Thunderbirds

Plot

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.

Release Year: 2004

Rating: 4.0/10 (6,698 voted)

Critic's Score: 36/100

Director:
Jonathan Frakes

Stars: Bill Paxton, Anthony Edwards, Ben Kingsley

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.

Writers: Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson

Cast:

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

Taglines:
Climb into the drivers seat of the most advanced rescue vehicles on the planet

Details

Official Website:
Universal |
Universal [uk] |

Release Date: 30 July 2004

Filming Locations: Cliveden House, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Box Office Details

Budget: $57,000,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: £1,350,974
(UK)
(25 July 2004)
(436 Screens)

Gross: $6,768,055
(USA)
(22 August 2004)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

The Hood's two main assistants are named with architectural terms for vertical (Mullion) and horizontal (Transom) pieces used in the construction of doors or windows.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
Fermat's name is continually mispronounced as "Fur-mat". The correct pronunciation is "Fair-mah"

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!

User Review

If you don't know it, don't make it!

Rating:


Once upon a time young children sat down with their Fathers or maybe
their bigger siblings and they watched a show. It was a television
program that held them transfixed with tales of bravura and
technological wonders. Lots of young children dreamed beautiful
creative dreams because of this show.

Fast forward to Christmas 2004. Lots of kids are gonna get a DVD called
"Thunderbirds". The producers of this movie should get used to the
singular "clang" sound because I can imagine lots of kids are going to
toss this into wastebaskets the day after (or maybe the same day). They
are throwing away the most thickheaded attempt at re-creating
television greatness that this reviewer has ever seen.

I am not saying that the original "The Thunderbirds" was the best of
shows. It was a puppet show for chrissake! It had huge limitations
based on what we know today.

But then? If you were a seven to fourteen year old kid? The
Thunderbirds was it! Jeff Tracey led and his sons followed, spirited
and eager. Scott was the eldest and Jeff's "rock". He had Thunderbird
1….reconnaissance and remote command and control platform . Virgil had
the looks but was so committed to Dad and the project. He had
Thunderbird 2……the perennial heavy duty workhorse. Gordon, John and
Alan had the tough job of being expert in all the rest of the
equipment….all heroes. And then there was Brains. An unparalleled
engineering genius and our little secret. As much a part of the team as
any other single member. As much flawed and quirky as he was amazing
and lovable. Brains was not perfect, but he was the best Mother Earth
had to offer.

But the true beauty of this old show, the reason all of us got up at
6.00am to watch, was those wonderful beasts, the Thunderbirds
themselves. Gerry Anderson knew that his creations were the star of the
show and he made sure they were kept front and center.

So, with this movie, what the hell where the producers thinking?

Whoever was in charge, and I am not saying it was the Jonathan Frakes,
had simply no idea. Obviously they had no idea that they were playing
with an institution as opposed to a "cool plot idea".

The whole movie was two things…….a Spy Kids clone and a running
advertisement for Ford……..and that's it!

OK, the technical stuff was there. I thought the updating of our
beloved Thunderbirds was quite good to a point.

And Tracey Island seemed up to it. Had all the right stuff, except we
never saw it work right.

After that? It was all downhill into the pits. And it went pretty low.

The script wasn't written, it was excreted. The casting was abysmal.
The costuming was third rate.

As a Father, I would be embarrassed if my son said this was a cool
film. It would mean I would have to explain to him why it isn't. He is
gonna see the original series one day so I have to.

Whoever the mastermind is that concocted this mess should go away. To
the producers that still own the rights? Give it another shot. People
want to see the Tracey's solving problems as they do. Make my kids
proud. Make me proud.