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Alan Tracy is one of the lead characters from the 1960s sci-fi TV show Thunderbirds, the main protagonist of its panned 2004 live-action film adaptation, and one of the lead characters of the 2015 CGI remake series. He is the pilot of Thunderbird 3, and astronaut for International Rescue.
In the original series, he is voiced by the late Matt Zimmerman (except for his single line in the pilot episode, Trapped in the Sky, where he is voiced by the late Ray Barrett, who voiced John Tracy in the series). In the 2004 film, he is played by Brady Corbet. In the 2015 series, he is voiced by Rasmus Hardiker, who also voices Scott Tracy.
Biography (original series)[]
Alan was named by his parents after Mercury 7 astronaut Alan B. Shephard. He was educated at Colorado University and while being involved in an experimental rocket project, Alan was involved in a near-catastrophic accident, resulting in an unexpected disaster. Despite this accident, he went on several lunar missions.
With a love of speed reflected in being an avid motor racer, he making a champion racing-car driver before piloting International Rescue's Thunderbird 3.
For sport, Alan enjoys rock climbing and running, as reinforced in his enthusiasm in exploring Tracy Island's more inaccessible parts, which is his constant source of adrenalin-inducing activity. He has a close bond with Tin-Tin which started at an early age; the episode "End of the Road" establishes that they are a couple.
Thunderbirds 2004 film[]
On the last day of school, Alan was caught drawing Thunderbird craft in his exercise book. His teacher was not thrilled by the artistic talent, insisting he focus more on a 10,000 word essay to be completed by his return from spring break. As he and Fermat discussed his desire to be a Thunderbird, a live news report caught their attention. International Rescue were on the scene of a Russian oil rig fire. While the rescue went underway, Alan whispered each move that his family should make to save the workers. His theories were proven correct, and the mission was a success.
Afterwards, much to Alan's surprise, Lady Penelope and Parker flew him home in FAB 1, alongside an escort of Thunderbirds 1 and 2. Upon returning to Tracy Island, Jeff and Tin-Tin warmly welcomed him, but his older brothers were more interested in bantering him loudly and bragging about their latest rescue mission.
Alan and Fermat then snuck into Thunderbird 1 and attempted to launch it, but they forgot to set up Tracy Island's cloaking device, thus angering Jeff. He and Alan then got into a big argument, where the latter got grounded for spring break. Alan then spent a lot of his time following this skimming stones. Soon, his resentment at not being a Thunderbird grew even greater, as International Rescue's longtime archenemy, the Hood, crippled International Rescue by wrecking Thunderbird 5 with a missile, nearly killing John. Jeff, Scott, Virgil and Gordon immediately blasted off in Thunderbird 3 to aid John, leaving Alan, Fermat, Tin-Tin, Brains, Kyrano and Onaha behind. Soon after, the Hood and his men made landfall on Tracy Island, which prompted Alan to whine about his mishap with Thunderbird 1.
After the Hood took control of the Island, he revealed why he had come here: during of International Rescue's early missions, they were called to the Hood's illegal diamond mines. Jeff, who led the mission, managed to save the Hood's benevolent, peace-loving half-brother Kyrano (Tin-Tin's father), but did not save the Hood, leaving Alan shocked that his father would do such a thing. The Hood now seeks his revenge on the Tracy family, by stealing International Rescue's technology and using it to rob the ten largest banks in the world, framing International Rescue for the inevitable collapse of the world's monetary system. Putting aside the chip on his shoulder, Alan decided to fight back, and roped Tin-Tin and Kyrano into helping him. The Hood sent Mullion and his men after them, after they were discovered in Thunderbird 2's hangar. Tin-Tin and Fermat took control of the firefighting tank-bulldozer hybrid Firefly to distract the pursuers, using flame-retardant foam, whilst Alan used the Thunderiser to cut a hole in the hangar wall. At this time, the Hood cornered them, and goaded Alan into attacking him, and tried to play on Alan's broken faith in his father, arguing that Jeff had founded the Thunderbirds after his wife (the mother of Alan and his brothers) had died in an avalanche, when Alan was very small. But Alan used his stone skimmer to trigger Thunderbird 1's launch exhaust tunnels to open, sending him and his friends away from the villain, whose efforts to kill them by using Thunderbird 1's afterburners failed.
Alan led Fermat and Tin-Tin in fighting the Hood off, even as the villain severed Thunderbird 5's life support and power, and crippled the organisation. After Fermat and Tin-Tin were recaptured, along with the recently-arrived Lady Penelope and Parker, Alan discovered the Hood's weakness: his mystical powers caused him harm, if used over a long period of time. However, the Hood knew that Alan had something he wanted: Thunderbird 2's guidance chip (which Fermat had previously removed to stop the Hood's plan), and tortured Lady Penelope until he surrendered it. With the final opposition on the Island neutralised, the Hood ordered them all locked up in the villa's deep freeze, while his plan proceeded. But Parker broke the freezer open, letting everybody out.
