Thunderbird 6 (International Rescue Edition)

Rating:
Summary: THUNDERBIRDS: The Better Movie!
Review: This movie, unlike its predecessor, "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO", is an original, fun piece of nostalgia. If you enjoyed the TV show, this movie was a great gathering of the best characters for a full-length romp around the world.

Brains invents something no one takes seriously - an airship. Yet despite the ridicule he suffers for his insane idea, the company built it. And it's bound to be a huge success with the wealthy who want to combine a cruise with a flight around the world.

Meanwhile, Brains is given the task of creating a new rescue craft - Thunderbird 6. This means he can't go on the maiden voyage. So, representing International Rescue on the maiden voyage of the SKYSHIP ONE, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, her chauffeur, Parker, and a couple of the Tracy brothers, including Alan and the lovely Tin Tin, soon find that the crew of the ship have been replaced by saboteurs. (What would an episode of Thunderbirds be without some good old sabotage?)

But the purpose of the pirating of the Skyship One seems to focus on Lady Penelope for some unknown reason.

Stopping at some of the most exotic locales worldwide, Penny and the boys must discover why she's being recorded, and what the purpose of the pirates is.

Seems a long way to go just to lure International Rescue into a trap, but hey, this IS a show meant for kids.

Of course the real surprise is the ending, when Airship One seems to be unreachable to rescue the passengers aboard, as it gets snagged on a tower, doomed to fall to the earth, killing all aboard. But the jets of the large, powerful Thunderbirds threaten to topple the huge airship as they approach. Is there a way to rescue them? What will be the new Thunderbird 6?????

This is an absolute MUST-HAVE for Thunderbirds and Gerry Anderson fans. If the 32 episodes they aired is not enough for you, please get this movie! You must also get THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!, but keep in mind this one is more original, and more fun.

Please enjoy. And if you do, post a review here.

Sean.

Rating:
Summary: Suspensful Sci-Fi Story With Beloved Characters & Solid SFX
Review: Thunderbirds remains one of the best television series ever made, be it in Britain or anywhere. The premise of an organization, International Rescue, tasking itself to save lives in extremely dangerous circumstances is a solid one, and combines with elaborate sets, props, and SFX, all held together by lovely characters - billionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, his five sons, a lovably nerdy engineer nicknamed Brains, elegent Lady Penelope (the TV episode "Atlantic Inferno" explores her relationship with widower Jeff, and brings to the fore her unspoken role as Jeff's surrogate wife and mother of Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon, and John) and her ex-con butler Parker, whose Cockney accent (beautifully played by David Graham) remains engaging.

With the international success of Thunderbirds came two theatrical releases. It is shameful that neither movie made much box-office impact, for they both are elaborate and entertaining.

Thunderbird Six, released in 1968, is the better of the two movies, combining a strong script with the usual strengths of the show - immortal voice performances by Peter Dyneley, Shane Rimmer (an American-born actor who has appeared in countless British films and TV episodes - such as his role as the US submarine commander in the James Bond film Spy Who Loved Me - Shane Rimmer's voice performances would put Janet Waldo, June Foray, or Mel Blanc to shame), David Graham, Sylvia Anderson (the creator of the characters and at the time the wife of the project's producer, Gerry Anderson), and Matt Zimmermann; lush music by Barry Gray; elaborate effects and miniature work.

Members of International Rescue have been invited to the maiden round-the-world flight of Sky Ship One, a high technology airship deliberately built to bring back the joy of passenger dirigible flights, flights ended with the Hindenburg disaster of 1937. The ship was the brainchild of Brains and built by New World Aircraft, whose president knows the Tracy family (the film makes no mention, but it would seem that New World Aircraft is also one of IR's primary equipment suppliers).

Just before the flight is due to begin, the crew of the automated, jet powered dirigible is gunned down and replaced by killers, led by a thug named Foster (voiced by Gary Files), working for a mysterious being know only as Black Phantom (the show's archenemy The Hood, wearing a bad hairpiece; this is the only Thunderbirds story in which Ray Barrett did not voice any characters; in his place here was Keith Alexander).

The voyage involves Penelope, Parker, Alan Tracy, and his girlfriend Tin-Tin. At one point Foster asks Alan if he and Tin-Tin intend to marry. Alan says no, explaining that the hardships of IR are too much to impose on a wife. The scene is charming, though it involves a bit of a gap in logic, given that Alan and Tin-Tin already live together on Tracy Island; but then marriage would change the dynamic of their relationship.

Meanwhile the hijackers have bugged the entire ship, and record many conversations among the Tracys and Penny. The purpose is to painstakingly edit together a bogus distress call designed to lure IR into range of The Hood, so he can steal their craft and use their technology to gain power. Steadily the family wises to the plot, and are barely able to warn Scott and Virgil of the trap. A gunfight on Sky Ship One ensues, damaging the ship's floatation system and sending it crashing onto a one-thousand foot tower at a missile base.

The film contains an interesting subplot exploring the character of Brains. Denied permission to accompany the others on the voyage, he is tasked with creating a Thunderbird Six for IR, but all his designs are rejected. His mounting frustration is meant to be comic relief (he trashes every model he builds) but is actually painful to watch; it is burnout to an extreme, something we all have felt at one time or another.

The voyage takes the Tracys to many places visited over the course of the TV series - from London (the episodes Trapped In The Sky and Vault of Death) over the Atlantic Ocean (Atlantic Inferno and Operation Crashdive) over New York City (Terror in NYC), over the Grand Canyon (Brink Of Disaster), to Africa (Pit Of Peril; the film even uses a quick cue from Peril's "March of the Sidewinder"), and the pyramids of Egypt (The Uninvited and Desperate Intruder). One enjoys the voyage to so many places as though we ourselves are part of it.

Despite some weaknesses in pace and plotting, the film is solid and worth a look.