Diamonds are Forever (1971) - 57 mistakes

Continuity: When Bond escapes from the Willard Whyte facility in the desert in the moon buggy, a car that is chasing him goes over a ridge and turns on its side as the buggy speeds by. A wheel rolls back into the shot, all on its own. It doesn't belong to the car, or the three three wheelers also chasing, but looks like it belongs to the buggy, which has its full compliment of wheels all through the scene.

Continuity: The famous car chase ends with Bond's car tipping up on its right wheels to fit through a pedestrian path. However, when it emerges the other side, it's tipped on its left wheels. [When the car enters the alley this was filmed in a studio. When the car exits the alley this was filmed in Vegas. The first few times the exit was filmed the car emerged on the correct wheels but the shots were unusable because of the crowds in the background watching the filming. This shot was temporarily abandoned and eventually re-filmed with a different stunt driver who famously performed the stunt on the wrong wheels. Realising this, the producers filmed an insert shot featuring a close-up of Sean Connery and Jill St John which shows the car tip back onto four wheels and then up onto the opposite two wheels (even though the alleyway would be too narrow to manage this!), which is in the finished film].

Visible crew/equipment: When Bond climbs off of the elevator and hangs for a few seconds, if you look closely at the ground behind Bond, you can see his shadow on the screen behind him which has the image of the ground projected onto it.

Plot hole: When Bond is using Bert Saxby's voice while talking to Blofeld on the phone, Blofeld tells "Bert" to get rid of Willard Whyte. Since Bond is posing as Bert, Bert never got this order. So why does Bert show up at Willard Whyte's to kill him?

Continuity: Towards the beginning, when Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd meet the helicopter in the desert, they await a helicopter. After the helicopter lands, while it's rising off the ground, the red stripe across the side of the chopper gradually fades into green. And then, as it pulls away, the stripe abruptly changes back to red.

Audio problem: In the scene at Willard Whyte's house where Thumper and Bambi are fighting Bond, Bond gets thrown into 3 cylindrical statues. Just as the shot cuts, you can see the last column beginning to topple but there is no sound as it crashes to the floor in the next shot.

Factual error: The first laser beam was not generated via a diamond, as Willard Whyte says. The first functional laser device, which was constructed by Theodore Maiman, used a ruby rod.

Revealing: On the Oil Rig, when Bond tells Tiffany to "Shoot 'em." after she gets the gun, three bad guys run towards her. A helicopter drops a bomb in front of them instead, taking them out, but watch the last guy that's the furthest away. The bomb lands a good 20 feet away from him, far enough away not to do any harm. But he crouches a little and stays up, then he looks at his other two crewman a bit clueless, and then falls down a good time later as he finally gets what he was suppose to do.

Revealing: When the Hovercraft pulls away, you can see a passenger look out his window and wave directly at the camera.

Revealing: When Bond is in the trunk of the car, being taken out of the lower level of the White House, a trap door opens out into the desert. The car however does not emerge from the door, which is never seen, but appears to be simply driving along a road. The 'door' is apparently a silhouette cutout raised in front of the passing car.

Revealing: When Bond escapes from the research facility, guards give chase on three-wheeled vehicles. One of the guards goes off an embankment & wipes out. He sets the vehicle up and prepares to drive off. Bond is supposed to run up, kick the guard off & take the vehicle. Connery is so slow in this scene that the stuntman has to sit on the vehicle & wait for him to run up for the kick.

Continuity: During the car chase scene through Las Vegas, you can see the crowds lining the streets to watch the filming, yet in some of the street scenes there are no crowds.

Revealing: Many times throughout the car chase in Las Vegas between Bond and the cops, you can see skid marks where they tried earlier stunts with the cars on those points on the road. The most obvious is when Bond pulls away from the Sheriff after he approaches the car.

Visible crew/equipment: When the helicopters are attacking Blofeld's platform, at some points you can see a little black spot moving in background. It is the radio-controlled helicopter which filmed them from behind.

Continuity: After getting beat by Bambi and Thumper, Bond is dunking the girls's heads in the swimming pool. He is dripping wet. A few scenes later, it shows him and the men walking down the stairs to the door, Bond is bone dry. In the next scene where he walks into the room, he is all wet again.

