The Complete James Bond Glossary » T

Thumper

bondunlimited — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:36:41 +0000

Tall man

bondunlimited — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 06:57:48 +0000

Tall Man is Adolf Gettler’s main bodyguard/henchman in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. He is played by Actor/Stuntman Leos Stransky.

Tall Man first appears alongside Gettler when they are to retrieve the money from Vesper Lynd. Gettler is shown handing the silver case containing the money to Tall Man who is standing behind him. When Bond is discovered, Tall Man flees with Gettler taking Vesper as their hostage and escaping into a building under renovation. Tall Man takes position on the upper floor waiting for Bond to come through the doors but is thrown off balance when Bond shoots out the air bags holding up the building’s foundations.

Bond fights his way through the other assassins before confronting Tall Man. The two are seen crashing through a wall whereafter Bond stuns him with a blow to the face and uses him for a human shield as Gettler opens fire, shooting Tall Man in the shoulder. He is finally killed when the elevator shaft in the center breaks free and crushes him to death.

Truman-Lodge

bondunlimited — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:38:48 +0000

Truman-Lodge is a character from the James Bond film Licence to Kill; he was played by Anthony Starke.

Anthony Starke as Truman-Lodge in ‘Licence to Kill’.

Truman-Lodge is Franz Sanchez’s financial advisor, a fugitive from the United States following insider dealing on Wall Street. A wizard with digits in all senses, he displays considerable skill at prestidigitation while recalculating the drug lord’s vast illgotten income. He is always at his employer’s side and becomes increasingly more alarmed at Sanchez’s recklessness, despairing at the expensive destruction of the cocaine distribution centre at the end of the film.

When he sarcastically congratulates Sanchez on “another eighty million dollar write-off” the drug lord – made suspicious by Bond’s machinations – decides to start “cutting overhead” and shoots him with a MAC-11, being sure to remove the briefcase containing the $500 million bearer bonds from Truman-Lodge’s dead hands before leaving his body at the side of the road.

Tynan, Dr

bondunlimited — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:46:07 +0000

Dr Tynan is a character in the James Bond film and novel Diamonds Are Forever. He is portrayed by Henry Rowland.

Tynan is a South African dentist who is the first link in the diamond smuggling pipeline. He extracts diamonds from the mouths of miners and ships them out of the country. In both versions of the story, he is met by Wint and Kidd, who pick up the diamonds from him. Kidd complains of a toothache, and when Tynan bends over to check Kidd’s mouth, Wint drops a scorpion down the back of his shirt (in the film’s alternative version, it was shoved up his mouth) , envenomating Tynan within seconds. When smuggler and helicopter pilot Joe meets Wint and Kidd, the former tells Joe that Tynan was “bitten by the bug.”

Tree, Shady

bondunlimited — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:13:25 +0000

Shady Tree is a character in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, and is portrayed by Leonard Barr.

Leonard Barr as Shady Tree in ‘Diamonds Are Forever.

In both the novel and movie, Michael (Shady) Tree is the link in the “pipeline” who receive the diamonds once they are in the US. His fate is unrevealed in the novel; he is based in New York and acts as a ‘frontman’. He is a red-haired hunchback and deals with most of the ‘small fry’ henchmen.

In the film, he first appears taking James Bond off a crematorium because the diamonds given to him are fake. Then Bond goes to the hotel where he works as a stand-up comedian, and Tree is killed by Wint and Kidd. The duo come to him saying (Wint) “Shady, we just adored your act. (Kidd) What taste, what style. (Wint again) And we have a few suggestions”, to which he replies that “Critics and material I don’t need. I haven’t changed my act in 40 years”. Then, in a deleted scene, Kidd shoots a toy gun from which a “bang” sign pops out – and then the gun fires a real bullet, killing Tree. As the assassins come out of the room, Bert Saxby informs that Tree is needed alive because of the fake diamonds, to which Kidd replies “That’s most annoying.”

Title references

bondunlimited — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:31:58 +0000

See James Bond title references.

Tomorrow Never Dies: Film – Trivia

bondunlimited — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 04:00:45 +0000

