BOX OFFICE OPENING: $10.9 million (USA)
BOX OFFICE RESULT: $55.5 million (USA)
BUDGET: $36 million (USA)
- The film's title was originally "Warhead" but was changed and became an in joke on Sean Connery's refusal to play 007 ever again. He was eventually paid $5 million, which made him the highest paid British actor to date.
- Orson Welles was originally going to play Blofeld and Trevor Howard was to appear as M.
- Author Kevin McClory (co-writer of Thunderball) had won the legal right to make his own 007 film as long as production started after 1975 and the story was based on Thunderball.
- Author Kevin McClory enlisted the help of Len Deighton and Sean Connery when writing the script, prior to Connery agreeing to return as Bond.
- An early plot had SPECTRE attacking Wall Street from the sewers of New York in giant mechanical sharks.
- There is a rumor that Timothy Dalton is visible in the casino. Dalton would later play James Bond.
- Sean Connery had said he wanted to portray Bond as a little older, more rumpled and without the toupee, but was overruled by the producers.
- The producers apparently planned to have a gunbarrel-style opening sequence along the lines of the regular Bond series, and music was composed for this. Ultimately, this idea was abandoned.
- Kevin McClory announced in the late 1990s that he wanted to remake Thunderball yet again, with the title "Warhead 2000," and possibly starring Timothy Dalton as Bond. But legal rights with the producers of the regular Bond films have delayed this production.
- McClory hoped this would be the first of a second series of Bond films. Titles like "James Bond of the Secret Service" and "SPECTRE" were publicized but never materialized.
- Althought the characters of M and Moneypenny are present, Q has been renamed Algeron.
- Steven Seagal was the on-set martial arts instructor.
WRITERS: Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ian Fleming, Lorenzo Semple Jr., Ian La Frenais (uncredited) and Dick Clement (uncredited).
PRODUCER: Jack Schwartzman.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Kevin McClory.
ORIGINAL MUSIC: Michel Legrand.
DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros.
James Bond: From here?
James Bond: Yes, but my martini is still dry. My name is James.
James Bond: I just remembered. It's against Service policy to give endorsements.
Fatima Blush: Write!
M: Oh! Caught you seducing his wife, did he?
James Bond: No, sir, not at all. But, in fact, I did lose 4lbs. And God knows how many free radicals.
M: That is the kind of attitude that tempts me to suspend you, 007!