Eventually, Alan managed to help revive his father and elder brothers from certain death, and begged Jeff to let him go after the Hood, with the help of Fermat and Tin-Tin. With no other options, Jeff agreed to this, especially after learning that Thunderbird 3 had suffered engine damage and would not be able to go after the Hood in time. Alan, Fermat, Tin-Tin and Lady Penelope launched Thunderbird 1 to go after the Hood, while Alan's brothers and Jeff abandoned Thunderbird 5, returning to Earth slowly. Upon arrival, the teenagers took Thunderbird 2 in the air, only to discover that the Hood (using the Mole tunnelling machine to break into the Bank of London's underground vaults) had caused a breakdown of the Thames monorail system, with the rail breaking and one of the cars falling into the river.
Horrified, Alan realised he had to go after the sunken train, and broke off his pursuit of the Hood to use Thunderbird 4 to save the stricken car. The submarine was launched, but Alan needed something more precise to save the train. Tin-Tin jumped into the river, and fastened Thunderbird 2's rescue cable to the train's rail connector, allowing Fermat (piloting Thunderbird 2) to help Alan lift the train above the surface. Little did the teenagers know that Jeff, Scott, John, Virgil and Gordon had watched the whole thing, and cheered. Jeff then sent his older sons to tie up everything at the rescue, while he would go after the Hood. But Alan wanted to know about whether the Hood was telling the truth. Aboard Thunderbird 1, Jeff sadly revealed to his son that the Hood had, in fact, told the truth, but only half of it; at the time, Jeff tried, but could not see any way to save the Hood, without losing his own life. In Jeff's pained words, "you just can't save everyone", "it doesn't matter if it's someone you'd give your life in a second to save."
In the bank, the Hood ordered his underlings to kill father and son, and his friends, but they fought back, neutralising the Hood's assistants. However, the Hood trapped Jeff and Lady Penelope in a vault, and started up the Mole's drilling mechanisms, as well as using his powers to strangle Alan. Tin-Tin showed herself to have the same powers as her evil uncle, and weakened him. Alan went after the Hood again, on a bridge over the Mole, but the bridge collapsed. The Hood taunted Alan to let him fall into the drill to certain death, but Alan, his faith in his father renewed, saved the villain's life, allowing the Metropolitan Police to arrest him and his underlings.
At the end of the film, Jeff finally granted Alan his wish to be recognised as a Thunderbird pilot, by giving him an International Rescue badge. Soon after, Alan was sent on his first official rescue with his brothers, with a very proud Jeff sending them off.
Thunderbirds Are Go![]
Like previous series, Alan is still pilot of Thunderbird 3 and similar to his 2004 counterpart, he is once again a teenager and is sometimes treated like a kid by his brothers. On some occasions, Alan is joined on board Thunderbird 3 by Kayo (the series's counterpart of Tin-Tin). Alan's equipment includes a space-ready surfboard which lets him get closer to things such as the Sat-Mine machine in episode 3 "Space Race". Alan's immaturity is shown by his near-constant need to play some sort of zombie apocalypse computer game (Shown in the episode Slingshot) in Thunderbird 3, and a constant addiction to sleep. However, he is still attracted to Kayo, as always.
Personality in the original[]
Alan is caring and deeply romantic and though the youngest of his brothers, displays a great maturity in his responsibly to the organisation. He likes running and is a practical joker (probably taking after Gordon). He also likes exploring the rocks and potholes located in inaccessible points of Tracy Island.
He is also in love with Tin-Tin Kyrano, though he might also have a crush on Lady Penelope, as seen in both the episode The Perils of Penelope and the movie Thunderbirds Are GO.
Personality in the TV remake[]
Alan Tracy has very inactive interests, such as video games, sunbathing, and simply sleeping. He also gets incredibly bored when he needs to do chores or training instead, and prefers to fall asleep on the couch or on his bedroom rug, without even bothering to reach his bed. All of this laziness completely disappears and is replaced with pure bouncing energy once he is greeted by a rescue mission requiring him. He takes a lot of pride in his work as a heroic astronaut, and he loves it to the point where he'll get up and cheer when a disaster occurs in space, although he realises people could've died in it.
Alan is quiet the lover of action and is insanely brave, especially for his age. He has been shown to be worried during rescue missions at times, but he only lets this anxiety show around Kayo. The thought of crashing into the sun only made him say "This is kinda bad!" in Slingshot, and he didn't seem at all too stressed about taking a complete and utter guess as to what the last digit of the password to deactivate a nuclear stealth mine might be in Space Race, despite the fact that a wrong guess would detonate the mine and kill him. He explains to a stressed Scott in Comet Chasers that he relaxes and doesn't think, "I just watch... and do!" Overall, he seems more worried about eating Grandma's cookies than he does about staring death in the face, despite his love and admiration for his family and his desire to make them happy and proud.
Although he certainly knows his stuff when it comes to a space mission in Thunderbird 3, and of the wondrous objects from space such as Halley's Comet, Alan seems to lack general knowledge even for a teenager, believing there might be trees in Antarctica. Alan is casual, chilled out, a little silly, and he can get very sarcastic like in Space Race too, "Oh, everything's just peachy here, John! Yup, I'm getting chased by a nuclear bomb! How are you!?" But he can act seriously and dominantly around rescue victims, and shown with his interactions with the paranoid and uncooperative Ned Tedford in Slingshot. He was also shown to have a bit of a crush on Kayo in earlier episodes, which is revealed to be mutual in Home on the Range.
Gallery[]
