So a little info about the gunbarrel intro here: The first three films had a different gunbarrel opening with Connery's stuntman Bob Simmons doing the "turn around and shoot". This was the first gunbarrel with Connery himself in it and it would stay for the rest of his Bond films.
@@matthewdavidjarvis6039 Hahaha, I don't think Bob would mind your comment. I agree on most of your thoughts there. I actually really love the Lazenby gun barrel and also adore the Dalton and Brosnan ones. Though I gotta say that something's missing in the Brosnan ones for me. Maybe because he just does literally nothing odd or unique. He just walks, turns and shoots. All of the other gun barrels have a bit more character to them, even if they're flawed. Which could be a bit of a metaphor for how I see Brosnan's Bond as a whole 😬 Still love him, though. He's just not my fav by a long shot.
I really like Lazenby's, had a lot of style to it, and reeks of confidence. Much like how he played the role. He is a very underrated Bond all around imo. His film is also very faithful to the novel, which I appreciated. If he had a better agent at the time, and didn't goof around as much on set and irk Broccoli so much, he could've done a few more. And possibly became one of the best ever to play the role.
@@codyt821 I agree. Lazenby's gunbarrel is one of my all time favs :) It's a shame that he couldn't continue on, but at least he got to star in one of the all time best Bond films.
Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi (who played Fiona Volpe) stole this movie for me. Not only was she a very sultry, sexy femme fatale Paluzzi had fantastic chemistry with Sean Connery and the charged confrontation between Bond and Volpe after their night together ('What I did was for King and Country') is a real highlight. There is really anger from both characters and I think they recognised a little bit of each other in each other which is why they are both so strongly insisting their night together was just business. If there is a downside it is that the film loses something after she's gone.
Yeah Fiona Volpe is definitely one of the best Bond villains. She almost defined the Bond femme-fatale character. Luciana Paluzzi REALLY stole the film whenever she was onscreen. Film really felt like a piece was missing after she died. You were always looking forward to more scenes of her and seeing her again, so when she's gone... you lose that. I wonder if her living to be a recurring nemesis would've been better... Bond having an 'equal' opposite version of himself in SPECTRE to run into all the time.
A similar, if not the same system was used during World War II. Before helicopters were common, sometimes it was the only was to rescue people in terrain too rough, for a plane to land on.
@@porflepopnecker4376 Which was likely inspired by 1968's The Green Berets(with John Wayne), as the second half of the movie involved kidnapping a Viet Cong general using this method. Note that Fox mentioned it as a wartime invention.
It's probably best to hold off from watching the Austin Powers movies for a while. He should get through Moonraker before watching them, at the very least.
@@MAMoreno I totally agree. You should watch more or less all the Sean Connery and Roger Moore James Bond movies and THEN the Austin Powers trilogy to get most of the references and get the maximum enjoyment out of those great parodies. The Austin Powers movies are to the earlier James Bond movies what Galaxy Quest is to the Star Trek franchise. Both are parodies done right, which makes them an hommage to the originals. They don't mock the originals, they celebrate them.
@@mcassidy1976 You're right. I always screw up those names. I was of course referring to Galaxy Quest, not the computer game (which was also excellent, but that's another story).
Here is some important info for the rest of the series (don't worry, no spoilers): So, this was actually written by Ian Fleming with Kevin McClory as a screenplay, but it never came to be at that time, so Fleming used that screenplay and turned it into his novel "Thunderball". However, he stupidly failed to credit McClory for the parts that he claimed he had written, one of them being the invention of Blofeld, who in the novels, made his first appearance in Thunderball. It turned into a whole lawsuit between McClory and EON Productions, which eventually lead to them not being able to use Blofeld or SPECTRE for a long time. So once SPECTRE doesn't appear anymore in the films and it seems a bit odd, that's why.
If you like Bond, why not try the Michael Caine spy flicks? Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin etc, etc. Obviously not Bond but a lot of the same producers etc. Worth a watch :)
Harry Palmer is kind of an anti-Bond: nerdy, unglamorous, doesn't even like his job. It's AMAZING. These movies are a must see, especially the second one. Also the sort of unofficial 4th movie "The Fifth Protocol".
@@SierraSierraFoxtrot Our Man Flint was indeed a comedy; its sequel, Our Man Flint, was equally farcical if not more so. But it was surely one of the glossiest imitation Bonds out there during the spy boom that consumed the second half of the 60's. (I haven't yet seen the Matt Helm films with Dean Martin, but I imagine he comes close to Coburn in sang-froid.) 😎
The explosion of the Disco Vollante hydrofoil was a great one: “While in Nassau, during the final shooting days, special-effects supervisor John Stears was supplied experimental rocket fuel to use in exploding Largo's yacht. 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 30 miles away.[4] Stears went on to win an Academy Award for his work on Thunderball.”
Some info on the shark scene in the pool. There was a piece of plexiglas put between Connery and that corridor that the sharks would come through, but they underestimated how much glas they would have needed and a shark got through. Connery's reaction when one of them swims towards him was genuine. It scared the living shit out of him and he got out of the pool real fast!
One of the best parts of older films is that CGI was never a thought. So everything must be done in camera. Which simply makes for a much richer viewing experience.
@@spacecadet35 I would say that having computer graphics visible on a display -- like a display on a computer terminal where the graphics are supposed to be, well... computer display graphics -- is not the same thing as what we mean by CGI (Computer Generated Images) in SFX today. When we say CGI we mean computer created graphics that are supposed to be believable as some kind of element -- character, vehicle, explosion -- that is supposed to pass as being something it is not (a 'real' ape instead of a ultra realistic computer drawing of an ape). Even a lot of the FX in Tron that were meant to look like graphics displayed on a computer screen -- like the game Flynn plays in the arcade -- were actually just traditional cell animation drawn to look like a 'computer graphic' because it was easier and cheaper to produce cell animation than complex computer graphics at the time. I'm not sure what the true first use of CGI in place of some effect that would have otherwise been done is some practical ways is but one of the first significant uses of cgi instead of practical effects was the cgi model of the Gunstar space ship in The Last Starfighter (1984) instead of a physical model. It is not at all a very convincing effect -- and they knew that it wasn't. But since the movie was thematically about video games, they knew that it would be okay if the spaceships looked 'like a video game' instead of 'realistic' like the ships in Star Wars or 2001. They knew that since it was a very young, video game crowd, target audience, that effects that looked kind of 'video game-y' would be a great opportunity to push the boundaries of technology and of audiences accepting the new technology in place of traditional in camera effects. It didn't look like a 'real' spaceship, but at the time, during one of the early video game crazes, it just looked new , different, and 'cool' somehow. I remember Jurassic Park (1993) being heavily promoted under the guise that the cgi would be convincing and hard to tell apart from the practical effects used on the same elements (such as going back and forth between shots of the real, full size T Rex prop and the cgi T Rex shots). I think JP is a good benchmark for the first film to have successfully believable cgi making them something that the industry considered really viable for high end SFX movies. Before JP there really had not been any films that expected you to take cgi seriously as something that would be considered on par with other top level visual effects of the time. Compare the cgi in JP to the cgi model of the lizard version of Reptile in Mortal Kombat (1995). Reptile looks very 'fake' compared to anything in JP, but 'good' cgi was still very expensive and this was another case of using cgi because (if you didn't mind it looking fake) it was cheaper than doing a top notch version in traditional effects (like a high end version in stop motion) and they could get a way with it here because of the 'cool' factor of relatively new technology and the fact that, once again, the MK movie was thematically video game related. I still didn't like cgi though as I love in camera FX and the look of really good stop motion. MK was a pretty great looking movie overall, Goro looked great, and the cheap quality Reptile stood out like a sore thumb to me. I think if they could have afforded a high end stop motion character instead it would hold up better today than the cgi Reptile which dates the effect to a very specific period of time in the development of cgi for use in SFX. The first movie where I had to admit that cgi was 'better' than any practical effect could have looked for the same effect was Davy Jones in POTC: Dead Man's Chest (2006). But I don't think display graphics like the Death Star plans in Star Wars should count as cgi. If the computer graphics are just supposed to be actual graphics on a screen I would just call it a use of Computer Graphics being featured in the film, not a case of CGI being used to create a 'Special Effect'. For instance, if you had a scene in a movie today where some kids were playing a video game and there was an actual video game on the movie screen in the background of the shot, you wouldn't give anyone an academy award for 'Special Effects' because some actual computer graphics happened to be visible in the background. But if the kids playing the video game were little green men from Mars, and the aliens were cgi created digital characters, you might give an award for 'Special Effects' for the digital characters.
