11 Things You Learn Rewatching Thunderball
2. The Ending Inspired The Dark Knight
The very final moments of Thunderball see Bond and Domino hauled off to safety by a surface-to-air Fulton system better known as "skyhook", which in more recent years has appeared most memorably in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (when Batman acquires Lau from Hong Kong).
Now, Nolan is a known Bond fan and has even been a consistent contender to direct a future Bond film, so it's incredibly unlikely this was a mere coincidence, and most certainly a direct homage to the technology's use in the Bond franchise.
Nolan blatantly homaged On Her Majesty's Secret Service in Inception's ski sequence and The Dark Knight Rises' opening is decidedly Bond-esque, so don't discount it.
Either way, the memorable moment in The Dark Knight probably wouldn't have happened without first occurring in Thunderball's triumphant climax.