James Bond has a new gun in this film. It is the Walther P99, which is the replacement for his trademark Walther PPK. He picks up the gun in Wai Lin’s apartment.
The ships used in the film are Type 23 Duke Class Anti-Submarine Frigates. The interior shots were all filmed at HMS DRYAD ship simulator, and most of the personnel in the background are real Royal Navy personnel. Most of the dialogue and commands are very accurate, though some has been modified so the viewing public can understand it.
Though well-known to British audiences, it probably escaped the notice of most others that Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, whose characters feud in this film, played a happily-married couple in the British TV program “As Time Goes By”
The name of the type of torture that Stamper (Götz Otto) was an expert in was Chakra Torture.
During the pre-credits opening sequence, Admiral Roebuck’s (Geoffrey Palmer) code name was Black King; the Captain of the HMS Chester’s code name was White Bishop; M’s code name was White Rook whilst James Bond’s code name was White Knight.
The co-ordinates where the HMS Devonshire was sunk in the South China Sea were 114° 23′ 818″ E and 37° 74′ 624″ N.
The license plate number of James Bond’s BMW 750 was HHJ5273.
The name of Elliot Carver’s major tabloid newspaper was “Tomorrow”.
The name of Elliot Carver’s secret black radar-undetectable ship was “The Stealth Ship”.
The name of the weapon used to sink the HMS Devonshire was “The Sea Drill”. The number of survivors was seventeen.
The number plate of Bond’s BMW 750iL is “B-MT 2144″. This ties in with his Aston Martin DB5′s number plate “BMT 214A”. The original film Aston Martin, (from Goldfinger (1964)), had “BMT 216A”, which could not be used for legal reasons.
At one point during filming in Bangkok, a helicopter was mistakenly hovered over the American Embassy, causing fears that it was spying.
Michelle Yeoh did almost all her own stunts.
Director Roger Spottiswoode had hoped that the descent outside the building could be done by computerized special effects, but in the end a 7-storey section of wall was constructed and the stars lowered down alongside it.
The film made particularly heavy use of gadgetry because some fans thought there was too little of it in GoldenEye (1995).
Cameo: [Michael G. Wilson] Tom Wallace, one of Elliot Carver’s subordinates on a television screen when Elliot Carver discusses his new story.
The original title of the film was “Tomorrow Never Lies”, which makes sense when you consider media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) was creating the next day’s headlines in advance, then causing those events to happen. But a typo on an early script draft was adopted by the producers, and “Tomorrow Never Dies” was used instead.
In an earlier draft of the script, the villain Elliot Carver was known as Elliot Harmsway.
CMGN stood for the Carver Media Group Network.
The license plate number of the Black Rolls Royce that M and Moneypenny brief Bond about his mission in was MKG 169.
The license plate numbers of two cars that chase James Bond’s BMW in the car park were HH J5273 and HH W3847.
Dedicated to the memory of long-time Bond-film producer Albert R. Broccoli.
When Bond and Wai-lin prepare to send a radio message, Bond apparently can’t use the keyboard because it uses Chinese characters. This contradicts the earlier film You Only Live Twice (1967) in which Bond says he has a first class degree in oriental languages from Cambridge University.
The stealth ship is not a fictional invention. Lockheed secretly constructed and demonstrated one in the early 1980s, but the US Navy finally decided they didn’t want any. The prototype, called the Sea Shadow, was 160 feet long and the film’s ship closely resembles it in shape.
15 BMW 750′s were destroyed in the making of the film.
When Bond gets out of his BMW in Hamburg and hands the keys to the valet, he says “Lass dich nicht verarschen.” This is a German idiom which means, approximately, “Don’t let him/her/them/it make an ass of you.” However in the German dubbed version, Bond says “Nicht alles glauben, was sie sagt” which translates to “Don’t believe everything she says.”
The first draft of the script was set during the transfer of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule with Carver a zealot bent on destroying Hong Kong rather that hand it over to the Chinese. According to director Roger Spottiswoode, this plotline was dropped when former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was acting as a consultant on the production, warned that if something actually did occur during the handover in real life the film (which was set to open a few months later) would look ridiculous. This led to a last-minute rewrite.
In several scenes of Bond’s approach to the final denouement, the island used by “Francisco Scaramanga”, Phang Nga Bay Island, Thailand (aka James Bond Island), in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) is visible.
When Bond flips the switch for activating the rockets in the MiG during the opening, you can see German descriptions around the switches
Sales of real and toy replica Walther P-99 pistols went through the roof after this film was released.
Not counting the regular characters of Bond, Q, M and Moneypenny, this is the first Bond film to contain absolutely no Ian Fleming references (GoldenEye (1995) was named for Fleming’s estate; Licence to Kill (1989) used elements from several Fleming stories).