@@willarms5510 - The cgi in Westworld was very simple. It consisted of pixelating the point of view of the Yul Brunner robot. Most people nowadays would not even give it a second thought. But for 1973, it was ground breaking.
In the books, Thunderball was actually the first appearance of Spectre. This is one of the movies that follows the book most closely. In fact, it started life as a movie synopsis with the intention of making this the first movie, before they settled on Dr. No instead, while Ian Fleming turned the synopsis into a book. However, it appears that Fleming was a bit lax in giving credit where credit was due. At least, so the courts ruled. Producer Kevin McClory and writer Jack Whittingham argued successfully that the idea behind Spectre had been theirs in the first place. This had ramifications for the movies many years later.
A lot of cutting-edge underwater technology was invented just to make this film happen. Even today, underwater battles a very rare to see in movies. Unfortunately, as a whole, Goldfinger was more satisfying. But I like Thunderball because it expands the Bond universe by showing how Specter operates, shows other Agents in MI6 for the first time, has even more gadgets, and has Bond doing a lot of actual sneaking around. The next film, You Only Live Twice, is my personal favorite. I'll probably sign-up on your Patreon to watch that one!
I think Moneypenny deserves a period spinoff. From university student to WREN at the outbreak of WWII, to Bletchley Park codebreaker, to cold war field agent in the late 40s, to M's personal secretary by 1953 when the books begin.
Oh yes. They can get Tessa Thompson to play her and make her non binary. Mr. Bond is headed towards total deconstruction in the upcoming film. If it’s ever released that is. As a person who saw these films as a kid in theaters with my dad, it’s disheartening.
One story about this movie is that, soon after it was released, the US navy contacted the UK navy and wanted to buy that tiny little breathing apparatus Bond uses in the movie, to which the British had to reply that it was just a non-functioning movie prop. If it's true, I don't know, but the tale has been around for a long time.
That tiny breathing apparatus for Bond, the C.I.A. actually inquired with the movie on how to build such a device but, LOL, the movie people told them the truth, it was just a movie prop! TRUE STORY!!
Fleming originally came up with a screen treatment for "Thunderball" with another writer named Kevin McClory. When that fell through, Fleming turned the story into his next Bond novel which would later become part of the Eon film series. McClory retained the rights to produce his own "Thunderball" film, which eventually came to pass with "Never Say Never Again" for which Connery agreed to return as Bond (it competed at the box office with Eon's execrable "Octopussy.") Tom Jones' dynamic theme song was a second choice--a song called "Mr. Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang" was recorded earlier by Dionne Warwick, the melody of which can still be heard in the street party chase scene. The aerial stunt at the end was later reprised in "The Dark Knight." Luciana Paluzzi, so effective as "Fiona Volpe", had appeared with Frankie and Annette in "Muscle Beach Party" the year before. I enjoyed your enthusiastic reaction to this film very much and was glad that my own reservations about it didn't seem to faze you at all. I'm looking forward to your reaction to "You Only Live Twice", my second favorite Connery Bond after "Goldfinger."
The British military actually made an inquiry where they could get the miniature breathing device Bond was using. 😆 That shows the impact of Q's fancy gadgets. And "Thunderball" may be the only movie ever that got a remake with the same lead actor in "Never say never again" in 1983!
I think it was this one where Bond was in a shark tank and to film it they placed a clear glass or plexi screen in front of him to basically isolate him from the live sharks. One shark swam past the screen and actually got near Connery.
My family actually had a board game of Thunderball. You got to play the scuba divers. By older brother had a model of the Aston Martin with interchangeable license and bullet proof shield. The Mustang Mach 1 from Diamonds Are Forever is still my “win the lottery” car. JB definitely a part of my youth.
The Girl Who Played Paula was Martine Beswick who was one of the fighting gypsy girls in From Russia With Love. Also not quite sure what your confusion with the underwater battle was as the good guys were in red and the bad guys were in black. Finally a special shout out to Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona volpe probably one of the best henchmen/woman in the whole franchise.
Apparently there were issues during filming on all 3 Terence Young films in that they sometimes didn't shoot the camera angles that they actually wanted, which is why there's loads of jump cuts and weird edits to get round this problem in the underwater battle/boat fights (this also happened a lot in FRWL which I assume is why there's the weird spedup bits in the pre titles )
One of the best Bond movies ever! The only complaint I have is how fake looking the rear screen projection was during the climax on the Disco Volante, and how awkwardly abrupt the end scene and the closing credits were, not even using the Tom Jones theme song.
The Skyhook retrieval method at the end of the film was an actual military method of retrieval. This is also the only Bond film to be remade in 1983 under the name Never Say Never Again. This was due to a copyright lawsuit for the book Thunderball that gave control of the copyright to another family besides the Broccoli family who own all the rights to the other Bond books.
_Thunderball_ features Bond's smoothest, funniest moment. _Bond finds Fiona Volpe nude in his hotel bathtub_ 🛀 Fiona: "Since you're here, would you mind giving me something to put on?" _Bond casually hands Fiona her shoes_ 👡👡
When Tom Jones got the lyrics of the theme song he spoke to Shirley Bassey who had sung Goldfinger (which was a big hit on the radio) and asked her what he was supposed to do with that garbage. She told him just do what I did, go in, song the hell out of it and collect your check.
2:24 I saw one of these jet packs in person. Landed just a few feet away. It's crazy loud, I kind of wished I had earplugs. They only have about 30 seconds of flight time.
I have stood where that estate once stood. It is Paradise Island, Bahamas. Today, it’s the Atlantis Resort. When I was there, the estate house was gone, but the sea wall and round pool was still there, abandoned. It was on the property of the Holiday Inn Resort & Casino that was developed from the original estate location that Thunderball was filmed at. I was there in 1986, Atlantis did not yet exist, but that property and most of all the adjoining properties were already purchased in anticipation for the Atlantis development. The sea wall structures remained well through the 1990’s into the early 2000’s. Last time I was there, late 2000’s it was all gone with the final development of the Atlantis.
