Thunderbirds Are Go is the first Supermarionation feature film based on Gerry Anderson's TV series Thunderbirds, released by United Artists in 1966.
The Hood returns, this time trying to take photographs of the new Zero-X Martian-bound spacecraft. When his first effort accidentally disables the craft, forcing the mission to be abandoned, International Rescue are asked to help protect the second attempt a year later. While successful in unmasking the Hood's second sabotage attempt, Alan Tracy feels unloved after his father makes him stay on monitor duty while the other Tracys go to a swanky nightclub to celebrate. Alan then experiences one of the weirdest dreams ever recorded.
The second Zero-X arrives on Mars without difficulty, only to be attacked by one-eyed rock snakes. Fleeing in terror from these fireball-spitting monstrosities, the Zero-X proceeds back to Earth - only for its landing-assistance module to fail, damaging the escape mechanism. Locked into its descent vector, Zero-X is headed directly for the town of Craigsville, Florida, it's up to Alan Tracy to be winched aboard the plummeting spacecraft and attempt a manual repair. With seconds to spare, he reroutes the damaged circuit, cutting himself free and relying on his parachute to carry him away from the doomed spaceship. The astronauts are also able to eject, and the Zero-X destroys the evacuated town of Craigsville in a titanic explosion. Alan is whisked away in FAB 1 to the aforementioned swanky nightclub, where he's honoured as the hero of the day.
Tropes:
- Agony of the Feet: In his first sabotage attempt, The Hood's foot gets crushed by one of Zero X's hydraulic cylinders. He has to crawl along with a bloodied foot. A puppet head with an agonized expression was made just for the occasion.
- Amphibious Automobile: The hydrofoils of FAB 1 are put to good use while chasing The Hood in the sea.
- Creative Closing Credits: The film's closing credits includes the Royal Marines Band Service playing the Thunderbirds theme.
- Credits Gag: The closing credits includes a humorous disclaimer: "None of the characters appearing in this photoplay resemble any persons living or dead ... since they do not yet exist!"; however, this is contrary to the puppets being modeled after 1960's celebrities.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Hood's helicopter versus FAB 1. The chopper is throwing More Dakka at the car, which isn't scratched. It takes Parker only a few shots to take the chopper down.
- Cyclops: The Rock Snakes combine this with Red Eyes, Take Warning.
- Darker and Edgier: Much more serious - with more grounded science fiction elements - than the series.
- Disc-One Final Boss: The Hood is the main antagonist for the first act, but he's quickly killed off, allowing for a climax with No Antagonist.
- Dream Sequence: Alan has a lengthy dream in which Penelope takes him to a nightclub in space, complete with groovy musical number.
- Explosive Overclocking: When the second Zero-X is about to crash, Captain Travers deliberately overruns the engines, giving the craft enough speed to stay in the air just long enough for Alan to finish rewiring the escape unit circuits.
- Foreshadowing: Spooky music playing every time a sleeping rock snake is shown on screen, and the Zero X crew commenting that they don't like the look of them.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Puppet versions of Cliff Richard and his band The Shadows (voiced by themselves) appears as their 2060s counterparts.
- Large Ham Title: At the beginning of the closing credits, Drum Major Charles Henry Bowden bellows the title.
- Latex Perfection: The Hood's disguises are apparently so good that he can pass of as one of the crew members without the others noticing.
- The other crewman did know, his line "everything is just fine" sounds rather unconvincing and he shouts "he's got a gun" when Scott rips off the Hood's mask.
- Mood Whiplash: All over the place. The most obvious example is the transition from the Dream Sequence to the sinister horror sequence on Mars.
- No One Should Survive That!: The Hood's helicopter is shot clean out of the sky in a very much non-survivable way. Sure enough, he didn't make any more appearances in the series.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The much-maligned Dream Sequence was apparently put in because Cliff Richard happened to live next door where some of the location footage was shot. He turned out to be a fan, and the production team needed an excuse to put (a puppet version of) him in.
- Superhero Movie Villains Die: The Hood is killed off at the end of the first act when Lady Penelope and Parker shoot down his helicopter.
- Plot-Demanded Manual Mode: During the climax, Travers volunteers to stay in the cockpit and steer the damaged Zero-X while the other crew members retreat into the escape pod. Downplayed in that he doesn't have to manually steer the craft, but it's just so he can do a better job at keeping the Zero-X steady than the automatic pilot.
- Silicon-Based Life
- Starfish Aliens: The Rock Snakes. Or, as one of the astronauts puts it, "Life as we don't know it".
- Title Drop: After Virgil and Alan are assigned to escort Zero-X through the atmosphere in Thunderbirds 2 and 3, Jeff says this film's title.
- The Unfavorite: Alan feels this way when Scott and Virgil are allowed to go to the nightclub and he isn't. Yeah, Alan, walk a mile in John's shoes... Averted later when Jeff declares Alan the hero of the day.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The final rescue of Zero-X is rather remeniscent of earlier Thunderbirds episode Operation Crash-Dive.
