History Series / Thunderbirds

---> '''Parker:''' Look here, do you think we might have a bit of hush, Milady?

* CasualDangerDialogue: This often happens between the villains and their victims. In "The Man from [=MI5=]", Lady Penelope is absurdly chatty with her kidnapper. Also, in "Move - and you're dead", Alan Tracy is somewhat casual with his enemy who is threatening him with a gun, and maintains this even during his capture.
--> '''Alan:''' (Friendly) What do you want, Gomez?
--> '''Gomez:''' Why, Tracy! What kind a tone is that to talk to a guy with a gun in his hand?
--> '''Alan:''' You're wasting your time. I don't have the plans for the [=BR2=]. And even if I did, do you think I'd hand them over to you?
--> (Later, after Gomez has forced Alan and Grandma to climb high on a bridge, with a metal box)
--> '''Grandma:''' What is that thing?
--> '''Alan:''' Never mind.
--> '''Gomez:''' You'd better explain to the old lady, else she might cause a whole heap of trouble.
--> '''Grandma:''' Is it a bomb?
--> '''Alan:''' Sort of.
--> '''Gomez:''' Yeah, sort of. We've fixed the real bomb right under this roadway. But that other box is an extra present: if you make one move, and disturb the ultrasonic waves, then pow! The whole place blows up.

* CaptainCrash: Most episodes that feature The Hood end with his escape vehicle being involved in a NoOneCouldSurviveThat crash. Sometimes due to [[TooDumbToLive his own incompetence]], sometimes due to him being shot at by [[BullyingADragon an annoyed International Rescue]].
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: There is a Tracy boy for every taste!
** Scott is the tall, dark, action hero.
** Virgil is an easy-going, soft-spoken, artistic brunet.
** Gordon is an athletic, quick-witted ginger guy.
** Alan is a blond, moody, thrill-seeking racecar driver.
** John is... also present.
** Even the father, Jeff, an ex-astronaut SilverFox with a melodious bass voice that commands instant respect.

* BrainsVersusBrawn: This is certainly how the Hood sees his attempts to steal International Rescue's secrets. With his self-proclaimed "superior intellect", he could become the wealthiest man in the world... if only they would stop shooting him off the road whenever he tried.
* {{Brainwashed}}: The Hood can use his psychic connection with Kyrano, his half-brother, to torture him into revealing information or acting as a ManchurianAgent. Poor Kyrano has no memory of having been used after the event.
* BritsLoveTea: Lady Penelope is usually enjoying high tea whenever Jeff calls on International Rescue business. They seem to be counting on this trope as her teapot is a ShoePhone.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: John and Alan are blonds, Scott and Virgil are brunets, and Gordon is a redhead. Jeff might be grey haired but he has brown eyebrows.
** Which just adds more questions as to who might be the mother(s).
* BlueBlood: While it is never made clear exactly what Lady Penelope's rank is within the peerage, she owns a stately home in Kent and is frequently having tea with the rich, famous, and influential.
* BlueIsCalm / BlueIsHeroic: The members of International Rescue wear blue uniforms. They are the ultimate lifesaving force, fearlessly stepping into the most lethal of situations and not coming out until everyone is safe.
** Scott is the wearer of the blue sash and is the most unflappable of all the Tracy brothers in the high-risk, high-pressure situations they regularly find themselves in. He is the natural choice for the on-site leader who coordinates the rescue missions and makes life-or-death decisions at a second's notice. He is also the one most often seen chasing down any villains who caused the disaster.