Loved your reactions, Shan! Good analysis too! Glad you enjoyed it. I am 71 and a lifelong Bond fan. Actually have seen most of the films in their initial showing in theaters. Looking forward to seeing No Time To Die. I like Craig a lot, but Timothy Dalton is my fav actor because he played the character closest to Fleming's Bond.
This movie launched the Thunderball Board Game......our family had one but i was too young to understand the game. Connery was indeed THE 007 actor, Roger Moore was my personal favorite; so it will be fascinating to hear your review when you get to his series of films!
It is said that Tom Jones actually passed out in the last note of Thunderball theme song because he held it so long!! If you listen really close with headphones on you can hear it!!!
If it was a man on wires then the stuntman wouldn't have worn that brown helmet - the stuntman wasn't permitted to use the jetpack without wearing it, and even though everyone thought that there was no way the Bond character would worry about PPE or health and safety ... or ever contemplate ruining his dapper look with such an ugly accessory, the only way the stunt could be filmed back then was with the jet pack operator wearing the safety helmet.
This film had a very strange and interesting rights dispute behind it. Basically, Fleming and a guy named Kevin McClory (along with a third guy I believe) collaborated on writing an original screenplay to bring Bond to the big screen. This screenplay would turn out to be Thunderball. However, Fleming later terminated his partnership with McClory, but decided to turn Thunderball into a novel without crediting him as a writer. McClory sued and ended up winning, giving him the movie rights. This is why you see him credited as a producer instead of Broccoli and Saltzman. McClory would end up becoming a major pain in the ass for the Broccoli's, going so far as to remake Thunderball many years later and bringing back Sean Connery as Bond. This was during the time when Roger Moore was in his latter years as Bond. The film was called Never Say Never Again, and it went up against Octopussy at the box office. Octopussy ended up winning in the end, much to the dismay of McClory. However, this whole fiasco with Thunderball was never really settled until 2013, when MGM ended up buying McClory's rights to the film. If I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me. I'm really just going off of what I learned about it in a James Bond documentary I saw about a year ago.
The awkward continuity in the Spectre story arc is do to the fact that in the novels it was usually Smersh or some organization that had nothing to do with Spectre. Not to mention the books are in a completely different order of continuity. Example: From Russia with Love was originally meant to be last with Bond's death at the end... Fleming later retconned it himself.
Please react to The Hunt For Red October (1990) it's directed by John Mctiernan & stars Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, & Tim Curry. It's based on one of the Jack Ryan books written by Tom Clancy.
Shan, You're going to find the set on the next Bond "You Only Live Twice" incredible. In fact, it was the largest movie set ever made at the time, I've heard on a documentary about it. Besides that, the awesome country where the movie is set in given the recent WWII, and the beginning scene which reflected the real deal going on at the time! Yep, you're going to like that one too which I think is right up there with Goldfinger. No need to research it. Don't get any spoilers! Just do it!! LOL! But I will tell you this; Connery said it was the last Bond movie he will ever make. Of course he was in two others and the title of his last Bond flick was a tease on him by the producers! Anyway, I'll start watching your Thunderball vid as it's an awesome Connery/Bond film. BTW, consider doing the next Bond film after doing "You Only Live Twice", called "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with George Lazenby because I saw that Ian Flemming considered Lazenby as the ideal or preferred Bond personality. ✌️😎
Brief history of Never Say Never Again and the death of SPECTRE. Ian Fleming and a someone uninvolved in the franchise named Kevin McClory had a discussion about this movie. When the movie came out McClory sued because he felt he was entitled to a portion of the profits. He also argued since the movie contained SPECTRE references he was entitled to money whenever SPECTRE was used in the future as well. A judge agreed with him which is why Never Say Never Again -a complete remake of Thunderball - was released without the permission of the studio and the Saltzman and Broccoli. Since McClory would receive compensation whenever SPECTRE was used in a movie they dropped it. There would still be scenes with a man owning a white cat, but no mention of SPECTRE. 50 years later the legal issues were resolved and SPECTRE is in use again.
THUNDERBALL and the iconic image of BOND VS. LARGO UNDERWATER Many scuba divers today were influenced by this film. Until then, only SEAHUNT with Loyd Bridges and Skipper offered underwater filming. My first BIG SCREEN experience at age 8 while in Kansas City, 1965 > " Life changing !!" Fire-crackers, BB Guns and James Bond made for a great summer vacation. Oh, yeah. MAD magazine, for sure the best comedy a kid could want! Re-watching early Bond movies became a life staple.
Shan - the DISCO VOLANTE ship was an Amazing PRACTICAL effect , the boat was made using a REAL Hydrofoil and the added a Rear section to conceal the Hydrofoil and make it look like an Ordanary Cruiser . however a miniture was used to film the Explosion.
I can't believe you left out the one liner after Bond shoots the guy with a spear gun. "I think he got the point." Adjusted for inflation this was the highest grossing film of all time.
Not the best of the Bond films, but it's got my favourite evil henchman in it. I'm of course talking about the endlessly fascinating Vargas, who doesn't smoke, drink or make love. Like me... 😭
In 1983 Producer Jack Schwartzman who co-produced this still had the movie rights to the book Thunderball and decided to remake it with Sean Connery. It was an unofficial Bond picture so he didn't have rights to the memorable Bond music theme. It is still a very good film and costars a young Kim Basinger and Bernie Casey as the first black Felix Leiter. I hope you will react to it as well.
I was 10, and my father took me to see 'Thunderball'. It was my first James Bond film. Absolutely obsessed with Sean Connery. I still remember his photo on the cover of LIFE magazine, in his orange wetsuit. Still have the report card (...my mother saved ) from back then...with notes written by my teacher, about how I was failing in class, because I would only think about this movie.
This is where the gadgets start coming in, years later Connery reprised the Bond character in Never Say Never Again, it’s an unofficial 007 film and it’s a loose remake of Thunderball
Although Thunderball exceeded Goldfinger at the box office, I think it was largely because of Goldfinger's success. It is a slower paced film largely due too the underwater stuff. It also has a different feel to other Connery Bonds. I think having to work with kevin McClory as a co-producer did not help. This was due to him having won the film rights to Thunderball in a legal battle with Fleming. This was not resolved for over 40 years and why Spectre had to disappear at the end of the Connery films until the release of SPECTRE. Connery was terrified of the shark pool, he had to touch the glass to make sure it was there. When you see his face, his eyes are popping out of his head. All the bomb sleds were made for the film.
Hey my man. Awesome as always. Little trivia I thought you might like. The hotel and pool where James and Domino talk (9:21), where Fiona Volpa drops him off (11:34) along with many other scenes, is now closed and used by the Bahamian military/government I believe. The Hotel went bankrupt while trying to expand. They were building what looked like a 10 story expansion when they shut down. Reason I mention this is because that is the exact same location used in casino royale during the parkour chase up the cranes and through the construction site. That is the expansion of this hotel they run through, so the pool where Domino and James are, is just on the other side. Also was used to place cameras and shoot the emerging sub in....the spy who loved me? no...My Roger Moore bond's are fuzzy. Bahamas, the unofficial home on james bond. I could go on, Thunderball is a huge reason why paradise island is what it is today. check that out too. peace.
