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Location Guide - Thunderball
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Paris, France
Bond and the beautiful Mademoiselle Laporte are in Eure-et-Loir, observing the funeral of Colonel Jaques Boitier - a SPECTRE operative. Bond smells a rat and follows the suspicious Madame Boitier to her sitting room, where he unmasks her as the Colonel himself. After dispatching with Boitier, Bond makes his escape via Textron Jet Pack to the waiting Aston Martin. Meanwhile, Emilio Largo is proposing a plan to hold the west to ransom to the SPECTRE committee at a hidden boardroom underneath Champ de Mars.
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Shrublands Clinic, Buckinghamshire, UK
Bond is checked into Shrublands health clinic in the
south of England for some rest and recuperation.
However, 007 is never off duty and between spas and
massages from the beautiful Patricia
Fearing, Bond investigates some strange happenings
at the Shrublands clinic. Bond discovers that a NATO
officer, Major Francois
Derval, has been abducted and a SPECTRE operative
has been sent on a mission in his place but things
unravel and British agent is too late to prevent
the flight.
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London, UK
When a ransom message for the SPECTRE-stolen nuclear weapons is delivered to the British government, 00-Agents from
across the globe are called into MI6 Headquarters. In
the situation room, M, the Chief of Staff and the Home Secretary brief the Service's best agents. Later, Bond is called in M's office in Regent's Park to discuss his posting to Canada. During the brief, 007 reasons to the Secret Service Chief that he should instead be sent to investigate the pilot's sister, Dominique Derval, who currently resides in the Bahamas.
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Nassau, Bahamas
Bond touches down in Nassau, New Providence
Island where he rendezvous with the delightful Domino
- a reluctant captive held by her guardian Emilio
Largo. They meet diving at Clifton Pier before Bond
pursues
her and makes contact with Largo.
Bond is in and out of the water, keeping tabs on Largo
with the able assistance of Paula
Caplin, Q and Felix
Leiter. 007 convinces Domino to side with MI6 on
Love Beach on the North Shore of the island before
a gigantic underwater battle ensues in Staniel Cay.
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Miami, USA
Once the sub-aquatic battle has cooled, Bond boards
Largo's luxury launch and fights the furious villain
on the bridge of his super-yacht, the Disco
Volante Speeding towards the shores of Miami,
Bond and Domino thwart Largo's plan once and for
all and abandon the yacht. Before long the Volante
collides with rocks and a gigantic explosion. To
top the mission off, 007 and his damsel in distress
are picked up by US Navy in unique style.
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Shooting Thunderball
Sean Connery returned to his familiar role of James Bond
on 16th February 1965. In a rare turn of events, the
principal unit shot the pre-title sequence at
Chateau D'Anet, Paris, prior to any other. This scene
was reported to have only been worked up and inserted
into the final draft a month before principal production.
Terence Young and his crew then journeyed to the UK to shoot at the famed Pinewood Studios, prior to an extended location shoot in the balmy Bahamas. At Pinewood, the crew shot internals of the Shrublands clinic and MI6 headquarters.
Left: Bond tidies up a loose end in France before returning the UK for some rest and recuperation... |
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On a race track doubling for a local road, the
second unit shot a very dangerous chase between Bond, Count
Lippe
and the
femme
fatal, Fiona
Volpe. Bob Simmons threw himself into the role as the doomed
Lippe, abandoning a burning stunt vehicle at the last second. This
turn of events caused director Terence Young some nerves but Simmons
delivered movie-goes a brilliant, high-action sequence.
Above: Bond charts the 4339 miles from London to Nassau... |
All the while Ken Adam had been working hard
on the unique underwater designs of "Thunderball".
When the crew arrived on location in Nassau on 22nd March 1965,
the paint was just drying on Adam's sensational designs and the
Bond team was ready to spend a hot-and-sticky month on location.
The underwater
sequences proved a challenge to all involved and a high level
of precision was required to capture the diving stunts. Providence
Island provided many suitable locations for the 007 crew but
the production also ventured to Paradise Island and Potters Wharf
to shoot some of the key scenes seen in "Thunderball".
Largo's exorbitant headquarters was the local
home of the Sullivan family at Rock Point on the North Shore
of the island. Today some of the locations left behind by the
crew are commonly dubbed after the role they played in the film
- for example, Thunderball Reef and Thunderball Grotto in The
Exumas are now popular tourist spots.
Above: 007 lands a sub-aquatic mission, tracking Largo and his nuclear payload from the Bahamas to Miami Beach... |
In May 1965, Bond and his entourage returned
to Pinewood to shoot further interiors, cumulating in fight scenes
onboard Largo's yacht. With this finale in the can, Terence
Young called a wrap on the fourth and by far the biggest Bond
picture yet.
Fan Facts
The tropics have often proved a popular spot for 007. In fact,
throughout the course of the film series the James Bond film
crew returned to the Bahamas on several occasions. A sun-soaked
paradise proved popular among the fans - placing second in
the MI6 polling
and collecting 17% of the voters choice for the best James
Bond location.
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