Thunderball

Thunderball

Note: The remake of the film Thunderball was called Never Say Never Again.

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Thunderball (novel)

Thunderball is the ninth novel by Ian Fleming based on the fictional British Secret Service agent Commander James Bond. Fleming wrote it intending to film it; it is officially credited as 'based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming', a controversial shared credit that was the result of a courtroom decision. The novel was first published on March 27, 1961, and is technically the first novelisation of a James Bond screenplay, though when written and published, the eponymous film had yet to be produced. It subsequently was serialised as a daily newspaper comic strip in 1961. It features the first appearance of the crime syndicate SPECTRE and introduces SPECTRE's leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, although Bond does not meet him.

To date, Thunderball has twice been adapted cinematically. The first adaptation, Thunderball, was released in 1965 as the fourth official film in the EON Productions series, with Sean Connery as James Bond. The second adaptation, Never Say Never Again was released in 1983 as a remake produced by Kevin McClory and starring Connery as Bond.

Thunderball begins with a meeting between M and Bond, during which he tells agent 007 that his latest physical assessment is poor, because of excessive drinking and smoking (sixty cigarettes daily). M sends Bond on a two week vacation to the Shrublands health clinic in the country to reduce the bad habits and improve his health. At the clinic, Bond encounters Count Lippe, a member of the Red Lightning Tong criminal organisation from Macau. When Bond learns this, Lippe tries to kill him by tampering with a spinal traction machine, in the effort that Bond will not connect him to SPECTRE. Bond, however, is saved by nurse Patricia Fearing, and he later retaliates against Lippe by trapping him in a steam bath, resulting in second-degree burns and a week's stay in hospital.

Upon returning to London, Bond is a new man, following a new diet and smoking less. The new man Bond is ready for action when the SIS receives a communiqué from SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion) telling them of having hijacked a Villiers Vindicator (V bomber) and so possess its two nuclear bombs, and will destroy two major cities unless a £100,000,000 ransom is paid to them.

SPECTRE is headed by mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld who is intolerant of failure. Count Lippe was dispatched to Shrublands to oversee Giuseppe Petacchi, of the Italian Air Force, at the Boscombe Down Airfield a bomber squadron base. Though Lippe was semi-successful, Blofeld considered him unreliable, because of his childish clash with James Bond; consequent to Lippe's hospitalisation, Blofeld has him killed.

Acting as a NATO observer of Royal Air Force procedure, pilot Petacchi is in SPECTRE's pay to hijack the bomber in mid-flight (by killing its crew) and flying it to the Bahamas. Once there, Emilio Largo (aka SPECTRE Number One), and the crew of the cruiser yacht Disco Volante, kill Petacchi as per Plan Omega.

The Americans and the British launch Operation Thunderball to foil SPECTRE and recover the two atomic bombs. On a hunch, M assigns agent 007, James Bond, to the Bahamas to investigate. There, he rendezvous with Felix Leiter, who is again with CIA, because of the Thunderball crisis (previously, Leiter was a private detective after having lost an arm and a leg in helping Bond in the Live and Let Die case). While in Nassau, Bond also meets Dominetta "Domino" Vitali, Largo's mistress and the dead Petacchi's sister. She is living aboard the Disco Volante, and believes Largo is on a treasure hunt. For reasons she does not understand Largo makes her stay ashore while he and his partners hunt hidden treasure. After they have sex, Bond informs her that Largo killed Petacchi, he then recruits her to spy on Largo. Domino reboards the Disco Volante with a Geiger counter to ascertain if the yacht is where the two nuclear bombs are hidden, however, she is discovered and made prisoner; Largo tortures her with fire and ice.

Bond and Leiter alert the Thunderball war room of their suspicions of Largo and join the crew of the American nuclear submarine Manta as the ransom deadline nears. The Manta chases Disco Volante to capture it and recover the bombs enroute to the first target. An undersea battle ensues between the crews, while Bond fights Largo. Bond, now very weak from his efforts to disable the bombs, tries to get away. But Largo corners him in an underwater cave and easily overpowers him. Before Largo can finish Bond off Domino shoots him through the neck with a speargun. The bombs are recovered and Bond spends the remainder of the story with Domino in the hospital.

