Corrected entry: In the "You Know My Name" intro sequence, there comes a point where the Seven of Hearts card flies up, to have two bullet holes in it to make 007. This is unlikely as the numbers and letters on most playing cards are marked in the top left corner, making it difficult to spell "007".
Corrected entry: In the poker hand between Dimitrios and Bond, the dealer announces that Bond has won with "trip aces." In fact, he has won with "a set of aces." A set means that the player has been dealt a pair, then flops a third to make three of a kind. Trips means that the player has not been dealt a pair, but the flop brings two more of the same kind to make three of a kind. It is not an uncommon error in terminology.
Correction: If it's "not an uncommon error", then this is a character mistake.
Corrected entry: In the final poker showdown, the odds simply are not in favor of the 4 remaining players having such powerful hands. The odds of those four hands occurring simultaneously is 1 in 1,931,990,034,744,000 - or to put it another way, if every human on Earth was in a Texas Hold'em tournament at the same time, that would not happen until the 320 millionth hand was dealt. I know we have to suspend reality to enjoy the movie, but that is a bit much.
Correction: It can and does happen with 5 community cards. I've personally been in a hand where a heart flush, four of a kind and a straight flush to the Queen (my hand), all lost to a straight flush to the King.
Corrected entry: Bond won $114 million at the casino ($115 million, less the $1 million tip to the dealer). Vesper was able to withdraw the money (extremely quickly, by the way, but that's a mistake for another day), and carry the money away in a small briefcase. $114 million on $100 dollar bills would be extremely heavy (1.14 million notes weighing one gram each), something in the order of 1,140 kilograms.
Correction: I could be incorrect, but I don't believe it's ever explicitly stated that the briefcase is filled with $114 million in cash. Just that Vesper withdrew the money somehow. Something like bearer bonds or some sort of equivalency is mostly like what's inside the case. Something that would break the money down into smaller individualized transactions, but be small and easily transportable. (In fact, a few years back, a briefcase with over $130 billion worth of counterfeit bonds - 1000X more - was found being smuggled.)
I thought about that, but the US and EU don't use bearer bonds anymore, for the same reason it was favoured by drug dealers. And you'd still have the problem that the bank would happen to have that amount of bonds ready to go so quickly... I know, movie logic, but still.
Corrected entry: When Bond has the cardiac arrest M is watching the number of his pulse and we hear the beeps. We hear the pulse slow down, but the number just changes from 134 to 133. The sound of the beeps indicate a pulse much slower than that - maybe only around 60.
Correction: It is possible to have an electrical rate of 133 (what M sees), but it only corresponds to an actual (felt) rate of 60. There are a lot of technical, medical reasons for this, but I have seen it many times in my patients that are about to code.
Corrected entry: In an early scene, the setting is listed as Uganda. As Bond chases his target through a construction site, one can see the ocean. Uganda is a land locked nation.
Correction: These are completely different scenes. The Ugandan scenes involve Le Chiffre visiting the terrorists to discuss handling their money. The sequence with Bond chasing the bomb-maker across the construction site takes place in Madagascar, which is an island.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Bond is chasing the bomb maker through the construction site, Bond jumps on a 'pneumatic lift' where he breaks off the gas pipe and the 'lift' falls. The 'lift' is seen to change colour from red to yellow twice as we cut between shots.
Corrected entry: In the torture scene, LeChiffre tells Bond that he needs the account number from Vesper and he will easily get it by torturing her. However, before the torture scene, LeChiffre threw Vesper out of the car and onto the road whereupon Bond wrecks his car and is captured. It makes no sense for LeChiffre to risk Vesper's life by throwing her out onto the road in front of Bond's car until after he gets the account number from her. If Bond hits Vesper with the car, she's dead and the account number goes with her. It only makes sense for LeChiffre to cause Bond to crash by throwing Vesper onto the road if LeChiffre knows that Bond will miss her and crash; but of course there's no way for LeChiffre to know that.
