The Amazing Making of Thunderball: The Big-Budget 007 Blockbuster

John Stears Won Special Effects Production Award For Thunderball 1965 Film.

Either A.I.
or Bad editing.
Embarrassing either way.
Shame.

In the undersea battle, it seems that the wildlife scenes from the eel going back into its rock, a giant lobster moving away, an octopus hanging out by a dead scuba diver and the sharks were really naturally happening.

It also seems like they really harpooned those sharks like when you see the blood coming out of the shark that swims away after getting harpooned.

Do you think the scenes with the sea creatures wildlife were real happenings or staged use of sea creatures?

This was the first bond movie I saw in 1978 at 11 years of age. It was on ABC, which always had the TV rights to the Bond series until ABC let Turner have it in 1990 for his TNT superstation.

I didn’t know about James Bond, but my father said he wanted to watch it. I was taken aback with the gun barrel opening as I had never seen anything like that going against the usual pattern. And in the opening, I thought that “lady” was the queen of England going to her fancy home. I got quite a charge when James hit her, I yelled out “Why did you hit the queen of England!” to reveal to my surprise that it was really the bad guy and I was very excited and sold on the bond series at that moment.

When the good parachute force was jumping into the ocean, I was super excited as I knew what was going to happen and I always was interested in the sea and scuba diving and I had thoughts before about wanting to see a movie with a undersea harpoon battle but didn’t think that such a movie existed yet now I knew it did and here it was before me.

I had a great time. This is a special Bond movie for me.

I don’t bother with the recent films from Bronson onward. Too much time has passed, too watered down and so they are too unlike the way they were the first 30 years. It’s time to enjoy these classics from one generation to the next while at the same time end the series and create something new.

The scenes with the sea life seems real not staged. They even harpooned that shark and blood comes out while it swims away.

How about that big lobster backing away, the eel going back into its rock and the octopus hanging around the dead scuba giuy. Looks like real natural happenings that they wisely kept in the movie.

It doesn’t seem like any of that couid be staged.

It doesn’t seem like the sea life scenes were staged. Like the big lobster backing away and the shark getting harpooned and blood coming out while it swims away.

Were the sea life scenes during the undersea battle staged ? It seems real events like the lobster backing away and the shark getting harpooned and blood coming out while it swims away.

Hi

Saw the film as a kid in period, loved the Vulcan in the story.
Given the cold war of the time the storyline is very believable.

I remember the 1985 scene on the boat with the water moving rediculously fast in the back ground. Even back then I thought it was hokey for a Bond movie. You have to keep in mind, until the Bond movies began to get silly, they were known for the expensive locations, it seemed to bring you into the scene with 007. But that water scene I think was the beginning of the sillyness and it was noticed. My entired household laughed at that cheap scene in a BOND movie. They had to know better, and I can't imagine why they didn't adjust the back ground to a more realistic speed. That scene was probably the worst part of the movie and probably should have been cut out.

Moonraker was also my first 007 film. Saw it in 1979

In the sixties, I was working for Intermountain Aviation at Marana Air Park. We had the B-17, N809Z which was being used by Robert Fulton to test and improve his Skyhook Pickup System. It's the same plane used in the final scene in Thunderball, picking Bond and friend up from the water. It actually works as shown. The only thing missing is the tail number N809Z on the B-17. Fulton was one great guy to work with..

Who were the Bronte' Sisters, and what was their claim to fame?

The B-17 is now at a museum in at Evergreen, OR.

Incredible information!

I saw the premiere of Thunderball in 1965... I just turned 8 yrs old... what a fantastic movie! And while I am aware of the things and tidbits already mentioned here, I never knew one of the 00 agents (at the briefing) was in fact a woman! How cool is THAT!!!

For me, Roger Moore will always be 'The Saint'.

I became a Bond fan after watching Thunderball in my teens, and only later saw the three earlier films. I was aware of the dispute between EON and McClory, but this has provided a lucid explanation as to what that was all about as well as many, many other "inside" tidbits that I never knew until now. This is an excellent exposition; well done!

My favourite bond. It will be.

Your content doesn't match the title.

Yes interesting that stunt man Bob Simmons did the gun barrel sequence for the first three Bond movies. In the pre title sequence for Thunderball stunt man Bob Simmons plays the part of the "widow" that Bond punches in the face and has a brutal fight with....so Bob is doing the stunts but it is also him playing the part disguised as a woman with make up etc. And talking of stunt doubles, when you see Sean Connery swimming underwater in his scuba gear he swims beautifully , like a pro diver who knows how to move and use his legs and flippers, well that is because Connery had a great body double who was a pro diver and who's physique matched Connery's perfectly, so aside from some reaction close ups of Connery's face behind his diving mask, all his underwater swimming was done by his professional scuba diving double, you can't really tell that it is not Connery, the body match is so good.

One minor point: The ransom was 100 million British Pounds, then equivalent to 280 million US Dollars.

This was the first Bond movie I ever saw at a movie theater when I was a little kid, so I have a sentimental place about this movie, even though most critics say it's mediocre at best.

