Thunderbirds is a 2004 science fiction-adventure film based upon the television series of the same name of the 1960s, directed by Jonathan Frakes.
The film, written by William Osborne and Michael McCullers, was released on July 24, 2004 in the United Kingdom and July 30, 2004 in the United States, with later dates for others. The film uses live-action actors playing the Tracy brothers rather than the Supermarionation marionettes used in the television series.
The film failed at the box-office and critical response was mainly negative. The film's soundtrack features songs by English band Busted, including the single "Thunderbirds" which reached number one in the UK charts and later won the 2004 Record of the Year award.
Plot
The year is 2010 (according to an on screen caption). Teenager Alan Tracy (Brady Corbet), sent off to a distant boarding school, is the youngest of the sons of Jeff Tracy, a retired American astronaut (Bill Paxton). Jeff, a widower, has formed International Rescue, and raised his sons to act as a secret, volunteer organization which uses highly advanced technology to save lives worldwide. Jeff and his older sons (John, Virgil, Scott, and Gordon, who like Alan were named after the Mercury Seven astronauts) are joined in this effort by Lady Penelope and her butler/chauffeur Parker (a man whose "checkered past" comes in handy). Their futuristic hardware is largely developed by a genius scientist known as Brains (Anthony Edwards), who lives at the International Rescue base on Tracy Island, somewhere in the Pacific.
Alan is eager to join his family in their work, but his older brothers still see him as just their little kid brother; not ready for duty. Alan is befriended by Brains' son Fermat (Soren Fulton) and has a budding romance with Tintin (Vanessa Anne Hudgens), adolescent daughter of Tracy Island's caretaker, Kyrano (Bhasker Patel), and the cook, Onaha.
Ben Kingsley portrays the arch-villain known as The Hood, a character introduced in the first episode of the television series, brother of Kyrano. Bitter over having been abandoned and presumed dead by the Thunderbirds in an early rescue attempt, he has come to destroy them and take their machines to use in a daring raid on the Bank of England (renamed Bank of London, for the film) vaults. He launches a missile to wreck Thunderbird 5, the orbiting communications station. The Tracys - except, of course, for Alan - launch into space aboard Thunderbird 3 to rescue John Tracy, who is manning the station when it is hit, and The Hood takes over the secret island base.
Using his mental powers to overcome Brains' resistance, The Hood takes control of the Thunderbirds home base, aided by his confederates Transom (Rose Keegan) and strongman Mullion (Deobia Oparei). He also disables the control systems, stranding the rescuers aboard the disintegrating Thunderbird 5. Alan, Tintin and Fermat, having observed the invasion of the Hood and his minions, then hearing his plans, launch a hasty resistance. Fermat disables heavy-lifter Thunderbird 2 as they retreat from the base, then flee to the mountaintop radio transmitter site. They make contact with Jeff Tracy, who tells them to wait for Lady Penelope to come and take charge. However, the impulsive Alan leads the other two teenagers into ill-planned action, resulting in their capture. Lady Penelope and Parker are likewise captured, and Alan is forced to give Thunderbird 2's missing guidance processor to the Hood. The island's defenders all end up locked in the walk-in freezer while The Hood, Transom and Mullion head off to London.
Escaping the freezer, the first order of business is to rescue Thunderbird 5 and the Tracys. Reporting The Hood's scheme, Alan gets his chance to go to work as he manages to convince Jeff to let him, Fermat and Tintin go after the Hood as his father and brothers would never make it in time. John, Brains and Lady Penelope back Alan up and Jeff reluctantly accepts. The three launch for London in Thunderbird 1, chaperoned by Lady Penelope and piloted by Alan and Fermat while Parker heads for the Bank of London to meet up with them in FAB 1.
The Hood and his accomplices, having arrived in London, use International Rescue's drilling machine The Mole to begin tunneling toward the vaults at the Bank, in the process damaging the support pylons for a public-transit monorail, which falls into the River Thames. Alan, Tintin and Fermat land next to Thunderbird 2, then they begin their rescue of the submerged monorail and its passengers. Alan turns over piloting duties to Fermat, then launches in the Thunderbird 4 rescue submarine. When Alan and Fermat are unable to connect the lifting cable, Tintin dives into the water, swims down to the stricken monorail where she secures the cable, then joins Alan aboard Thunderbird 4. Jeff and his other sons arrive just in time to see the successful rescue, then Jeff, Alan, Tintin and Fermat rush to the bank, where they are joined by Parker.
