Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds (1964)

232 mistakes - chronological order

(5 votes)

Vault of Death - S1-E13

Character mistake: The situation in this episode is that a clerk, Lambert, is trapped inside a bank vault that is having the air removed. When IR arrives they focus all of their efforts on forcing a man-sized entrance before the air runs out, but don't consider first making a small hole to allow air in, thus giving them plenty of time to create an entrance afterwards.

Voluble

Vault of Death - S1-E13

Continuity mistake: When we see a close-up of Light-Fingered Fred in the prison cell, the games of noughts & crosses on the wall behind him are completely different to the ones seen in previous shots.

Vault of Death - S1-E13

Revealing mistake: When Lady Penelope congratulates Parker in FAB1 after leaving the bank, the background shows that the car makes a sharp turn to the left, but Parker's steering wheel hardly moves.

Vault of Death - S1-E13

Continuity mistake: When Parker is sitting at the table waiting for his meal prepared by Lil, you can see that his knife is pointing to the left, but when Lil says "Now listen here, Nosey!" we cut back to Parker, and the knife is now facing straight.

Vault of Death - S1-E13

Continuity mistake: When they are travelling the disused London Underground tunnels, Virgil is on the red hoverbike and Alan is on the blue hoverbike. In the next shot, they have swapped bikes, but when they arrive at the bank they have swapped back again.

The Mighty Atom - S1-E14

Factual error: An edition of the 'Melbourne Herald' newspaper can be seen in this episode, and appears to be dated Friday, December 24, 1964. Yet 'Thunderbirds' is supposed to be set in the 21st Century (2026 or 2065, depending on who you believe). This date is also seen on newspapers which appear in the episodes 'Edge of Impact', 'The Impostors' and 'Cry Wolf'. Also, to compound the error, December 24th, 1964 was actually a Thursday, not a Friday.

The Mighty Atom - S1-E14

Factual error: The reactor controllers in both plants, and Brains, claim that cutting off the seawater intake would resolve the runaway reactor, and help bring it under control. In fact the opposite is the case - the plant's purpose is to purify and desalinate seawater by boiling, so processing more of it would soak up the excess heat the reaction is producing. Cutting off the intake would prevent adequate cooling, allowing the heat to build up and damage the plant further. We know the seawater isn't somehow used for fuel, because we see Scott and Virgil operating fuel rods in the reactor.

Voluble

The Mighty Atom - S1-E14

Audio problem: When the Reactor Station Guard catches The Hood taking pictures, he can already be heard blowing his whistle before he finishes saying "Hey, what are you doing?"

The Mighty Atom - S1-E14

Other mistake: When Lady Penelope is relaxing with Jeff and the other members of International Rescue on Tracy Island, you can see in the lounge the pictures of the Tracy sons are in "Operation Cover-Up" mode, even though there are no other visitors on the island.

City of Fire - S1-E15

Continuity mistake: When Scott is in the cockpit of the Mole, he has two blue tubes in the holsters of his belt. But when he is cutting through the fire doors, the tubes have changed to one blue and one yellow.

Terror in New York City - S1-E4

Trivia: When Thunderbird 1 touches down to land in New York City, look at the centre of the screen and you can see a brown building with a giant Swastika on it.

More trivia for Thunderbirds

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.