A poster for
Thunderball, but it’s in the Craig era.
Bond visits the funeral of SPECTRE agent Jacques Bouvar, only to realize that he is in disguise as a woman attending the funeral. A fight ensues, with Bond strangling Bouvar to death and escaping via a getaway vehicle.
SPECTRE operative Emilio Largo (Jonathan Pryce) devises a plan to hold NATO ransom, recruiting Count Lippe (Adam Driver) to oversee the operation. Lippe recruits Angelo Palazzi to participate in the plan, and, with the help of SPECTRE agent Fiona "Volpe" Renard (Olga Kurylenko), has his face surgically altered to match that of French pilot Francesco Vitali, who they murder. Palazzi demands more money, which Renard accepts.
SPECTRE agents enter North Korea and recover a few nuclear weapons. Palazzi hijacks an Avro Vulcan en route to the United States, deliberately crashing it just off of New York City, and replaces the missiles on the plane with nuclear ones, to be later discovered by a cursory investigation. Palazzi is murdered by Largo for demanding more money than SPECTRE initially accepted. Later on, the investigation takes place, and the nukes are discovered. Realizing that they are North Korean nukes, the UN immediately calls an emergency council (at Geneva, due to the risk posed by the nukes in New York), which threatens to spiral into an international war. The meeting is disrupted as major billboards and TV networks in NATO and US-affiliated nations are interrupted by a rogue signal. The signal claims to be from a criminal organization called SPECTRE, and broadcasts a ransom: the nukes near New York City will be detonated, as well as other nukes in another unknown location, unless $1 billion is paid to SPECTRE within a week from broadcast.
James Bond is staying at the Shrublands Health Clinic after a recommendation by M, and uncovers the corpse of Vitali. He also meets Lippe, who begins to become suspicious of Bond when Bond notices a gang tattoo on Lippe’s arm. Lippe attempts to kill Bond using a traction machine, but Bond’s nurse, Patricia Fearing, helps save his life. Bond soon traps Lippe in a steam bath, but he escapes.
The Secret Service convenes an emergency meeting to discuss the Avro Vulcan incident and the ongoing international crisis with SPECTRE’s demands. Bond realizes that the pilot in the downed plane, “Francesco Vitali”, looks similar to the corpse he found at the Shrublands clinic, and asks M to be assigned to his last known relative: his sister Dominetta (Sarah Paxton), affectionately nicknamed Domino.
On the way to Nassau, where Domino lives, Bond is targeted by Lippe again. He fights him off, but Lippe is ultimately killed by Renard, who blames him for jeopardizing the mission. Once Bond arrives at Nassau in the Bahamas, Bond realizes that Domino is Largo’s mistress once he visits her at a casino. He uses this connection to investigate him, both unaware of each other’s true status. Bond meets up with Felix Leiter, agent Paula Caplan, and Q, who offers him an infrared camera and an underwater breathing apparatus. Bond chooses to investigate Largo’s boat, finding a mysterious hatch on the bottom, which arouses his suspicion. He visits Largo the next night, only to find that Paula had been abducted, but committed suicide before she could be interrogated. Largo catches him, and Bond is forced to escape into a Junkanoo celebration, pursued by Renard and more of Largo’s henchmen. Renard catches up to Bond, but she is killed when another henchman tries to shoot Bond.
From intel he gathered at Largo’s house, Bond begins to suspect that the other missing nukes may be in the vicinity. With the help of Leiter, he discovers a camouflaged seaplane holding the other missing bombs. Bond reveals to Domino that her brother was killed by SPECTRE, persuading her to help investigate Largo’s boat, the Disco Volante. Domino is captured by Largo in the process, while Bond infiltrates a SPECTRE meeting and learns where they are planning to move the nukes in the seaplane. Bond and Leiter contact the US Navy to apprehend the Disco Volante and recover the bombs. Bond pursues Largo, who escapes on the Disco Volante. Bond hijacks the ship, causing it to run out of control, while he fights Largo. Largo gets the upper hand, and is about to shoot Bond, but is ultimately stabbed with a harpoon by Domino, who has freed herself. They take a lifeboat and jump off the boat, just as it runs aground and explodes.
One year after the mission, codenamed Operation Thunderball, world governments are still hellbent on trying to find and eliminate SPECTRE’s top leadership, including the evasive “Number One” (Christoph Waltz, face not visible), but they are proving more and more elusive to find. Meanwhile, MI6 gets a mysterious tip from Japan, and Bond is sent to investigate.