The Single Greatest Thing In Each James Bond Movie

22. Thunderball - The Bond Girls

No Time to Die Daniel Craig
MGM

With its bloated length and excess of underwater action, Thunderball's definitely the worst Bond film of the 1960s, and the unofficial remake, Never Say Never Again, is arguably better but it's still an enjoyable, glamorous retro action flick that gets some things absolutely bang-on - most of all, its Bond Girl characters.

While the Bond Girl was always a very important part of the series' formula, it was only with the fourth film in the series that the Bond series got this archetype absolutely right for the first time.

Few of the Bond Girls from the first three films were all that great. Even the best such character from the first three movies, Dr No's Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) doesn't get enough to do in her film.

In contrast to its predecessors, Thunderball did a great job with its Bond Girls. There are two main Bond Girls - Domino (Claudia Auger) and Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) - and they both rank amongst the franchise's finest even after all these decades.

Domino is a fantastic female lead that really feels like a fully-realized character, mainly because she actually has a compelling story going on. Ultimately, it's her actually who kills the lead antagonist, not Bond.

Similarly, Fiona Volpe is a very sinister and unsettling femme fatale who feels like a real threat to Bond and, even if her death scene was disappointing, she's still among the finest female villains in the Bond canon.

In this post: 
James Bond
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.