Thunderball was originally conceived as the first entry in a film series for Xanadu Productions (Ian Fleming, Ernest Cuneo, Ivar Bryce, and Kevin McClory). The genesis of the idea was a short story memorandum authored by Cuneo, then sent to Bryce. It was specifically written for Kevin McClory to film underwater with Todd-AO cameras developed by his previous employer, film producer Mike Todd. The story underwent several rewritings, although elements from Cuneo's short story remained in Fleming's novel; they then knew each other for three years.

Fleming is said to have been attracted to the word "spectre", having used it in the fourth novel, Diamonds Are Forever, for "Spectreville", a town near Las Vegas; and for the "spektor", the cryptograph decoder in From Russia with Love. His further revisions of the Thunderball screenplay deleted SPECTRE and inserted the Mafia as the villain(s), which, per Cork, remained in all future revisions. Fleming also introduced the antagonist "Henrico Largo" and the Bond girl heroine "Dominique (Domino) Smith," as a Scotland Yard agent. Fleming also conceived most of the novel's and the film's plot incidents: the theft of a nuclear bomb and the submarine finale wherein Bond, Leiter, and U.S. Navy frogmen fight Largo's frogmen.

Fleming produced at least two separate drafts of a screenplay, and in 1959, Jack Whittingham was hired to redraft Fleming's story into a feasible screenplay; his additions included the characters Jack Petachi ("Giuseppe Pettacchi" in the novel), and Sophia, whose role was largely Domino's in the novel. The remainder of the screenplay was a two-year collaboration among Whittingham and Fleming; McClory also participated in extensive story meetings over this period, but the extent to his contributions remains in question. Following these efforts, Xanadu was dissolved, and Ernest Cuneo supposedly sold his Thunderball draft rights to Ivar Bryce for one dollar.

Kevin McClory was to produce the final screenplay; however, his unsuccessful recent film, The Boy and the Bridge, complicated securing proper financing for the Bond film. In The Life of Ian Fleming, John Pearson argues that McClory visited Fleming's Jamaica house Goldeneye, where Fleming explained his intention of delivering the screenplay to MCA, and recommending McClory as film producer. Additionally, Fleming told McClory that if MCA rejected the film because of his (McClory's) involvement, then he (McClory) should either sell himself to MCA or back out of the deal or file suit in court. Months later, Fleming sold to Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli the film rights to the current series of published books, as well as future James Bond novels, excepting Casino Royale, the rights to which already had been sold.

When the deal collapsed, Fleming wrote the novel Thunderball composed of the original short story, his two drafts of the screenplay, and some definite contribution from the subsequent Whittingham drafts. Fleming's adaptation of materials developed as part of an aborted film project into a Bond novel was not without precedent, as he had done similar rewrites of his own materials to create the books Doctor No and the short story collection titled For Your Eyes Only. In Thunderball, Fleming reinstated SPECTRE as the villain in the book, substituting for the Mafia in the "final" Whittingham draft. The novel also included the Shrublands clinic sequence; (Fleming, himself, went to Enton Hall, Surrey, in April 1956, for hydrotherapy, unlike in Bond's stay, Fleming's was unsuccessful in improving his bad heart's health). Initially, the novel credited only Fleming as author, though dedicated to his friend Ernest Cuneo. Before the novel was published, McClory received an advanced copy of the book and consequently filed suit, along with Whittingham, against Fleming for plagiarism and false attribution. McClory also sued Ivar Bryce for injuring him as a false partner in Xanadu Productions. The courts ruled that the lawsuit would not interfere with the publication of the novel, because books had already been shipped to book shops, but the lawsuit prevented Thunderball from being the first James Bond series film, though screenwriter Richard Maibaum (later the adaptor–co-writer of thirteen of the first sixteen films), did complete a screenplay adaptation of the published novel.

At Ivar Bryce's behest, Fleming settled McClory's lawsuit out of court in December 1961, because Bryce felt the lawsuit stress seriously affected Fleming's health; (by then, Fleming already had suffered a heart attack, later dying of a second in 1964). During the lawsuit, Whittingham assigned his script rights to McClory; the settlement decreed that the copyright page of future Thunderball editions credit them so: "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming" — in that order, though Ian Fleming's author by line remained. McClory also was granted a cinematic adaptation right of the book and rights to all aspects of the Thunderball story, plot, and characters: SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Blofeld's white Persian cat, and nine additional plot treatments and outlines. In an October 1997 interview with The Daily Telegraph, McClory stated the decree comprised rights to any James Bond film plot including an atomic bomb hijacking.