The atomic bombs were just the Mcguffin, it doesn't matter what happens to them. Note that jet pack was real, it weighed about 200 # and actually worked, that wasn't wires. They were invented in 1961.
2:25 that is a real jetpack! It was not done with wires!! However, the stepman refused to use the jetpack without the helmet. That's all you have the quick clip of Bond putting on the silver helmet.
I like Thunderball, but don't love it, it's paced pretty slowly, but has beautiful locations. I think it's pretty subdued for my taste, it's very middle of the road.
This is one of my favourite bonds from Sean time. But what i really enjoy was Fiona Volpe which probably she defined the role for femme fatale. (Rosa Kleber in Russia with love, was a vilain and didnt had any feautures of femme fatale) and Honor Blackman for me was more as a Henchwoman turn into bondgirl!
Shan - the jet is an Actual UK Avro Vulcan bomber , United Artists obtained actual Flight Footage from the Avro Vulcan and a REAL was used for the Underwater scenes as well.
Hi, great review, can't wait for the following episodes! Is this really your first time watching these films? How many of the recent ones have you seen? I look forward to seeing your future reactions, and your anticipated reveal of Spectre No.1 will not disappoint! Roll on YOLT!
Thunderball for me ranks third among my favorite Connery 007 films behind Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice. I think this middle period of the Connery films was the best before they started going downhill with Diamonds Are Forever.
Probably wasn't a good idea to watch this one when I was tired. Prolonged underwater footage has a very calming effect on me, and I kept having to force myself awake during the movie.
John Stears won an Oscar for special effects for this film. When they exploded the Disco Volante at the end, he tested out a new explosive method. The explosion was far more violent than anticipated; it took them a moment to realize that most of the boat had actually been launched straight up into the air and they barely were able to get out of the way before it all came down on top of them. It shattered windows in Nassau from miles away.
No wires. They flew the jet pack for real. They asked the guy who flew it not to wear a helmet, to look more daring. He understandably refused, so they shot Connery putting the helmet on.
This film caused some legal issues. Before the Dr. No film was made, Ian Fleming had a script for Thunderball written by Kevin McClory (who has a story credit here), but he would go to court with Eon productions about things that he claimed some ownership (Spectre, and some of the characters like Largo). This kind of made Eon drop Spectre after You Only Live Twice. It doesn't come back until 2015's Spectre. The 1983 Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery is not Eon Productions James Bond, it's Kevin McClory, who got Sean Connery to basically re-do Thunderball.
Supposedly Tom Jones, who sang the Thunderball theme song, held the last note so long that he passed out in the recording studio. He always gives 110%. :D
Connery actually agreed to go in the pool with the sharks as long as there was a glass shield between them and himself. Except one glass pane was missing so Connery's shocked expression is real.
Thunderball has it's moments and generally looks great, but it's not one of my favourites. Really drags until the finale, which is rushed and confusing; it's almost like they spent so long on the set up then suddenly realised they only had ten minutes left and had to cram. Very interested to see what you think of You Only Live Twice. It hasn't aged well at all and ranks very near the bottom for me so I actually can't wait.
Regarding you point about continuity with SPECTRE, it is not a weakness when SPECTRE is not involved as there is a number of bad organisations, such as SMERSH, as well as individual baddies.
Actually, the jetpack was real indeed and they did not use any wires. It actually flew! But it only flew for a short period of time.
It was also used on the Olympic games opening ceremony once.
Someone's gonna have to explain Shan the same for a certain automobile stunt in _The Man with the Golden Gun_
Also had multiple appearances in the TV series Lost in Space!
Yes. It couldn't fly for long. The jetpack also burned the legs of the operator.
@@davewolf6256 Haha, I'll try.
Fun fact: The person bond fights at the beginning of the film is played by Sean Connery’s stunt double.
I love the little detail's like how the female lead is named Domino and she only wears outfits that are black and white.
"Would you mind giving me something to put on?"
(James gives her the shoes and sits down next to the bathtub, smiling)
Classic.
Perfect gentleman😉
So a little info about the gunbarrel intro here: The first three films had a different gunbarrel opening with Connery's stuntman Bob Simmons doing the "turn around and shoot". This was the first gunbarrel with Connery himself in it and it would stay for the rest of his Bond films.
@@matthewdavidjarvis6039 Hahaha, I don't think Bob would mind your comment. I agree on most of your thoughts there. I actually really love the Lazenby gun barrel and also adore the Dalton and Brosnan ones. Though I gotta say that something's missing in the Brosnan ones for me. Maybe because he just does literally nothing odd or unique. He just walks, turns and shoots. All of the other gun barrels have a bit more character to them, even if they're flawed. Which could be a bit of a metaphor for how I see Brosnan's Bond as a whole 😬
Still love him, though. He's just not my fav by a long shot.
I really like Lazenby's, had a lot of style to it, and reeks of confidence. Much like how he played the role. He is a very underrated Bond all around imo. His film is also very faithful to the novel, which I appreciated. If he had a better agent at the time, and didn't goof around as much on set and irk Broccoli so much, he could've done a few more. And possibly became one of the best ever to play the role.
@@codyt821 I agree. Lazenby's gunbarrel is one of my all time favs :)
It's a shame that he couldn't continue on, but at least he got to star in one of the all time best Bond films.
This is my favorite of all the Bond films. Always has been. And Domino… she just makes my knees weak. 😍
That was a real jet-pack, specifically a Bell Rocket Belt.
This is one of my top Bond movies. People say the underwater scenes drag on too long but I like them
It's a solid film. The next one starts a bit of silliness.
Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi (who played Fiona Volpe) stole this movie for me. Not only was she a very sultry, sexy femme fatale Paluzzi had fantastic chemistry with Sean Connery and the charged confrontation between Bond and Volpe after their night together ('What I did was for King and Country') is a real highlight. There is really anger from both characters and I think they recognised a little bit of each other in each other which is why they are both so strongly insisting their night together was just business. If there is a downside it is that the film loses something after she's gone.
Yeah Fiona Volpe is definitely one of the best Bond villains. She almost defined the Bond femme-fatale character. Luciana Paluzzi REALLY stole the film whenever she was onscreen. Film really felt like a piece was missing after she died. You were always looking forward to more scenes of her and seeing her again, so when she's gone... you lose that. I wonder if her living to be a recurring nemesis would've been better... Bond having an 'equal' opposite version of himself in SPECTRE to run into all the time.
Definitely the sexiest of all Bond females. She is smoldering hot and very charismatic.
Adjusted for inflation, this was the most sucessfull Bond film until Skyfall in 2012. Edit, you should have kept the "something to put on" joke.
You’ll find the sets in the majority of the films are unbelievably impressive. All created by the great Ken Adam
Ken Adam....who did the incredible Dr. Strangelove sets the year prior........now THERE'S a movie I would love to see Shan react to!!!!
Do you know what would make this movie better? Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads.
Is it too much to ask, I mean really.
How about sea bass?
@Y0Da77 Aw man I was going to make that joke, but you two beat me to it.
@Y0Da77 Yes, the libido, the essence, the life force, the right stuff, all gone!
