You Only Live Twice (1967) - 90 mistakes

Plot hole: At the end, we see pictures of the space shuttle several times on a TV screen. Where is the camera to film that?

Continuity: When Aki drives James to see Tiger and when she collects him from Osato Chemicals, her car changes from left hand to right hand drive as the camera follows them along.

Revealing: When the ninjas enter the volcano one of them slices a SPECTRE man in the back with a sword, however there is no mark.

Factual error: Two rocket lift-offs are shown. However, for the American lift-off, they show a Soyuz (Soviet) rocket booster. And for the Soviet lift-off, they show a Gemini (American) rocket booster.

Revealing: When the submarine surfaces with the life raft on the casing at the end of the film, the water movement looks a bit odd because the scene was actually shot with the sub diving and floating the raft off, the film then being played backwards.

Continuity: In the scene at the end where Bond is trying to make Blofeld's spaceship blow up, you can see the timer showing the time till interception. On the 1st shot the timer shows 25 seconds. On the second shot it says 13 seconds. Then there is another shot and the timer shows 24 seconds.

Continuity: When Bond and Kissy jump into the ocean to avoid the poison gas in the cave, you can see Bond's skin through his shirt. When they come ashore on Blofeld's volcano island, Bond takes off his shirt to reveal a grey ninja outfit underneath, complete with huge rubber suction cups for his hands and knees. Where did he hide all that?

Other: During the shooting scene in the false volcano: We see a man on a bridge being shot and he falls on the rail and down. About a minute later, they show the same shot.

Continuity: While Bond prepares "Little Nellie" for flight, a Japanese technician removes the red rotor tether from the front of the Autogyro. In the next shot, while Bond is putting his flying helmet on, the tether is still attached to the rotor.

Factual error: The space capsules and spacesuits are incorrect. The Americans are wearing Russian suits in a Russian capsule and the Russians are actually wearing American spacesuits & are in an American spacecraft. (A Gemini to be exact).

Continuity: When Bond first stands on top of the volcano, when it opens, it is dark outside. The camera then shows it opening from inside the volcano, outside it is daylight.

Factual error: In the scene where the ninjas are attacking the volcano, they are armed with rocket guns. While the rocket guns, MBA Gyrojet Rocket Carbines, are real, their 13mm rocket cartridges could barely beat out a .45 ACP pistol cartridge in stopping power, not to mention they couldn't cause huge explosions like they did in the movie.

Continuity: Two of the helicopter pilots who are killed by Bond on the "Little Nellie" aerial dogfight are the same ones, only without sun glasses, who later in the film are patrolling the coastline near the volcano and who try to kill Kissy Suzuki.

Factual error: When the Russian capsule is launched, a palm tree can be seen - and it's doubtful that the Russian climate could accommodate palm trees.

Plot hole: In the volcano base, Bond finds and frees three captured astronauts - two Russians and an American. But when they enter the SPECTRE astronauts' room, there are only two of them with Bond (and there is no indication that the third one was seriously hurt in the previous struggle with the guards); and after Bond is dressed in the spacesuit, they disappear from the story altogether.

Continuity: In the scene where Bond is being made to look Japanese, prior to posing as a local fisherman his chest is being prepared for shaving - 'couldn't you just dye the bits that show?' he quips. In the last scene his chest is back to its full, furry glory.

Continuity: When Bird 1 is about to intercept the first space craft it slows down without firing any brake rockets.

Continuity: Towards the end of the film, during the fight between Bond and Hans, Hans pulls the shade off the big table lamp and it ends up on the floor. A little while later the shade is on the table.

Plot hole: When Bond is trapped in the airplane before Number 11 jumps out, exactly where does that wooden restraining board come from? It appears to be a solid board, and indeed it must be because it slides out entirely from one direction. It appears to be at least three feet long, and the cabin walls aren't nearly thick enough to hide it, so where does it come from?

Revealing: When Blowfeld destroys the volcano lair, as the camera is showing a view of the volcano, you can see the pressure waves move the bodies on the floor and tell that they are obviously dummies.

Revealing: The gunman sitting in the back of the black sedan who shot at Bond coming out of the Osato building is not the same guy sitting when the sedan is pick up by the helicopter Tanaka sent to help Bond and Aki.

Deliberate "mistake": When 11 is dropped into the water and eaten by the piranha's, although the ravenous fish probably ate most of her and what was on her, there should at least be pieces of clothing that would rise to the surface in the flurry of activity. Not to mention that even though the water is a murky green all the blood from her body should have created a temporary, yet very noticeable darkening of the water.

