Күннен тыс саяхат: Zero X және құпия саботаж

1966 film directed by David Lane
the film

In 2067, the Inquiry Board of the Space Exploration Center concludes that Zero X was sabotaged. Meanwhile, a second Zero X has been built and another mission to Mars planned. International Rescue agrees to provide security at the launch given the possibility of further sabotage. Jeff Tracy dispatches Scott to Glenn Field in Thunderbird 1 to monitor the situation from the ground, while Virgil and Alan are assigned to escort Zero X through the atmosphere in Thunderbirds 2 and 3. Posing as a reporter at the pre launch press conference, Lady Penelope arranges for each member of the crew to wear a St Christopher brooch with a concealed homing device. On launch day, Dr Grant's device is no longer registering, even though Grant is on board Zero X awaiting lift off. Scott unmasks "Grant" as the Hood in disguise. The Hood flees Glenn Field in a car, pursued by Penelope and Parker in FAB 1. Reaching the coast, he transfers to a speedboat and then a helicopter. Parker shoots down the helicopter with FAB 1's machine gun. Meanwhile, the kidnapped Grant is found and returned to Zero X and the spacecraft is launched without further incident. Mission complete, Penelope invites Scott and Virgil to join her at popular nightclub The Swinging Star. Returning to Tracy Island, Alan feels unappreciated when Jeff insists that he stay at base while the others spend the night partying. Asleep in bed, Alan has a surreal dream in which he and Penelope travel to another Swinging Star located in space. Appearing at the nightclub are Cliff Richard Jr and the Shadows, who perform a song called "Shooting Star" and an instrumental called "Lady Penelope". The dream ends when Alan falls out of The Swinging Star and back to Earth, waking to discover that he has merely fallen out of bed. After a six week flight, Zero X reaches Mars on 22 July and all of the astronauts except Space Navigator Newman touch down on the planet in their lander, the Martian Excursion Vehicle (MEV). Investigating the surface, the men are puzzled to find strange, coil like rock formations. Space Captain Martin destroys one of the structures with the MEV's gun and Dr Pierce prepares to go outside to collect samples. The other structures come to life, revealing themselves to be one eyed rock snakes. The aliens bombard the MEV with fireballs from their mouths, forcing the astronauts to take off prematurely. Docking with Newman in orbit, they start back to Earth. As Zero X re enters Earth's atmosphere on 2 September, lifting body no 2 fails to connect with the spacecraft due to a radio control fault, and damages various systems, including flight control and the escape pod circuit. With the astronauts unable to eject and Zero X set to impact on Craigsville, Florida (pop 4,800), Jeff launches Scott and Brains in Thunderbird 1 and Virgil, Alan and Gordon in Thunderbird 2. Craigsville is evacuated. Lifted into Zero Xs undercarriage, Alan repairs the escape circuit under Brains' guidance. Seconds before impact, Alan completes his task and jumps out as the astronauts eject. The empty Zero X crashes into Craigsville. Picked up by Penelope and Parker in FAB1, Alan is driven to the real Swinging Star where Penelope, joined by the Tracy family, Brains and Tin Tin, toast Alan as a hero.

