Revealing mistake: In the scene inside the melting palace Bond smashes the wind screen and saves Jinx. While he's driving around water is pouring down, however no water comes into the car and Bond's face is totally dry.
Continuity mistake: In the scene,where Bond meets Jinx the very first time, the bartender in the background does weird things. First, Bond asks him for a mojito, he comes to him. Later, when Bond looks at Jinx, the bartender is in the far left side of the counter. When next time Bond is seen, the bartender is close behind Bond. And next time the camera changes its view, the bartender is in the far left corner again. He remains there in the rest of the scene. (00:34:30)
Continuity mistake: When Q brings out the flatcar with the invisible car on it, the flatcar appears empty. Q explains how the invisibility is achieved, and he walks behind the car. We see Q's legs distort cartoonishly as he does so. Why doesn't this distortion take place when the car is moving out of the tunnel? (01:03:15)
Continuity mistake: In the scene at the fencing club when Bond and Graves are fencing, they knock over a suit of armor that is holding a sword. When Graves picks up this sword, Bond picks up another sword from the same place on the ground, but there was only one sword with the suit of armor. Also, the sword with the armor is a bastard sword, but neither character is using such a large sword in the rest of the fight.
Audio problem: In the scene where Bond is at the reception at the Ice Palace and is following Mr. Kil and Vlad, when the guard points his pistol at Bond and orders him to put his hands up, you can see that his lips do not move. (01:17:30)
Continuity mistake: During the scene when Bond sees Jinx emerging from the water, the angle cuts back and forth between the both of them. You can see that is some shots Bond's cigar is not lit; there is no smoke coming from it and also the "cherry" does not light up as he puffs it. In others it's lit properly. The length of the cigar and the height of the Mojito drink also change. (00:36:21)
Revealing mistake: During the sword fight in the castle a sword penetrates a glass panel behind which stands an armour. The armour is then pushed through the glass panel behind it. The first glass panel breaks in big pieces (probably the usual 'sugar' glass), whereas the second glass panel shatters properly. (00:55:35)
Continuity mistake: When Bond jumps down from the truck after being captured, he is handcuffed (or has his hands tied). However, when he lands, he's holding a guard in each hand - for stability - but in the next scene, during the General's speech, he's tied again. (00:17:35)
Other mistake: In Cuba, when James wakes up after the night passed with Jinx, there's an insect walking on the image. [Corrected on Blu-ray.]
Revealing mistake: In Korea, James takes a hovercraft to escape from the base. He throws one soldier outside and knocks out another one. When the son of General Moon collides with him, you can see that the knocked out soldier is obviously a dummy.
Factual error: If you watch the DVD release of this film with the MI6 Datafeed enabled a remark pops up telling the audience the large aircaft that Bond, Jinx etc are flying in is an Antonov 225 'Myria', 'The largest operating aircraft in the World'. The aircraft which is used in the film is actually an Antonov 124 which is smaller than the AN225, only has a single tail fin,(the 225 has two),and only has 4 engines, (the 225 has six).
Audio problem: In the sword fight scene Graves asks "Is a thousand a point too much for you?" and the next shot shows Bond's lower jaw mouthing something more interesting than "Hmmm".
Deliberate mistake: Neither North or South Korea have wave swells anywhere near as large as shown.
Continuity mistake: During the scene when Graves parachutes in for a publicity stunt, when he hits the ground and starts walking, a guard (guy in black suit with a headset) walks towards him and assists him by grabbing the parachute cords to pull it off of him. The camera angle changes to in front of graves, and the same guy is merely standing beside him while he removes the parachute belts himself. (00:51:14)
Factual error: When Icarus is shooting at Bond when he's escaping in the rocket sled, in the orbital shots, Icarus doesn't appear to be hitting Iceland - looks more like it's hitting Britain.
Audio problem: During the sword fight when the saber hits the floor it makes a metal-to-stone sound. However the floor is carpeted.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the torture sequence, as Bond's face is lifted from the tub of ice water, the Korean woman leans toward him to the point where their faces are almost touching. But a fraction of a second later, as he's pushed back into the water, she's sitting back. It's too quick a change in shot for her to have simply moved - we'd have seen it.
Audio problem: When Jinx shoots the doctor the second time, she stands up and you hear the gun shot BEFORE the scene changes. However, there are four pieces of information that suggests they should not have added this sound before the change in scenes: the slide on the gun doesn't pull back, no bullet ejects from the chamber, she doesn't seem to pull the trigger, and no bullet comes out of the gun.
Continuity mistake: In the pre-credit sequence, the guy who becomes Graves demonstrates the power of his shell launcher by blowing up Bond's chopper. The soldier beside him has his AK-47 raised, covering Bond. It skips to the helicopter exploding, and comes back to Graves firing the shell launcher a second time. The soldier lifts his AK up a second time. (00:07:00)
Revealing mistake: As the invisible car creeps through the snow in reverse, the rear tires make tracks in the snow, as one would expect them to. Then the front tires go by, and the tracks do not change. It is impossible for the front tires to not have made tracks of their own, which should be visible, even within the existing tracks.
Answer: By this stage, it's become a habit.
J I Cohen