Continuity mistake: In the beginning, James Bond steals a suitcase full of diamonds. He takes the compartment with the diamonds out, and sets a bomb under it. When we see him putting the C4 in it, we can see that the explosive is very nearly as high as the edge of the case, but the diamond compartment fits back inside perfectly. How? (00:03:00)
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)
Continuity mistake: During the battle in North Korea, the General's son's hovercraft smashes into a fence and dives into the water. It makes a little hole in the fence. When Bond arrives, the whole fence is destroyed. (00:09:30)
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)
Continuity mistake: Given the amount of time Bond was maltreated by the North Koreans you'd think he would have suffered the effects of malnourishment (lost weight, muscle tone). Yet when he is seen bare-chested after the prisoner exchange, he appears perfectly fit and is able to win a physically demanding sword fight against Gustav Graves. (00:21:45)
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 Bond first sees Jinx get out of the water, she is naturally dripping wet. After it cuts to him, it cuts back to her, and she is already bone dry as she is picking up her towel to dry off. (00:34:55)
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)
Continuity mistake: Just before Zao runs to the helicopter, he smashes nearly all the glass out of a stained-glass window. There's then an explosion which removes what little glass remains. But when the rubble lands and blocks the window, there's still a decent amount of glass left in the frame. (00:44:30)
Continuity mistake: Jinx shoots the doctor twice, once through the cheque, and once in the neck/throat. In the next scene, the two bullet holes are in his upper left chest. Plus when Bond finds him, there's no blood on the body. (00:44:40)
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)
Continuity mistake: During the scene where James Bond and Gustav Graves are having their sword fight Gustav cuts James' knee but for the rest of the scene there is no blood. (00:54:59)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the Bond/Graves sword fight (after Miranda has stepped between them), in the close-up of Bond, he lowers his sword. In the long shot a fraction of a second later, it's raised in front of him again. (00:56:25)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the fencing battle between Graves and Bond, Graves has a nasty cut on his right cheek near his ear. When he and Bond meet again in Iceland the following weekend, his right side is shown close up and there is no sign of this despite only being a few days later. (00:56:33)
Continuity mistake: Bond opens up the necklace that Zao had and there are 4 diamonds inside. Later when he shows them to M it changes to 5. Where did that extra diamond come from? It can't be that Graves gave him another one after Bond's bet - that was settled by cheque. (00:59:50)
Continuity mistake: During the training program, Bond shoots M to make the gunman release her. We then cut to a closeup of Bond shooting, and you can see the slide cycles, then locks back (it's a quick shot, but the earlier shot of him shooting at M shows how quickly the slide should move forwards), showing the gun's out of ammo, despite only having reloaded 4 shots earlier. It then cuts to the gunman being hit, and Bond fires again. Now that's some speedy reloading... (01:01:30)
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: On the old subway platform when Q is about to introduce Bond to his "new transportation," they both look on as Q clicks a control to bring forth the carriage that has the still invisible Vanquish on it. The carriage almost passes them already when the shot cuts to another angle, and this time the carriage is still approaching on the railtrack from a bit farther away. Also, Q's right arm is now up holding the remote control, when in the previous shot just a second ago it was straight down by his side. (01:05:41)
Continuity mistake: We can see the ice palace surrounded by mountains and icebergs, but when Bond escapes Icarus, they're gone. (01:05:45)
Continuity mistake: When Gustav Graves arrives in his ice-slidey-vehicle, in the long shot the top starts to slide open, but in a closeup it's shut, and his assistant opens it. Plus he has the helmet in his hand when the glass lid is opened, but his head was so close to the top of the glass that there is no room for him to remove the helmet with the cockpit shut. (01:06:30)
Answer: By this stage, it's become a habit.
J I Cohen