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James Bond is sent to the Bahamas to locate two nuclear bombs stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in Thunderball, arguably one of the most widely anticipated ‘event movies’ since Gone with the Wind. Sean Connery’s fourth time at bat starts off with an amusing pre-title action sequence in which Bond punches a grieving widow in the face (for a good reason, I assure you). After that, Tom Jones belts out the title song before the story resumes at a posh health spa and resort in England where Bond is recuperating. There he stumbles onto SPECTRE’s plan as they kill an air force pilot and replace him with one of their agents. Bond narrowly escapes assassination before being summoned for an emergency meeting with all 00 agents where they learn the United States and England are being blackmailed for hundreds of millions of dollars. If they don’t pay up, a random city will be destroyed by one of the bombs.
The rest of Thunderball takes place primarily in the Bahamas, as Bond squares off with the film’s primary SPECTRE agent, Largo (Adolfo Celi), and courts the deceased air force pilot’s sister, Domino (Claudine Auger), for both information and a little romance. The middle act of Thunderball is more sluggish than other Bond films, featuring comparatively few action set pieces. Domino is not one of more interesting ‘Bond girls’, and it takes Bond far too long to locate the hidden warheads. But things pick up once they’re found, leading to a climactic underwater battle between SPECTRE and US/UK government forces. The agents dodge not only each others’ spear guns, but roaming sharks as well.
Thunderball is Sean Connery’s most financially successful Bond film, but it seems to have lost some of its shine over the years. The underwater photography (nearly a quarter of the film) was novel in the ’60s, but feels a bit mundane today. It’s also strange that a film with the highest stakes — nuclear war — could fail to surpass the suspense and thrills of the three previous, more modestly budgeted movies. While it may not surpass those films, at least it measures up to them, thanks largely to a star at the top of his game.
With Luciana Paluzzi, Guy Doleman, Rik Van Nutter, and Martine Beswick. Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn return as M, Moneypenny, and Q. Directed by Terence Young.
Academy Award: Best Effects – Special Visual Effects