History YMMV / Thunderball

* Sequelitis: After three progressively stronger instalments, this is often seen as the first Bond film to be inferior to its predecessor.

* FairForItsDay: Having the girl be the one who actually kills the BigBad seems pretty feminist for 1965. To this day, Domino remains one of only [[Film/FromRussiaWithLove two]] [[BondGirl Bond Girls]] to kill their film's primary villain.

%%* EvilIsSexy: Fiona Volpe.

%%** There's also a bit of this during the opening fight with the SPECTRE agent.

* FairForItsDay: Having the girl be the one who actually kills the BigBad seems pretty feminist for 1965. To this day, Domino remains one of only two [[BondGirl Bond Girls]] to kill their film's primary villain.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The final battle on the Disco Volante is obviously sped up and looks highly fake.

* EarWorm: Try getting the underwater theme out of your head after watching this.

* SoOkayItsAverage: While it was a huge box-office success on its initial release, in retrospect it's probably the least discussed film from Creator/SeanConnery's run in the role. Whereas the previous three films are seen as all-time classics, ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' silly but iconic, and ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' the first serious misfire in the series, this one's generally only remembered for the controversy behind the scenes (which led to the subsequent creation of ''Film/NeverSayNeverAgain''), as well as the title sequence and Music/TomJones's theme song, both of which are considered strong contenders for the best in the series.

** Music/JohnnyCash ([[CountryMusic of all people]]) also recorded a song, also called "Thunderball", and submitted it to the EON producers. Unsurprisingly, it sounded too like a [[TheWestern western]] for a Bond film. Still, sometimes one likes to imagine that in a AlternateUniverse Cash's music is the theme for a ''[[Television/TheWildWildWest Wild Wild West]]'' movie starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin...

* FairForItsDay: Having the girl be the one who actually kills the BigBad seems pretty feminist for 1965. To this day, Domino remains the only BondGirl to kill their film's primary villain.

** Bond blackmails a civilian woman into sleeping with him. The best you can say is he didn't intend to do it, but he's quite willing to take advantage of her misconception. The fact that she's wearing a big goofy grin indicates she's deliberately PlayingHardToGet, but that doesn't make it much less creepy. Plus, the cold open has the CreepyCrossdresser give himself away because there's no way a woman would ever open a car door for herself.
** Even worse in that the book simply had Bond flirt with Fearing, agree on a date, and do it consensually later on.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheHeavy Emilio Largo]] is the sadistic, cruel NumberTwo of SPECTRE. Plotting to blackmail the world at large, Largo has a pilot murdered to have an agent steal his identity, leaving the man to drown [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness when his usefulness is expended]], and stealing two NATO warheads. Largo showcases a willingness to [[SharkPool feed failed agents to sharks]], and is an enthusiast for torture, with one British agent taking cyanide to avoid that fate. Later torturing his mistress Domino, Largo reveals he plans to {{nuke|Em}} Miami when his ransom isn't met.

* ToughActToFollow: While no one would consider this a bad film, no one considers it as good as its [[Film/{{Goldfinger}} predecessor]] either, especially since the latter film is all but unanimously deemed the best in the series

* ValuesDissonance: One of the worst in the series for it, with the scene of Bond blackmailing a civilian woman into sleeping with him (the best you can say is he didn't intend to do it, but he's quite willing to take advantage of her misconception). The fact that she's wearing a big goofy grin indicates she's deliberately PlayingHardToGet, but that doesn't make it much less creepy. Plus, the cold open has the CreepyCrossdresser give himself away because there's no way a woman would ever open a car door for herself.
** Even worse in that the book simply had Bond flirt with Fearing, agree on a date and do it consensually later on.

* SpecialEffectsFailure:
** The final battle on the Disco Volante is obviously sped up and looks highly fake.
** There's also a bit of this during the opening fight with the SPECTRE agent.

* FairForItsDay: As with the movie, having Domino be the one who kills the BigBad and saves Bond (and in this case after enduring hours of torture) seems pretty progressive for 1961

* ValuesDissonance: Bond is impressed by Domino, because she "drives like a man". (In the movie, he says she "swims like a man.")
** Fleming also goes on a very clear AuthorTract about how having 4 women in a car is bound to cause terrible accidents because the driver will turn around to chat with her friends and probably cause a car crash.

** Bond clobbering the SPECTRE agent in the opening is basically a well staged and hard hitting fight scene but it's undermined by the fact that the SPECTRE agent is in '''DRAG'''.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The plot using a nuclear weapon to extort a ransom was considered a unique idea when this film came out, now it's arguably the most cliched EvilPlan in the book.

* OneSceneWonder: Patricia Fearing the nurse, especially when she's out of uniform and being massaged.
** This is true on a larger level, too. Due to a dispute with her agent, Fearing's actress Molly Peters was unable to follow up on the career bump even one-scene Bond girls usually got--she never landed another major film role. An unfortunate waste of such a lovely actress.

* EvilIsSexy: Fiona Volpe.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The fight between SPECTRE agents and Navy [=SEAL=]s is momentarily interrupted when they're attacked by a shark, which is promptly driven off.
** Which isn't all that strange when you consider the amount of people who'd been shot with harpoons at that point.

* AssPull: Q never once explains to Bond that the infra-red underwater camera has a built-in Geiger counter (only that the watch does) which comes as something of a surprise when Domino uses it later on in the film. (In the commentary, actor Creator/DesmondLlewelyn complained that his favorite part of the Q scene ended up on the cutting-room floor; perhaps the explanation was part of that bit.)
** This is an adaption induced mistake as the book version of the device had the Geiger counter in the camera and a measuring dial on the watch connected by a thin wire up Bond's sleeve.

* AssPull: Q never once explains to Bond that the infra-red underwater camera has a built-in Geiger counter (only that the watch does) which comes as something of a surprise when Domino uses it later on in the film. (In the commentary, actor Creator/DesmondLlewellyn complained that his favorite part of the Q scene ended up on the cutting-room floor; perhaps the explanation was part of that bit.)

* AssPull: Q never once explains to Bond that the infra-red underwater camera has a built-in Geiger counter (only that the watch does) which comes as something of a surprise when Domino uses it later on in the film. (In the commentary, actor Creator/DesmondLlewllyn complained that his favorite part of the Q scene ended up on the cutting-room floor; perhaps the explanation was part of that bit.)

* FairForItsDay: Having the girl be the one who actually kills the BigBad seems pretty feminist for 1965

* WhatAnIdiot: It's probably not terribly wise to go around wearing the logo of an international terrorist organization on an oversized ring if you don't want to tip off the secret agent you just picked up that you're working for the enemy. When they got around to making ''Film/Spectre'', [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160411185643/http://www.007.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SITE_RING_BLACK-1000x778.jpg the designs on the rings are notably much more subdued]].

* WhatAnIdiot: It's probably not terribly wise to go around wearing the logo of an international terrorist organization on an oversized ring if you don't want to tip off the secret agent you just picked up that you're working for the enemy.