Thunderball (1964)

The budget for Thunderball was a whopping $5,500,000 ($500,000 of which was spent on Largo's yacht the Disco Volante.)

Thunderball was the first in the Bond franchise to be filmed in Panavision.

As an inducement to leap into the pool full of sharks, stunt man Bill Cumming was offered a $250 bonus.

Thunderball had been planned as the first Bond film, but the on-going legal complications with McClory led that idea to be scrapped.

When she appears behind the shower screen, Molly Peters became the first Bond girl to appear nude. The girls in the title sequence were also naked, but they don't really count.

Martine Beswick became the first Bond girl to appear twice in different roles - she plays Paula Kaplan here and was previously one of the gypsy girls in From Russia with Love (1963).

The reason why Thunderball has so many underwater scenes may have something to do with Kevin McClory's keen love of water sports.

Thunderball was another huge success - it was the top grossing film in both the UK and the US in 1966. Connery himself was the top grossing actor in both 1965 and 1966. In Paris, the film took $95,000 in just three days; in Rome it made $79,000; Milan $25,000; Stockholm $20,000; and in Tokyo, it shattered the existing record at the Hibaya Theatre and took $110,000 in just nine days. By the end of its first run, total US admissions had reached some 74.8 million and the world-wide gross would come it at a staggering $141.2 million.

Maryse Guy Mitsouko's voice was dubbed by Catherine Clemence.

When Major Derval is killed by Count Lippe and Fiona Volpe, his eyes are open when he hits the floor. But when Volpe wraps Derval's head, the Major's eyes are closed. Later, when Bond finds him, Derval's eyes are open again.

During the 'rack' torture sequence, a close up of a hand pulling the lever to 'full' is shown twice twice."

While removing the material wrapping Derval's body in the health spa, Bond seems to have short sleeves in close-up and long sleeves in long-shots.

Bond swaps his blue scuba diving mask for a black one, but is seen wearing the blue one again...

After he emerges from the water after swimming towards the cove, Bond is suddenly wearing shoes...

During the fist fight on the bridge of the Disco Volante, the captain manages to lose his hat three times...

Largo's dialogue is poorly lip-synched when he returns to the Disco Volante for the climactic chase.

Watch cloesly when Bond and Leiter are flying over Palmyra in the helicopter - Bond must be sitting on the right of the helicopter as Leiter is clearly seen piloting the machine from the left hand seat. Yet Bond manages to look out of the left hand side of the helicopter with his binoculars. The fact that Bond's hair parting changes sides suggests that the negative has been reversed for some reason.

Bond's watch changes wrists several times while he is talking to the receptionist in the lobby and speaks to the receptionist at the health farm.

While Bond is fleeing from Volpe and her team of assassins, he is shot in the right leg. But the wound switches backwards and forwards between the left and right legs throughout the ensuing chase. When he shakes off his pursuers, Bond bandages his left leg!

Domino steps on a sea urchin and injures her right foot. But Bond sucks the poison out of the left foot.

During the underwater fight between Bond and Largo, the villain rips Bond's blue goggles off. Largo makes off and Bond retrieves a pair of black goggles from one of Largo's dead henchmen. But as Bond pursues Largo, the goggles change black to blue!

Largo's underwater stunt double has noticeable blonde hair while Largo himself has white hair.

The Professor tells Bond and Domino that the Disco Volante is about to run into the reef, but does so without turning round to look! Come to that, he manages to shout his warning without even moving his lips!

While waiting in the helicopter for Bond to complete his investigation of the lost plane, he's wearing shorts in one shot and trousers in another!

When Bond and Domino meet underwater and swim behind a rock, it was originally planned that the audience should see Domino's bikini float out from behind their hiding place. Producer Albert R. Broccoli stepped in and had the shot removed because he felt it over-stepped the mark.

On British prints, the closing credits are accompanied by the James Bond theme while international prints have an instrumental version of the Thunderball main theme.

Several versions of the film seem to exist: different versions feature different lines from Bond when he escapes from Largo's shark pool; some versions feature Leiter commenting on a manta-ray that he and Bond see from their helicopter; alternate versions of a scene featuring Largo on his boat have been located; many video releases have abandoned the original music for the climactic underwater battle; and of course there's the famous scene where Fiona Volpe removes Bond's shirt while he quips "The things I do for England..." The latter was seen in the trailer, but not in the film.

At least one sequence was filmed but not included in any finished cut and the entire sequence now seems to be lost. It features Domino showing Bond around the Disco Volante.

At the last minute, a reference to the then-recent 'Great Train Robbery' was written into the SPECTRE meeting at the beginning of the film.

For the first time in the series, Bond doesn't smoke.

During the establishing scenes in the casino, Bond and Leiter can be seen talking in the background even though, at this point, they haven't actually met.

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008