Thunderbird 6 (1968)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

David Lane

Writers:

Gerry Anderson (writer)
Sylvia Anderson (writer)

Release Date:

3 August 1968 (Japan)

Genre:

Family | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The International Rescue team is faced with one of its toughest challenges yet, as the revolutionary...

Plot Keywords:

Supermarionation | Puppet | Kids And Family | Number In Title

Cast

Peter Dyneley	...	Jeff Tracy (voice)
Sylvia Anderson	...	Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (voice)
Shane Rimmer	...	Scott Tracy (voice)
Jeremy Wilkin	...	Virgil Tracy / Hogarth (voice)
Matt Zimmerman	...	Alan Tracy / Carter (voice)
David Graham	...	Gordon Tracy / Brains / Aloysius Parker (voice)
Keith Alexander	...	John Tracy / Narrator (voice)
Gary Files	...	The Hood (Black Phantom) / Captain Foster (I) / Lane (voice)
Christine Finn	...	Tin-Tin / Indian Fortune-teller (voice)
John Carson	...	Captain Foster (II) (voice)
Geoffrey Keen	...	James Glenn (voice)

Also Known As:

Thunderbird 6: The Movie (Australia)
Thunderbird Six (International: English title) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | UK:U | USA:G | West Germany:6

Company:

Associated Television (Overseas) Limited

Trivia:

In the first scene when all the men in the meeting room are laughing (which is the only time in any of Gerry Anderson's puppet series that this happens), you can see fillings in the teeth of one of the puppets.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: It is stated by Scott that the towers that the airship is about to crash into are five miles east of Dover, while showing some very nice pictures of the English countryside. The only problem is that five miles east of Dover is in the English Channel almost a quarter of the way to Calais as the ferry sails. That is unless by 2068 an artificial piece of land has been placed there.

Quotes:

Narrator: A beautiful island in the Pacific, secret base of International Rescue, so far undetected. Outwardly, the luxury home of millionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy.

Movie Connections:

Follows Thunderbirds Are GO (1966)

Soundtrack:

The Man in his Flying Machine

A sad decline from "Thunderbirds Are Go."

Like the "Thunderbirds" TV series and the film "Thunderbirds Are Go", this movie covers the adventures of the Tracy family of super-secret rescue agents. But although the effects are as good, this time plot defects injure the story.

The characters pretty much ignore their "secret" status when they openly sign on as passengers for an experimental antigravity ship, which turns into a Titanic-style disaster when a crew of saboteurs take over. They did cute things with the "Supermarionation" marionets (like skiing scenes). But the plot holes finally drag down the film.

Even Anderson's generally-excellent special effects suffer; in place of elaborately staged scenes with a model, the film's rescue craft (a biplane) is often shot as a radio-controlled model plane shot in reality, buzzing a real castle instead of Lady Penelope's soundstage set. It's not convincing. Republic's movie serials were able to mix real-world buildings with props well; Century 21 Productions didn't do it here.