Thunderbirds (1965)
Thunderbirds is a 1960s British science-fiction television series which was produced using a mixed method of marionette puppetry and scale-model special effects termed "Supermarionation". The series is set in the 21st century and follows the exploits of International Rescue, a secret organization formed to save people in mortal danger with the help of technologically advanced land, sea, air and space vehicles and equipment, launched from a hidden base on Tracy Island in the South Pacific Ocean.
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Episode 1 - Trapped in the Sky
Release Date: 1965-09-30The Fireflash, on its maiden flight from London to Tokyo, is sabotaged by the Hood, a criminal who has learned of the formation of International Rescue, and is unable to land. The Hood's attack is intended to draw out International Rescue so he can record secrets of its machinery for sale to the highest bidder, an attempt thwarted by the intervention of the organization's London Agent.
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Episode 2 - Pit of Peril
Release Date: 1965-10-07A 500-ton U.S. Army walker, Sidewinder, falls into a pit during testing and International Rescue are called to save the crew trapped inside.
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Episode 3 - The Perils of Penelope
Release Date: 1965-10-14Lady Penelope goes on the trail of a kidnapped scientist, only to find herself in mortal danger at the hands of a megalomaniac determined to exploit the expert's work to his advantage.
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Episode 4 - Terror in New York City
Release Date: 1965-10-21While returning from a mission, Thunderbird 2 is seriously damaged when it comes under attack from a new, high-speed U.S. Navy strike vessel, the U.S.N. Sentinel. After an operation to move the Empire State Building disastrously ends in the tower's complete collapse, Jeff asks that Thunderbird 4 be transported onboard the same ship to the mouth of an underground river to reach a reporter and his cameraman who are trapped beneath the wreckage.
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Episode 5 - Edge of Impact
Release Date: 1965-10-28The Hood sabotages the Red Arrow aircraft programme. One of the planes crashes into the TV Tower in England during a brutal rain storm, and International Rescue is summoned to save the engineers inside the tower before it collapses; making their job trickier apart from the driving rain and winds at the site is that the Red Arrow's director, a long time friend of Jeff, is fired from the project and stays at Tracy Island, forcing the Tracys to draw him away and thus remain oblivious to International Rescue's existence.
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Episode 6 - Day of Disaster
Release Date: 1965-11-04The Allington Bridge collapses while a space rocket is being transported over it, trapping the rocket on the riverbed and inadvertently initiating its automatic countdown. International Rescue is called upon to save the crew before the rocket launches.
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Episode 7 - 30 Minutes After Noon
Release Date: 1965-11-11The Erdman Gang has developed an ingenious technique of having their work carried out – an explosive bracelet that can be removed only at the designated target. A secret agent's attempt to infiltrate the organisation backfires as he is left trapped in a plutonium store. International Rescue face a race against time to prevent a massive nuclear explosion.
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Episode 8 - Desperate Intruder
Release Date: 1965-11-18Brains and Tin-Tin set off on an expedition to retrieve sunken treasure from Lake Anasta. The Hood has also set his sights on the riches and plans to put both Brains and Tin-Tin in grave peril.
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Episode 9 - End of the Road
Release Date: 1965-11-25International Rescue's security is jeopardised when Tin-Tin's close friend Eddie Houseman, who recently visited Tracy Island, takes drastic action to save his road-construction company's threatened contract by planting explosives to tear open a jungle mountainside, and the ensuing chaos leaves him trapped on a cliffside in a truck with another case of explosives on board.
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Episode 10 - The Uninvited
Release Date: 1965-12-02While returning to base, Scott is attacked by mysterious fighter aircraft and shot down over the Sahara. He is discovered by two archaeologists, who send him on his way, only to find themselves entombed within the lost Pyramid of Khamandides.
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Episode 11 - Sun Probe
Release Date: 1965-12-09The Sun Probe rocket and its crew are locked in a collision course with the Sun, prompting the launching of Thunderbird 3 – but International Rescue itself requires saving when Thunderbird 3 is unable to escape the Sun's gravitational pull.
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Episode 12 - Operation Crash-Dive
Release Date: 1965-12-16A series of unexplained Fireflash airliner disappearances sees Thunderbird 4 being called to rescue a crew stranded on the ocean floor. International Rescue then volunteer its services in helping to diagnose the cause of the mechanical fault.
