Thunderball

film by Young [1965]

Written by Lee Pfeiffer

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 11, 2024 • Article History

Thunderball, British spy film, released in 1965, that is the fourth James Bond movie and one of the highest-grossing installments in the series.

The crime organization SPECTRE hijacks two atomic bombs from a NATO training flight and threatens to destroy a major city unless its exorbitant financial demands are met. British agent Bond (played by Sean Connery) is assigned to The Bahamas to investigate clues that point to the area as a possible hiding place for the bombs. Once there, he meets Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), a rich aristocrat who is in reality the second in command of SPECTRE. When Bond reveals to Largo’s mistress, Domino (Claudine Auger), that Largo had her brother, a NATO pilot, killed, she agrees to help him locate the bombs. Although Bond does find the weapons, he cannot prevent Largo and his army of scuba divers from setting off to Miami Beach, the intended target of their terrorist plot. Bond manages to alert U.S. intelligence forces. Aquaparatroops parachute into the ocean off the coast of Miami, and he joins in a spectacular battle that sees Largo’s forces defeated. However, Largo escapes to his hydrofoil yacht, which holds one of the bombs. Bond climbs onto the speeding vessel and learns that Domino and a scientist on board have dismantled the bomb’s arming device. Bond engages Largo in a fistfight before Largo is shot dead with a harpoon gun wielded by Domino.

Thunderball, which is the ninth Bond book by Ian Fleming, was supposed to be the first film in the series. However, legal battles over story rights led producers to choose Dr. No (1962) for Bond’s big-screen debut. A 1983 remake titled Never Say Never Again, also starring Connery, was made outside Eon Productions’ control.