Nightmare Fuel / Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds may not be as dark as Captain Scarlet but there are still moments in this show that may frighten viewers.

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• The Hood's eyes glow yellow whenever he uses his psychic powers or just when he's really happy about something. It's more than just surreal, it's terrifying.
  • His hypnosis is even scarier when combined with his scuba equipment in Desperate Intruder and the close-up of his face on Mr. Williams' TV monitor in Cry Wolf.
  • Not to mention some of his disguises, regardless of whether he's wearing them or discarding them.
• Trapped in the Sky, the pilot episode has a few.
  • We are introduced us to the Hood and his Psychic Powers, accompanied by his Glowing Eyes of Doom. At least a hundred miles away, his half-brother, Kyrano collapses and starts screaming, and writhing on the ground and is forced to give up vital information. It's pretty clear that he isn't feeling too good. Later, it's shown that Kyrano can't remember collapsing very well, meaning we're going to see him suffer again.
  • The fact the Hood was willing to risk the lives of over 600 people just to get International Rescue's attention. How does he do this? Bomb in a plane. Yeah, this plot wouldn't fly today.
  • How close the mission came to disaster. Virgil's Master Control Car goes out of control and crashes. The plane nearly doesn't make it either; the Fireflash was running out of runway and that the bomb was really close to going off. Thank goodness that Virgil is an artist, as it is doubtful anyone else's hands would be steady enough to control the elevator cars while crashing.
• Pit of Peril has a Walking Tank fall down a flaming sinkhole. The fact that these exist is one too.
  • While the two guys are balls of steel brave for even attempting, the Convection, Schmonvection trope wears off and the soldiers have to be pulled out but are burnt really badly.
    • The first soldier, Lieutenant Mead, ends up with his whole face and hands covered in bandages. As the following link attests,(https://securityhazard.net/2016/09/02/thunderbirds-2-pit-of-peril/) even Captain Scarlet never portrays injuries as bad as this on screen. We never see the extent of Sgt. Reynolds' injuries but one dreads to think if Mead's were anything to go by and one can only imagine what would have happened to Ralph if he had attempted to make a 2nd attempt at attaching a line to the Sidewinder as he was tempted to do until an outburst from General Peters inspired him to call International Rescue.
• Terror in New York City also has a plot that wouldn't be allowed on television today either. A landmark New York City building falling down, causing Monumental Damage.
  • While you could argue it’s I.R.’s secrecy that played a part in the incident, the crew of the Sentinel breached procedure and shot at Thunderbird 2 without even looking out out of the window. They do realise who they were shooting at, but at this point, it’s too late. While it is just the fourth episode, seeing Thunderbird 2 go down is gut-wrenching.
  • Ned Cook and his cameraman's position, filled in an air pocket that will be underwater. It won't be the last time we see something like this either.

• Desperate Intruder showed us what the Hood is capable of. Sure, we know he nearly had around 600 people killed in the first episode, but his actions here are unsettling.
  • Breaking into the camp's trailers undetected wasn't scary enough? Hypontising everyone into an unresponsive trance that makes you jump to the conclusion they dropped dead like that.
  • Then there's his interrogation of Brains. The Hood buries him up to his neck in sand in a desert where the temperature reaches up to 112 in the shade. Brains can't even focus on the Hood's questions, and just begs for water. Worse, the Hood put him in clear view of the lake. The marionettes team also did a good job of making Brains look convincingly dehydrated. A little later, it looks like Brains had two black eyes, did the Hood kick him off-screen?
  • Brains' attempt at making things right results in him getting hypnotised by the Hood again. The Hood just leaves Brains there until his air runs out. You wanted water? There you go!
  • The Hood sets off explosions in the temple that buries Brains under some stone. Considering Brains and Tin-Tin looked like they had rebreathers, so when Gordon sees bubbles coming up from under the rubble, it may mean that Brain's gear got damaged.
• Danger at Ocean Deep has some pretty tense moments.
  • The first Ocean Pioneer's fate. She heads into an area full of eerie fog, then the water starts looking like it's boiling, then the ship explodes.
  • The last ten minutes; Scott and John are risking their lives on a ship that will blow up at any second, in the middle of ghastly, thick fog....and then the water around the vessel starts bubbling and heaving. Lesson learned; don't dump dog food into the sea.
    • What's even more scarier is the the water, when bubbling and heaving, almost looks like it's shaping a monster.
    • If the fog doesn't scare you enough, then imagine what would happen if anyone was sailing out there alone when it appeared.
• The climax of Sun Probe could count due to how Thunderbird 3 is on a collision course with the sun and Alan, Scott and Tin-Tin slowly succumbing to the heat and being unable to do anything to stop Thunderbird 3.
• A segment of the "Vault Of Death" score can pretty unsettling, going from quiet to loud and back again, before building up to a loud Last Note Nightmare. The contrast in volume especially dramatic when the score accompanies a scene where an explosive is about to blow open a bank door in said episode. This musical segment is also used in City Of Fire, The Mighty Atom, Brink Of Disaster, Cry Wolf, Danger At Ocean Deep and Path Of Destruction. Give Or Take A Million edits out the dramatic parts at least.
• The rock snakes of Mars in the Thunderbirds Are Go feature film will give you nightmares, especially thanks to the music playing. Just listen.
• Some of the "laughing marionette heads" in the opening scene of Thunderbird 6 could also count...