"Look up! Look down! Look out! Here comes the biggest Bond of all!"
A criminal organization has obtained two nuclear bombs and are asking for a 100 million pound ransom in the form of diamonds in seven days or they will use the weapons. The secret service sends James Bond to the Bahamas to once again save the world.
Sean Connery
James Bond
Claudine Auger
Dominique 'Domino' Derval
Adolfo Celi
Emilio Largo
Luciana Paluzzi
Fiona Volpe
Rik Van Nutter
Felix Leiter
Guy Doleman
Count Lippe
Molly Peters
Patricia Fearing
Martine Beswick
Paula Caplan
Bernard Lee
M
A criminal organization has obtained two nuclear bombs and are asking for a 100 million pound ransom in the form of diamonds in seven days or they will use the weapons. The secret service sends James Bond to the Bahamas to once again save the world.
_**James Bond underwater adventure with the best female cast**_ After a couple atomic bombs are stolen from the RAF, agent 007 (Sean Connery) travels to Nassau, Bahamas, to clash with SPECTRE agent Emil Largo (Adolfo Celi) and his femme fatale accomplice (Luciana Paluzzi). Claudine Auger is on hand as Largo’s naïve woman. "Thunderball" (1965) is one of my favorites of Connery’s run in the franchise due to the interesting intrigue, the Tom Jones’-sung title song, and the best cast of women in the series. Other than Luciana Paluzzi (Fiona) and Claudine Auger (Domino), Molly Peters plays a voluptuous masseuse at a health clinic while statuesque Martine Beswick is on hand as an MI6 agent in the Bahamas (Beswick previously appeared in “From Russia with Love” as one of the Gypsy cat-fighters). I was surprised that the bulk of the flick takes place in the Bahamas as “Dr. No” (1962) took place mostly in Jamaica, which is 400 miles south in the Caribbean. For those interested, “Thunderball” was remade as the non-canon “Never Say Never Again” (1983), which was Connery’s final excursion as 007. I prefer this one, which was the most successful Bond flick of the 60s (at the box office), but “Never Say Never Again” is worth checking out even though it’s not as ambitious as Roger Moore’s dynamic “Octopussy,” released the same year. The film runs 2 hour, 10 minutes and was shot in Château d'Anet, Anet (opening) & Paris, France; England; and the Bahamas. GRADE: A-
**Thunderball goes all out, taking James Bond to new heights (and depths) with bigger action sequences, new gadgets, deadly villains, and beautiful locations. Thunderball is peak 60s Bond!** Thunderball is my favorite of Sean Connery’s James Bond films. How could it not be? With the Bond formula finally established, Thunderball takes it all to the next level! With Sean Connery returning as the suave secret agent, villainous femme fatale Fiona, Claudine Auger’s stunning Bond Girl Domino, a bad guy with an eye patch, climactic underwater battles, jet packs, evil shark booby traps, the beautiful Bahamian beaches, and Tom Jones singing Thunderball, the Connery’s fourth entry as Bond is an outstanding campy and wild ride. All the 60s charm and camp permeate every aspect of the film, creating a ton of classic goofy charm (and a few awkward comments that aren’t very politically correct nowadays). Thunderball cranked everything up to eleven, creating a lot of fun and so many spy movie tropes for decades to come.
This is certainly the last of the classic 007 films. This is the last time we see 007 as the cold hearted assassin that he is. The last time we see a Bond that, the only reason he's really a good guy is because of what side he is on and not what he is. In later films they call him a blunt instrument, but in this film he actually still is. He's still the trigger man. He still has no respect for human life and is only really concerned about the mission. After this we enter the era of Silly 007, with a layover for Lazenby who walked the line and ended up more Cannery than Moore. And as where the Silly Bonds do still have their appeal (and trust me, I still love them) the franchise never seemed as lethal or as cool again. But, rest assured, this is also the 007 where Special Effects and over-the-top stunts made their introduction and would later become a much loved 007 trope. So it stands as a bridge between classic and contemporary 007, and as much as I love them both, I like the classic 007 just a little more.