Lady Penelope has been captured, and Jeff is soon imprisoned with her. Fermat and Parker defeat Mullion by working together. Alan tries to hit the Hood but the hood uses his mental abilities and sends Alan sliding to the wall, while Tintin evades (then traps) Transom. Then Alan gets up but the hood uses his abilities to choke Alan but the hood is weak and can't hold on anymore. Alan gets up again climbs on top of the mole. The hood starts it up Alan jumps on a bar he is trying to hold on but the hood is crushing his hand with his foot and now Alan has only one hand on it just when Alan was about to let go of is grip Tintin arrives on the scene just in time. She then proves that she has mental powers similar to her uncle's and actually overpowers him in the resulting duel (presumably due to The Hood being weakened from fighting Alan as he grew weaker the longer he used his powers), which results in the evil Hood falling into mortal danger. Alan has to choose between saving the Hood and letting him die, but saves him saying I don't want to save your life but it's what we do."
The Hood, Mullion and Transom are arrested by the police with the Hood promising to "see you soon, Jeff." With the evil-doers turned over to police custody, the Tracys return home, where the three young heroes are inducted into International Rescue. Moments later, a call from the President has the Thunderbirds (minus Jeff who stays behind, but including Alan and presumably Fermat and Tintin) off on another mission.
Cast
Reaction
The film is essentially a science fiction adventure aimed at the very young, but with a great number of "in jokes" and references for the older generation which grew up with the original series, including visible strings on a character's hand in one scene and the Hood's mind powers causing Brains to walk like his original puppet counterpart.
By August 2004, the film had taken a relatively low worldwide total of about $28m (£14m). It cost $57m (£29m) to produce. The film received a poor critical response and was the subject of vociferous complaints from longtime fans.[who?] Those familiar with the series tended to be more negative in their views, accusing the filmmakers of abandoning the concepts of the original series in favor of the Spy Kids angle, with reviewers dubbing it "Thunderbirds Are NO!"[who?] (a riff on the catchphrase from the original series, "Thunderbirds are GO!").
Fans of the original series directed heavy criticism at the film through the Internet even before its release.
One of the few aspects of the film to receive positive acclaim (other than the special effects) was Sophia Myles' performance as iconic superspy Lady Penelope, a portrayal in a style identical to that of her television counterpart. The Thunderbirds craft, as well as Tracy Island, were also seen to be very close to the style of the original designs. Purists disliked the fact that FAB-1, Lady Penelope's car, was a Ford rather than a Rolls-Royce. However, this was because the producers could not reach a suitable agreement with BMW, who own the Rolls-Royce marque; the car manufacturer insisted that only an actual production model could be used. Ford stepped in with special version of their Thunderbird model, duplicating the six-wheel system on the Supermarionation Rolls. FAB-1 steers with the four front tires.
The Ford Motor Company supplied a number of vehicles to the production, including an advanced off-road vehicle which prominently sported the Ford logo as well as many Ford C-MAX and Ford F-150s in various locations, leading to jeers over the too-obvious level of product placement by the car manufacturers - a sentiment actually shared by director Jonathan Frakes, as revealed in the DVD audio commentary.
