Special Edition DVD Special Features: Audio Commentary Featuring Terence Young Second Audio Commentary By The Cast And Crew The Making of Thunderball Documentary The Thunderball Phenomenon Documentary Behind-The-Scenes Still Gallery Featuring Over 150 Images "Inside Thunderball" Featurette Collectable "Making-Of" Booklet Original Theatrical Trailers Television And Radio Spots

Ultimate Edition DVD Never before released on DVD: The Incredible World of James Bond - Original 1965 NBC Television Special A Child's Guide to Blowing Up a Motor Car On Location With Ken Adam Bill Suitor - The Rocket Man Movies Thunderball Boat Show Reel Selling Bonds - Original 1965 Television Advertisments Interactive Guide Into the World of Thunderball OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES: Audio Commentary Featuring Terence Young and Others Audio Commentary Featuring Peter Hunt, John Hopkins and Others The Making of Thunderball The Thunderball Phenomenon The Secret History of Thunderball Original Trailers TV Spots Photo Gallery Radio Communications

Picture

The Lowry Restoration team have done a fantastic job of restoring the print. Below shows a comparison of certain shots from the Special Edition with the Ultimate Edition (Ultimate captures on right). You'll notice that the Special Edition print was cropped.

The improvement is best exemplified within the gun barrel sequence. First of all, the quality of the picture is amazing - all the dirt and scratches (showing on the Special Edition print!) have now been completely removed. The reds and blues have also been toned down - so everybody is not looking so tanned. If you look at the gun barrel you can see that the final dot now blends in more, more white now than brown. Also, the gun barrel itself doesn't have the blue tinge that was there previously (also notice Connery's shirt).

The film is now much lighter, not as gloomy in certain shots. This is best seen when the Vulcan takes off and shots of it in-flight. Oddly, when Quist is thrown into Largo's shark pool, the final shot from within the water had been previously filtered red. On this new print, this has been removed?! The new Ultimate Edition print stands head and shoulders over its previous incarnations - marred only by the removal of the red filter in the pool. 9 out of 10.

Sound

The newly enhanced soundtrack is impressive, although marred by a couple of unnecessary enhancements. Footsteps, background noise, even Bond picking the grape in Lippe's Shrublands room! When viewing, I had started to think there were extra lines, certainly not heard before:

- Fiona's exclamations when Bond escapes the car at the Junkanoo

- Largos's men shouting after Bond has infiltrated Palmyra, "Ricardo, someone's shot him"

They are there in the Special Edition but can barely be heard - now these and other background sounds are certainly more noticeable. In addition, virtually every single car / plane / boat engine has been 'revved up' to give them more power.

There are a fair few enhancements to certain sounds in the film. The most noticeable (for me anyway) are...

the car engine as Bouvoir enters the chateau, the Aston Martin back screen going up, the car driving up Shrublands drive (straight after the wipe from Largo, this was virtually non-existent on the Special Edition), Lippe's car leaving Shrublands (just before Bond snoops around his room), picking the grape in Lippe's room, Bond singing to himself on exiting the heat treatment room after trapping Lippe (non-existent on the Special Edition), the Vulcans taking off (impressive), Bernard Lee much clearer on the telephone "county police here", outside 'traffic' in M's office, the chips on the table at Cafe Martinique, the hotel keys, ice cubes and drinks poured by Bond with Leiter, the silent 'trap door' at Palmyra is now heard opening and closing, the underwater torch that Bond holds and finally the winch from the helicopter that rescues Bond.

Also several underwater sounds from the final battle have been enhanced including the divers hitting the water after parachuting, the sleds manoevering, the door falling on the divers from behind and finally the explosion set off by Bond.

There are two unnecessary 'enhancements' aswell as a missing sound effect - which is why I give the soundtrack 8 out of 10:

The hidden door activated by Largo to the SPECTRE conference room. Whereas before it was a smooth hum - now it is so noisy, why bother concealing it?!

Secondly, it sounds like someone has found some coconuts to enhance the horse and cart seen in the background when Bond introduces Leiter to Pinder!

What is missing, right at the end of the film, is the sound effect of the sky-hook wire (attached to Bond) being caught by the plane that whisks Bond and Domino into the air...