17:30 This is a real thing, called Skyhook or the Fulton Surface to Air Recovery System.
As also seen in "The Dark Knight"!
@@porflepopnecker4376 And mentioned in MGS3 as Naked Snake's exfiltration method during the Virtuous Mission.
A similar, if not the same system was used during World War II. Before helicopters were common, sometimes it was the only was to rescue people in terrain too rough, for a plane to land on.
@@porflepopnecker4376 Which was likely inspired by 1968's The Green Berets(with John Wayne), as the second half of the movie involved kidnapping a Viet Cong general using this method. Note that Fox mentioned it as a wartime invention.
An interesting fact. In the meeting with the 00 section at 8:21 the agent in a beard sitting besides Connery is Sean's real life brother Neil Connery.
You should watch Austin Powers after this. It's funny how they use so much of this films scenes and turn them into a comedy.
Austin after You Only Live Twice. RIP Donald Pleasance.
It's probably best to hold off from watching the Austin Powers movies for a while. He should get through Moonraker before watching them, at the very least.
@@MAMoreno I totally agree. You should watch more or less all the Sean Connery and Roger Moore James Bond movies and THEN the Austin Powers trilogy to get most of the references and get the maximum enjoyment out of those great parodies.
The Austin Powers movies are to the earlier James Bond movies what Galaxy Quest is to the Star Trek franchise. Both are parodies done right, which makes them an hommage to the originals. They don't mock the originals, they celebrate them.
@@HrWisch space quest? The pc game? Did you mean galaxy quest?
@@mcassidy1976 You're right. I always screw up those names. I was of course referring to Galaxy Quest, not the computer game (which was also excellent, but that's another story).
The first and only James Bond movie to win Best Visual Effects!
it's a British "Avro Vulcan" bomber, a classic cold war plane :) Some of it looks like real footage.
YES, United Artists obtained unclassified footage from the UK goverment.
Sir Tom Jones sang the song for this he supposedly passed out singing the high note at the end!...keep up the great reactions!
For that reason, in concert performances the song was transposed into a lower key
Tom Jones is awesome in concert! I’ve been seeing him live in concert since 2010, and his control and lung power are great.
Apparently you can scuba dive at the framework of the plane used in this film still today. They take tours out to dive to it.
My favorite bond movie was "You only live twice" but liked most all of them.
My favorite is Goldeneye, but You Only Live Twice is my favorite Connery Bond film.
Me too. Ken Adams set designs in YOLT are sheer genius.
YOLT has some greatness in terms of technical aspects, especially. It also has a loooot of flaws, though imo. Glad you love it, though :)
The great part of the older Bond Films is the lairs the bad guys have on land space and water really feels like you’re escaping to another world
Luckily they're going back to that in No Time To Die including the nameless workers in neon jumpsuits. I love that stuff.
Here is some important info for the rest of the series (don't worry, no spoilers):
So, this was actually written by Ian Fleming with Kevin McClory as a screenplay, but it never came to be at that time, so Fleming used that screenplay and turned it into his novel "Thunderball". However, he stupidly failed to credit McClory for the parts that he claimed he had written, one of them being the invention of Blofeld, who in the novels, made his first appearance in Thunderball. It turned into a whole lawsuit between McClory and EON Productions, which eventually lead to them not being able to use Blofeld or SPECTRE for a long time. So once SPECTRE doesn't appear anymore in the films and it seems a bit odd, that's why.
"The Battle for Bond" by Robert Sellers is a fascinating book which covers the entire McClory vs. EON saga.
2:08 "That ain't no woman. It's a man, man."
If you like Bond, why not try the Michael Caine spy flicks? Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin etc, etc. Obviously not Bond but a lot of the same producers etc. Worth a watch :)
Harry Palmer is kind of an anti-Bond: nerdy, unglamorous, doesn't even like his job. It's AMAZING.
These movies are a must see, especially the second one.
Also the sort of unofficial 4th movie "The Fifth Protocol".
@@SierraSierraFoxtrot Funeral in Berlin is great!
I like FILNT was better , Starring James Coburn.
@@markplott4820 isn't that a straight up comedy? The Harry Palmer trilogy is not played for laughs.
@@SierraSierraFoxtrot
Our Man Flint was indeed a comedy; its sequel, Our Man Flint, was equally farcical if not more so. But it was surely one of the glossiest imitation Bonds out there during the spy boom that consumed the second half of the 60's. (I haven't yet seen the Matt Helm films with Dean Martin, but I imagine he comes close to Coburn in sang-froid.) 😎
The explosion of the Disco Vollante hydrofoil was a great one: “While in Nassau, during the final shooting days, special-effects supervisor John Stears was supplied experimental rocket fuel to use in exploding Largo's yacht. 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 30 miles away.[4] Stears went on to win an Academy Award for his work on Thunderball.”
Glad you enjoyed THUNDERBALL. It's always been one of my favorites. Great reaction video!
Some info on the shark scene in the pool. There was a piece of plexiglas put between Connery and that corridor that the sharks would come through, but they underestimated how much glas they would have needed and a shark got through. Connery's reaction when one of them swims towards him was genuine. It scared the living shit out of him and he got out of the pool real fast!
Afterwards he absolutely refused to do a second take.
@@raphaelperry8159 Can't blame him.
I believe the exact quote is "I'm not getting back in that ff-ing water" (slightly censored, obviously).
One of the best parts of older films is that CGI was never a thought. So everything must be done in camera. Which simply makes for a much richer viewing experience.
Very much agreed.
Yes because they had cgi in 1965
The first movie to use cgi was Westworld in 1973. And even then it was very basic.
@@spacecadet35 I would say that having computer graphics visible on a display -- like a display on a computer terminal where the graphics are supposed to be, well... computer display graphics -- is not the same thing as what we mean by CGI (Computer Generated Images) in SFX today. When we say CGI we mean computer created graphics that are supposed to be believable as some kind of element -- character, vehicle, explosion -- that is supposed to pass as being something it is not (a 'real' ape instead of a ultra realistic computer drawing of an ape).
Even a lot of the FX in Tron that were meant to look like graphics displayed on a computer screen -- like the game Flynn plays in the arcade -- were actually just traditional cell animation drawn to look like a 'computer graphic' because it was easier and cheaper to produce cell animation than complex computer graphics at the time.
I'm not sure what the true first use of CGI in place of some effect that would have otherwise been done is some practical ways is but one of the first significant uses of cgi instead of practical effects was the cgi model of the Gunstar space ship in The Last Starfighter (1984) instead of a physical model.
It is not at all a very convincing effect -- and they knew that it wasn't. But since the movie was thematically about video games, they knew that it would be okay if the spaceships looked 'like a video game' instead of 'realistic' like the ships in Star Wars or 2001. They knew that since it was a very young, video game crowd, target audience, that effects that looked kind of 'video game-y' would be a great opportunity to push the boundaries of technology and of audiences accepting the new technology in place of traditional in camera effects. It didn't look like a 'real' spaceship, but at the time, during one of the early video game crazes, it just looked new , different, and 'cool' somehow.