* BadassDriver: Alan was a racing car driver [[{{Backstory}} before the series began]]. He gets to show his skills in ''[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS1E20MoveAndYoureDead Move - And You're Dead]]'' when he wins the Tacoma Sands race, despite the dirty tactics of his main rival.
** Parker is an interesting example. He never really gets to show off any serious driving ability, but he is such a pro with ''FAB 1'''s built-in cannon that he has used it to shoot a poisoned glass out of his boss's hand.
* BadassFamily: The Tracys could easily have retired to the lap of luxury on their private, South Pacific island, but instead decided to use their billions to build and run a fleet of rescue vehicles way beyond the technology of the time. They will not rest until everyone in the danger zone is brought to safety, no matter the risk to themselves. And they will shoot to kill if you a) try to steal their secrets, or b) threaten anyone in their organisation.
* BaldOfEvil: The Hood, the recurring villain of the show. While the Tracys developed their technology to help others, the Hood tries to steal it purely for power and profit. He does not care how many innocent lives are put in danger by his efforts and is even willing to torture his own brother, Kyrano, using his psychic powers to get the secrets of International Rescue. And the only time he has a hair on his head is when wearing one of his many disguises.
* BasementDweller: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] by the Tracy boys, who seem to just be taking advantage of their father's wealth to live in the lap of luxury, as stated by Jeff's visiting friend, Col. Tim Casey, in ''[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS1E5EdgeOfImpact Edge of Impact]]''. Of course, this is all just a front; they need to live on the family island to do their wholly-altruistic work.
* BattleButler: Parker. Weaponized car and all.

* TheAtoner: Parker used to be ''exclusively'' a criminal.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Kyrano and Tin-Tin are just made up names that sound Asian.

* ApronMatron: Grandma Tracy. Don't let her lack of techno-savvy and advanced years fool you. She's still as sharp as knives, providing outside-the-box solutions to difficult rescues and sassing right back when provoked.
* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: The fact alone that Jeff Tracy and his whole family live in a mansion on their personal South Pacific island would be impressive enough. That they can afford to research several technologies that no one else can replicate, then build, run and maintain a fleet of bleeding-edge rescue vehicles is off the chart. What kind of Fortune 500 company is Jeff Tracy running behind the scenes?

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Alan is the youngest of the five Tracy boys, and the whiniest. The others are usually good-humoured about it, playing on his latest gripe to wind him up.

* AdaptationExpansion: This occurred with the audio dramas adapted into tv episodes as part of the ''Thundebirds 1965'' project.
* AdventureFriendlyWorld: Despite the tendency of large-scale science and technology projects in the Thunderbirds 'verse to catastrophically and explosively fail, nobody ever stops building the damn things.
* AllAPartOfTheJob: The members of International Rescue may live in an island of tropical paradise, but they are [[AlwaysOnDuty on call 24/7]] and can never hope to have any kind of social life due to the risk of discovery. They frequently have to put their own lives in danger to save those of others and have had some close calls, yet they will always fly to the rescue without hesitation whenever a call for help comes in.

** Many things about the main characters' history, like the Tracy boys' ExpansionPackPast, Jeff's late wife, and the founding of International Rescue, are also never mentioned on the series, and their headquarters was never actually referred to as "Tracy Island."
** The same goes for specific details surrounding the Thunderbird vehicles and other machines, like their dimensions, speed and other technical data.

** All in-series passenger airliners are supersonic. After Concorde [[AwesomeButImpractical proved too expensive for the masses and so loud that it was banned from flying over several countries]], the industry focused on size over speed, and now even that is being sacrificed for efficiency.

** Computers in general are shown to still be room-sized and built for one specific job, far from the miniaturised, versatile machines of today. Scott's mobile control, which he had to ask for help to unload from Thunderbird 1, could easily be replaced with a modern laptop or even tablet.

* AmphibiousAutomobile: FAB 1 has a hydrofoil that pops out of its undercarriage if Lady Penelope ever needs to make an impromptu trip over water.
** Inversely, Thunderbird 4 has hoverjets for making brief trips over land.
* AnimalThemeNaming: International Rescue like to alternate between this and ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. As a general rule, the machines we see in more than one episode get this treatment. Apart from the Thunderbirds themselves ([[NonIndicativeName not all of which can fly]]), there is also the Mole, their drilling machine, and Firefly, their fireproof bulldozer.

* AppeaseTheVolcanoGod: In one of the more... peculiar comics, a tribe of Africans try to sacrifice ''Thunderbird 2'' by rolling the gargantuan aircraft into an active volcano.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: A few locations and directions are a bit off.