Upon being awarded the cinematic rights, McClory failed in finding financing for filming Thunderball. Later, in 1964, he reluctantly proposed to Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli a collaborative adaptation of Thunderball as the fourth, official James Bond series film. In 1965, Thunderball was released with Sean Connery as agent 007. Like most of these films, it was promoted as "Ian Fleming's Thunderball". The screenplay credit was Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, but noted as "Based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham", also credited as "Based on the original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming". Whittingham's sole, original screenplay credit usually is omitted from posters and promotional materials.

In the agreement between EON and himself, McClory agreed that he would not make another Thunderball adaptation for twelve years. In those twelve years, McClory's ownership of the Thunderball film rights did not prevent further Bond films — You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), and Diamonds Are Forever (1971), from featuring SPECTRE, Blofeld, and Blofeld's cat.

In 1976, at the twelve-year agreement's expiration, McClory and Connery wrote an original James Bond adventure, putatively titled either Warhead 8 or Warhead or James Bond of the Secret Service, with Connery as potential director and star. This film was scrapped when United Artists sued McClory, who was unable to finance a defence. In James Bond in the Cinema, John Brosnan argues that McClory and Connery learned specific plot details of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) that, supposedly, resembled Thunderball and Warhead. Indeed, early scripts of The Spy Who Loved Me featured Blofeld and SPECTRE as the villains; Karl Stromberg and his organisation replaced them.

In the 1980s, McClory finally asserted his rights to the James Bond character, helped by Jack Schwartzman and Warner Bros. financing to win a High Court decision against United Artists. Amongst the conditions of the settlement was that the project must be based on the original film scripts/novel and nothing peculiar to the Thunderball film, that the words "James Bond", "Thunderball" and "007" not be used in the project's title, and initially McClory and Schwarzman would have the right to only make one Bond project (later changed in other settlements). Consequently, in 1983, Schwartzman and McClory produced Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball, written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., featuring Sean Connery's very publicised reprise of the James Bond role after a twelve-year hiatus. That same year, EON Productions released the thirteenth film in the "official" series, Octopussy, with Roger Moore as James Bond. The press quickly dubbed the situation the "Battle of the Bonds", especially during the short time when both films were almost simultaneously slated in cinemas; ultimately, they were released months apart. In the end, both were successful, though Octopussy made more money at the box office.

In the 1990s, Sony and McClory planned another, second Thunderball remake, titled Warhead 2000 A.D., with either Liam Neeson or Timothy Dalton as James Bond, (the latter reprising the role a third time). In 1997, Sony announced a rival James Bond series, which forced MGM and Danjaq, LLC (the EON Productions owners) to sue Sony and McClory, barring them from doing so. This third Thunderball production was abandoned in 1999 with Sony's out-of-court settlement with MGM, ceding all rights to making James Bond films. Nevertheless, McClory continued claiming ownership of the Thunderball film rights; MGM and EON asserted McClory's rights as expired. In the settlement, MGM relinquished their partial rights to Spider-Man, allowing Sony's releasing the film in 2002. In 1997, MGM got the Never Say Never Again distribution rights after buying Orion Pictures.

Moreover, in 2005, MGM was acquired by a Sony/Comcast-led consortium allowing Sony Pictures Entertainment to become responsible for the distribution of the James Bond film series, beginning with Casino Royale (2006). McClory died on November 20, 2006 at age 80. It remains unknown what will become of the Thunderball material of which he claimed ownership.

In 1965, the Thunderball film was released. Most of it is adapted from the novel, changed mostly to incorporate the pre-title teaser and unique gadgets. Story continuity is another major difference between the cinematic and the literary versions of Thunderball; SPECTRE was first featured in Thunderball but in the film series, it appeared earlier in Dr. No and From Russia with Love.

Like all of Fleming's previous Bond novels, a comic strip adaptation was published daily in the British Daily Express newspaper and syndicated worldwide, beginning on December 11, 1961, however, the Daily Express suddenly cancelled the strip (per Lord Beaverbrook) on February 10, 1962, when Beaverbrook and Fleming disputed the rights to the short story "The Living Daylights". Fleming had sold them to the rival newspaper Sunday Times, upsetting Beaverbrook to ending their relationship. Writer Henry Gammidge and illustrator John McLusky were given only a few days' notice and were forced to conclude the story in only two daily strips.

