FAQ

According to publicity material, the film is set in 2020, six years before the first episode of the series. This may appear not to be canon to the TV series, and in fact isn't, but this is not a fault of the filmmakers. In the Christmas episode "Give or Take a Million", we see a calendar with the year 2026. It has since been stated that this year was a mistake by the propmaker and should have been 2065, the year that Gerry Anderson wanted the series to be set in, and is generally accepted to be the case. But where Alan Tracy is 21 in the series, in the film he is 15, so the year corresponds correctly.

Yes, there are quite a few:

Characters' ages: Many of the characters are younger in the film than in the show. As this film is supposedly set six years before the series' pilot (ignoring the fact that the episode features International Rescue's first mission) then this is feasible. However this is not applied to everyone; Lady Penelope and Parker are clearly around the ages given to them in the show (27 and 55, respectively) and Brains is also older - although that may because of another change; he's a father!

New characters: Yes, Brains has a son in the film, Fermat. Along with Onaha, wife of Jeff Tracy's manservant Kyrano, these two characters were created specifically for the film, as were The Hood's associates, Transom and Mullion.

Pilots: Jeff Tracy is seen flying Thunderbird 2 at the beginning of the film, with Virgil seemingly his co-pilot. Virgil is never seen flying her solo. The most obvious change is that Gordon Tracy is shown here to be the pilot of space rocket Thunderbird 3. In the series he was the aquanaut in charge of submarine Thunderbird 4, a role apparently given to Alan at the end of the film, going by the yellow colour-coding of his International Rescue uniform.

The Hood: Sir Ben Kingsley's character actually calls himself by this name in the film, as well as being referred to as The Hood by other characters. The Hood was never mentioned by name in the TV series, only in other media such as comics and publicity material.

FAB 1: Lady Penelope's famous pink Rolls Royce limousine of the TV show becomes a modified Ford Thunderbird car in the film. This is due to BMW, holders of the Rolls Royce marque, refusing to allow the filmmakers to use it. The new version does bear some trademarks of its TV counterpart, such as the glass canopy, six-wheel drive, and "special features" - although the version in the series did not fly...

Tin-Tin's powers: Unlike the TV series, in the film Tin-tin is shown to possess and use the same telekinetic/mind control powers as her uncle, The Hood.

Uniforms: International Rescue uniforms are completely different in the film than the TV series, although they are colour-coded like those in the show. Also, there are no hats, although an ice cream seller (a cameo by the film's visual effects supervisor, Mark Nelmes) can be briefly seen to be wearing a white version of the original TV series hat in the sequence where Thunderbird 2 lands in London. Jonathan Frakes confirms in the DVD commentary that this was a deliberate reference.

This footage was originally part of the sequence in the film where FAB1 approaches Tracy Island by sea. This scene originally concluded with The Hood firing a missile and destroying the car, forcing Lady Penelope and Parker to make the rest of the journey in the pedalo, but this was cut, and the pedalo footage moved to the end of the film.

Simple answer: because Ford paid a lot of money for them to be there! The company struck a product placement deal with the filmmakers, which included Lady Penelope's car, FAB 1, being a modified Ford Thunderbird as opposed to the original series' Rolls Royce, though this was as much the fault of the marque holder, BMW, not allowing it to be used. The placement of Ford vehicles throughout the film is so blatant and almost absurdly extensive that director Jonathan Frakes even suggests on his DVD commentary that it is detrimental to the film as a whole. He has a point.