Good job; excellent.
I saw it as a double feature with You Only Live Twice. My mom took us kids to see it in 69. Do: Her Majesties Secret Service; a sleeping favorite of mine. Go George Lazenby and Telly Savalas.

its intr, that i saw neve8r say never again first back in -86 at video, and then i saw thunderball -87, i was a kid back in the 80s and at age of 6 in late 83, i saw my first james bond movie, and back in 84, i saw many more bondfilms and fell in love with bond, mostly moore. like u it toke me so far as mid 90s i got that thunderball and never say never again was based on same story. anyhow i love them both.

This video gets so many things wrong!

Imagine making a movie with Orson Welles, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen and a soundtrack by Burt Bacharach and still screw it up completely.

My favorite favorite James Bond film

No mention of the RAF Vulcan bomber in the film?

Molly Peters (Pat Fearing, the "Steam Room Nurse") was a successful nude model and pin-up girl before making her credited film debut in this film.

Did Connery really look tired and burned out in "You only live twice" or he just acted as expected for the given scenario?
I though directors would reshoot any scene that is not rendered well, given a good budget.

The Brontē sisters are relatives to the Brontēsaurus.

Goldfinger and Thunderball are the two best Bond movies they are both fantastic fun.

HOW much chaos could have been prevented if Flemng had simply credited his collaborators on the novel, and split the profits with them?

Crazy but true: When Bond goes after Jacques Bouvier, fights him and BREAKS his neck, then FLIES away to escape the chateau... the entire scene was inspired by the climax of the novel "You Only Live Twice". In there, it was Blofeld who was in disguise, who got his neck snapped, and Bond escaped his castle via a balloon with a SKULL painted on it.


Watching the films on ABC, especially when they started butchering them by the late 70s, I had trouble remembering what the plot of THUNDERBALL was. I was also reading the novels in the 70s. When I read "Thunderball", everything was straightforward and made sense. Then I saw the movie a 3rd time... and immediately understood why I had trouble following it. IT'S A MESS. Too many characters, sub-plots, diversions and gadgets. And NONE of the characters get enough screen-time to be decvloped properly! And when ABC cut HALF of the underwater battle, it undercut the big climax all that confusion was leading up to. Insanely, TB was the film 90% of the producers of other spy movies in the mid-late 60s tried to imitate.

I wish Raquel Welch had played Domino. Her specialty was swimming, she wouldn't have needed to be dubbed, and I find her WAY more attractive than Claudine Auger. She was under contract with Fox, who used her publicity for TB to their advantage, but then at the last second, yanked her away to do FANTASTIC VOYAGE. She's good in that, but Domino would have been a MUCH-bigger role giving her far-more to do onscreen.


See Q PLANES (1939). It was written by Jack Whittingham, and if you watch it, you can SEE which parts of THUNDERBALL were his ideas. It involves baddies downing a series of planes to steal tech on the planes. But the climax involves a group of captured crews escaping and starting a running gun-battle on the baddie's ship-- very similar to the film THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. The 1939 film stars Ralph Richardson as an eccentric British agent, who Patrick Macnee said he based "John Steed" on for THE AVENGERS.

As a fan of the 007 series (until Pierce Brosnam was booted out - his words - from the role), I really enjoy your work here. You got a new subscriber, my friend! 👍

I liked it until the sped up boat sequence at the end. That was an obvious gimmick. It looked too fake. And the overly long underwater action scene with no dialogue to speak of (pun intended). Oh well, otherwise a good Bond flic. I guess the success of Goldfinger made this one a hit with the public. Despite several good scenes, it is one of my least favorite Bond movies.

The car chase scene I believe was filmed at the Aintree horse racing circuit, hence the white fencing. They used to hold the British F1 Grand Prix race there in the 50's and 60's. Fiona Vulpe......swoooon. Certainly was a Fox.

My Favorite Bond Adventure

But in the final analysis. EON legally brought all rights to the Kevin McClory material!!!!

Back in the 1960s Keds sneakers commercials featured Commander Keds who used a jet pack like that. 🙂

Thunderball is the last classic, essencial James Bond movie. It has Sean Connery and Terence Young.

this review would be a lot better if you weren't constantly "apologizing" for what was OK "for the times".

Thunder ball is Another Great Bond Film to Me. I really like Thunder Ball 007 Film to Me

Another fantastic video jam packed with stuff even a long time Bond fan like me did not know!
To me , Thunderball and Goldfinger represent the peak of the series.
Sean was absolutely at his coolest in these films and if you look at what action heroes in movies and television were like after these two films you could really see the obvious influence he had on the entire genre.
An influence that still continues today - 60 years later!

I think that Thunderball is unique in the length of time Bond is absent from the screen continuously, during the nuclear bomb theft sequence, about fifteen minutes !

The Disco Volante could reach the speed of 95mph? I think not. 95kph is nearer the mark

I think the problem people have with this movie is that they have only ever watched it on television. It was designed for the cinema. Television does not do justice to the underwater scenes. I agree with the person who said "Bond" will always be Connery.

Luciana Paluzzi and Martine Beswick went to the Bahamas for the 60 th Anniversary of Thunderball. Luciana now 87 said on the “Really 007 Podcast that in Nassau they recreated the Kiss Kiss Club exactly the way it was in 1965 and Luciana danced with Jason Connery to the same song that she danced to 60 years earlier with his dad Sean but this time she was able to finish the dance. Luciana also said “ the original ( bongo player) also was there and played again.