The original strip published in the Daily Express only reached Giuseppe Petacchi's hijacking of the bomber and two nuclear bombs for SPECTRE. The strip ended in the next panel (No. 1117), stating that afterwards SPECTRE communicated demands to the Western governments and that all intelligence agents, including James Bond, were sent to search for them. The concluding line reads: "Bond finds them and the world is safe". Six more panels for the Daily Express version were originally completed by artist John McLusky detailing the hijacking of the bomber aeroplane; however, they went unprinted. A further six panels also were created to expand and conclude the story. These are included in several syndicated versions of the comic strip.

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Thunderball (soundtrack)

Thunderball is the soundtrack for the 4th James Bond film of the same name.

The soundtrack was released by United Artists Records in 1965. The music was composed and conducted by John Barry, and performed by the John Barry Orchestra. This was Barry's third soundtrack for the series. The soundtrack was not finished by the time the film was released in theaters and only featured twelve tracks, roughly only the first half of the film; the last seven tracks were released for the first time when the soundtrack was issued on Compact Disc on February 25, 2003. Additionally, the music in the film was unfinished days before the release of the film in theaters due to a late change by EON Productions to use a title song with the same name as the film.

The original main title 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. Barry had thought he couldn't write a song about a vague "Thunderball" term or the story of the film, so his song was a description of the character of James Bond.

The song was originally recorded by Shirley Bassey, but was later rerecorded by Dionne Warwick. Both versions were 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 movie would not work well if the song did not have the title of the film in its lyrics. John Barry 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." Like "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", the lyrics of "Thunderball" are a description of Bond's character.

Country musician Johnny Cash also submitted a song to EON productions titled "Thunderball" but it wasn't used. The lyrics of Cash's "Thunderball" describe the story of the film.

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Thunderball (film)

Thunderball (1965) is the fourth spy film in the James Bond series Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964), and the fourth to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham. 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 holds 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 (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. 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 had a complex production, with four different units and about a quarter of the film consisting of underwater scenes.

The film was a success, earning a total of $141.2 million worldwide, exceeding the earnings of the three previous Bond films and breaking 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. Thunderball is to date, the most financially successful movie of the series and adjusting for inflation made the equivalent of $966.4 million in 2008 currency. Although a commercial success, Thunderball received mixed reviews from critics. Some critics and viewers showered praise on the film and branded it as a welcome addition to the series, while others complained of the repetitively monotonous aquatic action and prolonged show duration.

In the pre-title sequence, James Bond (Sean Connery) attends the funeral of Colonel Jacques Bouvar, a SPECTRE operative (Number 6), who had murdered two British spies. 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 to improve his health. While massaged by physiotherapist Patricia Fearing (Molly Peters), he notices Count Lippe (Guy Doleman), a suspicious man with a criminal tattoo (from a Tong). He 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 (Paul Stassino), a French NATO pilot deployed to fly an Avro Vulcan jet bomber loaded with two nuclear bombs for a training session.

He is replaced by SPECTRE's surgically altered henchman named Angelo who gasses the crew during the training and sinks the plane near the Bahamas. He is killed underwater by Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) (SPECTRE No. 2), however, for considering himself underpaid (and subsequently trying to extort more money). Following this Largo and his henchmen 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 an assassin, Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi), 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 (Claudine Auger), is in Nassau, Bond asks M (Bernard Lee) 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 psychological cat-and-mouse game to draw each other out. Bond's assistant Paula (Martine Beswick) is eventually abducted by Largo for questioning; she kills herself just before Bond can rescue her.

At a Junkanoo celebration in Nassau, Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) tries to kill Bond but is shot by her own bodyguard. Soon, Bond and CIA case officer Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) 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. Disguised as Largo's henchman, Bond uncovers his plan to detonate the bombs in Miami Beach.

En route to the cave where the bombs will be temporarily stored, Bond's cover is blown by Largo. After an underwater battle with Largo's men, Bond is rescued by Leiter who orders a unit of United States Coast Guard sailors 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 surviving henchmen surrender.