This is the hay day of Bond. We get it all. Stunning women, great gadgets, non stop action, wit, and the exotic scenery that make 007 films so iconic. We also get the two greatest evil henchmen deaths in 007 film History, and may in film History. The boardroom assassination sticks out, because we know which of the two men is the embezzler by his demeanor. Innocent men have no idea how to prove their innocence, and so they sweat. It is the guilty man who thinks he has his tracks covered. The other henchman death is little fish "Quist", in a scene brutal and brilliant. The underwater battle scene still remains to this day as the most action packed and best directed underwater action scene in Film History. There is so much else going for this film that it would take ten pages to explain. Suffice to say it is a top five 007 film. I rank it about with Goldfinger. Goldfinger has more charm, while Thunderball has more excitement.and action.I usually rank Goldfinger 4th and this one 3rd, but I go back and forth on that.
Whilst he isn't quite as megalomaniac as "Auric Goldfinger"; Adolfo Celi is great here as "Largo" - the Spectre agent charged with their most ambitious mission yet. A great deal of meticulous planning has gone into their scheme to hijack an RAF plane carrying nuclear missiles that they intend to blackmail the world with. "M" (Bernard Lee) despatches "007" (Sean Connery) to investigate, a global journey that ultimately ends up in the Caribbean Sea. The film has oodles of pace and sexiness; the story is probably the best of the original Ian Fleming adaptations (by Richard Maibaum) and the last half hour finds us dabbling with sharks and scuba-divers armed with lethal spears; underwater jet-craft and ultimately a cracking boat chase with the original super-yacht - the "Disco Volante". Claudine Auger as "Domino" is one of my favourite, fiestiest "Bond Girls" - loads of attitude and glamour with just a hint of dastardliness of her own; and the characterisations are rich enough across the board to offer us a really superior, well put together, action adventure topped off with a rousing theme from John Barry, Don Black and a superlative Tom Jones.
Thunderball is definitely one of the worst Bond films, after the 1st act nothing exciting happens and it is rather boring.
James Bond returns as the secret agent 007 to battle the evil organization SPECTRE. Bond must defeat Largo, who has stolen two atomic warheads for nuclear blackmail. But Bond has an ally in Largo's girlfriend, the willowy Domino, who falls for Bond and seeks revenge.
A British spy ship has sunk and on board was a hi-tech encryption device. James Bond is sent to find the device that holds British launching instructions before the enemy Soviets get to it first.
Agent 007 battles mysterious Dr. No, a scientific genius bent on destroying the U.S. space program. As the countdown to disaster begins, Bond must go to Jamaica, where he encounters beautiful Honey Ryder, to confront a megalomaniacal villain in his massive island headquarters.
After capturing the notorious drug lord Franz Sanchez, Bond's close friend and former CIA agent Felix Leiter is left for dead and his wife is murdered. Bond goes rogue and seeks vengeance on those responsible, as he infiltrates Sanchez's organization from the inside.
Greed, revenge, world dominance and high-tech terrorism – it's all in a day's work for Bond, who's on a mission to protect a beautiful oil heiress from a notorious terrorist. In a race against time that culminates in a dramatic submarine showdown, Bond works to defuse the international power struggle that has the world's oil supply hanging in the balance.
Russian and British submarines with nuclear missiles on board both vanish from sight without a trace. England and Russia both blame each other as James Bond tries to solve the riddle of the disappearing ships. But the KGB also has an agent on the case.
Cool government operative James Bond searches for a stolen invention that can turn the sun's heat into a destructive weapon. He soon crosses paths with the menacing Francisco Scaramanga, a hitman so skilled he has a seven-figure working fee. Bond then joins forces with the swimsuit-clad Mary Goodnight, and together they track Scaramanga to a Thai tropical isle hideout where the killer-for-hire lures the slick spy into a deadly maze for a final duel.
A newly-developed microchip designed by Zorin Industries for the British Government that can survive the electromagnetic radiation caused by a nuclear explosion has landed in the hands of the KGB. James Bond must find out how and why. His suspicions soon lead him to big industry leader Max Zorin who forms a plan to destroy his only competition in Silicon Valley by triggering a massive earthquake in the San Francisco Bay.
James Bond must investigate a mysterious murder case of a British agent in New Orleans. Soon he finds himself up against a gangster boss named Mr. Big.
James Bond is sent to investigate the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a diamond mogul, who is funding the development of an international space weapon.