Thunderball (1965) is the
fourth spy film in the James Bond series starring 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 atomic bombs stolen by
SPECTRE, which holds the world 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 CIA
agent Felix Leiter and Largo's mistress, Domino Vitali, Bond's search
culminates in an underwater battle with Largo's henchmen. The film
had a complex production, with four different units and about a
quarter of the film consisting of underwater scenes. Thunderball was
the first Bond film shot in widescreen Panavision and the first to
have over a two-hour running time.
Originally meant as the
first James Bond film, Thunderball was the centre of legal disputes
that began in 1961 and ran until 2006. 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
film 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. The film
was a success, earning a total of $141.2 million worldwide, exceeding
the earnings of the three previous Bond films. In 1966, John Stears
won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and production designer
Ken Adam was also nominated for a BAFTA award. In 1983, Warner Bros.
released a second film adaptation of the novel under the title Never
Say Never Again, with McClory as executive producer and featuring
Sean Connery as James Bond.
Broccoli's
original choice for the role of Domino Derval was Julie Christie
after he saw 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.
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AV
CLUB FEATURETTE DEPARTMENT
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The thrills never let up as
James Bond dives into this riveting adventure filled with explosive
confrontations and amazing underwater action sequences! Sean Connery
brings his characteristic style, humor and magnetism to Agent 007 as
he travels to Nassau to track down villainous criminal Emilio Largo,
who's threatening to plunge the world into a nuclear holocaust. From
Bond's thrilling jetpack flight to his heart-stopping clash with
Largo's killer sharks, Thunderball is a stupendous mixture of action,
romance and edge-of-your-seat suspense! Add
Thunderball to your DVD collection.
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. Thunderball was the final
James Bond film directed by Young.
Filming commenced on
February 16th 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 the pre-credit sequence (above). In this
opening sequence Bond attends a funeral, and later meets the grieving
widow in a large, regal sitting room. Is 007 about to charm the
recent widow? No, he punches her in the face. The audience is
surprised, but soon learns Bond has tagged his opponent (played by
legendary Bond stuntman Bob Simmons) as Colonel Jacques Bouvar of
SPECTRE. Bond and the fake widow battle it out destroying the
expensive furnishings in the room in the process. In the end,
Bond’s nemesis ends face first in a fireplace, and then Bond
chokes him to death with a poker that Bouvar had previously yielded
as a weapon.
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. The rest of the film 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. Huntington Hartford gave
permission to shoot footage on his Paradise Island and is thanked at
the end of the movie.
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
millionaire's home on the island. The most difficult sequences to
film were the underwater action scenes; the first to be shot
underwater was at a depth of 50 feet to shoot the scene where SPECTRE
divers remove the atomic bombs from the sunken Vulcan bomber. Peter
Lamont had previously visited a Royal Air Force bomber station
carrying a concealed camera which he used to get close-up shots of
secret missiles (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, 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 Fulton surface-to-air recovery system, 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 used that
experimental rocket fuel in the effect that would explode 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 30 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 gave only 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 R. 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.
Thanks to special-effects
man John Stears 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.
The sky hook, used to
rescue Bond at the end of the film, was a rescue system used by the
United States military at the time. At Thunderball's release, there
was confusion as to whether a rebreather such as the one that appears
in the film existed; most Bond gadgets, while implausible, often are
based upon real technology. In the real world, a rebreather could not
be so small, as it has no room for the breathing bag, while the
alternative open-circuit scuba releases exhalation bubbles, which the
film device does not. It was made with two CO2 bottles glued together
and painted, with a small mouthpiece attached. For this reason, when
the Royal Corps of Engineers asked Peter Lamont how long a man could
use the device underwater, the answer was "As long as you can
hold your breath."
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 James Bond 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 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, which was the first time
actual nudity (although concealed) had ever been seen in a Bond film.
Parts of the climactic
sequence on board the Disco Volante (Italian for Flying Saucer) were
sped up to make the boat look as if it was going faster than it was.
Additionally, some shots were repeated. During the hand-to-hand
combat, one shot of the boat (sped up) is of Bond and Domino about to
jump overboard, but cuts back to the fight. This same shot appears
again at normal speed when Bond and Domino jump overboard.
On June 26th 2013 Christies
auction house sold the Breitling SA Top Time watch given to Bond by
Q, which in the plot was also a geiger counter, which Sean Connery
had worn for over 100,000 pounds.
Thunderball
was the third James Bond score composed by Barry, after From Russia
With Love and Goldfinger. The original title song was entitled
"Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", taken from an Italian
journalist who in 1962 dubbed agent 007 as Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.
The title theme was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse; the
song was originally recorded by Shirley Bassey, and 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 note. Jones said of it, "I closed
my eyes and I held the note for so long when I opened my eyes the
room was spinning." The song, Maurice Binder's titles, and the
lengthy holding of the final note were parodied by Weird Al
Yankovic's title sequence for Spy Hard with instrumental backing by
Jimmie Haskell. Country musician Johnny Cash also submitted a song to
Eon productions titled "Thunderball", but it went unused.
The film premiered on
December 9th 1965 in Tokyo and opened on December 29th 1965 in the
UK. It was a major success at the box office with record-breaking
earnings. The second highest money maker of 1966 was Doctor Zhivago
and in third place was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Thunderball
won an Academy Award for Best 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 the 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.
AV
CLUB SLIDESHOW DEPARTMENT
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Broccoli's
original choice for the role of Domino Derval was Julie Christie
after he saw 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.
