Factual error: During the scene in which Bond escapes from MI6 custody, after inducing a drop in heartbeat, he seizes the defibrillator paddles and uses them to shock the two male orderlies. However, only one of those paddles would have administered a shock. The other one is only there to form a circuit for the electric charge. Therefore, at best, it should only have shocked one of the orderlies. (00:25:15)
Factual error: Towards the end of the film as the helicopter tumbles through the sky after it has fallen out of the plane, Jinx looks back from the cockpit and sees the diamonds in a neat pile spilling out of the door. Surely if the helicopter has been tumbling through the sky, they would be scattered all over the place. (01:59:10)
Factual error: During the car chase scene on the ice, the green Jaguar fires a minigun at Bond's car several times. Amazingly, Bond's car doesnt even have a scratch on it. Even if the car was bullet proof, it would still have large dents and scratches, not to mention the large cracks in the glass, the likes of which could be seen when Q fires a pistol at a sheet of bullet proof glass earlier in the film. (01:33:45)
Factual error: Fencing jackets are reinforced on the weapon arm and zip up on the opposite side. Thus a right handed fencer has the closure on the left. Bond is fencing right handed but is wearing a left-handed jacket. (00:51:40)
Factual error: At the beginning of the movie Bond places 2 pieces of C4 explosive in the case. This amount of explosive will be enough to level a small house, but Zao, who's standing about 2 metres from it, survives with only a few scars. (00:03:05)
Factual error: The 'Vauxhall Cross' Tube Station appears to be on the south bank next to Westminster Bridge across from Parliament, but it is a Piccadilly Line station, which does not cross the Thames. You can tell from the tilework because it was filmed in Aldwych, which is a real, abandoned station on the Piccadilly Line - there is a sign that reads 'Piccadilly Line' in one shot. (01:03:35)
Factual error: In the scene where Gustav Graves performs his skydiving publicity stunt, at landing Gustav fails to flare (i.e. bringing both toggles towards his groin) at an appropriate height to create enough lift and allow for a safer landing. He only appears to apply half brakes when he has nearly touched the ground. In reality Gustav would have seriously injured himself and the canopy would have traveled forwards towards the press not remained above him as shown in the scene. Also, it can be seen that Gustav has a harness attached to his legs, there is no way that he would have been able to detach himself from his parachute and walk so fluently after landing.
Factual error: In the scene where James Bond is cutting through the ice with the watch laser, we clearly see that the ice is (at most) 15cm thick - yet there are dozens of cars parked on the same ice. They'd have fallen straight through. (01:19:45)
Factual error: In the scene where Korean military officers are looking at a map of the Korean Peninsula (ignoring for a moment that the Koreans' map is in English), the map's description of the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago is a glaring error to anyone who knows about East Asian history. Most of the world knows of this body of water as the "Sea of Japan," but both North and South Korea have always called it by its historic name, the East Sea. The South Koreans are actively involved - with some considerable success - in an effort to get cartographers, governments, and international organizations to change the name back to East Sea, or at least have both Sea of Japan and East Sea recognized. At any rate, since the issue involves a good deal of lingering resentment owing to Japan's brutal forty-year occupation of Korea, absolutely no Korean-made map would label this body of water only as "Sea of Japan."
Factual error: In the hovercraft chase scene at the beginning, when the Korean hovercraft flips over and hits the small bunker, it can be seen that it's got a flat, metal body on the underside - but they should have lift fans there; with no lift fans, they would not be able to float at all. (00:09:35)
Factual error: Hovercrafts would set off the land mines. Land mines have a pressure limit that has to be exceeded to set it off. This is normally around 5 kilos so that they aren't set off by rabbits and what not. A hover craft would exert more than 5 kilos of down force. So the land mines should still go off, but they don't.
Factual error: Iceland has no vegetation above the size of birches and willows, which rather spoils the scene with Mr. Bond crashing through a patch of firs (or whatever those needle trees were)... (01:32:14)
Factual error: In the hovercraft chase scene Colonel Moon orders the crew of two smaller hovercraft to turn around and attack James. They hear him instantly despite the noise, the distance and the fact that all four of them are looking in another direction.
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).
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.
Factual error: After the window of the plane is shot out, the aircraft dips into a major dive which Jinx struggles to rectify. There's no reason this would happen simply due to decompression - that would be uncomfortable for the passengers but not affect the plane's flight characteristics.
Factual error: In the scene with the mining lasers, Mr.Kill positions a laser to be able to cut off Jinx's head. If you'll notice, the laser is still on and firing as he moves it. The way it spins down to get by Jinx, the trajectory would have already cut through Jinx. And even if not, it would have damaged the table she is on. However, when it cuts to the next shot showing the laser next to her head, there is no damage to the table, except to where the laser is directly contacting the table at that moment. No other damage is visible, despite it being on while being moved into position.
Factual error: The invisible car cannot possibly work as it is described in the film, by projecting an image of things that are 'behind' the car onto the side that is being viewed. This ignores parallax effects - the things that are 'behind' the car change, depending on the distance and angle from which the car is being viewed. Two people standing next to each other, on the same side of the car, would need to see two entirely different images projected.
Answer: By this stage, it's become a habit.
J I Cohen