Deliberate "mistake": During the moon buggy chase scene in the desert one of the Ford LTDs crashes and the front fenders,inner fenders, and doors fall off. Even if the car fell off of a cliff this couldn't happen unless all the bolts were moved previously.

Factual error: When Bond is inside the oil rig, the shots switch from the satellite control room to the satellite itself orbiting. When the satellite fires at the underground missile, it's orbit direction reverses. Then, when it fires at the Russian sub and the Chinese military base, it stops before it fires. This is impossible, as Newtons 3rd law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For the satellite to reverse or stop, boosters would be needed at the front of the satellite (of which there aren't any) to counter it's speed. And even if they were there, the direction change and stop wouldn't be as sharp as the movie shows.

Continuity: When the car chase enters a car park there is a blue car in the bottom left corner (from the overhead shot), next to the trailer which Bond makes his escape over. After Bond escapes the car is white (I think) and may also be pointing the opposite direction.

Continuity: At one part Bond is talking on the phone. He is wearing a pink tie that goes to the second button on his shirt. Then in the next scene before he meets up with Thumper, his tie is longer.

Audio problem: In the final scene, Mr Wint and Mr Kid bring in a dinner trolley. When Mr Kid places the desserts top over the bomb, we can hear the timer ticking. Yet, when the dessert is thrown and the bomb is revealed, the ticking cannot be heard.

Plot hole: There was a scene in the movie showing Plenty returning to Bond's room, seeing him with Tiffany, and angrily going through Tiffany's purse to find her address (presumably to exact some sort of revenge).  However, this scene was deleted in the final cut, leaving us with no clue whatsoever of how Plenty shows up at Tiffany's home.

Continuity: When we first see Mrs Whistler's body being pulled out of the water, her front is towards the boat. In the next clip, her back is towards the boat.

Factual error: In Blofeld's offshore control room there's an Earth-globe turning under a model of the satellite, to illustrate its orbital groundtrack. The way it's arranged, however, shows an orbit which is impossible. It shows the satellite tracing a groundtrack over a constant latitude. The only instance in which this is possible is if the orbit is directly over the Equator, whereas the model shows it over a latitude well within the Northern Hemisphere.

Factual error: The satellite uses a laser as its weapon, which can be only as powerful as its root energy source. It obviously doesn't have a nuclear reactor large enough to yield that much power, and it can't be solar power, since the collecting area of the dish is orders of magnitude too small to provide power at a level sufficient to lay waste to whole submarines and missile installations.

Revealing: The fingerprint in Tiffany's photograph is 100% identical to the sample of Peter Franks in her system. It is impossible for two fingerprints to be exactly identical - in terms of the part of the finger it shows and the amount of paint on the print.

Continuity: When Plenty offers to help Bond with the game, behind them is a man in a yellow shirt and a man in a brown coat and green shirt. However in the next clip there is a lady in a pink dress instead of the man in the yellow shirt. She was nowhere to be seen half a second earlier.

Continuity: When Bond climbs the Whyte House to get to Willard Whyte, he climbs a large overhanging structure, leaning out over the main part of the building. But in the previous day shots of the Whyte House there is no such structure to be seen.

Continuity: Bond shoots the Blofeld-copy with a climbing hook. But when did he reload his gun? (And why? He was done climbing).

Continuity: When Blofeld is watching Bond and Plenty in the casino on the surveillance camera, on the screen a man in a dark shirt can be seen on Bond's right side. But in the next clip (and in the preceding clip) a little lady in a white dress is standing on Bond's right side.

Continuity: When Bond first sprays foam on Franks he hits his left shoulder, but in the next clip there is only foam on his head and nothing on his shoulder.

Continuity: Shady Tree is standing over the coffin talking down into it when it opens. However in the next clip he is standing much further away - and lower - and not in a position to look down into it that way.

Continuity: When Frank's is lying dead on the floor he has foam in his hair, but when Bond drags him into the flat, he has foam only on his face and nothing in the hair.

Audio problem: When Bond is driving away from the 'Moon base' his tires are screeching. But the asphalt is very rough - maybe its even gravel - so it couldn't make such a sound.

Continuity: The diamonds weigh 50,000 carats - which is 10 kg. Nevertheless the toy dog is several times lifted by different persons by only one hand (for example when it is picked down from the shelf in the Circus). They must have incredibly strong wrists.

