The World is Not Enough (1999) - 98 mistakes

Continuity: Just after Bond and Christmas Jones climb out of the pipe, Bond is holding his shoulder and his blazer sleeves are up. In the next shot, his arms are by his side and his blazer is all neat.

Continuity: When James is chasing the other boat in the beginning, he fires the top torpedo first. Then when they show him fire the second torpedo, the bottom hole is empty, and he fires the same torpedo (the one on top) again...

Factual error: Bilbao is in the Basque Country, which has its own police force, the Ertzaintza, that is independent from the Spanish National Police. When the police burst into the Swiss banker's flat, it is the Ertzaintza who enters, with their traditional red caps. However, when Bond is walking away, the police cars that are going towards the crime scene belong to the Spanish National Police, which has no jurisdiction in the Basque Country.

Factual error: At the beginning of the film, with the boat chase down the River Thames, Bond manages to get from the Vauxhall HQ of MI6 to Docklands in a remarkably short time. To travel the distance in the time that it takes him you would need to be going at about 700 mph.

Revealing: When Bond is going to the Swiss banker's flat in Bilbao at the beginning of the film, there is a scene where, in the background, you can clearly see people watching the filming.

Factual error: In the boat scene at the beginning, the route is completely impossible. James Bond drives out from several dead ends.

Audio problem: When Bond arrives at the King Industries place where he meets Elektra King, watch the man he talks to when he gets out of his car. It is painfully obvious that the man's mouth is not in sync with what he is saying. Even worse, the voice is not even his. It is slightly higher-pitched than the man's real voice when he finally talks right.

Continuity: In the Caviar Factory scene, Bond is shooting at some enemies with a pistol. It cuts to a shot of Christmas and Valentin, then back to Bond. Now he has a submachine gun. Then in another shot, he is back to his pistol again.

Continuity: When Bond is sitting in the torture chair, and his right hand becomes free, you see him release his neck restraint, but never his left arm as he jumps from the chair.

Continuity: We know Renard heard Electra speaking over the walkie-talkie, saying "Renard, dive, Bond is..." before she is shot, as he instantly orders the sub to dive, but he seems shocked later to learn she is dead. As well as this, he would have heard Bond's gun going off.

Visible crew/equipment: Watch for the boom when the cigar girl's Volvo boat swipes the building (it's on the top left of the screen on the widescreen version).

Factual error: In the final battle, Bond shoots up the dive controls of the submarine and it dives straight into the bottom of the Bosporus. The sub is said to be a Victor-III that is about 100 meters long. The Bosporus around Istanbul, however, is only about 50 meters deep so the rest of the sub would have stuck out of the water.

Factual error: Submarines would have absolutely no reason to maintain a fuel rod making shop on board, nor is there any way of changing fuel rods without the services of a dry-dock.

Continuity: When Bond is with Electra, before he goes skiing (in the little room looking at the pipelines), he has at least one button done up on his jacket, then when he walks out to go skiing you see that they are all undone.

Continuity: During the speed boat and Bond boat chase in the beginning Bond's hair can be seen going from wet, to dry and neatly done, then back to wet a few times.

Revealing: After Bond jumps out of the window grabbing a strap, when he is hanging loose you can notice the cable holding him parallel to the body, pointing towards the sky. The strap is diagonally placed pointing towards the building.

Continuity: When Valentin first falls into his Caviar it's very thick. In following shots the consistency changes to being much more watery.

Continuity: At the beginning when Bond jumps into the speed boat to chase after the assassin, he's not wearing a helmet. But when the speed boat hits the bigger one and rolls in the air, you can clearly see the driver with a helmet on.

Revealing: After Renard has been hit with the rod at the end, he falls and as he lands the rod shakes, revealing that it is in fact light and hollow.

Continuity: When Bond and Christmas surface, after escaping the submarine, there are no bubbles at all around them, which is impossible since we've just seen the submarine explode, releasing loads of gas.

Revealing: During the pursuit scene on the Thames, there is nobody in the boat during one shot, when it breaks the fence.

