--- title: "Thunderball" year: 1965 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/thunderball" fi1m_score: 66 critics_score: 66 critics_reviews: 10 published: "2026-09-18T11:04:55.334397+00:00" updated: "2026-09-18T11:05:08.897606+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Thunderball (1965) Directed by Terence Young · 2h 10m · MPA PG · Adventure, Action, Thriller **Fi1m score: 66** · Critics 66 from 10 reviews *In a sentence:* Beautiful blue water, and every man in it swimming slowly towards someone else with a speargun > The fourth Bond film is the grandest of Connery’s run and the first to feel padded. Ken Adam’s sets, John Barry’s brass and Luciana Paluzzi’s assassin are worth the evening; the underwater battle that closes it is not. ## Synopsis SPECTRE, the criminal organisation Bond has crossed before, steals two atomic bombs from a NATO bomber and sinks the aircraft in the sea off Nassau, then demands a ransom from Britain and America. James Bond (Sean Connery), fresh from a health clinic where a stranger has tried to kill him on a traction table, recognises the dead pilot’s photograph at M’s briefing and is sent to the Bahamas. There he finds the pilot’s sister, Domino Derval (Claudine Auger), kept woman of Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), SPECTRE’s Number Two, who owns a hydrofoil yacht called the Disco Volante and a house with sharks in the swimming pool. Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi), a SPECTRE assassin who rides a motorbike, is already in town, and Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) of the CIA arrives to help. ## Review *Thunderball* is the fourth James Bond film and the one in which the series decides that bigger is the same as better. Terence Young, who directed [*Dr. No*](https://film.one/film/dr-no) (1962) and [*From Russia with Love*](https://film.one/film/from-russia-with-love) (1963), returns after sitting out *Goldfinger* (1964), and the poster promises the biggest Bond of all. The promise is kept. SPECTRE steals two atomic bombs, the world is held to ransom, and Bond is sent to the Bahamas to get them back. The film runs 130 minutes and has about a hundred minutes of story in it. What it also has is Ken Adam. He gives SPECTRE a Paris boardroom with numbered chairs and a raised seat for the man at the top, and he gives Largo a house with a pool full of sharks and a hatch between the pool and the sea. Ted Moore shoots Nassau in colours so saturated the water looks dyed, and under the surface the light comes down in shafts and the divers cast shadows on white sand. John Barry’s score is the best thing in the film. On land the brass swaggers; when the divers go looking for the sunken bomber he slows everything to a swell that tells us this is grave business even when the pictures are only pretty. Adolfo Celi plays Largo with an eyepatch and a heavy stillness, a man who has people fed to sharks and then goes back to his lunch. Luciana Paluzzi’s Fiona Volpe is better still: red-haired, amused, the first woman in the series who sleeps with Bond and does not change sides, and she tells him so in a scene that is the sharpest writing Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins manage. Claudine Auger’s Domino is photographed rather than directed, and given very little to do until late. Connery is handsome, unhurried and, for long stretches, visibly bored. He wakes up whenever Paluzzi is on screen. The trouble is the water. Every set piece that happens under it happens at the speed of a man in flippers, and there are a great many of them. The closing battle puts dozens of frogmen in orange and black against each other with spearguns, and it is impressive as an exercise in organisation and dull as drama. We could not tell who was winning, or often who was who, and after a few minutes we stopped trying. We were bored, and then cross about being bored by something this expensive and this carefully made. Peter R. Hunt and Ernest Hosler cut the land scenes with the snap Hunt brought to the earlier films; underwater they resort to speeding up the footage, and it shows, with fists arriving before the arms behind them. Then there is the shark pool. Bond is dropped into Largo’s pool and has to find the hatch before the sharks find him, and Young keeps the camera at the waterline so we see the fins above and the man below. The sharks are real, the cuts are quick, and for two minutes we forgot the film had been wasting our time. It is the one sequence where the water is a threat rather than a location. Against the series’ own standard this is a step down. *Goldfinger* had one villain, one plan and no scene that did not push the story on; *Thunderball* has the plan and the hardware and then stops to admire itself. The health clinic opening, with Guy Doleman’s Count Lippe and Molly Peters’s nurse, is Young at his best, small and nasty and funny, and the film never quite finds that scale again. Anthony Mendleson dresses everyone beautifully, which is not nothing, but a well-cut dinner jacket is not a second act. It carries a PG and it is a fine thing to have on in a warm room with a drink, where the colours look wonderful and nobody minds if you talk through the frogmen. Keep the remote to hand for the last half hour. Barry’s music will tell you when to look up again. *Fi1m score 66, published 18 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split by era more than by taste. The critics who saw it on release call it the best Bond yet, and most of the praise since clusters in the same places: Terence Young’s direction, which keeps the pace up, and Sean Connery, stylish and confident in the part even where one reviewer suspects he is bored by it. The underwater sequences are admired as spectacle almost everywhere, and the climactic battle is singled out more than once. The later reviews are cooler. Most find it a step down from Goldfinger, recycling earlier plots and leaning on gadgets at the expense of story, and several find the underwater scenes too long and short on thrills, however handsome they look. Sight and Sound goes furthest, calling it a polished parody with little to remember afterwards. The spread is wide, from raves to one outright dismissal, with the modern consensus settling on decent but uneven. ### Reviews we read (10) - **The New Yorker**, Brendan Gill (90/100, inferred): The critic ranks Thunderball as the best James Bond film so far, praising its accomplished parody, direction by Terence Young, and Sean Connery's performance in the role. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1966/01/08/murder-under-the-sea) - **The New York Times** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Thunderball the best Bond film yet, crediting Sean Connery and Terence Young with giving the hero a stronger sense of humor and more gaiety. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1965/12/22/archives/screen-007s-underwater-adventuresconnery-plays-bond-in-thunderball.html) - **Variety** (90/100, inferred): The review highlights the inventive screenplay, mechanical gimmicks, strong action sequences, and Terence Young's direction that keeps the pace at fever pitch, with Sean Connery stylish as Bond. [Read](https://variety.com/1964/film/reviews/thunderball-1200420710/) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (65/100, inferred): The fourth 007 film is a slight step down from Goldfinger, recycling plot elements from earlier entries and featuring a standard nuclear extortion scheme, with Connery seeming more bored than cool. It still delivers the Bond formula effectively, highlighted by exciting underwater sequences and a stunning climactic battle. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/thunderball-review/) - **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (3/5): The Bond series goes fully comic-strip in this gadget-heavy extravaganza that sacrifices plot coherence for hardware. Connery remains engaging as 007 but shifts toward action-hero mode, while underwater pacing falters even as the Oscar-winning effects shine. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-18upl0/thunderball/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (★★★★☆): Good stuff here, but the franchise faltered a bit with long underwater sequences. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/23/rated-best-james-bond-films-007-spectre) - **The Telegraph** (50/100, inferred): Thunderball was the high watermark of Bond but also its first damp squib, bloated with interminable underwater scenes and aping the Goldfinger formula; Connery found the image a bore. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2025/11/30/thunderball-james-bond-sean-connery-boring/) - **Sight and Sound** (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a blatant, polished parody of the spy genre full of gadgets, extravagant sets and sexless blondes, with little memorable substance beyond the moment. Terence Young’s taut direction and strong underwater sequences are singled out as strengths that keep it entertaining despite its shallowness. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/features/ultimatefilm/chart/details.php?ranking=18) - **Den of Geek**, Mark Pickavance (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the Blu-ray transfer of Thunderball as the best of the early Bond restorations, highlighting its vibrant colors and especially the underwater sequences. The review positions the film as Terence Young's final Bond directorial effort and a high point in the series' visual spectacle. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/thunderball-blu-ray-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Stephen Carty (55/100, inferred): The critic finds Thunderball a decent but uneven Bond entry that pales next to its predecessors and marks the start of the series sliding into excessive parody. Connery remains the standout highlight as the confident, charming 007, while the overlong underwater sequences drag and lack thrills. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/thunderball-film-review-by-stephen-carty) ## Details - **Director:** Terence Young - **Director:** Terence Young - **Screenplay:** Richard Maibaum, John Hopkins, Jack Whittingham - **Story:** Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham - **Cinematography:** Ted Moore - **Editor:** Ernest Hosler, Peter R. Hunt - **Music:** John Barry - **Production design:** Ken Adam - **Costume design:** Anthony Mendleson - **Producer:** Kevin McClory - **Cast:** Sean Connery as James Bond; Claudine Auger as Dominique 'Domino' Derval; Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo; Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe; Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter; Guy Doleman as Count Lippe; Molly Peters as Patricia Fearing; Martine Beswick as Paula Caplan - **Runtime:** 2h 10m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 29 December 1965 - **Genres:** Adventure, Action, Thriller - **Budget:** $9 million - **Box office:** $141 million ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-18.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, ID, IE, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1966: Best Visual Effects (won) ## If you liked this - *From Russia with Love* (1963), Fi1m 84: Young’s earlier Bond: leaner, nastier, and a train fight that needs no water — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/from-russia-with-love.md) - *The Ipcress File* (1965): The same year’s spy film for people who found Bond a little too pleased with himself - *North by Northwest* (1959), Fi1m 89: Hitchcock’s suave man on the run; the template Bond kept borrowing from — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/north-by-northwest.md) - *OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies* (2006): A French send-up of exactly this era, with the tans and the idiocy intact - *The Silent World* (1956): Cousteau’s undersea documentary, for those who liked the diving more than the plot --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/thunderball