Because the second half of the film is set in Vietnam, the production negotiated for some time for permission to film there. Although it appeared close, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information eventually refused to allow it. The production decided to use Thailand as Vietnam, with Bangkok substituting for Saigon.
Teri Hatcher’s scenes had to be filmed quickly because after she got the part she found out she was pregnant.
Producers considered starting a film series based on the character played by Michelle Yeoh but so far, no film has been made.
In the original drafts of the script Stamper was to have suffered a brain injury that caused pleasure to be registered as pain (and vice versa). The idea was dropped, but a version of it made it into the next Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999), where the villain Renard is unable to feel pain.
The plane flown by Bond in the opening scene is NOT a MIG-type fighter but a L-39 FENIX from Czechoslovakia, the Czech name for this plane is Albatross. It was however also based in the USSR and GDR.
British pop group Pulp wrote a theme song for this film, which was ultimately rejected by the producers. The song later appeared on the B-side to the group’s single “Help the Aged” following a title change to “Tomorrow Never Lies”
Towards the end of the film ‘M’, (Judi Dench) muses upon a probable newspaper story concerning the death of Elliot Carver. She mentions similar events which surrounded real-life British media tycoon Robert Maxwell’s death in 1991.
According to the book “The Bond Legacy”, a farewell scene for Q was written for this film on the assumption that Desmond Llewelyn would soon retire from the role; the idea was dropped, only to be revived for the next Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999).
The role of Elliot Carver was initially offered to Anthony Hopkins.
Teri Hatcher says that she accepted her role in this film to fulfill her then husband’s lifelong dream of being married to a Bond girl.
This is the first film in film history to have its entire budget be covered in product placement campaigns: BMW, L’Oréal cosmetics, Heineken beer, and other companies each chipped in enough in endorsements to allow for the film’s $100 million budget.
The film was originally going to be called “Tomorrow never comes”. There are video tapes that were in distribution when the film was released on video that do have the caption “Tomorrow never comes” at the very beginning of the tape, not the beginning of the film.
The title song was originally composed and performed by Danish rock band Swan Lee. Sheryl Crow performs it in the film, as the singing voice of Pernille Rosendahl and the sound of the band weren’t thought to be “James Bondish” enough.
When they had to re-shoot the car park scene it was too expensive to go back to Germany so it was done at Brent Cross shopping centre in London. Posters around the stores told shoppers that the explosions were nothing to worry about.
It took 10 days to shoot the car park scene.
Vehicles featured included a silver gadget-laden BMW 750iL; a brief glimpse of the silver birch Aston Martin DB5; a BMW Cruiser R 1200 C motorbike; Sikorsky S-65 and Eurocopter 350B A-Star helicopters; two Aero L-39 Albatros Z0 jets; a Ford Sierra; an Opel Senator 3.0i car; a Transport Allianz C-160 Transall airplane; a Chinese Junk; a Daimler Limousine; a Mercedes Benz; a Range Rover; a black rubber dinghy and Elliot Carver’s Stealth Ship.
Just before shooting the scene where Bond and Wai-Lin get on the motorcycle, Roger Spottiswoode took Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh aside – each without the other’s knowledge – and told each of them not to let the other get in the driver’s seat. The result is in the final film: Bond and Wai-Lin fight over who gets to drive before getting on the bike.
Monica Bellucci read for the role of Paris Carver.
Cameo: [Daphne Deckers] The wife of the Wimbledon 1996 Winner Richard Krajicek as Elliot Carver’s PR Lady. Reportedly, she wanted to audition for the role of Paris Carver. Being too late for this, the production wrote in this small cameo role for her.
First James Bond film to be released by MGM Distribution Co. due to a name change from MGM/UA Distribution Co. The former named company had released all the EON Productions Bond films from Octopussy (1983) through to GoldenEye (1995).
Because the producers had already secured a release date, the production couldn’t find studio space. They ended up shooting much of the interiors in a converted Asda (the British branch of Walmart) warehouse.
Anthony Hopkins actually joined the production, but walked after three days because it was so chaotic and there was no completed shooting script; due to the pressure on Eon Productions to finish the film on time, new pages of the screenplay were being delivered every morning.
The license plate number of the BMW R1200 Motorcycle which is ridden by James Bond and Wai Lin in the motorbike chase and action sequence is 2 – 035 4. License plate numbers of the Ford Range Rovers that chased this motorbike were 25 – 1085 and 31 – 4836.
Vincent Schiavelli’s character is a hit man who kills Teri Hatcher’s character. He also played a hit man in one episode of “MacGyver” (1985), who was again, after Teri Hatcher’s character, though not as successfully.