Revealing: In the car chase, the girl keeps the steering wheel straight all the time (in the shot from inside the car), although the street is not straight at all. Must have been a self-steering car...

Continuity: When Bond and the Japanese girl are leaving the sumo wrestling, they are in a white convertible with the girl driving. As they pull up outside Henderson's house, James is in the driving seat.

Factual error: In the beginning scene involving the U.S. spacecraft, as the front door on the unidentified ship starts to close around the U.S. capsule you can see the reflection of red light across the hull of the captor's ship. Where is this light coming from? It can't be from the sun, because sunlight only appears white to our eyes.

Revealing: When the rocket lands in the Volcano lair, you can see the thread used to lower it.

Revealing: In the scene where the launch platform is moving in Blofeld's cave to move the rocket to the Volcano crater for launching, there is a close up of the platforms wheels. Some are moving in the right direction,others aren't moving at all,making it look like the plastic model that it was. If it was a real platform, the weight alone would have made all the wheels turn in the same direction.

Audio problem: When Bond is escaping from Osato Chemicals for the first time, the security guards that are shooting at him inside the building are using silenced revolvers, yet when they fire, the noise made is that of an unsilenced weapon.

Continuity: During the fight scene in Osato's office with the large goon, the villain's suit and shirt become disheveled and un-tucked, then straightened and tucked, several times as the shots change.

Revealing: During the Little Nellie helicopter battle scene, the same footage of enemy copters being destroyed is used three times.

Continuity: As the SPECTRE helicopters begin to attack little Nellie, Bond's helmet microphone switches from his right side to his left and back again.

Factual error: When the Russians launch their ship, they are talking about Sputnik. In Russian, the technician says that it is 36 degrees while the English subtitle reads 72 degrees, which is not accurate. 36°C is 96.8°F.

Factual error: Due to the Earth's gravity, is it impossible to land a space craft vertically, braking by using booster rockets (as was supposedly done on the Moon). It would require almost as much power and fuel as at lift-off.

Continuity: When the divers swim towards the submarine with Bond's body, the submarine is seen from a distance and you can't see the ocean's surface. But in the next clip when Bond is lowered into the hatch the surface is no more than 4 meters above them.

Continuity: When Aki runs from the warehouse towards the rope the lower her down there are two ships on the river in the background. In the next clip they are gone.

Continuity: When Bond's body is lowered down the ladder into the submarine it is glistening wet, but in the next clip when they start cutting it open, it is almost dry - and definitely not glistening anymore.

Continuity: When the Russian rocket is launched the command module at its tip has the same shape as the American space craft. But when seen up close the Russian command module has a very different shape.

Continuity: When Bond jumps from the roof of the warehouse in Kobe both his shirt cuffs are outside his jacket sleeves. He starts correcting the right cuff, then there is a cut to the next scene and here he is still correcting his right cuff, but his left cuff is now inside the jacket sleeve.

Factual error: The picture of Ningpo taken by the American tourist is no where sharp enough - or has high enough resolution - for it to be enlarged sufficiently for the ship's name to be legible.

Continuity: When Bond and Aki park in front of Henderson's hotel, the hotel entrance is to the right of the car, but when they walk into the hotel the car points the opposite way.

Continuity: The first time we see the fake lake retracting in the volcano it is moving very fast, and before the cut it is almost totally retracted. But in the next clip when seen from below the opening is only half of the crater and the roof is retracting much slower.

Revealing: When Tanaka's train starts moving neither Bond, Tanaka nor the girl is seen to feel the acceleration. They stand/walk perfectly steady. That is impossible in an accelerating train. It is clear that it's only the lights moving on the wall.

Continuity: When the poison hits Aki's lips the killer must have been holding the bottle and string steady. But in the next clip he is seen crawling backwards using both hands and neither bottle nor string is anywhere to be seen. Later the bottle is in his pocket.

Continuity: When Hans pulls the bone from the water with the piranhas - in the first clip, from the way the string moves you can see that the bone must have cleared the water. But in the next clip it is still below the water.

Other: When the goons car is carried off to sea by the helicopter, Bond can watch the helicopter on the screen in Aki's car. But where is that camera mounted? On a camera plane?

Revealing: When one of the ninjas places an explosive charge on the bottom of the fake crater lake roof it wobbles and can be seen its made of plastic - even though Bond earlier said it was metal.

Continuity: When Bond and Kissy escapes from the gas in the cave she's wearing bright white shoes. But in the under water scenes and when she surfaces she has bare feet. Once back on land the shoes are back.

