"Thunderball" 4K UHD Movie Review

Thunderball

Director: Terence Young
Starring: Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn
Running Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Theatrical Release Date: December 22, 1965
4K Ultra HD 6-Film Release Date: June 10, 2025 (Amazon.com)

READER RATING:

Plot Summary

James Bond heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme. (from IMDB)

Film Review

Moving right along, we slide into 1965 Thunderball for Connery's fourth outing as Bond in as many years. This time, Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton steps down for Terence Young to return to his place behind the camera for the third time. With Thunderball, all of the James Bond stereotypes continue to escalate and take shape. From the naked female silhouettes dancing in the opening credits to the gadgets and absurd situations (especially romantic ones), this is the version of Bond that comes to mind when you hear the name.

Thunderball swings for the fences in a lot of ways, but still suffers from some of the issues of the first four movies. Pacing seems to be director Terence Young's Achilles' heel as he doesn't seem to know how to properly trim the fat for the sake of a scene. For Thunderball, it's the underwater fight scenes that, conceptually, should work great, but ultimately start to feel like a jumbled mess pretty quickly. The film's climax largely involves two different factions of divers just shooting harpoons into one anothers' chests, or struggling with knives in a two-handed death match. Sure, while the scenes drag at times, it's not quite enough to sink the entire film, but I definitely found myself getting restless. Put it to you this way: It's not the kind of cinema you find yourself wanting to soak in every minute of.

Connery still feels more than comfortable as the super spy, and this film gives him even more scenes to kick SPECTRE butt in action sequences. The opening scene - which, by the way, I can't help but think of Austin Powers during - finds 007 socking a woman who turns out to be a SPECTRE guy agent in drag. The two fight it out pretty harshly until Bond gets the upperhand and he escapes with a jet pack. (Speaking of Austin Powers, it's obvious this film largely inspired that one when a board room scene quickly shows up and it's laid out much like Dr. Evil's setup.) There's a fair mix of action and spy stuff, with Connery getting plenty of moments to do his thing, but it all still has a heavy mid-60's vibe to it. And as Bond continues to force himself on any beautiful woman he sets his optical targets on, it doesn't stop feeling uncomfortable to watch.

Thunderball
While Goldfinger calmed the violence down a bit - specifically when it came to showing blood - Young gets back to the bloodier visuals. It's never exactly gory - after all, a couple people get eaten by sharks, but it's not shown on screen and is only heavily implied - but there are still moments of blood clouds in the water, and even Bond taking a bullet to the calf, which we see some blood with. Sexual content is amped up a little more, too. Bond forces a kiss on a nurse who refuses his advances. When something goes awry with a therapeutic back machine she had strapped him into - due to a SPECTRE agent messing with it - she expresses her relief that he's ok, but then fears for her job. He then takes this as the opportunity for her to repay him sexually, and he immediately cashes in on the favor. Again... it's especially icky in 2025. Lastly, there is just a little more language this time, with a couple uses of "d*mn" and "h*ll" thrown into the mix. Overall, I'd easily call this a PG-13 movie by today's standards.

Four down and two more to go in this 4K UHD 6-movie set of the Connery 007 films. (I'm rewatching them after many years have passed since I last saw them.) For the most part, I enjoyed Thunderball as a Bond flick, but the silliness factor is starting to increase - something I didn't miss in the more recent Daniel Craig movies. If you liked Goldfinger, there's a good chance you'll also like Thunderball, but I can already see the road getting paved in preparation for Roger Moore's eventual succession.

Thunderball in 4K UHD: Like the first three, the 4K transfer for Thunderball is crisp, vibrant, and really impressive. Fans should not be disappointed.

- John DiBiase (reviewed: 6/16/25)

Parental Guide: Content Summary

Sex/Nudity: We see many black silhouettes of women swimming topless during the opening credits; Bond tells moneypenny he’ll put her across his knee next time he sees her; Bond forces a kiss on a nurse. She pushes him off and tells him to behave himself; Bond takes the nurse into a Turkish bath and she undoes her top. We see her bare back and butt cheeks pressed up against the glass very briefly as the scene cuts away; We see Bond in bed with the nurse as he rubs her bare back with a mink glove and kisses her; A man is in bed with a woman and pulls on her shoulder strap. He asks her to take off her clothes, but they get interrupted. She pulls the strap back up as he gets called away; We see Bond is still rubbing her back with the glove. She sits up covering her chest with a sheet, and we see her bare back; Bond's caught flirting with the nurse and she says "haven’t you had enough exercise for one evening?" And he says, "Funny you should say that;" Moneypenny asks how Bond will recognize Domino without the photo and he says "I couldn't miss. She has two moles on her left thigh"; We see a woman in a bikini, and more on a beach; Dominique's swimsuit shows cleavage; A comment is made about conch chowder being an aphrodisiac; Domino says "What sharp little eyes you've got" to Bond, and after she walks away he says Wait till you get to my teeth;" Domino shows cleavage in her dress while at a card table; Domino shows more cleavage in a different swimsuit; Bond opens a door to find a woman in the tub. We see her bare back. At one point, she holds a towel over her chest. In the next scene, we see them in bed together under sheets. They kiss and she talks about the bed being like an animal cage; The woman makes a comment about Bond making love to women; We see women in bikinis on a parade float; Domino in shown in another bikini.