Quote box|quote=I tried to keep the stories believable, if only for that particular moment. Of all the planets, the only one that might possibly sustain life was Mars, so, with everybody in science fiction wanting to talk about aliens or another race, Mars was the only planet that made any sense. Right up until the Americans landed the probe on Mars, there was speculation that there might be life there.|source=— Gerry Anderson on the film's premise With United Artists contracted to distribute, a budget of £250,000 (about £0.25 in 1965 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years million in ) was set and Anderson and his wife, Sylvia, began work on the script at their second home in Portugal. The couple decided to base the film on the American Soviet "Space Race" – in particular the race to land astronauts on the Moon – but adapt this premise for the futuristic world of Thunderbirds by switching the location to Mars. Like Thunderbirds Are Go, Captain Scarlet depicts hostile life on Mars, though the Mysterons of the TV series pose a greater threat than the "Rock Snakes" of the film in that they strike at Earth itself. The role was instead given to 24 year old David Lane, who had directed several of the TV episodes. This made Lane the UK's youngest film director at the time. Richard and Shadows band member Bruce Welch both owned homes in Portugal near the Andersons, and it was there that the two agreed to "appear" in the film as Supermarionation puppets. Having also agreed to contribute to the film's score, Richard and The Shadows recorded a song titled "Shooting Star" and an instrumental titled "Lady Penelope". Stephen La Rivière, author of Supermarionation: A History of the Future, regards the sequence as the strangest ever created for an Anderson production. For the films and Series Two, the character was voiced by Wilkin. Paul Maxwell as Captain Paul Travers. Having previously voiced Steve Zodiac in Fireball XL5, Maxwell later provided uncredited guest character voices in Thunderbirds Series Two, portrayed Captain Grey in Captain Scarlet, and made an appearance on UFO. Alexander Davion as Space Captain Greg Martin. Davion later appeared in an episode of UFO. Bob Monkhouse as Space Navigator Brad Newman. Monkhouse would host the game show The Golden Shot from 1967 to 1972. Monkhouse recalled the conversation: "[Anderson] said, 'How much would you charge for the job?' I said, 'Gerry, I'd do it for nothing.' And that was the first time I ever heard the phrase, 'the price is right'." Like Paul Maxwell, he provided uncredited guest character voices in Thunderbirds Series Two, as well as providing voices in Captain Scarlet and making a guest appearance in UFO. Shadows members Brian Bennett, Hank Marvin, John Rostill and Bruce Welch are depicted in marionette form, but have no dialogue. The staff at AP Films were divided into "A" and "B" units: A to shoot the film and B the TV episodes. To accommodate its increased workload, APF bought two additional buildings near its site on the Slough Trading Estate, combining these with the pre existing puppet workshop, art department building and publicity centre to form a production base of five buildings. Converted by January 1966, one of these former factory units contained puppet stages while the other incorporated a single large sound stage on which all of the film's model and effects work would be completed. Also known as "Add a Vision", this system comprised a viewfinder that relayed images from the shooting camera to video monitors elsewhere in the studio. The background shots for Alan's rescue of the Zero X crew were originally filmed on location in Portugal but were judged unsatisfactory and replaced with a painted backdrop created by associate producer Reg Hill. However, this shot was also deemed inadequate and replaced with footage of a model version built at APF Studios in Slough. The puppets were therefore expertly revamped, with new paint, wigs and costumes. Some of the established characters, including Scott Tracy, were re sculpted from the original puppets, while guest characters, such as the Zero X crew, were entirely new creations. As with Scott Tracy, the puppet playing Captain Travers was modelled on Sean Connery. The film puppets had the same body proportions as their TV predecessors. As filming progressed, APF developed a new prototype puppet with an animatronic mouth to produce more realistic lip and jaw movement. However, the results proved unsatisfactory and the idea was abandoned.

Quote box|quote=I had to insist on just tangerine and black, continually assuring [the art department] that it would look effective. As a producer, I was entitled to do it my way and, although I do not think Bob [Bell] ever really approved, I stuck to my concept. The result was quite a stunning sequence that stood out for its simplicity and economy of colour.|source=— Sylvia Anderson on the conference room design

Lane commented: "Thunderbirds Are Go was done like an episode but on a bigger scale. Whereas we would think that it might be nice to do a particular shot on the series but couldn't afford to, with Thunderbirds Are Go we just did it because we had the money." The main effects pieces were the Zero X launch sequences, new Thunderbird launch sequences, the car chase involving FAB 1 and the Hood, the Swinging Star scenes, the sequences set on the Martian surface, and the destruction of Zero X. The Zero X spacecraft, which was designed by Meddings, was built as a 7 feet (2 m), fibreglass model at a cost of £2,500 (approximately £ in ). Although the model took months to build, all of its scenes, from launch to destruction, were completed in two days. The cockpit was based on that of Concorde, a prototype of which was under construction at Filton Airfield in Bristol. The workprint exceeded United Artists' maximum permitted running time by roughly 15 minutes, forcing Walter to cut a number of scenes that were inessential to the plot. Some of the deleted scenes concerned the SEC's attempts to persuade International Rescue to escort Zero X. At the same time, the Hood telepathically contacts his half brother Kyrano (voiced by David Graham), Jeff's retainer on Tracy Island, and forces him to disclose the Tracy family's intentions. With the removal of the latter scene, Kyrano was completely cut from the film. Other scenes saw Lady Penelope and Parker flying to Glenn Field aboard the hypersonic airliner Fireflash and Jeff Tracy making a speech to the world through the Trans American TV Network. Another shows the Hood standing in his jungle temple with a clapperboard in front of him. Footage from the Trans American TV Network sequence was later edited into the Joe 90 episode "International Concerto".

