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[Major Tallon]

Down below, in the Ian Fleming forum (paradoxically under the topic on Fleming's Moonraker script), I described Richard Maibaum's first draft screenplay for "Thunderball." I now have a copy of the "Thunderball" shooting script, dated January 1965, with further changes in March and April. The differences between the screenplay and the finished film are too numerous to describe in detail, but I thought I'd pass along a few that piqued my interest.

In the PTS, Bond throttled Boitier with the brassiere he'd been wearing, an idea that would be modified and used in the PTS for DAF.

Blofeld announced to the SPECTRE board the death of Number 6, Rosa Klebb, killed in "the Istanbul affair."

At Shrublands, Bond had an encounter with a SPECTRE agent, "Mr. Lipson."

The photo of Derval with Domino was not contained in the Thunderball dossier. After attending the Thunderball briefing, Bond consulted the telephone directory and obtained Derval's London address. Bond let himslef into Derval's flat and began to search, unaware that Fiona was hiding in the bedroom, with an ice-pick shaped stiletto hidden in her lipstick. Bond was about to enter the room when he spotted a framed photo of Derval and his sister on the beach in Nassau. He took it with him and left, and this discovery formed the basis of his request for an assignment to the Bahamas.

When Largo and Fiona were shooting skeet at Palmyra, she scolded him about the hastiness of his attempt to kill Bond. Largo took her face in his hands and told her, "Sometimes, my dear, I think you forget - I found you. I made you." Undeterred, Fiona continued to warn Largo about the dangers of having Domino about while the plot was unfolding. Domino observed Largo speaking to Fiona, and the two women exchanged unfriendly stares.

After his lunch at Palmyra, Domino and Bond took a launch out to the Disco Volante, where the captain greeted them and escorted them on a tour of the engine room and ballast area. He refused Bond's request to see the radio room. Domino later told Bond that she believed he was bored by the tour, because he kept looking at his watch, not knowing that it contained a geiger counter.

After having captured Bond in his hotel room, Fiona had him dress in a Jung Kanoo costume. Bond escaped as he was being led out of the hotel, using the spirit lamp on a room service trolley as a waiter (obviously, room service operated late into the night) wheeled it past them in the corridor. As Bond jumped down the stairs, he was shot in the leg by Fiona.

Bond took a "Cushioncraft" (an early hovercraft) out to the site of the final battle.

After Largo was killed, Bond and Domino jumped into the sea. Kutze, in an apparent suicide attempt, thrust a magnesium torch into one of the Disco's fuel tanks, causing a huge fireball. Bond and Domino were rescured by Leiter, piloting the Cushioncraft.

In one of my favorite deleted scenes, the RAF actually dropped a container at the point SPECTRE had designated for retrieval of the ransom. The container was retrieved by a specially designed SPECTRE submarine (for which Ken Adam actually prepare a design), which was destsroyed when the booby-trapped container exploded.

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

Thanks for sharing!

[MajorB]

Yes, really interesting stuff! Wasn't the "sting in the tail" scene of blowing up the SPECTRE frogmen actually written to occur after the end titles?

[Major Tallon]

Yes, really interesting stuff! Wasn't the "sting in the tail" scene of blowing up the SPECTRE frogmen actually written to occur after the end titles?

Yes. The film was already running long, and it would have been expensive to construct the model and film yet another underwater scene, so I understand why they shelved the concept. Still, it would have made a fitting and amusing conclusion.