film information
Produced by Albert R. Broccoli & Harry Saltzman
Directed by Terence Young
Screenplay by Richard Maibaum, John Hopkins based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming
World Premiere 9th December 1965 (Tokyo, Japan)
UK Release Date 29th December 1965
US Release Date 21st December 1965
Worldwide Box Office $141,200,000 US
Budget $9,000,000 US
Running Time 130 Minutes
james bond
bond girls
Molly Peters (Patricia Fearing)
Claudine Auger (Dominique Derval)
Martine Beswicke (Paula Caplan)
q-branch
posters
vehicles
bond villains
Anthony Dawson (Ernst Stavro Blofeld)
Bob Simmons / Rose Alba (Jacques Boitier)
Paul Stassino (Angelo Palazzi)
George Pravda (Ladislav Kutze)
bond allies
locations
France; Shrublands Clinic; London; Nassau; the Bahamas and other surrounding islands.
bond james bond
Although asked by Emilio Largo, Dominique ‘Domino’ Derval and Fiona Volpe his name, Bond does not use his standard introduction at all in Thunderball.
behind the scenes
Tom Jones reportedly fainted after recording the high note at the end of the theme song.
A scene was cut from the final film that had Domino's bikini rising from the seabed when Bond and Domino disappear between the coral during their love scene. This was cut for being too suggestive.
The carnival sequence, the annual Junkanoo, was re-enacted by locals just for the Bond cameras, although in some scenes the homemade posters read ‘007’.
The underwater breather was actually just a prop and required the user to hold their breath whilst underwater.
The underwater propulsion unit at the end of the film was actually powered by a piece of wire that was dragged by a speedboat on the surface.
When the hydrofoil of the Disco Volante exploded at the end of the film, the explosion broke all the windows along Nassau's Bay Street - 30 miles away! §
