The Spy Who Loved Me

Factual error: When James Bond programs the two submarines to destroy each other, we see the paths of the missiles displayed on a globe. They swing across in two arcs, narrowly missing each other. However, we are looking down on the surface of the globe with no height perception, so the missiles should, in fact, travel in straight lines directly between the submarines.

Factual error: When Jaws kills the shark, the carcass floats on the surface of the water in the tank. It should sink to the bottom, as dead sharks do.

Factual error: At the end of the film Stromberg shoots at Bond under the table with a pneumatic spear gun-type weapon that shoots most likely a spear with an explosive tip through a long tube. This type of spear gun, unlike elastic-operated spear guns, has an actual sort-of gun barrel that's closed at the back. As such, when Bond shoots Stromberg through the tube with his hand gun, he somehow hits him, despite the fact that the bullets would ricochet off the closed barrel.

Tobin OReilly

Factual error: Jaws kills Fekkesh by biting his neck, something that would make him bleed a lot. Later, when Bond finds his body, there is no blood on the ground.

Dr Wilson

Factual error: When the two missiles blast out of the water, the first thing you see is the glare of the rocket motors under water. SLBMs rise out of the water solely on the air or steam pressure impulse that propels them out of the launcher. The rocket motors ignite only after the missile has left the water completely. (01:43:20)

Doc

Factual error: When Bond and Amasova are on the speed boat going to see Stromberg, the underwater lair is super-imposed on the horizon, rather than midway. This would make the lair around 50 miles high.

wizard_of_gore

Factual error: As the SLBMs eject from the submarines, they visibly jostle and shake the missile tube hatch, especially the second one - the hatch even scrapes the missile surface. Real missile hatches don't do that. In fact, if the missile actually did scrape the hatch, both the hatch and the missile would be irreparably damaged - consider the momentum of a 10m high, 13 ton missile... (01:43:20)

Doc

Revealing mistake: The shot of the two nuclear missiles being launched is used twice, just reversed. They seem to have changed the saturation slightly in one of them to make it look different, but there are identical clouds at the top left/top right in both shots, ruining the trick.

Jon Sandys

More mistakes in The Spy Who Loved Me

Captain Carter: That armour plating must be inches thick. We'll never get through it.
James Bond: Come on, let's go to the armoury.
Captain Carter: The armoury? What do you expect to find there?
James Bond: A nuclear missile.

More quotes from The Spy Who Loved Me

Trivia: Due to his failing eyesight, cinematographer Claude Renoir was unable to see to the end of the supertanker set, forcing Production Designer Ken Adam to ask friend Stanley Kubrick to supervise lighting for the set. Kubrick agreed on the condition of complete secrecy of his involvement.

More trivia for The Spy Who Loved Me

Question: I have two questions. Firstly, where did they film the scenes when Bond and Anya first encounter Jaws, it looks like the Karnak Temple to me. And secondly, why was Bond so desperate to rescue Anya at the end, considering he knew full well that Anya was planning to kill him after the mission was complete (although thankfully she changed her mind).

Gavin Jackson

Answer: First, it was indeed filmed at Karnak. Second, he rescues her because they are, for the time being, on the same side-therefore, she is an ally, and Bond won't just leave her to drown/die. I think, if he is even mindful of her promise during the heat of the moment, he would still consider it wrong to leave her behind; while the mission is on, she's a colleague in distress, and that's that. Once the mission is over, she can do what she likes, and Bond will deal with it then. (Though his surprise when she first draws the gun on him in the escape pod suggests he wasn't taking her threat seriously, so...bit of a freebie for him).

More questions & answers from The Spy Who Loved Me

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.