Vulgarity/Language: 2 "h*ll", 2 "d*mn"

Alcohol/Drugs: Bond and a few characters have drinks poolside; A man offers champagne in a car; We see drinks at tables at a bar on the beach.

Blood/Gore: We see a nasty bruise on Bond's back; Largo has a man thrown into a pool of sharks. The water turns red, shown from the perspective of the camera under the water looking at the surface of the water; Under the water in a pool, Bond stabs the man and blood leaks into the water; Bond shot in leg with blood on his pants; We see a little blood on the street; We see some blood running down Bond's leg. He pulls up his pant leg and wraps a bandage around it; A woman is shot in the back while Bond is dancing with her. We see some blood between his fingers and on her dress; We hear a gunshot and see some blood as a shark sinks underwater; A harpoon is shot into the face mask of bad guy; One man is impaled through the arm with blood seeping into the water; We see miscellaneous divers hit in the chest and get impaled with harpoons, mostly without blood, but we see the harpoons sticking out of their body; See more blood on a knife and around the victim with the bloody arm; We briefly see a small bloody mark on Domino's bare shoulder; Bond has some blood on his lip after being punched in the face; A man has a little blood around a wound after being shot.

Violence: During the opening credits, a man shoots at the screen and red comes down; Bond punches a woman in the face who has a veil covering her face, but we quickly find out it's a man in drag. They fight and punch each other and throw each other into things around a room. The man grabs a poker and hits Bond with it in the back. Bond then strangles the man with it, killing him; After Bond escapes with a jet pack, he's shot at by pursuing bad guys. His car ejects water out the back to knock the men over; At a conference table, a man is fried in his chair, with smoke and sparks emitting from the chair, but no detail is shown; A nurse puts Bond on a rack to help with the pain in his back. A man comes in and speeds it up to the highest speed and we see Bond in pain as the rack rocks forward and back very fast until he passes out; Bond traps a man in a sauna heat box with a broom handle and he struggles to get out; A man gasses another man, killing him; Bond unwraps a dead man's face and we see their face frozen with his eyes open; Bond hits a man's hand reaching inside an open window with a phone receiver and then knocks him out; A man gasses an aircraft, killing all inside the cockpit. One is seen dead with eyes open; A man cuts brother man's oxygen underwater so he’ll drown; While driving, someone shoots at Bond's car. A motorcycle shoots a rocket at the pursuing car, blowing up the back of it. It goes off the road and explodes in a fireball; Bond watches as Domino's swim fin gets stuck in the rocks and she briefly panics. Bond helps free her; Bond turns hot water on on a man hiding in his shower and then hits him with a door. And then hits him again to knock him down; Largo backhands the man and they throw him into the pool with sharks. The water turns red; Bond struggles with another diver with a knife. He ends up pulling the man’s mask off; Explosions go off in the water; We see a woman skeet shooting; Bond and Largo are shown skeet shooting; Two men restrain a woman on a bed and smother her screams with a pillow; Bond stealthily knocks out a man; We see a dead woman sitting in a chair and hear she poisoned herself; Some people shoot at Bond and he shoots back; Bond accidentally drops a gun and it goes off; A man attacks Bond and they fight. They fall into a pool and Largo flips a switch to make a cover slide over the pool, trapping them underneath. Under the water, Bond stabs the man and blood leaks into the water. Largo lets the sharks in and they go for the dead guy; A man offers champagne in car. Bond breaks the bottle and causes a woman's cigarette lighter to ignite it. He escapes in the confusion; Bond is shot in the leg; A woman is shot in the back and killed while Bond is dancing with her; We hear a gunshot and see some blood as a shark sinks underwater; We see a dead man underwater with eyes open; Bond sucks poison out of Domino's foot; Bond shoots a man with a harpoon, pinning him to a tree, killing him; Bond and another diver struggle over a flare; Largo roughly grabs the back of Domino's neck and throws her onto the bed; Largo rips her dress on her shoulder and threatens to torture her; Divers shoot harpoons at each other. Quite a few get hit in the chest; Bond fights with several divers. A piece of ship wreckage falls onto two divers, pinning them underneath; A harpoon is shot into the face mask of bad guy; Bond struggles with more bad guys underwater; More guys are shown being hit with harpoons; One man is impaled through the arm with blood seeping into the water; Another man is impaled through the stomach with a harpoon; Ships fire on the bad guy's yacht. The yacht catches on fire and explodes; Bond fights off a bunch of bad guys on a boat; Bond smashes a small door into a man on the floor. He exchanges multiple punches with Largo who punches Bond in the face as well. Bond falls over and is threatened with a gun. Domino shoots a man in the back; A boat crashes and explodes.

Disclaimer: All reviews are based solely on the opinions of the reviewer. Most reviews are rated on how the reviewer enjoyed the film overall, not exclusively on content. However, if the content really affects the reviewer's opinion and experience of the film, it will definitely affect the reviewer's overall rating.

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