Diamonds Are Forever

Continuity mistake: 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-wheelers also chasing, but looks like it belongs to the buggy, which has its full complement of wheels all through the scene.

Revealing mistake: 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.

Diamonds Are Forever mistake picture Video

Deliberate mistake: 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 a somewhat clunky 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.

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.

Visible crew/equipment: When Bond climbs off 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.

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

Nicki

Factual error: While Bond and Franks are fighting in the lift, you can hear glass breaking. However, when Franks picks up a shard of it to stab Bond, you can see it's really a piece of Plexiglass. When Franks is forced to let go of the shard, his hand shows no cuts or blood, which would have been unavoidable the way he had been holding it.

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

Continuity mistake: After fighting off Bambi and Thumper and dunking the girls in the swimming pool, Bond is dripping wet. A few shots later, when Bond and the men walk down the stairs to the door, Bond is bone dry. Then, when he walks into the room, he is all wet again.

Revealing mistake: When Bond is in the trunk of the car, being taken out of the lower level of the Whyte 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 mistake: When the Hovercraft pulls away, you can see a passenger look out his window and wave directly at the camera.

Continuity mistake: 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 mistake: 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.

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.

Continuity mistake: 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.

Jacob La Cour

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 mistake: 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).

Revealing mistake: 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, taking them out, but watch the guy who is 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 puzzled, and then falls down a bit later as he finally realises what he was supposed to do.

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.

Jacob La Cour

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.

Plenty: Hi, I'm Plenty.
James Bond: But of course you are.
Plenty: Plenty O'Toole.
James Bond: Named after your father, perhaps?

More quotes from Diamonds Are Forever

Trivia: When Bond first meets Tiffany Case in her apartment, she is playing some music. If you listen carefully, you will notice that it is the theme song for the film.

More trivia for Diamonds Are Forever

Question: Why does the archvillain Ernst Blofeld want to eliminate the diamond smugglers (including Tiffany Chase) via his two assassins?

Onesimos

Chosen answer: Blofeld and Spectre has enough diamonds for the laser he is building to hold the Earth hostage. In typical Spectre fashion, since he is finished with the operation, he wants to leave no loose ends that could tie Spectre into the mix.

Zwn Annwn

More questions & answers from Diamonds Are Forever

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