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Episode 13 - Vault of Death
Release Date: 1965-12-23During the installation of a new, airtight security vault at the Bank of England, one of the employees is accidentally locked inside, and International Rescue must come to his rescue before the air is extracted.
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Episode 14 - The Mighty Atom
Release Date: 1965-12-30The Hood plans to corner the Thunderbirds vehicles by drawing them out to an emergency at an atomic irrigation plant in the Sahara, then photographing them with a miniature camera disguised as a mouse.
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Episode 15 - City of Fire
Release Date: 1966-01-06The world's tallest tower catches fire following an explosion in the car park and International Rescue are called to rescue a family trapped in the basement, which they can accomplish only with an experimental cutting gas ("Oxyhydnite") that previously rendered Scott and Virgil Tracy unconscious during testing.
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Episode 16 - The Imposters
Release Date: 1966-01-13A gang of criminals masquerade as International Rescue to conceal their theft of top-secret military plans. The ensuing worldwide manhunt for International Rescue leaves the organisation powerless to operate in a rescue situation until its name is vindicated, just as a member of a manned reconnaissance satellite is suddenly trapped in space while trying to repair the station.
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Episode 17 - The Man from M.I.5
Release Date: 1966-01-20A criminal organisation steals classified plans. Working in conjunction with a British Secret Service agent, Lady Penelope must recover the material to save the world from total destruction.
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Episode 18 - Cry Wolf
Release Date: 1966-01-27Two Australian boys are playing their favourite game — "International Rescue" — when their "distress" call is picked up by John Tracy on Thunderbird 5. After a tour of Tracy Island, and a warning not to use their radio again, the brothers are returned home. The Hood then tricks the boys into an old mine shaft before stealing secret photographs from their government agent father. This time the brothers' SOS is real, but International Rescue refuses to believe them.
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Episode 19 - Danger at Ocean Deep
Release Date: 1966-02-03When the Ocean Pioneer tanker inexplicably explodes, Brains investigates the cause. With some help from Lady Penelope, he discovers it to be a chemical reaction between the cargo of liquid Alsterene and OD60, which is found in the sea. International Rescue set out to save the crew of the ill-fated Ocean Pioneer II.
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Episode 20 - Move – And You're Dead
Release Date: 1966-02-10After Alan Tracy returns to motor-racing, his rivals decide to remove the competition by rigging a bridge with a movement-sensitive bomb, which will explode the moment that Alan and Grandma Tracy try to escape. (Some of this episode is narrated in flashback.)
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Episode 21 - The Duchess Assignment
Release Date: 1966-02-17The Duchess of Royston has fallen on hard times, leading her friend Lady Penelope to enlist Jeff's help. The Duchess and her one asset – the painting Portrait of a Gazelle, by Braquasso – fall into criminal hands and it is up to International Rescue to save both.
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Episode 22 - Brink of Disaster
Release Date: 1966-02-24An unscrupulous investor attempts to recruit Lady Penelope into funding his automated, cross-country monorail building project. Jeff volunteers to ride the prototype, but he, Brains, and Tin-Tin find themselves trapped onboard, and with no possibility of escape, when it is discovered that the monorail train is speeding towards a stricken bridge.
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Episode 23 - Attack of the Alligators!
Release Date: 1966-03-10When a new growth hormone is accidentally released into a South American river, a house is besieged by alligators – now many times their normal size. International Rescue must subdue the reptiles and save the house's occupants.
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Episode 24 - Martian Invasion
Release Date: 1966-03-17The Hood arranges for a mishap with explosives during a film shoot, leaving two of the actors sealed inside a cave. When International Rescue arrive the ensuing rescue is surreptitiously recorded by the Hood, and when the Tracys realize they've been set up a tense chase through the nearby desert ensues.
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Episode 25 - The Cham-Cham
Release Date: 1966-03-24When aircraft are shot down during live broadcasts of a hit song, International Rescue suspects foul play. Tin-Tin and Lady Penelope (posing as the singer Wanda Lamour) investigate, but are left in mortal danger when a ski lift is sabotaged and speeds out of control down a mammoth mountain slide in the Alps.
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Episode 26 - Security Hazard
Release Date: 1966-03-31Clip show episode: the Tracy family cannot help but reminisce about their many successful missions after a young boy infiltrates the island. They are nevertheless burdened by the problem that the boy knows their identity and the location of their base – until Jeff realises that they can use the boy's dreams to their own advantage. Includes clips from "End of the Road", "Sun Probe", "Trapped in the Sky" and "Day of Disaster".