Producer: Kevin McClory
Director: Terence Young
Scriptwriters: Richard Maibaum, John Hopkins
Score: John Barry
Title Song: Tom Jones
Locations: Paris, Bahamas, Pinewood Studios
Running Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Awards: Academy Award for Special Effects

     Thunderball was produced in 1965 by Eon Productions. The producers would have liked to have made this the first Bond movie, but the rights could not be maintained. At the time, Ian Fleming wanted to use a new story, not one of his novels for the first movie. However, since Fleming was inexperienced at script writing, he hired Kevin McClory to help. Once the Thunderball movie deal fell through, Fleming made Thunderball a novel. McClory thought that some of the stuff in the novel was his work, so he sued. Thus, Thunderball's rights were being contested in court, and Dr. No was made. After Goldfinger, the plan was to make the On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, Thunderball's rights opened up, and it was rushed onto the screen. It would become the most successful Bond movie of the sixties.
      In this action packed movie, SPECTRE hatches its most audacious plot to date when it hijacks a British Vulcan bomber armed with two atomic bombs and holds NATO ransom for $100,000,000. MI6 puts every single OO-Agent on the case in some capacity, but it is James Bond who eventually foils SPECTRE's evil plot.
     This is the first Bond movie to have significant under water scenes, including a grand battle with dozens of fighters armed with spear guns. Twenty-five percent of the movie occurs underwater.
A NOTE ABOUT THE TITLE SONG: Thunderball, sung by Tom Jones, is romantic and evocative of the movie's Bahamian setting and underwater elements. The 007 theme also makes its first encore in this movie, being used last in From Russia with Love. Interestingly, this song was almost never written. The song, Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang had just been made in honor of the nickname given to Bond in Italy, Japan, and places around the world. This song was almost used for the movie, but John Barry decided that Thunderball should get an original song for its title, and quickly wrote this song.
MY GRADE: A+  This is my favorite Sean Connery Bond, with the most action packed in as can be, and with a plot hatched by evil SPECTRE on a grander scale than ever before.
BEST MOMENT: This movie had a scene with all the OO-Agents, the good guys, in it. However, this was outdone by the scene with the collection of all the villains of SPECTRE, with Blofeld hiding ominously behind the screen. Nowhere else in Bond has such an evil presence been felt.
ALSO NOTICABLE: The underwater fight scene was not only done on a large scale, but it was also unique. Never before had such a thing been done. Also, this movie is the first to start the tradition of using sharks to menace James Bond. I think the shark scene was shot very well in this movie, better than any later movie's use of sharks. Finally, the blackjack game between Largo and Bond was quite good. It showed once again that Bond reigns supreme when it comes to cards.
DID YOU KNOW...*Raquel Welch was the first choice to play Domino.
*The jet pack used in the start of the movie was real. A stuntman actually flew it on a 21 second flight, most of which is seen in the movie.
*Sean Connery was in the tank with the sharks, but he was behind a plexi-glass protector. Also, the shark that swims straight at him as he exits the pool is the only non-live shark used in the movie. It was a dead shark pulled along by a string.