Thunderball: Film – Trivia

bondunlimited — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:37:00 +0000

Kevin McClory, Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham collaborated on an original story and screenplay for what would have been the very first 007 film, entitled “James Bond, Secret Agent”. McClory reportedly wanted Richard Burton to play James Bond. For whatever reasons, the film was never made. Fleming had previously cannibalized plots prepared for two other abandoned Bond spin-off projects, a newspaper comic strip and a television series, for 007 novels, and similarly turned this one into his novel “Thunderball”. However, in this case his right to do so was not so clear. When Harry Saltzman bought the film rights to the Bond novels from Fleming and went into partnership with Albert R. Broccoli, McClory initiated legal action. Although this production is a fairly faithful adaptation of the published novel, McClory’s suit resulted in only the earlier screenplay being credited as source material. McClory’s producer credit is probably just another term of the settlement. The case was settled out of court.
Final James Bond film directed by Terence Young.
Claudine Auger’s English was deemed too French-thick by the filmmakers after shooting initial scenes of her. Hence, Nikki Van der Zyl, who dubbed Ursula Andress’ voice in Dr. No (1962), was brought back to dub Auger’s lines.
James Bond does not drink a vodka martini shaken not stirred in this film but he does order a Dom Perignon 55 champagne by a swimming pool whilst dining with Domino.
Vehicles featured included the return of the silver birch Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger (1964); Fiona Volpe’s BSA 650cc A65 Lightning motorbike and light sky blue Ford Mustang convertible; the Disco Volante hydrofoil yacht; Morris Minor 1000 Cabriolet; Count Lippe’s black 1957 Ford Fairlane Skyliner; Bell Aerosystems Rocketbelt jet-pack; Lincoln Continental convertible; Sikorsky S-62; Boeing B-17 plane and Avro Vulcan B.1 aircraft; Ford Bell 47J and 1965 Ford station wagon; speedboats and underwater sledges.
The original name of the rocket-propulsion Jet Pack seen in the film was the Small Rocket Lift Device (SRLD). The technical model name for the jet pack seen in Thunderball (1965) was the Bell Aerosystems Rocketbelt jet-pack.
The rocket-propulsion Jet Pack seen in the film was originally designed and invented for military use. The original intention as conceived during the 1950s was for soldiers to be able to improve their agility, depth of field and ability to commandeer terrain by being able to jump over impeding landmarks and waterways.
SPECTRE stood for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
It took almost thirty years for the complete soundtrack for the film to be released. This was because composer John Barry was still scoring the second half of the picture when the music for the recording of the soundtrack was required. Practically no music from the second half of the film appeared in the original score’s release.
Some release prints did not show ‘James Bond will be back On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)’ at the end of the film’s credits. This was because a late change meant filming of that film due to difficulties in scheduling shooting during winter meant that film was postponed. You Only Live Twice (1967) became the title of the next James Bond film. The solution put forward by editor Peter R. Hunt was simply to remove the name of the title from the final credits.
Cameo: [Kevin McClory] [a man seated smoking a cigar at the Nassau Casino when James Bond arrives.]
Cameo: [Charles Russhon] The military adviser and technical consultant for most of the early films in the series appears as an Air Force Officer. He appears camera right of M during the conference with all the double-O agents.
The only Bond film in which Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman are not credited for their work done as producers. They are instead only credited as executive producers. This is the only EON Productions James Bond film to have Kevin McClory credited as a producer.
This is the first James Bond film to be shot in a widescreen process, Panavision.
A GI Joe doll was popular in the toy market at the time of Thunderball’s production so when the film was released, the first ever James Bond action figure was manufactured as part of the film’s merchandising. The film’s massive collectible merchandising continued the boom which had started with Goldfinger.
The only individual James Bond film to win a Visual or Special Effects Oscar (Academy Award). It was for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects and awarded to John Stears in 1966. Moonraker (1979) was nominated for Best Effects, Visual Effects in 1979 but did not win. Albert R. Broccoli received the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy for producing the group of James Bond films in 1982. Goldfinger (1964) won the first Bond Oscar for Sound Effects.
The Jump Jump location in the film was re-named the Kiss Kiss Club so as to match the name of the then title song, “Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” sung by Shirley Bassey. This song was eventually replaced by the Tom Jones song “Thunderball” but still retained in the film but in different mixes. Its existence within the film as an instrumental melody is a major part of the film’s score despite the fact it was replaced due to an ‘Albert R Broccoli’ mandate that the film’s main song must include the title of the film.
During the recording of the title song “Thunderball”, Tom Jones asked the song’s writer what the “strikes like thunderball” line meant. The song’s composer allegedly replied that he didn’t know. Jones reportedly fainted after recording the high note at the end of recording the song.
