Thunderbirds (2004)

When The Hood finds and invades International Rescue's secret base and traps most of the Tracy family, only young Alan Tracy and his friends can save the day.

Director:

Jonathan Frakes

Writers:

Gerry Anderson (television series), Sylvia Anderson (television series),

Stars:

Brady Corbet, Bill Paxton, Ben Kingsley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brady Corbet	...	Alan Tracy
Debora Weston	...	Teacher
Soren Fulton	...	Fermat
Lou Hirsch	...	Headmaster
Alex Barringer	...	Excited Kid
Demetri Goritsas	...	News Anchor
Genie Francis	...	Lisa Lowe
Philip Winchester	...	Scott Tracy
Deobia Oparei	...	Mullion
Bill Paxton	...	Jeff Tracy
Kyle Herbert	...	Know It All Kid
Dominic Colenso	...	Virgil Tracy
Ben Torgersen	...	Gordon Tracy
Sophia Myles	...	Lady Penelope
Ron Cook	...	Parker

Storyline

The year is 2010. Teenager Alan Tracy, sent off to a distant boarding school, is the youngest of the sons of Jeff Tracy, a retired American astronaut. 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. Their futuristic hardware is largely developed by a genius scientist known as Brains, who lives at the International Rescue base on Tracy Island, somewhere in the Pacific.

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Plot Keywords:

island | rescue | astronaut | scientist | teenager | 

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Taglines:

The greatest rescue organisation in the world has a major problem.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for intense action sequences and language

Details

Official Sites:

Universal Universal [uk]

Country:

UK France

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 July 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Thunderbirds

Filming Locations:

Cliveden House, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$57,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$283,551 (Australia) (10 September 2004)

Gross:

$310,277 (Australia) (10 September 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Working Title Films, StudioCanal, Tracy Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital EX DTS-ES

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As the young Thunderbirds prepare to launch towards The Bank of London with Lady Penelope, an insert shot shows a hand grabbing a lever. This hand is held up by strings, a quick reference to the style of animation used in the Thunderbirds television series. Also, this is in a complete reversal to the series, as all shots in the TV show were of marionettes, except when there was an extreme closeup of a hand or foot, at which point was replaced with a person's hand or foot doing the required action (pulling a switch, stepping on the gas pedal of a car, etc.)

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Goofs

In the opening rescue, people at the scene are waiting for the Thunderbirds to arrive, and then Thunderbirds 1 and 2 arrive at the same time. Thunderbird 1 is much faster than 2 and would have arrived much earlier in order to assess the situation.

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Quotes

[first lines]
News Anchor: From a secret island in the South Pacific, the courageous Tracy family run an organization called International Rescue. When disaster strikes anywhere in the world, they are always first on the scene. They go by the name they gave they're incredible machines. The Thunderbirds. 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Thunderbirds are GO!

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are animated (cartoon style) with the 4 Thunderbird Rescue Craft "saving"/manipulating the text which is in danger of being destroyed by disasters (Volcano Lava, Meteors, etc.). For those who have never seen the original TV Shows, it offers a peek at the design of the Craft and how they function at the disaster sites. A jazzed-up/updated version of the TV Theme Music is used for this sequence.

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Connections

Featured in Troldspejlet: Episode #33.3 (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Thunderbirds Are Go"
Written by Barry Gray, James Bourne, Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis,
Tom Fletcher
Performed by Busted
Courtesy of Universal/Island Records Ltd.

User Reviews

Hang Your Head In Shame Jonathan Frakes & Universal Execs.

This is a truly awful film. What they have done is taken a TV show, which was never aimed at young children & given it the George Lucas treatment (i.e. ruined it by kiddifying it to appeal to the younger audience).

OK so the Thunderbirds TV show wasn't exactly the most cerebral of shows, in fact it was pretty formulaic, but it was always enjoyable to watch (especially when the models got blown up) and the voice cast wasn't too bad.

This suffers from bad casting & bad acting (with the notable exceptions of Sophia Myles as Lady Penelope & Ron Cook as Parker, who seem to be the only cast members to have a clue about how their characters should be played) & after this travesty I wouldn't let Frakes direct traffic.

The whole point of Thunderbirds was that it was about the whole Tracy family & how they worked as a team, preventing disasters or coming to the rescue of those involved in disasters.

Avoid this rubbish like the plague.

I only give it 1 out of 10 because a zero rating is not supported.