Octopussy (1983) - 47 mistakes

Revealing: In the scene where Bond is trying to escape with his new Mini-Jet, he flies through a big hall. If you look carefully, you can see that the aeroplane which is supposed to be flying with its wings vertical is fastened to some kind of sustainer.

Continuity: At the end of the film, Bond chases Kahn following the battle at Octopussy's mansion. In the short time it takes to run to a nearby plane, it turns from pitch darkness to bright sunshine.

Continuity: When Bond takes off in the plane we see - in one shot from Bond's view - the Cubans approaching.The background is a flat (English) countryside. In the next clip we see a close-up of one of the Cubans. Behind him are quite large hills/mountains.

Factual error: At the East German / West German checkpoint, there is a level crossing. The warning signs for road traffic are clearly visible and are unique to the UK (where the shot was filmed).

Factual error: Being in Berlin talking about the Octopussy Circus, M says that Karl-Marx-Stadt (now again "Chemnitz") is further to the east, however it is 200 km to the south of Berlin.

Factual error: Bond tells Q at one point "I've lost my PPK." However, he has been carrying a Walther P-5 throughout the movie, and continues to use it in the later action sequences. A PPK never does make an appearance in the movie. The P-5 was also used that year by Bond in "Never Say Never Again").

Continuity: In the scene in the freezer at Kahn's palace you don't see any breath - neither from Bond nor from the two guys picking up the bodies.

Continuity: When James Bond is trying to escape from Kamal Khan in the jungle, he passes through a spider web and crushes a spider that is on his elbow. The stain disappears in the following shots.

Factual error: During one of the chases, when James Bond hops into the water, he is picked up by a group of American tourists on a tour boat.  The city of Cincinnati is misspelled as Cincinatti on it.

Plot hole: When Bond is on the roof of the train ,he opens the roof panel on the rail car, jumps down into the car, and puts on a gorilla suit to hide. He does all this while the knife thrower is in the small car. Wouldn't the knife thrower have heard something? The roof panel opening alone would have amplified the train's noises, not to mention the air that would have blown in.

Revealing: The nail-bed's steel nails that James Bond flips a henchman onto are the most obvious rubber nails ever seen in a film. They ALL move like crazy rubber in a bunch of separate directions when he falls onto them, including ones he never even comes close to touching.

Revealing: When the police cars chase Bond and stop outside the circus, you can clearly see a lot of brake-marks. It's quite obvious that the filmmakers re-shot the scene several times, before they got it right, but didn't bother to remove the marks made in earlier takes.

Continuity: In the opening story, Bond flies in the small plane with a single jet engine. When the plane approaches the hangar to fly through it (the shot taken FROM the hangar towards the plane) you can see that the plane has TWO engines at the back.

Revealing: When Gobina first slashes at Bond during the climactic fight on the plane, a subsequent medium shot reveals a stunt double (note the bald spot). He's even wearing completely different clothing - a black stunt suit instead of a blue jacket and white shirt.

Factual error: When riding in the truck with the Cuban soldiers Bond pulls their parachutes. In the next clip they are 5-6 meters up in the air. That is impossible. First, parachutes are not shot out, but merely pulled by the passing air. And the truck does not go fast enough to pull the parachutes. Second, even if the truck went fast enough, the soldiers would be pulled horizontally - and just fall off the truck, not get pulled vertically up in the air.

Continuity: When Bond passes under the Autobahn bridge you can see the traffic is very slow. But seconds before - when Bond's car left the Autobahn, there was no traffic congestion.

Continuity: When we see Q fishing, the lighting is totally different from when he's seen from the back in the next clip. Also the bank rises close behind him when seen from the front, but in the next clip the camera position is further back. Those are not shot in the same place.

Plot hole: What did the jewellery smuggling and the fake jewels have to do with the A-bomb? It wasn't payment to Kamal for services rendered, since the jewelry was transferred to General Orlov's car while Gobinda was watching. Kamal and Orlov could easily have placed a bomb in the circus without the jewelry-story.

Plot hole: Bond would not have had (nor taken himself) time to lay a complete and careful clown make-up while changing clothes in the circus trailer.

Other: In the balloon scene it seems like Q can circle around and land on a spot where he flew past previously. A balloon can only fly in the direction of the wind.