Monday, September 23, 2024

Thunderbirds Are Go (1966)

A successful TV series hits the big screen, so often this can be a miss, but in the case of Thunderbirds they just about pull it off.

The mighty Zero-X rocket is about to head off the first manned mission to Mars but an agent from (well that is never established) causes the spaceship to crash. Two years later the replacement ship is ready to go to Mars, International Rescue is called out to make sure the agent can't cause another failure. The Thunderbirds and Lady Penelope manage to save the day.

But on Mars the Zero-X crew run into trouble from strange aliens. Finally, on their return to Earth the Zero-X malfunctions which means International Rescue are called out again to save the day. Alan Tracy ends up the hero after feeling a bit of a spare part earlier in the film, and having a rather weird dream sequence involving Cliff Richard...

The bigger budget has made the already superb looking Thunderbirds action and sets even more spectacular, however the story is a bit lacking and we could have done with a bit more of actual rescuing. We never even get to see Thunderbird 4! But it does the job, FAB!