I remember Jurassic Park (1993) being heavily promoted under the guise that the cgi would be convincing and hard to tell apart from the practical effects used on the same elements (such as going back and forth between shots of the real, full size T Rex prop and the cgi T Rex shots). I think JP is a good benchmark for the first film to have successfully believable cgi making them something that the industry considered really viable for high end SFX movies. Before JP there really had not been any films that expected you to take cgi seriously as something that would be considered on par with other top level visual effects of the time.
Compare the cgi in JP to the cgi model of the lizard version of Reptile in Mortal Kombat (1995). Reptile looks very 'fake' compared to anything in JP, but 'good' cgi was still very expensive and this was another case of using cgi because (if you didn't mind it looking fake) it was cheaper than doing a top notch version in traditional effects (like a high end version in stop motion) and they could get a way with it here because of the 'cool' factor of relatively new technology and the fact that, once again, the MK movie was thematically video game related.
I still didn't like cgi though as I love in camera FX and the look of really good stop motion. MK was a pretty great looking movie overall, Goro looked great, and the cheap quality Reptile stood out like a sore thumb to me. I think if they could have afforded a high end stop motion character instead it would hold up better today than the cgi Reptile which dates the effect to a very specific period of time in the development of cgi for use in SFX.
The first movie where I had to admit that cgi was 'better' than any practical effect could have looked for the same effect was Davy Jones in POTC: Dead Man's Chest (2006).
But I don't think display graphics like the Death Star plans in Star Wars should count as cgi. If the computer graphics are just supposed to be actual graphics on a screen I would just call it a use of Computer Graphics being featured in the film, not a case of CGI being used to create a 'Special Effect'.
For instance, if you had a scene in a movie today where some kids were playing a video game and there was an actual video game on the movie screen in the background of the shot, you wouldn't give anyone an academy award for 'Special Effects' because some actual computer graphics happened to be visible in the background.
But if the kids playing the video game were little green men from Mars, and the aliens were cgi created digital characters, you might give an award for 'Special Effects' for the digital characters.
@@willarms5510 - The cgi in Westworld was very simple. It consisted of pixelating the point of view of the Yul Brunner robot. Most people nowadays would not even give it a second thought. But for 1973, it was ground breaking.
In the books, Thunderball was actually the first appearance of Spectre. This is one of the movies that follows the book most closely. In fact, it started life as a movie synopsis with the intention of making this the first movie, before they settled on Dr. No instead, while Ian Fleming turned the synopsis into a book.
However, it appears that Fleming was a bit lax in giving credit where credit was due. At least, so the courts ruled. Producer Kevin McClory and writer Jack Whittingham argued successfully that the idea behind Spectre had been theirs in the first place. This had ramifications for the movies many years later.
A lot of cutting-edge underwater technology was invented just to make this film happen. Even today, underwater battles a very rare to see in movies. Unfortunately, as a whole, Goldfinger was more satisfying. But I like Thunderball because it expands the Bond universe by showing how Specter operates, shows other Agents in MI6 for the first time, has even more gadgets, and has Bond doing a lot of actual sneaking around. The next film, You Only Live Twice, is my personal favorite. I'll probably sign-up on your Patreon to watch that one!
Super! It's SOO cool that you're watching the Bond-films in cronological order! I'm watching everyone 😁👍 Mutch love ❤️
This is the most “Bond” of all Bond films. Great job!
That's what I've always thought! I'm happy it's not just me!
I'd say Goldfinger is honestly. This one fits that category too though, just not as much imo
Sharks and Spectre. For me that’s the difference.
I think Moneypenny deserves a period spinoff. From university student to WREN at the outbreak of WWII, to Bletchley Park codebreaker, to cold war field agent in the late 40s, to M's personal secretary by 1953 when the books begin.
That a great idea. Similar to Marvel’s Agent Carter. A great character for our times.
Oh yes. They can get Tessa Thompson to play her and make her non binary. Mr. Bond is headed towards total deconstruction in the upcoming film. If it’s ever released that is. As a person who saw these films as a kid in theaters with my dad, it’s disheartening.
I thought they could do something similar for Jack Wade.
One story about this movie is that, soon after it was released, the US navy contacted the UK navy and wanted to buy that tiny little breathing apparatus Bond uses in the movie, to which the British had to reply that it was just a non-functioning movie prop. If it's true, I don't know, but the tale has been around for a long time.
That tiny breathing apparatus for Bond, the C.I.A. actually inquired with the movie on how to build such a device but, LOL, the movie people told them the truth, it was just a movie prop! TRUE STORY!!
Fleming originally came up with a screen treatment for "Thunderball" with another writer named Kevin McClory. When that fell through, Fleming turned the story into his next Bond novel which would later become part of the Eon film series. McClory retained the rights to produce his own "Thunderball" film, which eventually came to pass with "Never Say Never Again" for which Connery agreed to return as Bond (it competed at the box office with Eon's execrable "Octopussy.") Tom Jones' dynamic theme song was a second choice--a song called "Mr. Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang" was recorded earlier by Dionne Warwick, the melody of which can still be heard in the street party chase scene. The aerial stunt at the end was later reprised in "The Dark Knight." Luciana Paluzzi, so effective as "Fiona Volpe", had appeared with Frankie and Annette in "Muscle Beach Party" the year before. I enjoyed your enthusiastic reaction to this film very much and was glad that my own reservations about it didn't seem to faze you at all. I'm looking forward to your reaction to "You Only Live Twice", my second favorite Connery Bond after "Goldfinger."
The treatment Fleming wrote with McClory was for a proposed Bond TV series for CBS.
@@richardvinsen2385 ...or so the Germans would have us believe.
I like the cast in the remake, Kim Basinger, Barbara Carrera, Max von Sydow, Edward Fox and Rowan Atkinson.
Luciana appeared in the first season of Man From Uncle , too.
My favorite book, second favorite movie. When you meet "Little Nellie" in "You Only Live Twice" you'll know why.
she is a Special Girl , little nellie , compact and agile................
The movie poster used in theatres showed the underwater action with Bond in the orange suit, and was particularly cool.
#1 is revealed in the next film "You Only Live Twice" and will be played by someone who has been on your channel before X)
Hopefully he doesn’t see this comment, it’s best left as a secret
The British military actually made an inquiry where they could get the miniature breathing device Bond was using. 😆 That shows the impact of Q's fancy gadgets.
And "Thunderball" may be the only movie ever that got a remake with the same lead actor in "Never say never again" in 1983!
I think it was this one where Bond was in a shark tank and to film it they placed a clear glass or plexi screen in front of him to basically isolate him from the live sharks. One shark swam past the screen and actually got near Connery.
My family actually had a board game of Thunderball. You got to play the scuba divers. By older brother had a model of the Aston Martin with interchangeable license and bullet proof shield. The Mustang Mach 1 from Diamonds Are Forever is still my “win the lottery” car. JB definitely a part of my youth.
The Girl Who Played Paula was Martine Beswick who was one of the fighting gypsy girls in From Russia With Love. Also not quite sure what your confusion with the underwater battle was as the good guys were in red and the bad guys were in black. Finally a special shout out to Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona volpe probably one of the best henchmen/woman in the whole franchise.
Movie theaters had to run this 24 hours upon release for demand.
The plane is a Vulcan Bomber, my father in his late teens was an RAF engine that maintained them. So they hold a special place in my heart.
