Thunderball

Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie, Bond was running away from several people that were trying to kill him. During the scene, Bond stopped running and put a helmet on. Then the next shot showed the assassins running toward him. Then it showed Bond in the next shot with a big jetpack on his back that he hadn't been carrying around. It just appeared on him. (00:03:45)

Correction: Bond had it stashed for a quick getaway. While being chased he ran towards it and put it on to avoid being killed or captured.

Corrected entry: At the movie's end, Bond is wearing a harness to enable him to be picked up by the plane. He takes Domino in his arms, and moments later they are snagged by the plane and yanked out of the life raft. The speed and force of the plane would have ripped Bond out of Domino's arms, leaving her in the raft if she was lucky, unconscious or dead if she was not.

Correction: This is pure speculation. The skyhook device was actual technology in use at the time of the movie. Obviously the rope used had elastic properties - like a bungee cord - to absorb the shock of accelerating from 0 to airplane speed.

BocaDavie

It didn't help that Bond tangled the cord under his right armpit as he embraced Domino for the rescue lift. His arm would have been yanked out of its socket.

Correction: Bond tangled the rescue cord under his right armpit and then embraced Domino. His arm would have been pulled out of its socket as he was yanked out of the life raft without her.

Corrected entry: When the jet lands in the water, the landing gear is up. Moments later as the jet sinks to the bottom, the landing gear is conveniently down.

Correction: There is nothing convenient about it. Ditching in shallow water is done with the wheels up (otherwise they'd be torn off on impact) and they are lowered as the aircraft settles. (In fact, if you watch the movie as the plane sinks into the water, you can actually see them being lowered). This means the aircraft can be salvaged later (with lifting straps) and the crew can escape through the bomb bay.

Corrected entry: James is dancing with a woman when he notices a gun aimed at him. As the music's beat grows and grows, at the final drumbeat, James turns the woman around so she gets the bullet in the back. The only way we can see she is shot is when James moves his fingers away and blood dribbles out, but since James' fingers cover the bullet hole, his fingers should have been shot, as well.

kh1616

Correction: It is quite possible for James to cover the wound with his fingers so the other party goers don't see the wound then turn her around and place her in the seat.

Correction: Bond was holding her a bit lower on her back when dancing. She slipped lower when shot, and Bond's hand moved up over the wound.

Corrected entry: In the scene where James Bond is being briefed with the other double-0 agents, just after they have opened their top secret folders, the agent who is sitting next to 007 (the one with the beard) bears an uncanny likeness to Ringo Starr.

Will

Correction: I don't see how an actor who looks like someone else (and isn't) counts as trivia. Many people look similar to others.

Corrected entry: When Connery walks into Moneypenny's office he puts his hat on the anorak. After the meeting discussing the capture of warheads he walks back into Moneypenny's office. M enters the room and Connery says "I think I had a hat when I came in." He then walks out without his hat, because for some reason it's no longer on the anorak.

Correction: Can't see how this is a continuity error as Bond is pointing out that his hat is missing. Perhaps it wasn't supposed to be missing in the script but even so it didn't turn into a continuity error because they picked up on it.

Correction: More of a minor mistake. Being underwater changes the color of a persons hair as well as their skin.While the stuntman likely had blond hair,Largos hair would have not looked white underwater.

Corrected entry: When Fiona Volpe is shot in the back while dancing with Bond, you can see his hand covering the entry wound with blood seeping through his fingers. Since he was facing her at the moment that she was shot, and could not have seen her back, how does he know exactly where the wound is so that he can cover it with his hand?

Will

Correction: He felt the wetness of her blood.

Corrected entry: During the underwater fight scene, Largo pulls off Bond's diving mask so that he can't see. Bond takes one off a dead bad guy and puts in on. Surely the mask would still be full of water?

OL1V3R666

Correction: If you seal a mask against your forehead at an angle and blow bubbles up into it, the water is replaced with air. I have done this many times before and if you watch Bond he does it when putting on the mask.

Corrected entry: After Bond escapes a shark-infested swimming pool, James drives back to his hotel with a CIA agent named Pinder. He tells Pinder to tell Leiter "That Paula is dead." Pinder says OK - end of scene. No grief, no tears, and no amazement - just another day at the CIA I guess.

Larry Koehn

Correction: Not really a plot hole or mistake, it just shows that Pinder is a.) a heartless cad or b.) used to the fact that fellow agents die in the line of duty or c.) hiding his pain from Bond and waiting to let his pain out in private. Bond after all is used to the women in his life getting killed (thats the reason for all the martinis).

Correction: It does, but there's a meeting Bond attends in the meantime. He even addresses the fact that his hat disappears, moving towards the hat rack saying "I had a hat when I came in", then looking confused when it's not there. This is the culmination of a running gag concerning Bond's hat that was developed through all four of the first Bond movies: In Dr. No, he tosses the hat onto the rack as if he was playing a game of horseshoes. In From Russia With Love, he does the same thing-and then sees M is in the office with Moneypenny and is Not Amused. In Goldfinger, it's Moneypenny who tosses the hat, while trying to convince Bond to go out with her that evening. Finally, in Thunderball, James starts to toss the hat, then thinks better of it and just puts it on the rack-and then it's gone when he comes back. What's more, with just one or two possible exceptions, this marks the last time Bond wears a hat as a fashion statement in the entire Bond series. Effectively, the producers recognized that they couldn't keep figuring out new things to do with the hat, and intentionally took it out of the picture - literally, so they didn't have to keep trying.