Revealing: When the killer satellite rocket reaches orbit, you can see it 'bouncing' up and down as the pieces separate.

Continuity: When Mr. Kidd tries to kill James with the flaming shish-kabobs he is wearing gloves, which weren't there immediatly before.

Continuity: At the end of the movie, when Ms. Case is on Blofeld's oil rig in the control room, her butt-crack is seen at the top of her bikini. A shot later it is hidden.

Revealing: Bond escapes from the buried pipeline when two technicians open a hatch from the outside. One tech unlocks the hatch by rotating a large wheel which drives the locking mechanism. But when he finally opens the hatch, there's absolutely no mechanism attached. There's just a bare axle that the wheel turns on.

Revealing: In the final fight scene, Mr. Kid is set on fire by Bond and jumps overboard. What hits the water, though, is a dummy: it floats on the surface right after hitting the water (a human body would sink for a few meters before it comes up again).

Continuity: In the battle scene on the oil rig, Bond takes takes control of the crane attached to Blofeld's bathosub. During this sequence the folding window at the front of the crane cab switches between the raised and lowered position several times.

Continuity: As the oil rig is attacked, a large chopper and a small one are blown to bits. There were only two large ones but the one that was blown up briefly reappears as the choppers do a U-turn.

Visible crew/equipment: When Bond and Tiffany are talking while looking at the fish, he suddenly rolls her on her back, saying "I'm on top of the situation". As she turns you can clearly see a plaster (band-aid) carefully placed to cover any...er...accidental revealings.

Continuity: When Bond releases the red weather balloon from the oil rig and it is spotted by the guys in the helicopter you can see a desert/land background behind the helicopter despite it supposedly flying over the sea close to the oil rig.

Factual error: Shady Tree opens the coffin with bare hands - and keeps his hand on the lid for 6 seconds - notwithstanding the fact that it was just pulled out of a blazing furnace and must have been incredibly hot to touch.

Continuity: When Bond, in the casino, takes the envelope out of his pocket, he holds it with his right hand, with his fingers close to the upper end of the envelope. However, in the next clip he is holding it much further down and with his fingers in a different position.

Audio problem: When James Bond is collected on the airfield they are all getting into the car. You see how the right door is closed but you never hear it.

Continuity: When the policemen are removing the body of Mrs. Whistler from the chanel in Amsterdam, one of them holds her by the bottom of her coat but the shot later, he holds her higher.

Revealing: During the car chase, Bond weaves through a car park, and a police car can't make the turns, sliding into a wall. The wall's covered in one specific point by what looks like a large pale wooden cover, which the police car just happens to slam into exactly.

Continuity: In the opening sequence when Bond runs over and pulls the chain to release mud onto the guy rising up to shoot him, mud clearly splatters all over him as he dives to the floor. When he gets up, his suit is spotless.

Factual error: When Mr. Wint and Mr. Kid assassinate the doctor in the South African desert, they use a scorpion. Me, I have never heard of a scorpion which poison kills that fast (2 seconds after the beast is planted).

Factual error: When Bond is in the trunk of the car, being taken out of the lower level of the White House, a trap door opens out into the desert. There are two Saguaro cacti shown, one on the trap door and one in the distance. Saguaro cacti do not grow wild any where near Las Vegas.

Revealing: When Saxby is shot, he has an instant, pre-dried blood splatter on his shirt.

Continuity: When Tiffany Case takes Bond's drink to put ice in it and check his fingerprints, when she gives Bond the drink back it has no ice when he smells the chemical on the glass.

Continuity: When Bond's fighting in the lift, Tiffany comes out of her flat - she has her arms by her side as she sees the battle going on. After a cut, she's suddenly tucked against the door frame with her arms tucked in against her chest.

Revealing: Blofeld is played by an actor that is not bald (Blofeld was bald in 2 previous episodes). He is also played by Charles Gray, who played the part of one of the good guys in You Only Live Twice. [Not really a mistake, given that Blofeld doesn't have to conform to certain physical characteristics. However, an actor playing a good guy then a bad guy over the space of two films rankles a bit...]

Revealing: When Bond wakes up after being buried in the tunnel, there's light coming from everywhere and shining on the walls; yet, there's no direct light coming in from anywhere, nor artificial light sources on the walls.

Visible crew/equipment: When M. Franks enters the customs, you can see the reflection of the crew on the window.