Apparently there were issues during filming on all 3 Terence Young films in that they sometimes didn't shoot the camera angles that they actually wanted, which is why there's loads of jump cuts and weird edits to get round this problem in the underwater battle/boat fights (this also happened a lot in FRWL which I assume is why there's the weird spedup bits in the pre titles )
One of the best Bond movies ever! The only complaint I have is how fake looking the rear screen projection was during the climax on the Disco Volante, and how awkwardly abrupt the end scene and the closing credits were, not even using the Tom Jones theme song.
"Thunderball" is my all time favorite James Bond movie.
Me, too! I thought I was the only one!!!
The Skyhook retrieval method at the end of the film was an actual military method of retrieval. This is also the only Bond film to be remade in 1983 under the name Never Say Never Again. This was due to a copyright lawsuit for the book Thunderball that gave control of the copyright to another family besides the Broccoli family who own all the rights to the other Bond books.
_Thunderball_ features Bond's smoothest, funniest moment.
_Bond finds Fiona Volpe nude in his hotel bathtub_ 🛀
Fiona: "Since you're here, would you mind giving me something to put on?"
_Bond casually hands Fiona her shoes_ 👡👡
Loving the BOND marathon !!!! Thanks 😊.
When Tom Jones got the lyrics of the theme song he spoke to Shirley Bassey who had sung Goldfinger (which was a big hit on the radio) and asked her what he was supposed to do with that garbage. She told him just do what I did, go in, song the hell out of it and collect your check.
2:24 I saw one of these jet packs in person. Landed just a few feet away. It's crazy loud, I kind of wished I had earplugs. They only have about 30 seconds of flight time.
I have stood where that estate once stood. It is Paradise Island, Bahamas. Today, it’s the Atlantis Resort. When I was there, the estate house was gone, but the sea wall and round pool was still there, abandoned. It was on the property of the Holiday Inn Resort & Casino that was developed from the original estate location that Thunderball was filmed at. I was there in 1986, Atlantis did not yet exist, but that property and most of all the adjoining properties were already purchased in anticipation for the Atlantis development. The sea wall structures remained well through the 1990’s into the early 2000’s. Last time I was there, late 2000’s it was all gone with the final development of the Atlantis.
Loved your reactions, Shan! Good analysis too! Glad you enjoyed it. I am 71 and a lifelong Bond fan. Actually have seen most of the films in their initial showing in theaters. Looking forward to seeing No Time To Die. I like Craig a lot, but Timothy Dalton is my fav actor because he played the character closest to Fleming's Bond.
Thanks Shan one of the best with one of my favorite Bond Girls the Beautiful Exotic “Claudine Auger “
This movie launched the Thunderball Board Game......our family had one but i was too young to understand the game. Connery was indeed THE 007 actor, Roger Moore was my personal favorite; so it will be fascinating to hear your review when you get to his series of films!
Anthony Dawson, who played Professor Dent in Dr. No, played #1 in this and From Russia with love.
Not every Bond story involves SPECTRE. A majority don't actually.
It is said that Tom Jones actually passed out in the last note of Thunderball theme song because he held it so long!! If you listen really close with headphones on you can hear it!!!
If it was a man on wires then the stuntman wouldn't have worn that brown helmet - the stuntman wasn't permitted to use the jetpack without wearing it, and even though everyone thought that there was no way the Bond character would worry about PPE or health and safety ... or ever contemplate ruining his dapper look with such an ugly accessory, the only way the stunt could be filmed back then was with the jet pack operator wearing the safety helmet.
This film had a very strange and interesting rights dispute behind it. Basically, Fleming and a guy named Kevin McClory (along with a third guy I believe) collaborated on writing an original screenplay to bring Bond to the big screen. This screenplay would turn out to be Thunderball. However, Fleming later terminated his partnership with McClory, but decided to turn Thunderball into a novel without crediting him as a writer. McClory sued and ended up winning, giving him the movie rights. This is why you see him credited as a producer instead of Broccoli and Saltzman.
McClory would end up becoming a major pain in the ass for the Broccoli's, going so far as to remake Thunderball many years later and bringing back Sean Connery as Bond. This was during the time when Roger Moore was in his latter years as Bond. The film was called Never Say Never Again, and it went up against Octopussy at the box office. Octopussy ended up winning in the end, much to the dismay of McClory. However, this whole fiasco with Thunderball was never really settled until 2013, when MGM ended up buying McClory's rights to the film.
If I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me. I'm really just going off of what I learned about it in a James Bond documentary I saw about a year ago.
Yaaaay, I'm curious what you'll think of this. Highly looking forward to the reaction and your opinion on the pacing here.
The ship's name "Disco Volante" is Italian for "Flying Saucer".
Which in the remake of this Bond film ("Never Say Never Again") the name used for Largo's yacht is "Flying Saucer" which is a nice tip of the hat.
The awkward continuity in the Spectre story arc is do to the fact that in the novels it was usually Smersh or some organization that had nothing to do with Spectre. Not to mention the books are in a completely different order of continuity. Example: From Russia with Love was originally meant to be last with Bond's death at the end... Fleming later retconned it himself.
Please react to The Hunt For Red October (1990) it's directed by John Mctiernan & stars Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, & Tim Curry. It's based on one of the Jack Ryan books written by Tom Clancy.
The best Ryan movie
Shan, You're going to find the set on the next Bond "You Only Live Twice" incredible. In fact, it was the largest movie set ever made at the time, I've heard on a documentary about it. Besides that, the awesome country where the movie is set in given the recent WWII, and the beginning scene which reflected the real deal going on at the time! Yep, you're going to like that one too which I think is right up there with Goldfinger. No need to research it. Don't get any spoilers! Just do it!! LOL! But I will tell you this; Connery said it was the last Bond movie he will ever make. Of course he was in two others and the title of his last Bond flick was a tease on him by the producers! Anyway, I'll start watching your Thunderball vid as it's an awesome Connery/Bond film. BTW, consider doing the next Bond film after doing "You Only Live Twice", called "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with George Lazenby because I saw that Ian Flemming considered Lazenby as the ideal or preferred Bond personality. ✌️😎
RIP TOHO Studios.
Brief history of Never Say Never Again and the death of SPECTRE. Ian Fleming and a someone uninvolved in the franchise named Kevin McClory had a discussion about this movie. When the movie came out McClory sued because he felt he was entitled to a portion of the profits. He also argued since the movie contained SPECTRE references he was entitled to money whenever SPECTRE was used in the future as well.
A judge agreed with him which is why Never Say Never Again -a complete remake of Thunderball - was released without the permission of the studio and the Saltzman and Broccoli. Since McClory would receive compensation whenever SPECTRE was used in a movie they dropped it. There would still be scenes with a man owning a white cat, but no mention of SPECTRE.
50 years later the legal issues were resolved and SPECTRE is in use again.
THUNDERBALL and the iconic image of BOND VS. LARGO UNDERWATER Many scuba divers today were influenced by this film. Until then, only SEAHUNT with Loyd Bridges and Skipper offered underwater filming.
My first BIG SCREEN experience at age 8 while in Kansas City, 1965 > " Life changing !!" Fire-crackers, BB Guns and James Bond made for a great summer vacation. Oh, yeah. MAD magazine, for sure the best comedy a kid could want!