During development, Gerry Anderson was invited to act as creative consultant, but was left out when the studio felt there were enough employees on the payroll acting as part of the creative team. The studio offered him $750,000 (£432,000) to attend the premiere but Anderson could not accept money from people he had not worked for. He eventually saw the film on DVD and declared "It was disgraceful that such a huge amount of money was spent with people who had no idea what Thunderbirds was about and what made it tick."[1] He also said that it was "the biggest load of crap I have ever seen in my entire life."[2]
Co-creator Sylvia_Anderson, and the one responsible for character development, was given a private screening of the film and attended the London premiere. She had a far different opinion. "I felt that I’d been on a wonderful THUNDERBIRDS adventure. You, the fans, will I’m sure, appreciate the sensitive adaptation and I’m personally thrilled that the production team have paid us the great compliment of bringing to life our original concept for the big screen. If we had made it ourselves (and we have had over 30 years to do it!) we could not have improved on this new version. It is a great tribute to the original creative team who inspired the movie all those years ago. It was a personal thrill for me to see my characters come to life on the big screen." [3]
Differences from the original
There are notable changes from the original. The most obvious difference is the updated effects and new designs of the Thunderbirds. Most of them are now sleeker and look more modern; however, most of them are still based on their original designs, with Thunderbirds 2 & 4 deviating the most from their original designs. The layout of Tracy Island -- as well as the inside of the house itself -- has also been overhauled, and Lady Penelope's FAB 1 vehicle is now a Ford Thunderbird instead of a Rolls-Royce. The organization is also referred to as Thunderbirds instead of International Rescue; although on their induction at the end of the film Alan, Tin-Tin and Fermat receive badges that are designed with the "IR", International Rescue, logo on them as per the original TV series intimating that the team are still officially called this, even though it seems the media's common parlance of "Thunderbirds" has become the norm, and been adopted amongst the family members themselves for everyday use.
Also the plot was changed dramatically by making the younger Tin-Tin, Alan Tracy and Fermat Hackenbacker, who is depicted as being Brains' son, the main characters. In the original however Alan Tracy does tend to sometimes have a larger role than the others and certainly a more emotional storyline (especially in the Thunderbirds Are Go! movie), but he's never been the main character. Alan and Tin-Tin were in fact much closer to the age of the rest of the Tracy brothers, in fact Alan is captain of Thunderbird 3 from the very first episode. Fermat Hackenbacker was only seen in this movie, because there's no mention of Brains ever having a son. Also in the original, Jeff Tracy never flew any of the Thunderbirds craft and there has never been an instance where he went off to the danger zone (with the exception of the episode "Brink of Disaster," as he was caught in the accident).
Like Fermat, the character of Onaha is not from the original TV series, where Kyrano was a single parent – and presumably, like Jeff Tracy, a widower. In addition, the TV series has "Kyrano" as the family name, with Kyrano's first name never being revealed. Jeff's mother (known simply as Grandma in the TV series) does not feature or get mentioned during the film.
Another difference is that the age order of the boys changes. In the original, the order of age was Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon and finally Alan, but in the film, John was the oldest, followed by presumeably Virgil, then Scott, then Gordon and finally Alan. On the online website, however, this has been corrected.
Other changes are more canonical. The feature film is set in 2020, while the original is set in 2065, which has long been accepted in Thunderbirds canon as the year of International Rescue's first mission. In the feature film, the Hood said that he was left for dead in one of International Rescue's earlier missions, but in "Trapped in the Sky" -- which was stated as International Rescue's first mission -- he was already trying to get their technology, which he knew the existence of via Kyrano.
Another notable difference between the 2004 film and the original TV series is that International Rescue now allows itself to be filmed and photographed on missions. One of the recurring 'rules' in the original TV series was that under no circumstances was anything related to International Rescue -- be it the pilots or the crafts themselves -- permitted to be photographed. In the episode "Terror in New York City", Scott Tracy wipes the film of a news crew with EMP when they breach this rule.
In the TV series, Gordon Tracy was the pilot of Thunderbird 4 and Alan was the pilot of Thunderbird 3 (with John Tracy subbing on occasion). In the film, the roles are reversed.
Filming location
The location for Tracy Island was filmed on North Island, a boutique island resort in the Seychelles, although originally said to be somewhere in the South Pacific, presumably Fiji, Samoa. Tonga, or French Polynesia.[citation needed]
Film history
This was in fact the third theatrical release based upon the series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. It was preceded by Thunderbirds Are Go in 1966 and Thunderbird 6 in 1968, both films using the Supermarionation production techniques of the series. Gerry Anderson had no involvement in the making of this film as his ex-wife Sylvia owns the film rights to the characters.[citation needed]
Thunderbirds was dedicated to the memory of Stephen Lowen.
Timed to coincide with the theatrical release of Thunderbirds, the two prior films were released on DVD. The DVD versions of all three films include a number of extra features, including historical and production information.
References
External links