Finally, Largo escapes to his ship, the Disco Volante (Italian: Flying Saucer), which still has one bomb aboard; Bond follows him and sneaks aboard. During a 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.

André Maranne, best known for portraying Sergeant François Chevalier in the Pink Panther films, cameos as SPECTRE #10.

Originally meant as the first James Bond film, Thunderball was the center of legal disputes that began in 1961 and, as of 2008, continue. Former Ian Fleming collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham sued Fleming 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. 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, along with the official credits to screenwriters Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, the screenplay is also 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 official EON production.

Broccoli's original choice for the role of Domino Derval was Julie Christie following her performance in Billy Liar in 1963. Upon meeting her personally, however, he was disappointed and turned his attentions towards Raquel Welch after seeing her on the cover of the October 1964 issue of Life magazine. Welch, however, was hired by Richard Zanuck of 20th 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. 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. Eventually 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. Nevertheless, director Young would cast her once again in his next film Triple Cross (1966). One of the actresses that tried for Domino, Luciana Paluzzi, later accepted the role as the redheaded femme fatale assassin Fiona Kelly who originally was intended by Maibaum to be Irish. The surname was changed to Volpe in coordination with Paluzzi's nationality.

Guy Hamilton was invited to direct, but considered himself worn out and "creatively drained" after the production of Goldfinger. Terence Young, director of the first two Bond films, returned to the series. Coincidentally, when Saltzman invited him to direct Dr. No, Young expressed interest in directing adaptations of Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Thunderball. Years later, Young said Thunderball was filmed "at the right time", considering that if it was the first film in the series the short budget — Dr. No cost only $1 million — wouldn't have good results.

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.

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. 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 which he used to get close-up shots of the secretive missiles and those appearing in the film were not actually present. Most of the underwater scenes had to be done at lower tides due to the sharks in the Bahamian sea.

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. He insisted that Ken Adam build a special Plexiglas partition inside the pool but, despite this, it was not a fixed structure and one of the sharks managed to pass through it. Connery had to abandon the pool immediately, seconds away from attack. Another dangerous situation occurred when special effects coordinator John Stears brought in a supposed dead shark carcass to be towed around the pool. The shark, however, was not dead and revived at one point. 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.

The climactic underwater battle was shot at Clifton Pier and 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. Voit provided much of the underwater gear in exchange for product placement and film tie-in merchandise. Lamar Boren, an underwater photographer, was brought in to shoot all of the sequences. United States 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 for Goldfinger 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 United States Navy's still-experimental Fulton surface-to-air recovery 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 liquid, 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. Stears went on to win an Academy Award for his work on Thunderball.

As the filming neared its conclusion, Connery had become increasingly agitated with press intrusion and was distracted with 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. According to editor Peter Hunt, Thunderball's release was delayed for three months, from September until December 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.

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 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.

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. Instead Ricou Browning, the film's underwater director, used it to make Bond's arrival more dramatic.

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 (although concealed) had ever been seen in a Bond film.

The title theme was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. It was the third James Bond score composed by Barry, after From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. It was originally entitled "Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", 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." Country musician Johnny Cash also submitted a song to EON productions titled "Thunderball" but it was not used.

Critics such as James Berardinelli praised Connery's performance, the femme fatale character of Fiona Volpe and the underwater action sequences remarking that they were well choreographed and clearly shot. He criticized the length of the scenes, however, and believed they were too long and were in need of editing particularly during the climax. At Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 90% "fresh" rating.

Thunderball won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects awarded to John Stears in 1966. Ken Adam the production director was also nominated for a Best Production Design 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.

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List of James Bond allies in Thunderball

This is a list of James Bond allies in the 1965 film and 1961 novel Thunderball.

Paula Caplan is a fictional character in the James Bond film, Thunderball. She is played by Martine Beswick.

Paula is first seen when Bond visits Nassau to meet Dominique Derval. Paula is a local Bahamian islander who, along with Pinder, is Bond's native contact on the island.

Whilst reading magazines in her hotel room waiting for Bond, Fiona Volpe arrives and Largo's men take her captive. Bond makes an attempt to rescue Paula from Largo's mansion, but when he reaches her, she has already committed suicide by taking cyanide to avoid revealing information by torture.

Pinder is a fictional character in the James Bond film, Thunderball. He is played by Earl Cameron.

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