Continuity: Just before Bond is 'killed' the bed in which he lies flips up. That would make him flip/slide down into the lower end of the bed. But when the bed is pulled down again Bond lies perfectly stretched out like nothing happened.

Continuity: When Bond is attacked by the ninja during training Bond grabs the stick holding his right hand in the end where the blade came out. In the next clip his grip is the opposite - his left hand is closest to the blade.

Continuity: When Bond and Kissy reaches the crater's edge it is bright daylight and the sun is quite high up (that can be seen from the shadows on Bond's shirt). But when the reach the bottom of the crater it is night.

Continuity: When Bond crawls down the side of the crater he crawls next to a pipe running down the wall. But in the next shot the pipe is gone.

Continuity: In the scene where divers are recovering Bond's "Body", you can see that one of the divers has two tanks on his back, then in the next shot he only has one tank, then two again.

Continuity: When Hans picks up the table lamp to hit Bond, he picks it up by holding it close to the bulb. But when he brings it down to hit Bond, he is holding it the other way around. You can hear the bulb smash.

Revealing: When James Bond is in Tanaka's underground train enjoying the sake wine. One servant enters saying that the photograph is ready for viewing. This servant then walks to the door, which is on the left-hand side of the carriage. After going through the door, we can see the servant taking a left turn, but where to? Outside the moving train?

Continuity: At one point, during the scene with the helicopter dogfight, the tail wing of Bond's mini-copter is riddled with bullet holes (and yet the mini-copter continues to fly very efficiently), but for the rest of the scene, the tail wing is in perfect condition with no sign of the damage done to it.

Deliberate "mistake": During the scene involving Bond training at Tanaka's fighting grounds, right after Bond stabs the man with the blade at the end of a bamboo pole, no hint of blood can be seen on the blade, and yet the man's clothes are shown stained red.

Continuity: In the scene where Bond is at the Sumo wrestling arena, when he is being escorted to his seat, the ref overseeing the fighting ring is wearing a red robe, but right after Bond takes his seat, the ref's robe turns to a light green color and stays that way for the rest of the scene.

Continuity: In the scene where Bond is taken to Osato chemicals by the hired thug, right after the thug takes off his mask and they start to fight, the mask falls off onto the couch Bond was laying on, but when the thug goes to flip Bond onto the orange rug, the mask is now lying on the floor next to the couch, then afterwards (when Bond goes to pick up his trusty Walther PPK after setting off the alarm) the mask is lying on the couch again.

Continuity: When Blofeld is just about to shoot Bond with a Webley & Scott Mk. IV revolver in .455 Webley caliber, Blofeld's hand is hit with a ninja throwing star. However, the gun he drops isn't the Webley, but a Smith & Wesson .38 Special.

Revealing: When 007 is on the "Little Nelly" and is about to fly over the village, there's a shot in front of him and you can see another helicopter in the background. This is not the helicopter that attacks Bond later - it must be the one used to film the action from behind.

Continuity: When Bond finally meets Blofeld, there are shots on Bond and others on Blofeld. Blofeld's cat is seen in all of this, at times looking at Bond and then in the next shot looking at Blofeld. Quick reflexes those cats.

Revealing: While Bond is taking his "civilized" bath with his Japanese counterpart and four ladies, there are two shots where you can see James wearing skin-colored swim trunks.

Continuity: When Blofeld is in the volcano control room, and the scene keeps changing from him to the main crater, the position of the cat in his arms is never the same twice. Sometimes both paws are in, sometimes both out, sometimes one of each etc.

Continuity: When Bond and Kissy are on the slopes of the volcano near the end of the film, they watch a hellicopter fly overhead and go down inside. It lands on a helipad. In the next shot from above (when the massive door is closing) the helipad is empty.

Continuity: In the scene where Bond is trapped in the light airplane flown by Osata's female pilot, she sets the airplane on fire and bails out. As she's exiting the plane, its landing gear is down. Once Bond frees himself and tries to recover the airplane, the landing gear is back up.

Plot hole: The American spacecraft is said to be scheduled for launch at midnight Japanese time. But from the place in the movie where it is shown it is late afternoon or early evening.

Other: Early in the movie, in the shot of the police vehicle screeching to a halt in front of the hotel Bond is staying at you can see a crowd of people huddled together on the sidewalk with a policeman making sure they stay put. (The producers had to order the area in front of the hotel closed off to civilians as a precaution as so no one would get hurt or get in the way of the filming).

Plot hole: Blofeld tells the bad guys that they had Bond and let him get away. The woman says "but Bond is dead. It was in all the papers." As we saw in a paper near the start, there was a well publicised photo of Bond, and when she met him he wasn't using any kind of disguise, so how did she not recognise him if she'd seen the papers?

