Thunderbird 6

This article is about the film. For the email client, see Mozilla Thunderbird. For other uses, see Thunderbird.

Thunderbird 6
The words "Thunderbird 6" line the bottom edge of a poster which depicts a futuristic aircraft against the backdrop of a tower. The lower hull of this aircraft, resembling an airship of the future, is on fire. A small biplane flies overhead, while from the background the face of a man wearing flying goggles stares in the direction of the viewer.
UK film poster
Directed byDavid Lane
Screenplay byGerry & Sylvia Anderson
Based onThunderbirds
by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
Produced bySylvia Anderson
StarringKeith Alexander
Sylvia Anderson
John Carson
Peter Dyneley
Gary Files
Christine Finn
David Graham
Geoffrey Keen
Shane Rimmer
Jeremy Wilkin
Matt Zimmerman
Narrated byKeith Alexander
CinematographyHarry Oakes
Edited byLen Walter
Music byBarry Gray
Production
companies
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • 29 July 1968 (1968-07-29)[1]
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£300,000[1]

Thunderbird 6 is a 1968 British science fiction puppet film based on Thunderbirds, a Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions.[2] Written by the Andersons and directed by David Lane, it is the sequel to Thunderbirds Are Go (1966).

The film is largely set on Skyship One – a futuristic airship designed by Brains, the inventor of International Rescue's Thunderbird machines. The plot sees Alan Tracy, Tin-Tin Kyrano, Lady Penelope and Parker representing International Rescue as guests of honour on Skyship One's round-the-world maiden flight, unaware that master criminal The Hood is once again plotting to acquire the organisation's technological secrets. The Hood's agents murder the airship's crew and assume their identities to lure International Rescue into a trap. Meanwhile, Brains' efforts to design a proposed sixth Thunderbird collide with fate when Skyship One is damaged and its occupants' only salvation seems to be Alan's old Tiger Moth biplane.

Actors John Carson and Geoffrey Keen provided guest voices, with additions to the regular voice cast in the form of Keith Alexander and Gary Files. The puppet design compromised between the caricatures that Century 21 had used up until Thunderbirds Are Go and the realistically proportioned marionettes that were introduced in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. The film was shot between May and December 1967. Some of the sequences showing the Tiger Moth in flight were shot on location using a full-sized plane, but a legal dispute with the Ministry of Transport over alleged dangerous flying forced the crew to film the remaining shots in-studio with scale models.

Thunderbird 6 was released in July 1968 to a mediocre box office response that ruled out the production of further sequels. Critical response has remained mixed: while the special effects have been praised, the story polarised commentators.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Bentley 2008, p. 304 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Thunderbird 6". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 19 August 2024.