Continuity: When Bond is under attack at the caviar factory the first time a bridge is blown up he falls backwards twice (in two different shots).

Plot hole: In the Banker's Office, Bond takes the strap from one of the window blinds to facilitate his escape. Overlooking the large quantity of cable he ties round the belt of the villain and his own belt, there must be an awful lot of strap for one blind to allow him to drop from that high up to the ground (well over 50ft?).

Continuity: Pierce Brosnan's hair fluctuates in length noticeably throughout the film, most noticeably between walking down the path at King's funeral and moments later at the debrief at the MI6 Scottish Headquarters.

Continuity: In the opening scene in the bankers office, the henchman comes in and places the suitcase on the desk and opens it so Bond can check the cash inside. Minutes later when Bond makes his escape out the window, the suitcase is on the floor, locked - very convenient.

Continuity: Why does the engine of that flying snow-thing falter when Bond rips the para-sail?

Continuity: Throughout the whole boat scene, Bond's little speedboat has a roof on it, but, when he goes up the ramp to jump onto the hot air balloon, the roof is gone so he can jump out. When did it come off?

Revealing: During the gun battle after Renard escapes the bunker, someone gets shot, and you see the stunt bloke dive to the floor and scream even though the gun wasn't even pointed at him or any bullets fired. He's the one standing just to the right of the jeep as we look at it.

Revealing: In the Thames River chase at the beginning of the film, Bond's boat goes off the back of the yacht as though the yacht were a launch ramp. As Bond turns over in air it will show the flip from two angles; in the second angle you can easily see without slow-mo that 007 is wearing a helmet.

Continuity: At the end of the pursuit on the Thames, when Bond's boat arrives at the Millenium Dome, his boat flies and then hits the ground. In the next shot, it is still in the air and goes at a high speed.

Continuity: In the ski-scene, Bond and Elektra start well above the tree line. Even when they stop to look at a stretch of the pipeline they are obviously high above the treeline. At the instant the motorgliders appear they are well below the treeline.

Revealing: When James Bond is on the run from the helicopter in the caviar factory, he backs into a metal pipe, holding his Walther P909 just above his head. Yet, if you watch the pipe you can see that it is a prop, as the pipe wobbles when Bond backs into it.

Revealing: In Kazakhstan, when Bond shoots at Renard, the bullet takes too long to go from his gun to the bullet-proof window.

Factual error: In the scene where James is being told why Robert Carlisle's character is so deadly (no pain etc.), they mention a specific part of the brain - Medulla Oblongata, which the character has a bullet travelling through. This is part of the brain is responsible for control of breathing and the heart - you can't survive a bullet there...

Factual error: Bond fires two torpedoes against the other speed boat on the Thames. They both hit, but in the next clip only the rear end of the boat is burning slightly. That must be some very weak torpedoes if a fiberglass boat is not completely destroyed by them.

Factual error: When Bond and Christmas are inside the oil pipeline there are lights in the 'ceiling'. Why would there be lights inside an oil pipe? It also sounds dangerous.

Other: When the hole is blown in the facade of the MI6 headquarter we first see flames and small debris - and then comes one more blast. Where did that come from? The money-bomb had already exploded and blown the hole in the building.

Character mistake: The Swiss banker says he delivers the money less a small amount to cover expenses. Then - if Bond knew what exchange rate to use - the GBP amount would convert to less than USD 5 million.

Continuity: In the opening scene, Bond's grip on the banker changes between shots. When seen from Bond's side, he holds him both by the tie and part of his jacket, but when seen from the banker's side he only holds the tie.

Continuity: When in the monastery in Azerbaijan the position of Electra's scarf and hair changes between shots.

Deliberate "mistake": The currency conversion program Bond uses to convert GBP into USD only has fields for a 7 figure amount. That's rather small for an organisation like MI6.

Revealing: When Bond escapes the Swiss bank through the window with the very large suitcase supposedly full of money (paper), he swings it around like it's empty (which it probably was).

Visible crew/equipment: In the end of the boat chase, when Cigar Girl tries to shoot Bond, you can see that it's not Brosnan who is holding the rope; it's a stuntman.

