Synopsis - Thunderball

James Bond attends the funeral of... JB, In this case a French agent named Colonel Jacques Boitier who was responsible for the deaths of two of Bond's colleagues. Uncharacteristically turning down a proposal from his temporary assistant, La Porte, Bond instead sets off after the grieving widow, arriving in her chateau before her. When she arrives Bond punches her, revealing 'her' to be Boitier himself. A tremendous fist fight breaks out during which Bond strangles Boitier using a poker. Boitier's henchmen burst in and Bond makes good his escape with the aid of a jet-powered backpack. Reunited with La Porte, Bond hops into his Aston Martin DB5 activates its defences, spraying the pursuing villains with a high pressure jet of water before making good his escape.

In Paris, Emilio Largo arrives at the offices of the International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons, an organisation ostensibly to help refugees but in reality a front for SPECTRE. Largo is SPECTRE's Number Two and Boitier was SPECTRE's Number Six. Various agents report in to Blofeld who is so displeased with one of the operations that he electrocutes the unfaithful Number Nine.

Eventually, Largo announces to the meeting SPECTRE's most ambitious plan yet - to extort £100 million from the Western powers. To this end, he has despatched agent Count Lippe on a mysterious mission to England, to a health farm near a NATO base. By coincident, Bond is also at the health farm and spots a Tong tattoo on the arm of a fellow guest. He calls in the details to Moneypenny, then spots the man leaving the centre.

He takes his chance to sneak into the man's room and nose around a while, but he's disturbed by a man whose head is tightly wrapped in bandages, completely obscuring his features. Undetected, Bond gets away with nothing more than a grape from the fruit bowl for his troubles. As he leaves, he's unaware that he's being watched by the bandaged man.

Bond visits his physiotherapist, Pat, and wastes no time trying to force his attentions on her. She retaliates by strapping him to a traction machine for a gentle workout while Bond questions her about the man in the room next door to Lippe. But while Pat is gone, Lippe adjusts the setting on the stretching machine, nearly tearing Bond apart. Only the timely arrival of Pat saves his life. Ever the one to make the most of any eventuality, Bond promises not to tell anyone about the accident so long as Pat shares a sauna with him...

On his way back to his room, Bond spots Lippe up to his neck in a steam box. Barring the exit flaps with a broom, he leaves Lippe to broil gently for a while then heads back to Pat to administer a massage with a mink glove! Elsewhere, Major Derval of the Royal Air Force is doing some entertaining of his own with an attractive redhead when he's called away on business. But when he opens the door to his apartment, he comes face to face with his own double who shoots him with a gas dart. Lippe is also on hand and takes orders from the woman, Fiona Volpe, who hands over gas grenades to the fake Derval. He in turn demands more money for what he's been through - years of training and plastic surgery to allow him to effectively replace the real Derval. Volpe and Lippe disguise Derval as the bandaged man in the health farm who we now realise was the fake Derval.

'Derval' heads for the NATO air base where he joins a mission aboard a Vulcan bomber armed with two nuclear missiles. He embarks on his mission as Bond continues his massaging of Pat. When he closes the window to shut out the noise of the aircraft taking off, he spots Lippe returning to the health farm in an ambulance and watches as he has two men carry inside a body.

Bond explores the quite health farm in search of clues and finds the body, still wrapped in bandages. He takes the bandages off and gets a look at Duvall's face. He is about to call in to base when he ambushes an assassin outside the window trying to get a bead on him. He sets off the fire alarm and is caught by a furious Pat chatting up another woman patient.

In the Vulcan bomber, 'Duvall' plugs himself into an emergency air supply then sets off one of his gas canisters, killing the rest of the flight crew almost immediately. He takes control of the Vulcan and sends it into a deep dive, dipping below radar and heading for a rendezvous out to sea with largo aboard his yacht, the Disco Volante. 'Duvall' crashes the Vulcan into the sea and the two warheads are retrieved by teams of minisub riding divers led by Largo himself. For his impudence, 'Duvall' has his air line cut and is left to drown in the bomber's cockpit. The bombs are returned to the Disco Volante and the wreck of the plane is disguised against prying eyes.

Blofeld is well pleased with the turn of events, but is less well pleased with Lippe whose choice of one Angelo Palazzi as the new Duvall nearly caused problems for the operation. At the health farm, Pat sees Bond off and they watch what they believe to be Palazzi's body being loaded into an ambulance.

As he drives away, Bond is attacked by a would-be assassin in a car and is about to respond with the Aston Martin's range of defences when the car is hit by missiles fired by a pursuing motorcycle. As Bond drives on, the leather clad biker pushes the bike into a lake and takes of her helmet to reveal Fiona Volpe.

