Thunderball

Continuity mistake: When Bond is examining the canal behind Palymra and he comes swimming, he has bare feet. But when he climbs the stairs from the water he is wearing shoes.

Jacob La Cour

Factual error: The second blackmail message from SPECTRE tells the British that they must drop the ransom diamonds in a container "off the coast of Burma, in the Mergui archipelago, latitude 20 degrees north, longitude 60 degrees east." Unfortunately, 20 N, 60 E is nowhere near Burma. It's right off the coast of Oman in the Arabian peninsula, all the way on the other side of India from Burma. The actual coordinates for the Mergui archipelago are approximately 13 N 97 E. I guess there wasn't a map handy....

Revealing mistake: When Bond and that girl are floating at the end right after the boat crashed, the bottom of the ocean looks very shallow and very much like the bottom of a pool.

Visible crew/equipment: When the cars arrive at the mansion after attending the funeral, one of the car doors opens, and the film crew's lighting equipment is reflected in the door.

wizard_of_gore

Continuity mistake: In the car scene where Bond escapes, Fiona did not have a cigarette lighter in her hand, but instead the gun with which she held James Bond. He grabs her hand with the cigarette lighter and moves it near the flame, but if that's the case she still would have had a free hand to shoot him with.

Factual error: When Bond finds the hi-jacked sunken Vulcan, he swims into the aircraft and towards a door at the rear of the cockpit. In the real Vulcan there's no door. There is a full-width table with racks of "black boxes" where the bomb aimer and navigator sit.

Factual error: When Largo's henchman is hiding in Bond's shower, Bond turns on the hot water which scalds the villan. But scalding hot water is never the first which comes out of the hot faucet.

Jacob La Cour

Revealing mistake: During the fight at the beginning of the film, if watch it slow motion, you can see that the poker that is being used to strike Bond is not made of metal, it bends when the blows are being aimed at Bond. (00:03:10)

Will

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: According to this site's rules, if you have to use slow motion to see something, it's not a valid mistake.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When James Bond is inside the plane that is underwater, just before he goes to remove the facemask of the dead pilot Angelo, watch closely as Bond is holding a torch in his left hand and he is about to remove the mask with his right hand, but in the next shot, it is Bond's left hand hand that removes the mask and the torch is nowhere to be seen.

Will

Continuity mistake: When 007 is diving and fights with some divers his diving mask changes colour from blue to orange.

Plot hole: The Disco Volante puts to sea and Bond comes aboard disguised as one of the divers. Largo tells the captain to set course to Miami Beach. After being exposed and captured within the underwater cave, Bond is eventually rescued by Leiter in a helicopter. Bond tells him that the Volante's course is Miami Beach and that the bombs are transferred to a wreck on Fowley Point. There is no mention of Fowley Point before - the wreck just serves as a location for the final underwater fight. (01:53:00)

Revealing mistake: When Bond hits the fire alarm in the spa with his elbow you can see the padding on his elbow to protect against the blow. (00:24:50)

Continuity mistake: When James Bond is being chased through the carnival parade he has already been shot in the calf and you can see the bloodstain on his trousers. Later in the scene as he is jumping onto one of the floats to escape, the blood stain is on the opposite leg and his hand.

Other mistake: The tape recorder in Bond's room spins very fast, and the tape is not that big. It would have to have been started not long before Bond came back, and could not possibly have been running all day.

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When 007 is trying to escape from the Disco Volante, having taken underwater pictures, you see the speedboat come into contact with the oxygen tanks that 007 is using, as he is spun round you can see that the tanks are undamaged, but when one of Largo's henchmen pulls the tanks out of the water, the tank on the right hand side is damaged.

Will

Continuity mistake: In one scene, Bond and Leiter have landed the helicopter on the sea and Bond dives down to search for the Vulcan watch Leiter. One moment he is wearing long pants, the next moment shorts, and the next long pants again.

Continuity mistake: There is an underwater love scene between Sean Connery and Claudine Auger. The air hose on Claudine Auger's scuba tank switches from one side to the other during the scene.

Revealing mistake: In the cave where the A-bombs are kept, you can see that it is not totally submerged. You can see reflections from the water surface.

Jacob La Cour

Factual error: Before the final fight when the soldiers parachute down, they are spread out over a long stretch of water (up to 1 km, it seems). It would take them a long time to swim together (and none of them are wearing the underwater jet as Bond is). Nevertheless they are all in one group minutes later.

Jacob La Cour

Fiona: You look pale, Mr. Bond. I hope I didn't frighten you.
Bond: Well you see, I've always been a nervous passenger.
Fiona: Some men just don't like to be driven.
Bond: No, some men just don't like to be taken for a ride.

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

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.