The jet-pack flight goes for twenty one seconds.
United Artists arranged one of the Bell Jet-Pack pilots to fly off the marquee of the Paramount Theater at 1501 Broadway in Manhattan to promote the release of the film in 1965. As they did not seek permission, a number of personnel were arrested
The title song was originally to be “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” sung by Dionne Warwick, but was changed at the last minute to “Thunderball” sung by Tom Jones. Four different versions of the song were recorded, including a version sung by Shirley Bassey and two different instrumental versions; the two instrumental versions were eventually released on disc, while Dionne Warwick’s version was used in the opening credit sequence of an unreleased version of the film. This version can be heard on Audio Commentary Track Two on the DVD during the opening titles.
Luciana Paluzzi was originally considered for the role of Domino, but was cast as evil Fiona Volpe instead.
Raquel Welch was originally cast as Domino; however 20th Century Fox Production Chief Richard D. Zanuck asked producer Albert R. Broccoli to release her from contract as a favor so she could star in Fantastic Voyage (1966).
For the first time, Sean Connery performs the gunbarrel opening sequence. In the first three Bond films, the job was done with stuntman Bob Simmons.
The budget for this Bond film was more than the combined budgets of the first three Bond films.
In the underwater scenes where Bond encounters sharks, Sean Connery was supposed to be protected by clear plastic panels shielding him from sharks in close-ups. However, the panels only extended about three feet in height and sharks could swim over them; as a result in some scenes (notably during the pool fight at Largo’s mansion) Connery got much closer to real sharks than he wanted – director Terence Young said in an interview that scenes used in the film where Bond reacts in fright at the approach of a shark were miscues in which Connery was reacting with genuine terror as a shark approached unobstructed by plastic shielding.
In the scene where Bond and Domino meet underwater and disappear behind a rock, the scene was originally supposed to show Domino’s bikini float out from behind the rock. Producer Albert R. Broccoli vetoed this because he felt it was too suggestive.
There is debate over who provides Blofeld’s voice in this film. Some sources say Joseph Wiseman. Other sources give credit to Eric Pohlmann. In any event, Anthony Dawson, who provided Blofeld’s body in From Russia with Love (1963), makes a return appearance.
In this film, as with From Russia with Love (1963), James Bond does not say “Bond, James Bond”.
Principal photography at Château d’Anet, Anet, Eure-et-Loir, France coincided with the French Premiere of the previous James Bond film, _Goldfinger_ . As such, members of the production attended the French launch.
_Goldfinger_ director Guy Hamilton was originally offered the directing job by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli. However, due to fatigue at the time, he felt he could not add anything more, and turned it down.
Molly Peters, while behind the shower screen in the film, became the first major Bond Girl to appear naked in a Bond film.
The film’s worldwide release was delayed, being released in December 1965 instead of October 1965.
Stuntman Bob Simmons appeared to have made a very narrow escape from the car explosion stunt during filming at Silverstone Racetrack, Northamptonshire, England. Director Terence Young raced to the scene whereupon Simmons surprised him from the side road as a gag. People watching the stunt generally didn’t see Simmons exit the vehicle before the explosion, probably due to his exit-point being in a blind-spot to the point-of-view of those overseeing the stunt.
As overseen by John Stears, the special effects explosion of the Disco Volante was so powerful it blew out windows about thirty miles away in Nassau’s Bay Street where the film’s Junkanoo Mardi-Gras sequence was filmed. Reportedly, he had not known how potent and strong a mix the experimental rocket fuel was in order to create the explosion.
Martine Beswick had previously appeared as one of the gypsy girls in From Russia with Love (1963).
The film had two major re-releases with two other James Bond films: The first was with From Russia with Love (1963) in 1968 and the other was with You Only Live Twice (1967) in 1970.
Ford produced a promotional film A Child’s Guide to Blowing Up a Motor Car (1965) (TV) as a promotional film to tie-in with the release of the film. The seventeen minute gently humorous short film was about a boy’s visit with his godfather Uncle Denis to one of the film’s filming locations at Silverstone Racetrack, Northamptonshire, England. The end credits state “Made for the Film Library of FORD OF BRITAIN”. It is available on the Thunderball DVD Ultimate Edition.
A promotional film, The Incredible World of James Bond (1965) (TV) was aired on American television on 26 November 1965, one month before the release of the film. Narrated by Alexander Scourby, the 48 minute documentary aired as a one hour special. It included footage of the filming at Silverstone Racetrack, Northamptonshire and of the fight aboard the Disco Volante at Pinewood Studios; media coverage of Martine Beswick, Luciana Paluzzi and Claudine Auger; and archive footage of Ian Fleming at ‘Goldeneye’, Jamaica. It is available on the Thunderball (1965) DVD Ultimate Edition.
A special charity premiere was held on the 10th of February 1966 in Ireland at the Savoy Theatre in Dublin. Production personnel attending included Albert R. Broccoli, Kevin McClory, Luciana Paluzzi and Molly Peters. Frogmen wearing harpoons and underwater wet-suits adorned the screening whilst an after party was held at the Gresham Hotel.