Corrected entry: If it was necessary for the vulcan crew to wear oxygen masks, why does the crew member eating the sandwich not have to wear one at the same time?

Will

Correction: The Vulcan's cabin was pressurized, so they had an oxygen supply. However, the masks also contain their radio apparatus I believe. It is also standard procedure for the pilots and I guess anyone not taking a break to keep it on. He depressurized the cabin and put the gamma gas in the primary air system. The alarm that went off told them to put on their masks.

Corrected entry: Two Vulcans left the airbase together. They would have flown together as well. Where did the other go? Why didn't it follow the other plane when it got in trouble - and reported where it had gone to?

Jacob La Cour

Correction: It's not odd to think the Vulcans separated at some waypoint in the flight for simulated bombing runs or as practice for some sort of decoy maneuver and were to return at different times.

Grumpy Scot

Spot on. The Vulcans were nuclear armed. There's no point having 2 aircraft drop a nuclear bomb on the same target.

stiiggy

Correction: No it was standard procedure to have multiple bombers, missile silos and subs go after the same target. That's so if the primary aircraft is shot down etc. another would take its place, it's called target redundancy.

Corrected entry: In the film's numerous SCUBA scenes nobody is ever wearing buoyancy compensators. These are inflatable and deflatable vests SCUBA divers use to adjust their buoyancy. Nor does anyone wear any weights. Because of the positive buoyancy of the human body, wetsuits and air canisters none of these people should be able to submerge at all.

Correction: Since all the underwater scenes were actually filmed underwater, this is obviously untrue. Alternatively, this can be put down to some genius innovation available only to secret service operatives (Like the air canister that's no bigger than a pen which Bond uses).

Corrected entry: When Vargas spots Domino and Bond and prepares to shoot him, why does he decide to use a silencer on his gun? The two are alone on a desolate beach; no one would hear the shot.

Correction: It's not really a mistake. It's more of a choice of the character.

Corrected entry: When Angelo gets into the pilot seat of the Vulcan there is a member of the crew eating a sandwich. At the moment when Angelo uses the poisonous gas to kill the crew, surely the man eating the sandwich would still be eating it, and would not have had sufficient time to put his oxygen mask back on.

Will

Correction: His mask was still half-on, sort of hanging to the side. The alarm went off for several seconds, plus they might have felt the cabin depressurization so they put on their masks which takes almost no time at all.

Corrected entry: At the beginning of the film, how was it possible for Bond to get to the chateau before the black car, despite leaving the church a minute or two later, then get into the chateau, leave his his jetpack on a balcony outside, then get back into the room before the woman in black enters the room without being seen by anyone?

Will

Correction: It is possible if Bond used the jetpack to fly from the church to the chateau, landed on the balcony of the chateau and left the jetpack on the balcony. This would give him plenty of time to enter the room prior to the "woman".

Corrected entry: At Shrublands, Bond confronts Count Lippe, who sets the speed of the traction table to dangerous. Bond goes into a room where Lippe is in a Spitz Bath. Watch the sign as Bond goes into this room, as it changes when he leaves, from Spitz Bath, to Heat Treatment.

Correction: The room that Bond enters, actually says Massage and not Spitz bath, you can see a picture to the left of the door as Bond enters. He does not close the door but leaves it open, he leaves through a different door that he has to open, on the other side of the door it says Spitz bath and heat treatment, you can also see that it has a different picture by the side of the door.

Will

Corrected entry: Bond and Leiter are in the helicopter and as Bond tells Leiter to get the military personnel to show up for the show-down, he makes reference to "Miami Beach and Orlando Beach". Seeing as how Orlando, Florida is about 50+ miles inland, there is no such place as 'Orlando Beach'.

Correction: There is an Orlando Beach, north of Miami Beach and to the east of Orlando.

Corrected entry: At the beginning of the film Bond manages to get away with the help his Aston Martin DB5, which should be impossible since Bond crashed that car into the wall of Auric Goldfinger's factory in Switzerland.

jbrbbt

Correction: Throughout the history of Bond films James Bond is provided with a new car whenever one is destroyed. This was obviously a different car.

BocaDavie

Continuity mistake: When the Disco Volante separates to escape the cruisers firing on it, the "cocoon" is seen facing the pursuing ships stern-first. When the shot changes to show the gunners firing on the ships, the back half of the "cocoon" has turned completely around. The gunners are firing from the separated mid-section of the Volante, and the stern of the "cocoon" is now facing away from the cruisers, making it easy to see which parts of the scene were filmed live and which were done in the studio.

demodon

More mistakes in Thunderball

James Bond: My dear, uncooperative Domino.
Domino: How do you know that? How do you know my friends call me Domino?
James Bond: It's on the bracelet on your ankle.
Domino: So... what sharp little eyes you've got.
James Bond: Wait 'til you get to my teeth.

More quotes from Thunderball

Trivia: While recording the title song, Tom Jones asked the songwriter what the phrase "strikes like Thunderball" actually meant. The composer admitted he hadn't the slightest clue.

More trivia for Thunderball

Question: As I watched the end scene I wondered: how do James and Domino intend to return to terra firma? They were whisked out of the boat by the plane and are hanging on the end of a long cord so the plane can't land without them being dragged at high speed along the concrete.

Answer: Look up Skyhook online and you'll find out how it was done. The person hanging from the cable wold be pulled aboard by the plane's crew.

Answer: A helicopter could lower a line to them to attach themselves to. They could then cut the rope and be lowered to safety. A bit outlandish, but this is Bond we are talking about after all.

Grumpy Scot

More questions & answers from Thunderball

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