Thunderball is the fourth film in the James Bond film series, and the fourth to star Sean Connery as James Bond. Released in 1965, the film was a critical and commercial success. It was based of Ian Fleming's 1957 novel of the same name. The film was written by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Richard Maibaum, and John Hopkins and was directed by Terence Young. James Bond heads to The Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.