Thunderball is the ninth book and the eighth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. It was published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 27 March 1961. The first novelisation of an unfilmed James Bond screenplay, it was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo. The first edition was published under Fleming's name, after which a legal case brought against him by McClory and Whittingham led to the court decision that it was "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author", with subsequent editions being credited accordingly.
The story centres on the theft of a pair of nuclear weapons by the crime organisation SPECTRE and the subsequent attempted blackmail of the Western powers for their return. James Bond of the Secret Service travels to the Bahamas to work with his friend Felix Leiter, who had been seconded back into the CIA for the investigation. Thunderball introduces SPECTRE's leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the first of three appearances in Bond novels, with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice; the three novels are now known as the "Blofeld trilogy".
Thunderball has been adapted four times: once in comic-strip format for the Daily Express newspaper, twice for the cinema and once for the radio. The Daily Express strip was cut short on the order of its owner, Lord Beaverbrook, after Ian Fleming signed an agreement with The Sunday Times to publish a short story. On screen, Thunderball was released in 1965 as the fourth film in the Eon Productions series, with Sean Connery as James Bond. The second adaptation, Never Say Never Again, was released as an independent production in 1983 also starring Connery as Bond; it was produced by McClory. BBC Radio 4 aired an adaptation in December 2016, in which Toby Stephens played Bond.
Plot During a meeting with his superior, M, the Secret Service agent James Bond learns that his latest physical assessment is poor because of excessive drinking and smoking. M sends Bond to a health clinic for a two-week treatment to improve his condition. At the clinic Bond encounters Count Lippe, a member of the Red Lightning Tong criminal organisation from Macau. When Bond learns of the Tong connection, Lippe tries to kill him by tampering with a spinal traction table on which Bond is being treated. Bond is saved by a nurse and later retaliates by trapping Lippe in a steam bath, causing second-degree burns and sending him to hospital for a week.
The Prime Minister receives a communiqué from SPECTRE (the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion), a private criminal enterprise under the command of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. SPECTRE has hijacked a Villiers Vindicator aircraft and seized its two nuclear bombs, which it will use to destroy two major targets in the Western hemisphere unless a ransom is paid. Lippe was dispatched to the clinic to oversee Giuseppe Petacchi, an Italian Air Force pilot stationed at a nearby bomber squadron base, and post the communiqué once the bombs were in SPECTRE's possession. Although Lippe has accomplished his tasks, they were delayed; Blofeld considers him unreliable because of his clash with Bond and has him killed.
Acting as a NATO observer of Royal Air Force procedure, Petacchi is being paid by SPECTRE to hijack the bomber in mid-flight by killing its crew and flying it to the Bahamas, where he ditches it in the ocean and it sinks in shallow water. SPECTRE kills Petacchi, camouflages the wreck and transfers the nuclear bombs onto the cruiser yacht Disco Volante for transport to an underwater hiding place. Emilio Largo, second-in-command of SPECTRE, oversees the operations.
The Americans and the British launch Operation Thunderball to foil SPECTRE and recover the two atomic bombs. On a hunch, M assigns Bond to the Bahamas to investigate. There, Bond meets his friend Felix Leiter, who has been recalled to duty by the CIA from the Pinkerton detective agency because of the Thunderball crisis. While in Nassau, Bond meets Dominetta "Domino" Vitali, Largo's mistress and Petacchi's sister. She is living on board the Disco Volante and believes Largo is on a treasure hunt, although Largo makes her stay ashore while he and his partners supposedly survey the ocean for treasure. After seducing her, Bond informs her that Largo arranged her brother's death and recruits her to spy on Largo. Domino re-boards the Disco Volante with a Geiger counter disguised as a camera, to ascertain if the yacht has been used to transport the bombs. She is discovered and Largo tortures her for information.
Bond and Leiter alert the Thunderball war room of their suspicions of Largo and join the crew of the American nuclear submarine Manta as the ransom deadline nears. The Manta chases the Disco Volante to capture it and recover the bombs en route to the first target. Bond and Leiter lead a dive team in a fight against Largo's crew and a battle ensues. Bond is very weak after disabling the bombs and attempts to escape. Largo corners him in an underwater cave and is about to kill him, only to be killed by Domino with a shot from a spear gun. The fight leaves six American divers and ten SPECTRE men dead, including Largo, and the bombs are recovered safely. As Bond recuperates in hospital, Leiter explains that Domino told Largo nothing under torture and later escaped from the Disco Volante to get revenge on him. Learning that she is also recovering from injuries, Bond crawls into her room and falls asleep at her bedside.
