Continuity mistake: There is a shot from behind a video camera, showing a wire or cable coming out of the back of the video camera, however, in all subsequent shots the wire/cable is not present. (00:00:50)
Factual error: Both the Duke Class Frigates fire cruise missiles from the tubes. The tubes on the duke are purely for harpoon missiles and cannot be reloaded. Nothing in the missile room is actually used in the navy. (00:03:00)
Continuity mistake: Near the beginning when Bond causes mayhem, he sticks a grenade onto a moving vehicle and dives off it. As he jumps off and attacks a bad guy his collar is up (to better hide the face of the stuntman), then when it cuts back to a proper shot of him his collar's suddenly down. (00:04:50)
Continuity mistake: When Bond knocks out the MiG's copilot with the helmet, in the shot from behind the pilot (where Bond is quite obviously Pierce Brosnan) he is seen with a Beretta 92FS. However in the shot from behind Bond (now stuntman Wayne Michaels), the gun the copilot drops is now a Browning BDA. (00:05:30)
Factual error: At the start, when the two L-39 'Albatros' jet aircraft are approaching head-on towards each other on the runway, Bond throttles his engine to afterburner. The real L-39 is a subsonic aircraft and does not have an afterburner. (00:07:26)
Continuity mistake: In the pre-credits plane chase scene the aircraft behind Bond's fires two missiles. Bond avoids the missiles and they strike the side of the mountain, exploding in a huge ball of flame and smoke. The pilot chasing Bond pulls up quickly, almost crashing into the mountain and passing through the cloud of smoke from the missiles. The camera angle cuts immediately to an overhead shot and it is completely clear around the jet; the smoke cloud from the missiles has disappeared. (00:08:35)
Continuity mistake: Carver is typing headlines for a story on the deaths of the British soldiers. In one shot, he types "killed" onto the large screen. In the immediately following shot, a reflection in his glasses shows the same word being typed again. (00:18:25)
Continuity mistake: When Bond is in bed with the translator just after the title sequence, the position of the sheet of her back changes between shots. Note the gap between James' hand and the sheet. (00:21:40)
Continuity mistake: James and M are travelling in the motorcade. The privacy barrier is lowered to reveal that Moneypenny is in the front-passenger seat. The shot changes to an exterior shot of the limousine. You can clearly see the privacy divider rising during this shot. The shot returns to the interior of the limousine for more dialog. Then the shot returns to Moneypenny for her to say that James will have to decide how much "Pumping" is required. Once again you can see the privacy divider rise. (00:26:59)
Visible crew/equipment: When Q is showing the new BMW to Bond, Bond takes it for a spin via the remote. As it heads back to Bond and Q, you can see a driver as it passes the helicopter. (00:30:21)
Continuity mistake: Bond is led into the soundproof room and the one guard closes the door. Bond is then hit, and we see the door close again. (00:36:10)
Factual error: The scene during Carver's big speech in Hamburg. Bond is being beaten up by 3 German guys in a small room away from Carver. One of the guys throws bond through the glass window separating it from the next room alone. This glass is extra tough given that it is, according to one of the security guards, completely soundproofed. As Bond is thrown through the window, the glass shatters smoothly. If you watch, in a smooth rippling affect from top to bottom the glass falls away - it is evidently not glass here. Glass would not shatter in a neat line, and would leave shards in the window frame. (00:36:15)
Continuity mistake: In the car chase in Hamburg, when Bond is in the back seat remotely driving the car, the car does a U-turn into another lane. After the car says "Reduce speed - pedestrians in roadway" there is a shot of the car's dashboard from inside the car, with the car travelling straight forward. The steering wheel, however, is tilted to the right, even though 1) The car is travelling straight and 2) The car had just made a LEFT turn. (00:57:30)
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene when James Bond is trying to escape while driving his BMW from the back seat with a remote control, there is a 1-2 second shot where you can very clearly see a stunt man sitting in the front seat driving and then the shot returns to James in the back seat. (01:00:18)
Factual error: To know this you have to live in Hamburg, Germany : The hotel park deck Bond's BMW is chased on is on the left side of the big shopping street. But his jump across this street is from the right to the left. (01:00:35)
Deliberate mistake: This mistake/trick was revealed in the second DVD commentary on the film. When Bond is underwater in the ship with the flare, this flare does not behave realistically. If they had used real flares, it would have put too much smoke and dirt in the water and quickly made it too murky to see or film through. So the flare used was a special effects prop of a bright light with bubbles being fed through it to give a good effect, but is not how a real flare would be under water. (01:08:25)
Continuity mistake: When Carver has Bond and Wai Lin in his new building after capture, he is writing their obituaries as he narrates it. The camera zooms slowly closer to Bond and Lin before cutting to a close up of Lin. Suddenly, her mouth is shut when it was partly open before, and her hair is in a slightly different position. (01:13:34)
Revealing mistake: During the motorbike chase in Saigon, Pierce Brosnan's stunt is noticeable in many wide shots because of his hairstyle and receding hairline. (01:18:54)
Other mistake: When Wai Lin lets go of the handcuff after handcuffing Bond to the water pipe you can see the handcuff accidentally come open. It was obviously never locked even though they added the sound of it clicking locked. (01:21:15)
Visible crew/equipment: When Bond and Lin are being chased on the bike in Ho Chi Minh City, before they have the final encounter with the helicopter. You see a few frames of the backside scaffolding of the city street set, constructed on the back lot of Pinewood Studios. (01:23:20)
Chosen answer: According to the script, the other jet is hit by the two heat-seeking missiles it had previously fired, although that's not very clear in the film and it looks like it explodes when hit by the co-pilot.
Sierra1 ★