Revealing: When Bond is traveling to meet Elektra for the first time in Baku he sees a King helicopter cutting the trees. You can see that the person inside is a dummy.

Continuity: In the nuclear decommissioning facility, when the Colonel, the soldier and Dr. Jones come down, the soldier hands the Colonel an AKS-74. However, when Renard shoves the picture of Dr. Arkov in the Colonel's chest, he doesn't have the AKS anymore, we can see he's not holding it because the Colonel holds the picture with two hands. After Renard grasps Bond's shoulder and walks back, he says "Without further interruptions" you can see another soldier holding the AKS-74. The Colonel is holding a Makarov when he orders the terrorists back to the surface.

Audio problem: In the village in Azerbaijan, Bond tells Elektra she might be in danger and she laughs, telling him "I have something I want to show you" as she walks away in a long-shot. It's obvious this line was dubbed in during post-production - there's a very sudden, very noticeable drop in background noise and her mouth (although it's hard to tell from a distance) doesn't seem to move with the words.

Continuity: In the scene where the doctor is telling the staff of MI6 about Renard, she says the bullet is moving through the medulla oblongata which is located in the neck below the left ear. However, Renard was shot in the head above his left eyebrow, and in the hologram, it shows the bullet was moving straight into the middle of his brain.

Continuity: In the casino, Bond disables and disarms the guy who attacks him. Problem is, the guy has another gun on him, which Bond (and the audience) saw earlier when he looked at the guy with his x-ray glasses. Where did it disappear to? Or did Bond forget about it?

Continuity: When James Bond attacks the man at the casino bar, he stabs his tie on the board. There's a shot where you can see the knife stuck in the board, but the tie has disappeared.

Revealing: When Bond is talking with Zuckovsky in the casino, you can see a television set behind them with images from a security camera. You can tell it's the same footage used in the shot before showing people in the casino, only played again on the television.

Continuity: When Bond first hits the water at the beginning of the Thames chase, the sky is very cloudy. A few shots later, in the overhead shot, it's blue skies and sunshine.

Revealing: In the mountains, when the two parahawks collide, they go at a certain speed but the shot later, they are only stuck together.

Factual error: King can't be a terribly good engineer. He's built his oil pipeline over a glacier. Glaciers flow. The pipeline would break within a year.

Factual error: When Bond begins the boat chase, they are travelling east to west along the Thames (evident from the placement of the Houses of Parliament). However, Bond travels west to east along the roads to reach the Dome (you can see this on his radar).

Continuity: In Zuckovsky's casino, the barman is not visible in one shot when James Bond is disarming the guard.

Continuity: During the pursuit on the Thames, the Millennium Dome is near to the river but when Bond looks at the GPS screen, the building is not so close.

Continuity: In the scene of the boat chase, Bond smashes the machine gun holder, and some parts fall on to the Cigar Girl. When the camera goes back to the girl there are no parts on her.

Revealing: Right at the beginning of the boat chase when Bond drives the boat through the waterway in MI6, before he jumps the boat into the river, there is a shot roughly from Q's POV, the boat clearly slows right down before it reaches the end. It couldn't fly as far through the air as shown.

Revealing: Near the end of the movie where Renard and Bond are going at it, Bond is choking Renard and vice versa. You can clearly see Bond's thumbs aren't even touching Renard's neck.

Continuity: In the warehouse sequence Bond is taking cover from gun fire and yells to Zukovsky and Christmas "Get Out!" while holding his Wolfram P2K. A helicopter cuts though the building his in and he drops down to protect himself (he's in the same place) and he's holding another gun (possibly a Meyer TMP). Then a couple of scenes later 007 drops down on two bad guys and shoots them with his P2K.

Factual error: When Bond and Denise Richard's character are on the rig in the pipeline, they are travelling at 70 mph. When they jump off the rig into the pipe, they roll head-over-heels; however, doing that at 70 mph would certainly break your neck. You'd have to roll on your side to stand a chance of survival.