Background and writing history
The author Ian Fleming had long considered the possibility of his literary creation James Bond appearing on screen, and he had been in discussion with the filmmaker Sir Alexander Korda about a version of the 1954 novel Live and Let Die, although this came to nothing. In 1954 the American CBS television network paid Fleming $1,000 for the rights to turn his first novel, Casino Royale, into a one-hour television adventure as part of the dramatic anthology series Climax Mystery Theater. In June 1956 the author began a collaboration with the television producer Henry Morgenthau III on a planned television series, Commander Jamaica, which was to feature the Caribbean-based character James Gunn. The project foundered and Fleming used the plot as the basis for his 1958 novel Dr. No.
In mid-1958 Fleming and his friend Ivar Bryce began talking about the possibility of producing a film with Bond as the protagonist. At that time Fleming had published six Bond novels in the preceding six years. Bryce introduced Fleming to the writer and director Kevin McClory, who was making The Boy and the Bridge at the time. Bryce was part-financing the film, which was being produced through a partnership between Bryce and McClory under the name Xanadu Productions; the company was named after Bryce's Bahamian home. Fleming suggested that Live and Let Die (1954) or From Russia, with Love (1957) would be the best choices.
In May 1959 Fleming, Bryce, Ernest Cuneo and McClory met first at Bryce's Essex house and then in McClory's London home as they came up with a story outline which was based on an aeroplane full of celebrities and a female lead called Fatima Blush. McClory was fascinated by the underwater world and wanted to make a film that included it. Over the next few months, as the story changed, there were ten outlines, treatments and scripts. Much of the attraction Fleming felt working alongside McClory was based on The Boy and the Bridge, which was the official British entry to the 1959 Venice Film Festival. When the film was released in July 1959, it was poorly received, and did not do well at the box office; Bryce and Fleming became disenchanted with McClory's ability as a result. In October 1959, with Fleming spending less time on the film project, McClory introduced the experienced screenwriter Jack Whittingham to the writing team.
In November 1959 Fleming left to travel around the world on behalf of The Sunday Times, material for which he also used for his 1963 non-fiction travel book, Thrilling Cities. On his travels—through Japan, Hong Kong and into the US—Fleming met with McClory and Ivar Bryce in New York; McClory told Fleming that Whittingham had completed a full outline which, he said, was ready to shoot. Back in Britain in December 1959, Fleming met McClory and Whittingham for a script conference and shortly afterwards McClory and Whittingham sent him a script, Longitude 78 West, which Fleming considered to be good, although he changed the title to Thunderball.
Fleming travelled to his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica in January 1960; that month McClory visited him. Fleming explained his intention of delivering the screenplay to MCA, with a recommendation from him and Bryce that McClory act as producer. Fleming also told McClory that if MCA rejected the film because of McClory's involvement, then McClory should either try to persuade MCA to change their minds, back out of the deal or open an action in the courts.
Writing Before Fleming left for Jamaica, he wrote to his friend and copy editor William Plomer that he was "terribly stuck with James Bond. What was easy at 40 is very difficult at 50. I used to believe—sufficiently—in Bonds and blondes and bombs. Now the keys creak as I type and I fear the zest may have gone." Once at Goldeneye, Fleming struggled to find fresh ideas for the plot of his novel and he based it on the screenplay written by himself, Whittingham, McClory and Cuneo. Fleming had previously used his former scripts or treatmentswritten solely by himto form the basis of a novel, as he had done with the 1958 novel Dr. No and 1960 short stories "For Your Eyes Only", "From a View to a Kill" and "Risico".
Fleming followed his usual practice, which he later outlined in Books and Bookmen magazine: "I write for about three hours in the morning ... and I do another hour's work between six and seven in the evening. I never correct anything and I never go back to see what I have written ... By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day." On his return from Jamaica he wrote to Plomer with a copy of the manuscript:
You may say that it needs drastic re-writing. I certainly got thoroughly bored with it after a bit, and I have not even been able to re-read it, though I have just begun correcting the first chapters. They are not too bad—it is the last twenty chapters that glaze my eyes.
In addition to Longitude 78 West, other titles proposed for the novel included SPECTRE and James Bond of the Secret Service. The title Thunderball came from a conversation Fleming had about a US atomic test. Although Fleming did not date the events within his novels, John Griswold and Henry Chancellor—both of whom wrote books for Ian Fleming Publications—have identified timelines based on episodes and situations within the novel series as a whole. Chancellor put the events of Thunderball in 1959; Griswold is more precise and considers the story to have taken place between May and early June 1959.
Plagiarism accusation and court case In March 1961 McClory read an advance copy of the book; within ten days he had decided to start legal proceedings for breach of copyright. He and Whittingham petitioned the High Court in London for an injunction to stop publication and the case was heard on 24 March. The judge, Mr Justice Wilberforce, allowed the book to be published as the publication date was so close and 32,000 copies were already with booksellers, although the door was left open for McClory to pursue further action at a later date. Two weeks after the case Fleming had a heart attack during a regular weekly meeting at his employers, The Sunday Times.