The literal translations of some of the film’s foreign language titles include “Fireball” (Germany); “Operation Thundersky” (Norway); “Calm Down, Mr Bond” (Netherlands); “Atomic Ball” (Portugal); “Agent 007 into the fire” (Denmark); “The Ball of Thunder” (Israel) ; “007 averts SPECTRE” (China) ; “Thunderball Fighting” (Japan) and “Operation Thunder” for Belgium, France, Italy and Spain.
When Bond says goodbye to Patricia Fearing with the phrase “another time, another place,” he is making an in-joke reference to another Sean Connery film, Another Time, Another Place (1958).
A timely reference to the recent British train robbery was inserted into the script at the last minute. This can be heard during the SPECTRE meeting after the opening credits.
Stuntman Bill Cumming was paid a $450 bonus to jump into Largo’s shark infested pool.
The Shrublands resort was actually a converted hotel near Pinewood Studios.
Intended to be the first 007 film, but legal wrangles with its co-author lead to Dr. No (1962) being chosen instead.
The many underwater scenes stem from writer Kevin McClory’s interest in diving.
Claudine Auger was a former Miss France, but being French her voice was dubbed. See also From Russia with Love (1963).
First 007 film in which Bond doesn’t smoke. Interestingly though, a large papier-mache Marlboro box can be spotted on the right side of the screen during a festival.
One of the atomic bombs reads “Handle like eggs”.
This film was Sean Connery’s own favorite performance as 007.
Martine Beswick is well-tanned in the film, but before shooting she was pale white due to years of stage work in England. So before filming in Nassau she was required to spend some two weeks sunning herself to get the proper tan of a native girl.
CAMEO(Bob Simmons: The series regular stuntman in an uncredited part as Boiter, the man who disguises himself as his own widow whom James Bond fights in the pre-title sequence. Before the widow gets punched, the part is played by Rose Alba, explaining why “his” legs look so good in a dress. Up until this film Simmons had appeared as James Bond in the gun-barrel sequence in the first three films in the series.
Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Yvonne Monlaur, Gloria Paul and Maria Grazia Buccella were all contenders for the role of Domino. Faye Dunaway would later be a contender to play Octopussy.
The large ship that fires a cannon at the Disco Volante at the end can be identified as the Royal Navy frigate HMS Rothesay from its pennant number (F 107).
According to “Bond-Gadget-Designer” Ken Adam, the jet pack that Bond uses to escape his enemies was no nice special effect but a real jet pack provided by the US Air Force. Initially Sean Connery was to fly the jet pack without a helmet (and some publicity photos of him with the jet pack were made with him without a helmet). This was because he would have looked more debonair. It was later decided he wear a helmet in the scene. This was for risk / safety reasons as the pilot refused not to wear a crash helmet and the scenes had to match.
It’s rumored that a Royal Navy engineer approached the producers after the film’s release to ask them how they designed the mini-rebreather. Apparently he had been working on something similar but could not figure it out. He was devastated when the producers told them their secret – the actors were holding their breaths.
Adolfo Celi (Largo) had his lines dubbed over by Robert Rietty.
The only Bond film where we get a glimpse of all 00 agents in one shot. They are summoned to M’s briefing and 007 is the last to join in. He sits down in the only available chair – the seventh from the left.
Coinciding with the release of the film, Milton Bradley marketed a “Thunderball” board game, having marketed a “James Bond” board game the previous year. These were just two of numerous 007 tie-ins introduced on the market at the height of the early Bond boom.
In the trailer for the film, Bond says the line, “The things I do for England.” The line was cut from the final version of the film, and then used in the next Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967).
Singer/actor Burl Ives was originally chosen to play Largo when author Ian Fleming and producer Kevin McClory first started to get the Bond series up and running.
The film was originally supposed to have had its premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London in September 1965. It was delayed until December because the film could not be completed in time.
The aircraft that plucks James Bond and Domino out of the life raft was a highly modified B-17G (and was a prototype for the USAF/NASA Satellite Airborne Recovery Project).
The character of Count Lippe is a reference to Ian Fleming’s old friend from his days as an intelligence officer, Prince Bernhard of Holland. Bernhard was born as Bernhard von Lippe Biesterfeld. Prince Bernhard was very pleased by the reference.
According to Behind the Scenes with ‘Thunderball’ (1995) (V), in the scene were Bond climbs out of the shark tank right as a shark makes a run at him, the shark in question is dead, and pulled by a wire.
The production staff screened The Silent Enemy (1958) several times to glean tips on underwater warfare for the film. “Silent Enemy” dealt with British VS Italian Frogmen in the Mediterranean during the second world war.
The license plate number of the BSA Lightning Motorcycle that Fiona Volpe rode was BOJ 443C.
Reginald Beckwith, who plays the minor part of Kenniston, died while filming for this film was still going on. His scenes were already shot, but it was to be his last part and he never saw the result of it.