Continuity: When the heavy lift chopper is carrying the black car over the sea, the viewers' point of view, which is at times above and to the right of the chopper, is duplicated through the monitor in the back of the Toyota.  By rights, Bond's POV should be from below, assuming the Toyota had an external (it has an internal one) camera to start with.

Factual error: When Bond is hiding on the monorail cart, it stops at the astronauts' quarters. After Bond gets out of the cart, a second cart passes by, even though the cart he arrived in is still on the track (out of shot). No one moved the cart before the second cart passed through.

Continuity: When Bond is flying Little Nellie during the attack by the SPECTRE helicopters, he uses all of his armaments. Afterward, however, when Bond is told to proceed to a certain position, the Nellie is seen pulling away fully armed.

Factual error: When Bond enters the Sumo game, the writing above the door reads, "Beauty Parlour" in Japanese.

Continuity: When Bond asks permission "to come aboard, Sir" in the submarine, his hands are loosely clasped across his chest, no uniform hat in sight. As he gets up, he has his white uniform hat in his hands.

Continuity: When Bond takes the first sip of his martini at Henderson's place, the glass is about half full. You can see the level of the martini in the glass is below his finger. In the next clip there is more in the glass. The level is now above his finger, much closer to the rim.

Plot hole: The American astronaut says 'My lifeline is cut!' before his lifeline is cut. He actually doesn't know it's gonna be cut.

Continuity: While Bond is running on the roof of the warehouses in Kobe just before he reaches the stairs he is carrying a stick. But in the preceeding overhead shot, he has no stick.

Continuity: When Bond opens Osato's safe the safe-opening device has some orange lights on it - which can be seen in the close-ups. But in the wide shots there are no lights.

Continuity: The stranger who is watching Bond's funeral through binoculars lowers the binoculars after Bond is thrown into the water - as if looking down on the water. But the binocular is so low he's actually looking into the table.

Continuity: In the opening scenes of the large fight in the crater the color of the 'lake' ceiling is blue/green - backlit from above - but in following clips it is totally dark.

Continuity: When Tiger is looking at the body of the ninja who attacked Bond, he turns the ninja's head on the right side. But in the next clip the head is back in center position.

Audio problem: When the Sumo wrestler gives Bond his ticket he says, 'This is your ticket', but his lips don't move.

Continuity: The first Japanese spy woman opens her purse and speaks into it. The opening is no more than 8-10 cm wide. But in the next clip when we see a close-up of the purse it is opened very wide - more than 20 cm.

Revealing: Upon capturing the Soviet spacecraft, SPECTRE's spacecraft does some attitude maneuvering with small rockets on the side of the hull. The rockets fire visible exhaust from screen-left to screen-right, but flecks of the stuff slow to a halt and accelerate backwards, right to left, exactly as if the spaceship model were standing upright with the camera tilted sideways, which is exactly what was done.

Plot hole: The ferocious battle in the crater ends instantly when Bond blows up the space ship. Why? Aren't Blofeld's men still going to try to defend themselves? How do they know Bond has succeeded in his mission? They can't see the control room, let alone the television sets.

Continuity: During the scene where James Bond is running along the rooftop of Kobe Docks the camera pans away to give an arial view. 007 fights off the bad guys and rounds a stairwell opening with the door open. As the camera picks him up from ground level, or at least roof top level it shows James Bond opening the door before going through.

Continuity: When Kissy returns to the volcano with Tiger, she has changed from her bikini. However, when everyone is fleeing the exploding volcano, she is back in her bikini.

Continuity: Towards the end of the film when the ninjas are coming down the ropes to storm the volcano base, you can clearly see one coming down who has bullet holes riddled in his back - but is still alive.

Continuity: At the end of the film, Blofeld is about to kill Bond and he kills the Japanese man. Watch carefully as the cat gets down and crouches next to the Japanese man. The next shot of the man, and the cat's gone.

Continuity: In the scene where Bond first arrives in Japan and is walking down the street, he passes by a woman (Aki) looking at something behind a store window, she is holding a small gold purse with a smooth gold band around the part that opens, but after she opens it and the shot shows a close up of the concealed mic inside, the gold band is now rough and twisted.

Continuity: When Henderson is stabbed through the wall, Bond runs over and grabs him. There's a noticeable hole, and they're standing right by the wall. Then the angle changes, the hole's now smaller, and Bond's right next to the bed, which he can put Henderson on without taking a step.