* AutomatedAutomobile: Surprisingly [[AvertedTrope averted]]. With all the seriously advanced tech that International Rescue possess, you'd think they'd let the computer do at least some of the work, but you never even see them put a Thunderbird on autopilot on the way home.

* AutomobileOpening: Each episode kicks off with a countdown of the Thunderbirds vehicles racing to the rescue.

** Parker is an interesting example. He never really gets to show off any serious driving ability, but he is such a pro with FAB 1's built-in cannon that he has used it to shoot a poisoned glass out of his boss's hand.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: International Rescue is altruistic and will stop at nothing to rescue those in need. However, those who take pictures of their technology are dealt with harshly, whether it be having their film destroyed remotely, or even find themselves shot off the road by Lady Penelope.
* BigAnimeEyes: Due to the limits of the Supermarionation technology at the time, the puppets had heads that were disproportionately large with exaggerated facial features, including this trope. This turned out to be a good thing: when they developed the ability to use realistically-proportioned puppets for ''Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons'', they found that the smaller eyes were far less emotive.

* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: This is how gunfights are usually ended in this series. It's an odd example: while the showrunners had no problem with the heroes shooting the villains to death in their vehicles, they would rarely let them shoot them in face-to-face combat.

** '''The Driver'''/'''The Muscle'''/'''The Fixer''': The Tracy boys in their Thunderbirds machines.

* AlwaysOnDuty: There are no shifts on Tracy Island. Each son is assigned his own Thunderbird, and if his is needed for a given rescue, day or night, he will jump into it and fly to help.
** Special mention to whoever is manning the radio on Thunderbird 5, who must be ready at all times to answer an emergency call. It strains belief that we only see poor John's sleep disturbed once in all the episodes.
* AmbiguouslyAbsentParent: The Tracy boys live with their father, Jeff. Where is their mother? Not mentioned in the show, that's where. Not even a photo of her is seen around the house. [[FridgeHorror Once you notice it, her complete lack of presence in their lives is a little unsettling]].
** Also applies to Jeff himself. His mother comes to live on Tracy Island in the episode ''[[Recap/ThunderbirdsS1E20MoveAndYoureDead Move - And You're Dead]]'' and appears in several subsequent episodes. His father is never discussed. Given the advanced years of Grandma, however, it's a much more natural assumption that Grandpa died at an old enough age and long enough ago that his absence is no longer a taking point.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: As with a great deal of science fiction franchises of the mid-20th century, the more out-there vehicles in the series are exaggerated versions of actual concepts of the time that have since been developed further into technology that's either in use today or in active development. For example, nuclear-powered planes like the Fireflash from "Trapped in the Sky" really were a serious subject of study in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with the jet also serving as an example of a futuristic supersonic airliner, something that later became a reality with the arrival of the Concorde.

* AllThereInTheManual: The recurring villain, The Hood, was never named in dialogue or credits in the original TV episodes, only in publicity materials. Many things about the main character's history, like the Tracy boys' ExpansionPackPast, Jeff's late wife, and the founding of International Rescue, are also never mentioned on the series, and their headquarters was never actually referred to as "Tracy Island." The same goes for specific details surrounding the Thunderbird vehicles and other machines, like their dimensions, speed and other technical data. (One of the few things the 2004 movie ''did'' do right was actually having the names of The Hood and Tracy Island spoken in dialogue.)

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: Despite the tendency of large-scale science and technology projects in the Thunderbirds 'verse to catastrophically and explosively fail, nobody ever stops building them.
* AerithAndBob: Jeff Tracy's sons are named Scott, John, Gordon, Alan... and Virgil. All of them are named after the original US astronauts, the Mercury Seven, but you might know Virgil Grissom better by his nickname: Gus.
** There's also Lady Penelope's manservant: surname, Parker; first name, Aloysius. A mild example, however, as it was [[AllThereInTheManual never mentioned in the series or movies]].

%% If you have tropes which apply to only one character, please add it to that character's page in the Characters section. -->

* ActionGirl: Lady Penelope, the organisation's secret agent. She is never afraid to put her life on the line to further a rescue operation and is ready to use lethal force to protect International Rescue's secrecy. Taken up to eleven in the live action movie where she shows some serious martial arts prowess.