Tomorrow Never Dies: Film – Goofups

bondunlimited — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 10:50:15 +0000

Continuity: When in the plane, Bond’s oxygen mask is clearly seen clipped to his helmet in frontal camera shots, but is missing on side profile camera shots.
Continuity: The scene where the tire re-inflates itself shows a wheel of the “classic” series for the BMW 7, yet the car was equipped with “sports” wheels.
Crew or equipment visible: “Back-seat driver” in Bond’s car can be seen under black cloth when Bond test drives his car.
Factual error: Helicopters are physically incapable of hovering in place with their rotors tilted forward, as indicated during the motorcycle chase.
Continuity: Wade is walking toward the camera with his hat in his right hand. The next shot shows him walking away from the camera with his hat in his left hand.
Continuity: The rear window of Bond’s car repairs itself soon after the missile passes through the hole in it.
Continuity: Wai Lin’s outfit becomes less revealing as she and Bond fall down the side of the skyscraper.
Continuity: Wai Lin is suddenly dry as she steps away to get on her motorcycle.
Continuity: The handcuff can be seen not closed around the water pipe.
Continuity: Amount of vodka in Bond’s bottle during the hotel scene.
Incorrectly regarded as a goofup: The film is set in the present day, yet Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is referred to in the film as Saigon. While it has not officially been called Saigon since the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975, that name is still used by the locals.
Continuity: The BMW that drives off the roof of the parking deck and crashes into the Avis dealer has a tinted moonroof, instead of the metal panel sunroof (with rocket launchers) seen on all previous shots of the car.
Continuity: When Bond parks his car in the garage, the tires are turned slightly to the right. Later, when Carver’s people try to break it open, the tires are in straight position
Geographical error: When the HMS Devonshire gives its position as 114 23 818 E, 37 74 624 N, that longitude and latitude is actually 300 miles inland.
Factual error: The fleet as seen is missing the Royal Navy’s most powerful units, the aircraft carriers, of which at least one would almost certainly have been sent along with any naval buildup. Further, none of the ships present choose to deploy their helicopters for recon or assault on the stealth ship.
Continuity: When Wai Lin and Bond are captured and brought to Carver, Carver types their obituary on a giant screen. However, he is only randomly hitting keys on his keyboard. The characters on the screen do not appear as quickly as he types, but that could be attributed to slow hardware (odd, however, for someone so powerful).
Continuity: When Bond parachutes into the ocean, in the air the tanks are quite spread apart, almost behind each shoulder, but as soon as he gets underwater, the tanks are right next to each other.
Continuity: When Bond parachutes into the ocean, his swimming flipper is knocked off his foot and floats away, yet in the next shot he is seen swimming away with the flipper in place.
Continuity: Gupta tape-records Paris and Bond talking. Later on, he plays back a completely different recording of the same event.
Revealing mistake: When Bond and Wai Lin are being chased by the helicopter, Wai Lin’s fake left arm is much too long.
Continuity: When Bond and Wai Lin are being taken to Carver’s building by helicopter, we get a shot of the building itself. It has a sloped roof, and a large pole on top, making it impossible for a helicopter to land on that roof.
Revealing mistake: When Bond jumps from the banker’s window in Bilbao and lands in the street. Fans of the film are visible behind him standing behind security barriers and some are taking pictures.
Continuity: Wai Lin is tied to a chain and dropped into the water below Carver’s stealth ship. The chain is shown to be attached to a rafter of the ship. When the boat is blown to smithereens, the chain remains taut as Bond works to free Wai Lin underwater.
Continuity: When Bond is talking to M and Moneypenny in the limo, the blue partition window can be seen being raised during an exterior shot but is then back down in the next shot.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: When the jump officer is prepping Bond for the H.A.L.O. jump, and we see him from behind, his mouth doesn’t match what he is saying.
Geographical error: The street scenes of Vietnam use Chinese and Thai characters, not the Latin-based Vietnamese characters. The Saigon scenes were actually filmed in Bangkok.
Continuity: When the Chinese agent runs away, having handcuffed Bond to the shower, her hair is completely dry, despite sharing the shower with Bond only a few seconds before.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Bond and Wai Lin are captured by Carver, Carver says, “I’ll leave you to Stamper and his toys.” The words “and his toys” were dubbed in, and Carver’s mouth never moves along with them.
Continuity: During the motorcycle chase, the Range Rovers become dusty and dirty while hitting bags on the side of the road. In a subsequent shot when they stop at right angles, they are absolutely clean.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: On the stealth boat, Bond is using a silenced Walther P99 yet the sound of it is as if it is unsilenced.
Plot hole: There’s no reason why a hotel’s parking garage door should be armored and be able to withstand missiles. (It’s a holdover from an earlier version of the script, where the car battle took place in the villain’s headquarters.)
Factual error: At the end of the film when HMS Bedford is searching for Bond and Wai Lin, a voice is heard over a loudspeaker calling “This is the HMS Bedford…”. A Royal Navy ship would be referred to as “HMS Bedford” or “the Bedford” or “Bedford”, but never “the HMS Bedford”.
Continuity: When using his phone as fingerprint scanner it is a Samsung model, but when using it opened up to control the car the Ericsson logo is visible.
Continuity: When Bond is searching Carver’s lab for the GPS encoder, he is standing at a table with his hands by his sides. In the very next shot, a close-up on his face, he has his thumb on his chin as if in thought for a moment.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Carver is talking about launching his missile into Beijing, and his motive, he says, “Oh, nothing – just exclusive broadcasting rights in China for the next hundred years.” When he says “hundred years” his mouth doesn’t match his speech (obviously dubbed)
Geographical error: When Bond and Wai Lin arrive in Saigon by helicopter, a Thai flag is even visible flying from a building.
Factual error: Turboprop engines can’t operate above 30,000 feet as shown in the HALO jump scene.
Continuity: Just before the assailants shoot holes through the windshield of the BMW in the garage, the car is making a turn, but the steering wheel does not move at all.
Factual error: It would be physically impossible for the torpedo drill, launched in the first scene, to maintain sufficient forward momentum to overcome the lateral movement of the drill that would be caused by the friction of the cutting discs on the hull of the ship.
Factual error: In the halo jump scene, Bond has to wear an oxygen mask when jumping to avoid passing out due to the high altitude’s lack of oxygen – yet Bond and the entire plane crew are standing around with the rear cargo door open before the jump with no oxygen masks.
Continuity: In the opening sequence, after firing the missile, the ship reports back that they have lost contact with the missile because it is out of range and thus it cannot be destroyed. Moments later, back at HQ, M & Co are seen watching the missile’s on-board camera as it flies through the mountains towards its target. If the missile can relay images back to base, they could relay a message to the missile it to self-destruct!
Continuity: The admiral warns M that she has 48 hours to investigate before the British fleet attacks, but the events of the film take far longer than 48 hours. There’s no way that an overnight party in Hamburg, a morning raid on Carver’s headquarters, at least twelve hours of travel time to Vietnam to investigate the Devonshire, not even counting his rendezvous with Wade, an escape from Carver’s Saigon base, and the investigation of the Chinese bays, could all take place in just 48 hours.
Continuity: When Bond tries to escape from the parking garage, you can see that the people in the car constantly cycle between no driver (presumably driven by remote control), one driver, and a driver and a passenger.

Thunderball: Film – Goofups

bondunlimited — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 10:21:07 +0000

