Which James Bond film was the first to be shot partly in the Bahamas?

Thunderball was the first James Bond film to be shot partly in the Bahamas.

Released in 1965, Thunderball used Nassau and other Bahamian locations for major underwater and surface sequences. The setting was central to the story because Bond investigates the theft of two nuclear weapons and the scheme’s connection to criminal organization SPECTRE.

The film’s underwater photography was unusually ambitious for its era. Large portions of the climactic battle were filmed beneath the sea, with divers staging the conflict around the stolen warheads. The Bahamas provided clear water and tropical scenery that became closely associated with the film’s visual identity.

Thunderball was adapted from Ian Fleming’s 1961 novel and became one of the highest-grossing films of the 1960s. A later Bond production, Never Say Never Again, also used the Bahamas, but that film was a separate non-Eon production.