Continuity: Right at the beginning of the film when Bond is trying to escape from the banker's office, he goes to the window and tucks his gun into his waistband. He then runs to the body lying on the other side of the office, and tucks it into his waistband again.

Continuity: When Bond's in the chair having his neck broken, between two shots the handles change position. Also, at one point we hear that the woman turns the handles a bit, but in the next shot they haven't moved.

Continuity: After the oil pipe is blown up, almost killing Bond, there's a large crater. But notice that the blast from the bomb not only blew the crater, but severed the smoldering trees as if it were done by a chain saw.

Factual error: When Christmas and Bond are on the rigs in the pipeline and are supposedly moving at about 70mph their hair only move about a little bit and very little flapping of the clothes. 70mph is a significant blast, try opening a window on a motorway.

Other: In the boat chase, Bond decides to dive below the barrier. It is very close to him, but takes about 5 seconds to dive. He would have hit it in about 2 seconds.

Continuity: When Elektra and Renard meet again in Istanbul and he hands her the plutonium and they stand face to face, there is a classic mis-edit: in the closeup - she looks down towards her hands holding the item then the camera directly cuts to a broader view and she's looking up at him.

Revealing: When Bond goes skiing with Electra to check the pipe lines, in one scene you can see ski tracks in front of the pair. They could be from previous line inspections, but surely they would have been snowed over? That area doesn't look like a popular ski resort....

Deliberate "mistake": In the beginning when King's money explodes, it blows a hole through the wall. This is impossible because the walls in the M16 building (Vauxhaull) are "bombproof" and wouldn't be destroyed by such an explosion.

Other: Despite running and jumping for her life, traveling at over 70mph, tumbling head over heels, and several massive explosions (during the nuclear factory and pipeline sequences), Dr. Jones' hair remains pinned up in a French twist with nary a strand out of place. Uh-huh. This is particularly glaring considering near the end of the film, the impact of an explosion finally does knock her hair loose.

Factual error: In the scene where Bond and Christmas Jones jump out of the pipeline after the bomb has gone off, Bond asks Christmas "What are you doing here in Kazakhstan?" But as we have seen earlier in the film (on Elecktra's map) the King Pipeline goes from Baku through Azerbaijan to the Bosphorous. He should say "What are you doing here in Azerbaijan?"

Continuity: We see Pierce Brosnan taking off his jacket, but the colour of his shirt changes between shots from a blue colour to a lighter shade, then back again.

Revealing: During the chase in the mountains, the snow thrown up by bullet impacts is black rather than white, revealing their explosive origins.

Deliberate "mistake": In the scene where Bond is at the caviar factory at one point he takes a tumble down a set of wooden stairs. As Bond falls down the stairs we see the actor's face and it is obviously a stunt double.

Continuity: When Bond shoots Renard in Kazakstan the bullet hits Renard's arm. Later when Renards is moving towards the elevator you can clearly see that his arm is undamaged.

Continuity: When Bond is being chased by the parahawks in the mountains, it is beautiful and sunny in one shot and then it shows a quick shot of rain, then cuts back to sunny.

Continuity: When the pipe blows up, why does it blow up in three sections at the same time? Also, I might be wrong, but when we see the explosion it looks like a straight section of pipe, but when Bond and Jones are walking around afterwards, it's clearly a curved section that blew up.

Revealing: When Renard is setting the time to show M when she will die there is an upshot angle which shows the underside of the lampshade - you can see a sticker which is either a price tag or the propmaster's serial number.

Revealing: During the action sequence on the labyrinthine docks on the Caspian Sea, one of the choppers with the rotating blades saws Bond's BMW in half. A cutaway shot reveals Bond nearby, murmuring, "Q's not gonna like this." The next shot is in back of Bond, seeing the newly split BMW fall apart, but Pierce Brosnan has been replaced with a dummy. This is most obvious during the over-the shoulder shot of the BMW falling apart, where Bond's gun is now held in front of him. Also, when the car splits in two, the dummy shakes a bit.

Continuity: In the scene where Bond has the X-ray specs he looks at a man who has a pistol and a knife in his pockets to the left, and over his right shoulder is a semi-automatic pistol. He confronts the man and both the knife and pistol are taken out, but the semi isn't seen again.