Audio/visual unsynchronised: “Q” talks with his mouth closed.
Continuity: In the casino scene, Bond can be seen in the background talking to Felix Leiter before they have met (they know each other already, of course, but the bedroom meeting is presented as the first time they’ve met for a while).
Continuity: Hand pulling on lever in “rack” sequence shown pulling lever to full position twice.
Continuity: Bond has long sleeves only in the close-up shots of him removing the wraps from Major Derval’s body in the health spa.
Continuity: Bond replaces his blue scuba mask with a black one, but is seen wearing a blue one later.
Continuity: Bond gains sneakers after swimming towards the cove.
Continuity: Bonds’ swim trunks are wet after the swim in the cove yet they’re dry as he walks from behind the wall.
Continuity: The comb in Domino’s hand when she meets Bond for the first time.
Continuity: The boat captain’s hat gets knocked off three times during the fight.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: Largo dialogue unsynchronized when he returns to the Disco Volante for the final chase and battle scene.
Continuity: When Bond and Leiter are in the helicopter at the Golden Grotto, Leiter has shorts on. The shot changes and he has long trousers on and then reverts back to shorts in the next shot.
Continuity: Image of Domino scuba diving is momentarily reversed (regulator hose momentarily switches from right to left side, along with reversal of her swimsuit pattern)
Revealing mistake: When the plane goes down in the sea, wires suspending the model are visible.
Anachronism: The Panamanian flag on the Disco Volante is upside-down throughout the film. It flew in that configuration only in 1903.
Geographical error: The ransom is to be dropped, according to the briefing officer at “Precisely 20 degrees north, 60 degrees east” off the Mergui Archipelago. A glimpse at an atlas shows these locations are actually about 2,500 miles apart.
Continuity: When Bond is shot in the calf – as he runs away, the blood is on the right leg; when he crawls onto the float, its on the left. The next day he is diving to check the plane without so much as a bandage on either leg.
Continuity: The Colonel throws a vase at Bond who is about to catch it on his right shoulder. When we see Bond from behind, the vase shatters on his left shoulder.
Continuity: When Bond is at Shrublands, and is checking out his neighbor’s room (the bandaged man), his hand jumps in and out of his pocket between shots when he hears the door open and hides behind the door.
Continuity: Domino steps on an egg spine with her right foot. When Bond takes out the spine, he does it from her left foot. During this scene, their respective positions repeatedly change between shots.
Crew or equipment visible: When the cars arrive at the mansion after attending the funeral, they enter through the front door. While it’s opening the film crew’s lighting equipment is reflected in the door.
Crew or equipment visible: After Bond has escaped Largo’s sharks, lighting equipment is reflected in the car door as he opens it.
Continuity: Bond’s Aston Martin’s boot (trunk) lid is clean when lifted to deposit the jet pack, but has a huge amount of dust (apparently from the landing) when seen a few seconds later in the view into the car through the rear windscreen.
Revealing mistake: When the Disco Volante hits the rocky island and explodes, you can clearly see an old vessel is being used as “body-double”.
Continuity: When Bond enters the room where Count Lippe is having a sitz bath, the sign on the door says “Massage”. When he leaves the room, the sign on the same door says “Sitz Bath & Heat Treatment”.
Revealing mistake: In close shots, the rear part of the Disco Volante (after splitting) is not floating and not moving in the water and is obviously a fixed stage.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: At the beginning of the film, when Bond is talking to the French woman on the balcony outside the church, he says, “As I said, later,” and then, “Come on.” The words “Come on” are out of synch with his mouth. He looks to be saying something completely different.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Bond is coming out of Largo’s Palmyra basement after seeing his helper dead, the door swings open widely, but makes no noise.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Bond is escaping from the Island after he finds the girl is dead he comes out of a basement/cellar and opens the hatch which visibly slams open hard, but silently.
Continuity: When Bond is escaping from the Island after he finds the girl is dead he comes out of a basement/cellar and opens the hatch door. He runs off without shutting it but when in the next cut his followers reach the door, it is now shut.
Continuity: During the final scene when Bond and Domino are climbing into the raft, Domino’s bathing suit has only one strap over the left shoulder from a distance and returns to straps over both shoulders during close up scenes.
Continuity: The VIP played by Roland Culver is called Home Secretary by M but in the end titles is listed as Foreign Secretary.
Revealing mistake: After Bond informs Domino of her brother’s murder, Domino’s tears make her mascara run. This is after a long dive that doesn’t mess up her make-up.
Factual error: Largo says to Bond that Golden Grotto sharks are the most dangerous, the most savage. In fact that’s false. The Bull/Zambezi shark is regarded as the most dangerous to man in all tropical waters.
Continuity: When Bond is riding in the helicopter around Palmira, one shot shows him looking out of an opening on the right side of the helicopter, with the left side being a solid wall. A succeeding shot shows him looking out of an opening on the left side of the helicopter, with a solid wall on the right side.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: When Bond hitches a ride with Fiona in her Mustang convertible, the engine sound that’s overdubbed comes from a smaller sports car.
Audio/visual unsynchronised: The first time we see Bond and his partner dancing in the outdoor nightclub, the band can clearly be seen behind them. There are several brass instruments playing and a soloist is clearly standing and playing a muted trumpet. The music we hear, however, is purely strings without brass of any kind, much less a trumpet. There are no violins to be seen in the orchestra.
Revealing mistake: At the end of the film when Bond and his girl are in the rubber lifeboat, the overhead close-ups of the scene reveal the bottom of a white swimming pool the raft is floating in. The depth showing the white surface at the bottom and the gentle waves around the raft show that the water is very shallow.
Continuity: The part in James’s hair reverses while he is in the helicopter talking to Felix Leiter due to a flipped shot.
Miscellaneous: Bond punches Felix as he’s about to say “007,” so as to not tip off his identity to the man hidden in the bathroom. But then Bond says it himself after apprehending the man, who is still conscious and can hear him.