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Thunderball

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Thunderball - 1965 | 132 mins | Action, Thriller | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Terence Young.
Producer: Kevin McClory.
Script: Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins. Story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming. (from the novel by Ian Fleming)
Cinematography: Ted Moore.
Special Effects: Frank George, Garth Inns, Jimmy Snow, John Stears and Jimmy Ward.
Editing: Ernest Hosler.
Art Direction: Peter Murton.
Production Design: Ken Adam.
Costume Design: Anthony Mendleson.
Make-Up Department: Basil Newall, Paul Rabiger and Eileen Warwick.
Sound Department: Maurice Askew, Harry Miller, Bert Ross and Norman Wanstall.
Music: John Barry. (title song by Tom Jones).

The Cast

Sean Connery - James Bond
Claudine Auger - Domino Derval
Adolfo Celi - Emilio Largo
Luciana Paluzzi - Fiona Volpe
Guy Doleman - Count Lippe
Molly Peters - Patricia Fearing
Martine Beswick - Paula Caplan
Roland Culver - Foreign Secretary
Rik Van Nutter - Leiter
Bernard Lee - M
Desmond Llewelyn - Q
Lois Maxwell - Miss Moneypenny

Plot Synopsis

While at a health farm, Bond decides that another patient - the mysterious Count Lippe - is hiding something. Indeed he is: Lippe is an agent of SPECTRE and is in the midst of carrying out a plan to blackmail the Western world. He has with him at the health farm a SPECTRE agent named Angelo who has undergone plastic surgery to make him look like a NATO pilot named Derval. Under Bond's nose they kill Derval and substitute Angelo, who then flies on an RAF Vulcan bomber carrying nuclear bombs, kills the crew and crash-lands the aircraft in the shallow waters of the Bahamas. Bond discovers Derval's dead body, but Count Lippe is killed by SPECTRE before Bond can investigate further.

SPECTRE's chief sends a ransom demand to the UK and US leaders: pay £100 million or a major city will be blown up. Bond recognises a photograph of Derval, makes the connection with the blackmail plot and is sent by M to investigate Derval's sister - Domino - in the Bahamas, Bond soon realises that Domino's lover, Emilio Largo, is also a member of SPECTRE. Bond locates the crashed Vulcan and determines that the bombs will be loaded on to Largo's boat, the Disco Volante. Bond calls in reinforcements, and one of the bombs is recovered during an underwater battle. Largo escapes with the other bomb, but Bond intercepts him. Largo dies in a fight, and the bomb is recovered.