Factual error: When James Bond and Christmas Jones were in the pipeline, they were going at great speed, so when the robot explodes, why does the explosion suddenly stop?

Factual error: During the boat chase, the part when Bond jumps the boat through London Canoeing Club shed was filmed in the canal at Tobacco Wharf in London. This is not actually the home of the L.C.C. Across from this in real life is a road and then a dead end yet once Bond hits the road he finds himself in what appears to be Camden Fish market!

Other: In the scene at the end when the sub explodes, you see the hull split in two and the propeller drops away. But you do not see the prop shaft.

Continuity: When they're looking at the computer model of Renard's head (just after the doctor says "medulla oblongata"), count the pings. The first two times we hear one, a slight pause, then 3 close together, with corresponding green pointers on the image, then a higher pitched one on the green box. However, the third time (after "than any normal man") there's no initial ping with pause, just the 3 close together. Then just as we're expecting the higher one we cut to a shot of M, and we hear another middle beep before the final one. The sequence starts again, we cut back to the model in the middle of it, and we get an extra beep again, plus see that the beeps are now completely out of sync with bits of the model being illuminated.

Revealing: In Kazakhstan, when Bond jumps through the closing door, you can see without slow-motion that it's a stuntman.

Continuity: At the end of the pursuit scene, the boat of the "cigar" girl stops on the bank of the Thames in front of the Millenium Dome. But it's completely in the water in one shot when Bond's boat passes over it, and it seems to be moored.

Continuity: When Q shows the boat to Bond, it looks much more damaged than at the end of the pursuit scene, when it landed relatively gently in water.

Factual error: In the scene where Bond is watching the screen showing the bomb going through the pipeline, he asks for the distance the bomb has to travel and how fast it is going. Bond is told the bomb "is 106 miles from the terminal, going 70 mph." Bond says, "We've got 78 minutes." Wrong. At 70 mph (1.17 miles a minute) it would take about 91 minutes to cover that distance.

Continuity: When Bond gets his X-ray glasses for the first time, he puts them on and looks down at R. In the next shot, his head is up again.

Continuity: When M is imprisoned and is being spoken to by Robert Carlyle she is wearing a multi-coloured scarf which is draped over her left shoulder and down the left side of her body. When Carlyle leaves the room M turns around and walks towards the bed. The camera angle is reversed and she's not wearing the scarf. Later it is shown lying across the bed.

Continuity: When James Bond is in the process of being tortured by a woman (again, not giving too much away), she takes off her right ear-ring to reveal a damaged ear lobe. About 10-15 seconds later, the ear-ring is back on her ear without her having replaced it.

Audio problem: When Bond is sliding on the chains after Renard has activated the bomb at the test site he shouts, "Slam the door. Close it." The second part of what he says doesn't quite match his mouth's movements.

Continuity: When Bond puts on the x-ray specs while talking to "R", he glances downwards just after saying "improved specs?" The angle then changes to show R, and Bond's now looking straight ahead at him.

Plot hole: When Bond takes the short cut in the Q boat it jumps over a brick wall that leads to the end of the water where the London canoe club is based, meaning that the canoeists only have approx 50m of water to canoe in unless they scrape the canoes bottom away by going over the wall. Not much of a club, even for London!

Continuity: In the first scene, when Bond has a gun to the Swiss banker's head, in the first shot Bond's got his gun pressed right up to the guy's neck. However, when it cuts, the gun is a couple of inches from the banker's face.

Continuity: When Bond is in the little boat and nosedives it underwater to avoid whatever it was he was avoiding, he appears to be travelling at fairly high speed. With no windshield (or such a small one), the force of the water hitting him in the face should have knocked his head off or at least broken his neck.

Continuity: When they're loading the submarine, and Renard is being kissed, from behind his lips are pushed forward, but when we see his face he's trying to pull back.

Plot hole: Why is Electra using Windows 2000 (still in beta at the time) to survey her oil empire? (I think it's just after she's asked M to come and help her) You shouldn't use beta software for anything important....