With Walter's editing complete, composer Barry Gray recorded the score in six sessions between 9 and 11 October at Anvil Studios near Denham, Buckinghamshire. The closing credits are accompanied by footage of the Royal Marines Band Service performing the "Thunderbirds March"; this was filmed in a single morning at the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, Kent, with the marines conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Dunn. Around this time, APF was rebranded "Century 21 Productions"; this name was first carried by Thunderbirds Are Go to link the film to APF's tie in comic TV Century 21.

Quote box|quote=[Audiences] were watching a film that exuded the same inventive spark, witty flair and oddball scenarios as the series itself. Multiple plotting, a sprinkling of monsters and a pop fantasy sequence including Cliff Richard and The Shadows  were bolted on to the basic story of Zero X, which would propel man to Mars for the very first time.|source=— John Marriott (1993) An early review of the film in Kine Weekly described it as a "colourful extension" of the TV series, while the News of the World praised it for providing "breathtaking entertainment". The Sunday Express was also positive, calling the concept of a Mars mission "awesome" and commending the film's visuals: "Of course, the cast are all puppets, the sets, models, and the story unabashed nonsense. But it's great all the same." Elsewhere, the Daily Mail praised the puppets' big screen transition: "So who needs people? These handsome, stiff necked, shiny faced Thunderbirds puppets have broken spectacularly out of black and white TV and on to the cinema screen." Supermarionation historian Stephen La Rivière suggests that the film was also facing strong competition from an influx of family films including Batman and Born Free, as well as re issues of The Wizard Of Oz (1939), Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965). He considers it superior to its sequel, Thunderbird 6, but suggests that the plot is partly recycled from the TV episodes and describes the dream sequence as "painfully silly". William Gallagher of BBC Online gives a positive review, calling Thunderbirds Are Go "every bit as good" as the TV series. However, he also suggests that Thunderbirds worked better on the small screen, writing of the film's content: "Certainly there's no greater profundity or universal theme to the film, it is just an extended episode." He rates Thunderbirds Are Go three stars out of five, as does the Film4 website. In 2024, the film had a 57% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Dismissing the film's critical and commercial failure as a stroke of bad luck, United Artists told Anderson to make a sequel: Thunderbird 6. The Andersons deliberately wrote Thunderbird 6 as a more light hearted adventure. However, the response to the second film was similarly lukewarm, spelling the end of Thunderbirds as a media franchise until the release of the live action film Thunderbirds nearly four decades later in 2004.

A novelisation by Angus P. Allan was released by Armada Books in 1966. After this, the publication printed Zero X comic strips until 1969; these told the continuing adventures of the astronauts, once again led by Captain Travers, as they explored the rest of the Solar System and beyond aboard the Zero X "Mark III". A connection to Captain Scarlet was established in issues published between June and September 1967. In these issues, a follow up expedition to Mars, led by Captain Black of the world security organisation Spectrum, ends in disaster when Black (as shown in the first episode of Captain Scarlet) falls under the control of the malevolent Mysterons. Zero X returns to Earth and lands at Glenn Field, where the possessed Black avoids capture by the authorities.

A re recorded version of the score was released as a vinyl record by United Artists in 1967 and Silva Screen Records in 1987. In 2014, the original soundtrack recordings for Thunderbirds are Go and Thunderbird 6 were released by La La Land Records as a limited edition CD. Thunderbirds Are Go was first released on DVD in 2001, in Regions 2 and 4, by MGM. In 2004, an "International Rescue Edition" was released; this was also available in Region 1 and was marketed both separately and as a box set with Thunderbird 6. In 2014, Twilight Time (through its sub licensing deal with MGM) released both films as a double feature Blu ray set, limited to 3,000 copies and available only from the Screen Archives Entertainment website. This set was re released by Kino Lorber in 2017.