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There is a [[Recap/{{Thunderbirds}} Recap]] in desperate need of assistance! Thundernerds are go! Tropes applying to the movies can be found there as well.

* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: ''Thunderbirds 1'', ''2'', and ''3'' are all ridiculously fast, moving anywhere around the globe (or Earth orbit) inside of a few hours. For example, ''Thunderbird 1'' once flew from Tracy Island (somewhere in the Pacific Ocean) to London, England at a quoted speed of ''at least'' 7500 mph, which is just shy of ''mach 10''. Tie-in media establishes [=TB1=]'s top speed as 15,000 mph, and [=TB2=]'s as 5,000 mph. [=TB1=]'s speed was given in the original script for the pilot episode ("Trapped in the Sky"); [=TB2=]'s is quoted on-screen in "Terror in New York City".

* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: Sure, Jeff Tracy is a millionaire and Brains is a GadgeteerGenius, so International Rescue certainly has the resources and the technical knowhow to set up their organization, but that still begs the question how they managed to build their entire fleet of futuristic machines, an island base filled with secret hangars to house these machines, and even a manned space station, without anyone finding out. It's hard to believe Brains could have done all that by himself, or with only the Tracy's help.

* WomenDrivers: Justified in "City of Fire" as this was a learning driver and Played unfortunately straight in "Vault of Death" -- although perhaps justified in that she's been driven around by other people her whole life. Averted in later episodes, when Penny actually does learn to drive.

The early 90's saw a few attempts to revamp the show for a new American audience, the first being airings on Fox on Saturday mornings, with the episodes whittled down to fit in a half-hour time slot with rerecorded dialogue and some new music. After a fairly short run this version faded from view. Much stranger was the attempt that followed shortly afterward, known as ''Turbocharged Thunderbirds''. Live action segments were added of the "Hack Masters", Trip and Roxette, operating out of "Hacker Command" (that is, Thunderbird 5 with the new name digitally superimposed on the side), where they coordinated the actions of the supermarionettes from the 60's footage. What's more, the forces of evil now reported to another new character, a giant spectral head named "The Atrocimator". Who was voiced by Creator/TimCurry.

The early 90's saw a few attempts to revamp the show for a new American audience, the first being airings on Fox on Saturday mornings, with the episodes whittled down to fit in a half-hour time slot with rerecorded dialogue and some new music. After a fairly short run this version faded from view. Much stranger was the attempt that followed shortly afterward, known as ''Turbocharged Thunderbirds''. Live action segments were added of the "Hack Masters", Trip and Roxette, operating out of "Hacker Command" (that is, Thunderbird 5), where they coordinated the actions of the supermarionettes from the 60's footage. What's more, the forces of evil now reported to another new character, a giant spectral head named "The Atrocimator". Who was voiced by Creator/TimCurry.

** Also applies to Jeff himself. His mother comes to live on Tracy Island in the episode ''Move -- And You're Dead'' and appears in several subsequent episodes. His father is never discussed. Given the advanced years of Grandma, however, it's a much more natural assumption that Grandpa died at an old enough age and long enough ago that his absence is no longer a taking point.

* CaperCrew: Despite being a heroic organisation, International Rescue occasionally finds itself needing to orchestrate a con-like mission to [[CaperRationalization prevent the villains from starting a disaster]] (e.g. ''The Man from M.I.5'', ''The Cham Cham''). Under these conditions, the hierarchy goes thus:

* CaperCrew: Despite being a heroic organisation, International Rescue occasionally finds itself needing to orchestrate a con-like mission to prevent the villains from starting a disaster (e.g. ''The Man from M.I.5'', ''The Cham Cham''). Under these conditions, the hierarchy goes thus:

* CaperCrew: Despite being a heroic organisation, International Rescue occasionally finds itself needing to orchestrate a con-like mission to prevent the villains from starting a disaster (e.g. ''The Man from MI5'', ''The Cham Cham''). Under these conditions, the hierarchy goes thus: