Thunderball

Continuity mistake: James Bond is in the Shrublands clinic. He is snooping in a patients room. The patient (with bandaged face) opens the door. Bond hides behind the door and reaches into his jacket for his gun. A widescreen shot then shows his arm hanging down but in the next shot,his arm is back in the jacket. (00:13:05)

Continuity mistake: During the fight at the beginning of the film, you can see the fire in the fireplace burning brightly but when Bond is throttling his attacker with the poker, you now see that the fire (though partially hidden by the table) has nearly gone out, and does not burn as brightly. (00:03:10)

Will

Continuity mistake: In the bit where the power on the island is turned off, while Largo is getting ready in his room, you can see the moonlight that is coming through the grill of the door suddenly "turn on" as the lights go out.

Plot hole: The SPECTRE agent taking the place of the pilot says he'd been trying for their mission for two years and yet everyone in the SPECTRE conference room seems to be completely unaware of this mission when Largo informs them of their plans.

jbrbbt

Continuity mistake: After Vargas is harpooned, Bond is walking quickly up the beach with Domino toward his car. He tells her to go straight back to Palmyra. Her speed boat is anchored off-shore in the opposite direction. Shouldn't she be heading for the boat and not the car?

Other mistake: At the beginning of the film, when Bond and the woman are getting into the Aston Martin, the roof and boot of the car are covered in dust, but the rear window is clean. (00:04:20)

Will

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

Continuity mistake: One of the gadgets which Q gives to Bond is a mini air tank, "good for about four minutes of air." He's very specific about this number. In the huge climactic underwater battle scene, Bond Against The Hordes, 007 puts on the mini tank and proceeds to fight, vigorously, for a solid ten minutes without borrowing anyone else's tank. He either had gills implanted or can fight while holding his breath for enormously long periods of time.

Continuity mistake: At the carnival scene Bond gets shot in the calf, but in the underwater fight there is no mark on either of his calves.

Factual error: When the operation to plant the bombs is foiled, the Disco Volante casts off, pursued by two speed-boats and a destroyer. But how could the latter, as a large (and slow) battleship, approach the yacht without arousing suspicion?

Thunderball mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Bond and Felix go out for the first time to search for the missing plane, Bond's hair has a parting to the left and is wearing watch on his left arm, but at the moment when they are flying over Largo's house, Bond is looking through a pair of binoculars. As he says to Felix "separate pools for sharks, no less" his hair is now parted on the right and his watch is now on his right arm, also watch out for the mouthpiece on Felix's headphones - it changes from left to right.

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.

Continuity mistake: When Bond meets Largo at the casino there's no-one behind. Then a woman in a white and black dress suddenly appears standing behind, only to disappear one shot later and come walking towards that same spot again.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: In the opening sequence, Bond activated water jets on his car. Several times the pressure of the jets changes, from full force to just shooting and back.

Movie Nut

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

Suggested correction: The bullet just grazed Bond's leg; he went into the men's room to wrap it up to stop the bleeding.

demodon

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.

Character mistake: The drop-off point for the case of diamonds is given as an archipelago off the coast of Burma, 20° north, 60° east, Someone points to it on a large wall map. This location is actually 20° north, 92° east. (01:13:00)

peterhall5

Continuity mistake: At the start Bond doesn't shut the boot of the DB5 properly but in the next shot it's perfectly shut.

Continuity mistake: The watch on Derval's left hand in the underwater cockpit death scene changes from a leather band watch to a metal link band watch. When recovered by Bond and shown to Domino it's a leather band watch once again.

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.