Product Description
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THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!
Blast off into interplanetary adventure with the first
feature-length film starring the International Rescue team:
millionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, his five stalwart sons, the
fabulous secret agent Lady Penelope and, of course, their
incredibly futuristic fleet of Thunderbird rescue ships! When the
mighty spaceship Zero X is sabotaged on its first takeoff for
Mars, International Rescue is summoned to provide security for
the second launch attempt. But after the ship successfully
reaches its destination, it is attacked by rampaging alien life
forms! Once again, the brave and resourceful International Rescue
team is called into action. Can the team help the damaged ship
re-enter Earth's atmosphere and prevent a c-landing with
devastating consequences?
THUNDERBIRD 6
The Tracy team are back in action in another riveting adventure!
This time it will take all of their combined effort and the
cunning wit of their colleague Lady Penelope to defeat an
international ring of terrorists who've targeted International
Rescue for destruction! While on the maiden voyage of the
fabulous new passenger vessel "Skyship One," Lady Penelope is
shocked to discover that the original crew has been killed and
replaced with a ruthless gang of hijackers who want to use her to
obtain classified information about the International Rescue
team! As the hijacked super-plane circles the globe on a
collision course with catastrophe, Penelope must outwit her
captors and send an urgent SOS to get help from her fearless
cohorts
before it's too late!
.com
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Thunderbirds Are Go followed the remarkable success of the
Thunderbirds ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B000068M9Q/${0} ) television
series, bringing the three-dimensional puppet animation
adventures of International Rescue to the big screen. Set in the
21st century, there is no attempt to explain the background
story: as in the TV show International Rescue is a private family
organization who uses high-tech craft to rescue anyone in peril.
Here it's the first manned flight to Mars that's in danger, as
International Rescue foils a sabotage attempt at the launch, then
race to avert disaster when the spaceship returns to earth. What
could have made a 50-minute TV episode is expanded to feature
length with Martian "rock monsters" and a surreal dream-sequence
involving Alan Tracy, Lady Penelope, and "Cliff Richard Jnr" &
the Shadows, with a new song performed by the real Cliff and the
Shadows. In the theaters, Thunderbirds Are Go was competing
against another British children's TV sci-fi spin-off, the
equally colorful Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD, and would be
followed by Thunderbird 6 (1968). Yet apart from more complex
model work, a bigger orchestra, and even bigger explosions, on TV
this plays like a widescreen double-length episode.
Thunderbird 6 revolved around a new addition to the lineup of
International Rescue's five emergency craft. The plot sees Lady
Penelope, Alan, Tin-Tin, and Parker as the only passengers on the
maiden, round-the-world flight of a futuristic airship, which is
hijacked in a bid to capture Thunderbirds 1 and 2. From the
moment Alan arrives on a Bond-style jetpack, the film veers away
from the TV show into espionage adventure territory, and while
the only people International Rescue rescues are their own
members, they kill a fair number of bad guys. The global tour
means there are more locations than ever, and though the story
takes a long time developing, the Die Hard-on-an-airship finale
delivers the most explosive set piece of Gerry Anderson's career.
As for Thunderbird 6, opinion remains divided as to whether it's
an ingenious twist or a disappointing gimmick, but the movie's
blend of model and live-action footage results in two superbly
staged stunt sequences. The Andersons would make one further
feature film, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969). --Gary
S. Dalkin