Thunderball

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

Revealing mistake: When the water is shooting out from the exhaust pipes of the Aston Martin, watch how easily the chasing gunmen fall down, indeed the one on the right starts to fall back before the water reaches him. (00:04:30)

Will

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)

Revealing mistake: When the plane being piloted by the traitor crashes into the water, during the time while it's skidding across the surface and especially when it stops, you can see a large black wire attached to the middle of it and going into the "sky". (00:29:20)

Revealing mistake: In the scene where Bond is trapped in Largo's shark-infested pool, he uses his mini air tank to breathe. In most of the subsequent shots, look closely at the actor's face - it looks a lot more like a stuntman than Sean Connery. (01:20:20)

Revealing mistake: When Bond goes into the hotel room and finds the girl in the bath, he gives her a pair of gold shoes. She gets out of the bath with the towel wrapped around her. However, when you look in the mirror, you can see that she has a pair of white pants on.

Revealing mistake: When James Bond and Felix have found the missing plane, look at the colour of the water as the helicopter lands, it is evident that is landing in shallow water, (they are supposed to be in much deeper water with sharks swimming below them) you can see the sand below. If the helicopter had landed on deeper water, the water colour would be dark blue.

Will

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.

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

Revealing mistake: When Bond and Colonel Bouvar are fighting in the chateau, Bouvar grabs Bond by the door and in doing so, forces him into doing a roll. At this point, you can see that Bond is not Sean Connery but a stunt double.

Revealing mistake: When James Bond and Felix go out in the helicopter for the second time to search for the mising plane, at the moment when Bond is looking through the pair of binoculars, and when Felix says "you won't find it down there, that's the Golden grotto" just look how slowly the rotor blades are turning, at this speed there is no way that the helicopter could possibly fly and besides, there is hardly any noise from the engine.

Will

Revealing mistake: When Bond is wounded and on the run from Fiona and her assassins, he tries to lose them in a parade. At one point during the chase, for several seconds, there is a dog in the frame. Even without slowing down the film one can see that the dog is stuffed.

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

Suggested correction: The dog is peeing in the street.

Revealing mistake: When the water jets are turned on in the DB5 you can see the fire hoses attached to the car providing the water.

Revealing mistake: When Largo escapes to Disco Volante, he closes the underwater hatch before Bond arrives. But the hatch can't close completely. A hole is visible (and light from behind). The hatch is obviously created in a studio, because the boat would not be able to sail - at least not that fast - with such an opening in the bottom.

Jacob La Cour

Revealing mistake: At the end of the film in the underwater fight scene, when Bond is zooming through the water, you can see the cable pulling him along through the water.

Revealing mistake: Near the end of the film, when the bombs are on board the mini-sub, Bond is spotted by Largo and swims away, but is chased by one of the other divers who has a fight with Bond: Just before they get to grips with one another, you can see that the jacket of Bond's underwater suit is already torn at the right shoulder.

Will

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: When Bond and the guard fall into the pool and the shutters close over them, Largo gets the gate opened to allow sharks into the pool. When they were shooting this, there was supposed to be a sheet of glass in the water with the sharks on one side, and Sean on the other. Unfortunately, a couple of the sharks got round it, and when Sean opens the door to go through to the other pool, he's nose to nose. At this point, he's not acting. Watch his face for the genuine look of horror.

More trivia for Thunderball

Question: I am completely confused about the ending of this film. I mean, the camera-geiger counter starts clicking showing the nuclear weapons are on the boat, but they are not, they are still being moved. And the weapons do get onto the yacht, but both parts of it explode right at the end. Wouldn't that destroy the bombs as well, eg. massive atomic explosion? It is probably just me, I am known to be slow, but can someone explain?

KingofallSamurai

Chosen answer: Geiger counters show when radiation, even faint traces, are present. Therefore, if nuclear weapons were there recently, it will register. The scientist told Domino he threw the detonators overboard so the bombs could not explode. Also, nukes are surprisingly durable. Being in a large explosion will not detonate the core, only a specific chain reaction will.

SexyIrishLeprechaun

Answer: Yep he's right.

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.