Criminal mastermind Blofeld is reminiscent of the coldly calculating crime lord Dr. Moriarty of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Both regard murder as merely a tactic in their contests against the forces of good; both lead international criminal organizations; and both are terrorists.

Almost from the moment of the detonations of atomic bombs on Japan, nuclear weapons became an important theme in popular literature. Science fiction authors in particular made stories about the aftermath of nuclear war a commonplace of fiction in the 1950s.

In 1957, English novelist Nevil Shute, then living in Australia, published On the Beach ; it was an international sensation. Like Thunderball, it capitalized on the public's fears about nuclear weapons — this time by speculating on the potential effects of nuclear war.

However, the focus on the use of nuclear weapons by terrorists was unusual when Thunderball was published.