The Sci-Fi Box Office Flop That Derailed The Career Of Star Trek's Jonathan Frakes

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Jonathan Frakes' 2004 kid-friendly sci-fi flick "Thunderbirds" had everything going for it. It was based on the cult Supermarionation series "Thunderbirds," created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson in 1964, a puppet-based adventure show that had a notable cult following among Gen-X TV addicts. The movie also leaned really hard into the show's colorful vehicle fetish, spending a lot of time looking at the five giant Thunderbirds rescue craft, all but assuring little kids would want toy versions of each. "Thunderbirds" also sported a notable cast, with Bill Paxton as the patriarch of the Tracy family, Anthony Edwards as the bookish tech guru Brain, and Ben Kingsley as dark-eyed villain Hood. Then-teen-star Vanessa Hudgens had a bit part as the girl Alan Tracy (Brady Corbet) had a crush on. 

The premise of "Thunderbirds" is pure Saturday morning: on a remote Tropical island, the Tracy family operates a freelance rescue organization called International Rescue. Both the members of IR and their fantastical vehicles have been nicknamed Thunderbirds by the public, and each one of the five Thunderbirds vehicles serves a different function. One is fast, Two can carry cargo, etc. Five is a satellite that monitors disasters. The appeal of the original show was, of course, its cast of puppets, so the 2004 film adaptation was something of an experiment. Would a new generation of kids come to see a "Thunderbirds" film that starred live-action actors? 

As it turns out, they didn't. Despite a whimsical, childlike premise, a bright color palette, a good cast, and fun spacecraft, no one bothered to come. On a $57 million budget, "Thunderbirds" only netted $28.3 at the box office. It was also panned by critics, sporting a 19% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

When "Thunderbirds" tanked, Frakes knew his Hollywood career was pretty much over. He talked about his brief feature directorial career in a 2019 interview with Vulture. 

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Frakes hadn't tried his hand at directing until his days on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in the early 1990s. The actor reportedly pestered the show's executive producer about the possibility of directing an episode, and after a directorial crash course, Frakes was allowed to take the job. He would go on to direct multiple episodes of the show, and spin off his experience into a prolific TV directing career that lasts to this day. His experience also got him the job of directing the feature films "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Star Trek: Insurrection" in 1996 and 1998, so he was able to jump to films without issues. 

In 2002, Frakes also made the modest time-manipulating adventure "Clockstoppers," and that film earned back its modest budget. That was a test to see if Frakes could break out of "Star Trek," and it seemed like he could. 

"Thunderbirds" was, as far as Frakes was concerned, a dream gig. He recalled the early days of the project, saying:  

"The first three movies I had done had made money. Then I had an agent who was pushing me for jobs. So I met on 'Thunderbirds,' and they said, 'You have to move to London.' I talked to my wife Genie. We had two babies. But she said she would quit her job and move to London with me, so I took the job, and we moved to London. It was an incredible place to live. I was working at Pinewood Studios. It was like a dream. I was living a f***ing dream. It was a huge movie. Sir Ben Kingsley was in the movie. Bill Paxton was in the movie."

The studio, he said, was so confident that "Thunderbirds" would be a hit that they moved its opening to the middle of the summer of 2002. Opposite "Spider-Man 2" and "Shrek 2." What happened next might have been predicted.

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Frakes noted that Brady Corbet was miscast. He liked Corbet as an actor, but it seems he didn't want to be an action star. Given that Corbet would go on to direct films like "Vox Lux" and "The Brutalist," one can see that clearly now. Frakes also said that "Thunderbirds" wasn't the type of giant fantasy spectacular that could compete with "Spider-Man 2," and people stayed away in droves. "'Thunderbirds' put me in movie jail," he said. 

The failure of "Thunderbirds" forced Frakes to completely rework his own life. He had rented his Los Angeles home, was living in London, and his kids were in London schools. He and his family ended up having to sell a lot of their possessions and move to Maine where his wife opened a store. Movie jail, he says, is not a fun place to be. He described his career in 2004 thus: 

"No one will return your calls. On television, you can take a s*** and nobody notices who directed it. But in movies, because historically the Orson Welleses and the Spielbergs and Capras made the movies, that reputation, that mantel, is part of the deal. With that comes the responsibility and privilege of success. Joy goes with that. And therefore, failure. When a movie fails as significantly as 'Thunderbirds' did, my name was taken off the lists. Literally. I went from 60 to zero. It was a wake-up for me. I had been so positive, and so blessed, and so fortunate."

Frakes hasn't directed a feature film in the last 20 years, sticking mostly to TV where he helmed more "Star Trek," many episodes of "The Librarians," and multiple others. These days, people can hardly remember the "Thunderbirds" movie, but it was still a big enough failure to keep Frakes in metaphorical prison. Time will tell if Frakes will ever get out ... or if he even wants to anymore. TV has been good to him.