In London, Bond arrives at M's office and is told by Moneypenny that something big is happening - every 00 agent in Europe has been called in and the Home Secretary has joined them in the conference room for a meeting. Bond, arriving late, takes his seat and hears a tape received from SPECTRE announcing their plans. The British government has seven days to pay up £100 million or else the bombs will be detonated in a city in either Britain or the States. To signal their acceptance, the government must make Big Ben sound seven chimes at 6 o'clock. Given the gravity of the situation, the government has decided to capitulate to their demands but still want to recover the bombs if at all possible.

Bond opens his dossier supplied by M and recognises Derval in a photograph with his sister Dominique. Bond has been assigned to Station C but requests a transfer to Nassau, explaining to M that he saw Derval dead at Shrublands while an Air Force official insists that he must be mistaken - Derval was seen boarding the plane. M decides to send Bond to Nassau but gives him just four days to complete the mission.

In Nassau, Bond conveniently bumps into Dominique - know to her friends as Domino - while swimming and arranges, with the help of his field assistant Paula, to fake the breakdown of his speedboat. He charms his way into getting a lift from Domino and joins her for drinks by the pool, unaware that he is being watched by two men.

As they talk, Domino spots the men and reveals that they work for her 'guardian' who owns the large yacht anchored in the bay. Bond lets slip that he knows Domino's nickname but she fails to succumb to his charms, refusing an offer to join him for dinner and returning to the yacht.

That evening, Bond wiles away the hours at a casino where he again runs into Domino, this time at the side of Largo. Bond takes on Largo in a game of cards and uses the word 'spectre' to see if he gets a response. Having beaten Largo at baccarat, Bond finally gets his wish and takes Domino to dinner where she talks briefly about her brother, apparently unaware that he is dead. They dance for a while and Domino is just giving in to Bond's charms when Largo arrives and takes her away.

Next morning, Bond scores with a clearly very interested receptionist, then calls on Paula but finds her missing. Reviewing a recording made by a tape machine hidden in a book, he realises that Paula may be in trouble. He's exploring her apartment when one of the men who had been watching him earlier arrives at the door. Bond punches him in the stomach to silence him, the finds a man lurking in the shower who he scalds out with hot water. The man at the door turns out to be Felix Leiter, and Bond lets the man in the shower go, telling him to report back to Largo. On the Disco Volante, Largo is so displeased with his man that he has him thrown to the sharks.

Teaming up with Paula, Bond and Leiter visit a secret British facility where he is met by Q in shorts and a fetching Bermuda top! Q hands over a Geiger counter disguised as a watch; an underwater camera with infra red capability; a miniature Veri pistol; a tiny breathing device capable of delivering up to four minutes emergency oxygen; and a radioactive pill so that HQ can keep track of Bond.

Back in London, the government receives the terms of SPECTRE's demands. It's now looking more certain than ever that they might have to pay up. But M has received word from Bond which they might all want to hear...

That night, Bond uses scuba gear to sneak upon the Disco Volante but is ambushed by a frogman wielding a speargun. An underwater fight breaks out which is monitored from the bridge by Largo. When his man fails to deal with Bond, who gets photographs of the hull of the yacht, Largo orders his men to lob hand grenades over the side. Bond manages to fake his own death and evades capture by a group of men aboard a speedboat, returning safely to shore. He's picked up by Volpe who takes him on a hair-raising high speed car ride back to the hotel where both of them are staying.

Bond has his photographs developed and shows Leiter an underwater hatch beneath the yacht. They realise that the whole operation took place underwater which is why no-one saw the plane land anywhere. Working out how far the yacht might have travelled on the night in question, Bond and Leiter set off aboard a helicopter to search for the crashed plane. On the way back, they fly over Largo's home where he is clay pigeon shooting with Volpe who seems to outrank him - she vows that when the time is right, she will kill Bond herself.

Bond pays a visit to Largo's home and the pair engage in wordplay, each hinting that they know the true identity of the other. Bond is introduced to Largo's sidekicks, Yanni and Vargas, before showing off his shooting prowess on the beach. Largo shows Bond his collection of pet sharks, then asks Bond to accompany Domino to the Junkanoo parade, the local equivalent of a Mardi Gras, as he will be busy that evening.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Paula is visited by Volpe who claims to be looking for Bond as they have arranged a date. Suddenly, Vargas appears and overpowers Paula while Volpe retrieves the photographs of the Disco Volante.

At the parade, Bond spots Leiter calling to him and learns that Paula has gone missing. He leaves Leiter to look after Domino and sets into action a plan to find Paula. He arranges for an island-wide power cut then mounts a one-man assault on Largo's mansion, convinced that Paula is being held there. But rather than give anything away, Paula has swallowed a cyanide capsule and is dead by the time Bond finds her.

Bond's presence in the mansion is discovered and he is forced to flee, pursued by Largo's gunmen. During a struggle, he and one of Largo's men fall into a swimming pool. Largo seals them in using a motorised metal cover, then has his men release the sharks. Bond kills his opponent and, using his portable breathing device, is able to escape down the sharks' access tunnel as they pay attention to the dead man.

Bond returns to the hotel room and breaks into Volpe's room, finding her in the bath. When she asks him to pass her something to put on, he hands her a pair of sandals and sits back in a chair to see what will happen! Inevitably, they end up in bed together but it turns out to have been a trap and, afterwards, Bond is captured by Volpe, Yanni and Vargas.

En route to Largo's mansion, the car is held up by the parade and Bond manages to escape, despite a minor bullet wound to the leg. He is pursued through the teeming crowds by the trio of killers. He eventually finds himself in the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang club where he tends to his wound then tries to hide himself in the crowd of dancers. But Volpe cuts in and they dance for a while, exchanging threats. When one of the gang of assassins who have converged on the club tries to shoot Bond, he whirls Volpe around and lets her take bullet instead, sitting her body in a chair. The terrified assassins flee and Bond is able to escape.

Back in England, plans are under way to deliver the money and diamonds to SPECTRE's drop point. M defends Bond against criticism from politicians.

Back in Nassau, Bond has resumed his search for the missing Vulcan bomber. He becomes suspicious of The Golden Grotto, a cove full of sharks and moves in for a closer look, eventually spotting the camouflaged aircraft. While Leiter picks off the sharks with a rifle, Bond dives to the bottom to examine the bomber. He finds that the bombs are missing and then discovers Palazzi dead in the cockpit and retrieves some of his personal belongings before returning to the surface.

Later, while scuba diving, Bond finds Domino also diving and actually makes love to her underwater! Returning to shore, he tells her that her brother is dead, showing her the watch and dog tags he took from Polazzi's body. He explains what he knows about Largo and asks for Domino's help. She's furious, believing that Bond was only interested in her because he wanted to get to Largo. But he persuades her of the seriousness of the situation and she agrees to help finding the bombs hidden aboard the yacht. She tells him about a small bridge over Largo's private canal which Largo will allow no-one near. His curiosity piqued, Bond sets off to investigate and finds a flight of steps leading down into the sea and a large group of men gathered nearby preparing for a dive. He finds some discarded diving gear and swallows Q's radioactive pill.

That night, Largo leads his men on another underwater mission, swimming out to the Disco Volante and entering through the secret hatch. Once on board, Largo sets off for Miami, their designated target area, unaware that Bond has taken the place of one of his men and has also sneaked aboard the yacht. One of the bombs is taken off the Disco Volante aboard a small submersible and placed on the seabed. Bond is discovered and an underwater pursuit takes place, Bond fending off Largo's speargun wielding hitmen.

On the yacht itself, Domino uses Bond's Geiger counter watch to search for the other warhead but is discovered by a furious Largo. He tortures Domino for information but is interrupted by a henchman who tells him that the bomb has been activated.

Bond has turned up on shore in Florida and is tracked down by Leiter who follows the signal from his radioactive pill. Using a Coast Guard helicopter, Leiter rescues Bond and he directs him to Orlando Beach where the bomb has been hidden.

Largo's team of divers are patrolling the area around the bomb when a crack unit of US Navy frogmen parachutes into the area and engages them in combat. Furious hand-to-hand fighting breaks out as Bond uses the distraction to go after the bomb itself. He ends up beneath the Disco Volante in pursuit of Largo, as the US navy converges on the yacht. But Largo has a surprise for them. The Disco Volante suddenly splits into two, the front half transforming into a high speed hydrofoil that easily outruns the pursuing naval vessels.. The remaining section is easily destroyed.

Bond has managed to climb aboard the speeding Disco Volante along one of the hydroplanes and confronts Largo in hand-to-hand combat on the bridge. Meanwhile, one of his flunkies, fearing for his life, has freed Domino. Bond is about to be shot by Largo when Domino arrives and skewers him with a speargun.

But their celebrations are short lived as they are forced to abandon the hydrofoil as it careers out of control towards rocks. Bond, Domino and the surviving flunky leap overboard and the yacht explodes as it runs aground. Retrieving an inflatable dingy and a balloon marker, Bond and Domino embrace and are whisked away to safety when a USAF bomber equipped with special gear on its nose cone snags the balloon's wires and hauls them away.