Re-watching early Bond movies became a life staple.
Shan - the DISCO VOLANTE ship was an Amazing PRACTICAL effect , the boat was made using a REAL Hydrofoil and the added a Rear section to conceal the Hydrofoil and make it look like an Ordanary Cruiser .
however a miniture was used to film the Explosion.
I can't believe you left out the one liner after Bond shoots the guy with a spear gun. "I think he got the point." Adjusted for inflation this was the highest grossing film of all time.
Bond film, I mean.
Not the best of the Bond films, but it's got my favourite evil henchman in it. I'm of course talking about the endlessly fascinating Vargas, who doesn't smoke, drink or make love.
Like me... 😭
In 1983 Producer Jack Schwartzman who co-produced this still had the movie rights to the book Thunderball and decided to remake it with Sean Connery. It was an unofficial Bond picture so he didn't have rights to the memorable Bond music theme. It is still a very good film and costars a young Kim Basinger and Bernie Casey as the first black Felix Leiter. I hope you will react to it as well.
I was 10, and my father took me to see 'Thunderball'. It was my first James Bond film. Absolutely obsessed with Sean Connery. I still remember his photo on the cover of LIFE magazine, in his orange wetsuit. Still have the report card (...my mother saved ) from back then...with notes written by my teacher, about how I was failing in class, because I would only think about this movie.
This is where the gadgets start coming in, years later Connery reprised the Bond character in Never Say Never Again, it’s an unofficial 007 film and it’s a loose remake of Thunderball
And then again in ‘The Rock’ , 😉
Although Thunderball exceeded Goldfinger at the box office, I think it was largely because of Goldfinger's success. It is a slower paced film largely due too the underwater stuff. It also has a different feel to other Connery Bonds. I think having to work with kevin McClory as a co-producer did not help. This was due to him having won the film rights to Thunderball in a legal battle with Fleming. This was not resolved for over 40 years and why Spectre had to disappear at the end of the Connery films until the release of SPECTRE. Connery was terrified of the shark pool, he had to touch the glass to make sure it was there. When you see his face, his eyes are popping out of his head. All the bomb sleds were made for the film.
Hey my man. Awesome as always. Little trivia I thought you might like. The hotel and pool where James and Domino talk (9:21), where Fiona Volpa drops him off (11:34) along with many other scenes, is now closed and used by the Bahamian military/government I believe. The Hotel went bankrupt while trying to expand. They were building what looked like a 10 story expansion when they shut down. Reason I mention this is because that is the exact same location used in casino royale during the parkour chase up the cranes and through the construction site. That is the expansion of this hotel they run through, so the pool where Domino and James are, is just on the other side. Also was used to place cameras and shoot the emerging sub in....the spy who loved me? no...My Roger Moore bond's are fuzzy. Bahamas, the unofficial home on james bond. I could go on, Thunderball is a huge reason why paradise island is what it is today. check that out too. peace.
My favorite Bond movie! Also includes my favorite female character of any Bond movie: Domino Derval (played by French beauty queen Claudine Auger).
The atomic bombs were just the Mcguffin, it doesn't matter what happens to them. Note that jet pack was real, it weighed about 200 # and actually worked, that wasn't wires. They were invented in 1961.
2:25 that is a real jetpack! It was not done with wires!! However, the stepman refused to use the jetpack without the helmet. That's all you have the quick clip of Bond putting on the silver helmet.
I like Thunderball, but don't love it, it's paced pretty slowly, but has beautiful locations. I think it's pretty subdued for my taste, it's very middle of the road.
This is one of my favourite bonds from Sean time. But what i really enjoy was Fiona Volpe which probably she defined the role for femme fatale. (Rosa Kleber in Russia with love, was a vilain and didnt had any feautures of femme fatale) and Honor Blackman for me was more as a Henchwoman turn into bondgirl!
Shan - the jet is an Actual UK Avro Vulcan bomber , United Artists obtained actual Flight Footage from the Avro Vulcan and a REAL was used for the Underwater scenes as well.
Hi, great review, can't wait for the following episodes! Is this really your first time watching these films? How many of the recent ones have you seen?
I look forward to seeing your future reactions, and your anticipated reveal of Spectre No.1 will not disappoint! Roll on YOLT!
Thunderball for me ranks third among my favorite Connery 007 films behind Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice. I think this middle period of the Connery films was the best before they started going downhill with Diamonds Are Forever.
Honestly Thunderball is a very poor Bond movie by the standard set by Goldfinger. The underwater sequence is super tedious.
Probably wasn't a good idea to watch this one when I was tired. Prolonged underwater footage has a very calming effect on me, and I kept having to force myself awake during the movie.
John Stears won an Oscar for special effects for this film. When they exploded the Disco Volante at the end, he tested out a new explosive method. The explosion was far more violent than anticipated; it took them a moment to realize that most of the boat had actually been launched straight up into the air and they barely were able to get out of the way before it all came down on top of them. It shattered windows in Nassau from miles away.
No wires. They flew the jet pack for real. They asked the guy who flew it not to wear a helmet, to look more daring. He understandably refused, so they shot Connery putting the helmet on.
This film caused some legal issues. Before the Dr. No film was made, Ian Fleming had a script for Thunderball written by Kevin McClory (who has a story credit here), but he would go to court with Eon productions about things that he claimed some ownership (Spectre, and some of the characters like Largo). This kind of made Eon drop Spectre after You Only Live Twice. It doesn't come back until 2015's Spectre. The 1983 Never Say Never Again with Sean Connery is not Eon Productions James Bond, it's Kevin McClory, who got Sean Connery to basically re-do Thunderball.
Thunderball is another great one with two fabulous Bond girls, Claudine Auger and Luciana Paluzzi.
This is the one bond film that introduction me to one of Britain's most iconic cold war jets: *The Avro Vulcan Bomber"*
The plane-balloon-cable stunt at the end is a real thing, called "skyhook."
It shows up in The Dark Knight, too.
Supposedly Tom Jones, who sang the Thunderball theme song, held the last note so long that he passed out in the recording studio. He always gives 110%. :D
Connery actually agreed to go in the pool with the sharks as long as there was a glass shield between them and himself. Except one glass pane was missing so Connery's shocked expression is real.
Bond's jetpack was actually flown by engineer Bill Suiter while blue screen was used for close shot.
Playing Blofeld in this and from Russia with Love was Antony Dent . He was also professor Dent in dr no.
Thunderball has it's moments and generally looks great, but it's not one of my favourites. Really drags until the finale, which is rushed and confusing; it's almost like they spent so long on the set up then suddenly realised they only had ten minutes left and had to cram.
Very interested to see what you think of You Only Live Twice. It hasn't aged well at all and ranks very near the bottom for me so I actually can't wait.
Donald Pleasances Blofeld is fsntastic, and the volcano set is still very impressive to see
I'm a japophile so I like Twice. Look forward to the reaction. Great theme song too.
Regarding you point about continuity with SPECTRE, it is not a weakness when SPECTRE is not involved as there is a number of bad organisations, such as SMERSH, as well as individual baddies.
The Fiona Volpe character is not in the book. But I am glad she was added to the movie. Great character.