celebration, Fiona’s thugs enter and force Bond to a waiting car. Bond escapes into the Junkanoo and enters the Kiss Kiss Club. Fiona finds and attempts to kill him, but is shot by her own bodyguard while the two dance.
Bond meets up with Leiter and the two search by helicopter for the Vulcan, finding it underwater near the Golden Grotto, a reef known for it’s tiger sharks. He finds Angelo’s body and takes his dog tags and watch.
Bond later meets Domino scuba-diving and removes a sea urchin spine from her foot. Bond tells her that Largo killed her brother, showing her the tags and watch. He asks her for help finding the bombs. She tells him to replace a henchman on Largo’s mission to retrieve them. Bond gives her his Geiger counter, asking her to look for them on Largo’s ship. She is discovered and captured. Disguised as Largo’s henchman, Bond uncovers his plan to destroy Miami Beach.
Bond is identified among Largo’s crew and locked in the underwater cave where Largo had hidden the bombs. He is rescued by Leiter, who orders United States Coast Guard sailors to parachute to the area. After a fierce underwater battle, the henchmen surrender.
Largo escapes to his ship, the Disco Volante, which carries one bomb. Largo attempts to escape by jettisoning the rear of the ship. The front section, a hydrofoil, escapes. Bond boards the Disco and battles with Largo; Largo is about to shoot him when Domino, freed by Ladislav Kutze, shoots Largo with a harpoon. Bond and Domino jump overboard, the boat runs aground on a reef and explodes. A sky hook-equipped U.S. Navy airplane rescues them.
Thunderball (1965)
Directed by: Terence Young
Starring: Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, Luciana Paluzzi, Rik Van Nutter, Martine Beswick, Molly Peters, Roland Culver, Paul Stassino, Rose Alba, Guy Doleman
Screenplay by: Richard Maibaum, John Hopkins
Production Design by: Ken Adam
Cinematography by: Ted Moore
Film Editing by: Peter Hunt, Ernest Hosler
Set Decoration by: Peter Lamont
Art Direction by: Peter Murton
Makeup Department: Basil Newall, Paul Rabiger
Eileen Warwick
Music by: John Barry
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: December 21, 1965 (United States), December 29, 1965 (United Kingdom)
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