Correction: That's only a mistake from our point of view earlier in the film - given Vesper's involvement, there's no way to be sure that she's not given him the number voluntarily already, meaning he doesn't actually need her alive (callous but true) so can take any risks with her he likes. Regardless at most it's a character mistake.
Corrected entry: After James Bond has just won the poker game at Casino Royale, he tips the croupier with a £500,000 chip. In this game, the chips only have nominal value and cannot be cashed in as all the money is being held by the casino to be paid out on the entering of the winner's password. The chip is therefore worthless.
Correction: It's not at all unreasonable to think that the casino deducts handling fees and tips from the prize money. Pretty negligible amounts from 130 million dollars. It's also reasonable to think that the tip will be billed to Bond's account at the hotel, footed by MI6.
Correction: I've played in and watched many tournaments where the winner will toss the dealer a chip as a promise of a tip from the winnings. While the act itself is symbolic, it's a gesture to the dealer that a tip is coming.
Corrected entry: The password for the money has 5 letters, but later Vesper puts in 6 letters; her name Vesper, the password, has 6 letters.
Correction: Bond definitely pushes 6 buttons to enter the password the first time. 1H 10M.
Corrected entry: When Bond and Solange see each other on the beach, in the shot where Bond first comes out of the water (close up) there are several people in the background and a boat moving left of frame. However in the next wide shot of him everyone around him disappears and there is now a boat moving right of the frame. (00:30:30)
Correction: It's just the angles - the first shot is from Bond's left, and he's looking slightly over his shoulder towards Solange. The next shot where everyone vanishes is from straight on - the people around him are to the left, offscreen, and the boat moving right of frame we actually saw in the earlier shot, heading left to right, and it ends up in the right place.
Corrected entry: During the first big poker game between Bond and Le Chiffre they are playing Texas Hold 'Em. Bond and Le Chiffre are the only players left in the game. During the final betting interval, Bond "calls" Le Chiffre, meaning he matches his bet. The dealer says to Le Chiffre, "Monsieur, you have been called. Showdown, please." Le Chiffre displays his cards, revealing a full house. Bond puts his cards face-down and says "Fold." You may not fold during a showdown. A player may not throw away his hand without showing it merely because a previous player has announced a higher-ranking hand; every player who is 'in on the call' must expose his full hand face up on the table in the showdown. You can only fold during the betting interval when it's your turn to bet.
Correction: This is simply not true. The rules allow a player to "muck" his or her hand at anytime, even after calling. If a player wants to muck his hand, he can announce he folds, as Bond did. Rules do allow for a player to see the mucked hand of someone involved in a showdown, but Le Chiffre did not ask. There was no Texas Hold 'Em rule violation and no mistake.
Corrected entry: In casting Daniel Craig as the new James Bond, the filmmakers broke with the tradition, starting with Roger Moore, of using an actor who had previously been up for the role. (Sean Connery had been chosen over Moore, Moore over Timothy Dalton, and Dalton as a last-minute replacement for Pierce Brosnan.).
Correction: In Roger Moore's book he wrote that he was never approached to play Bond in Dr. No.
The Inside Dr. No documentary has archival footage of producer Harry Saltzman saying they planned to use Roger Moore in Dr. No, but he was unavailable.
This doesn't necessarily mean they contacted Roger Moore directly. The producers could have found out about Moore's schedule from another source, thus never bothering to approach him.
Corrected entry: Mathis is keeping an extremely close watch on the chips; when everyone is "all in" at the end of the game Mathis tells Vesper that there is 115 million in the pot. At the hospital Mendel explains to Bond and Vesper that he is rushing because "120 million is a lot of money. The extra $5 million can't be the extra cash Bond had access to, because Vesper didn't allow it to be used.
Correction: The extra 5 million was the amount Bond had that would not have actually been at risk. Had he lost, he would have had $5 mil left to try and recover, but with LeChiffre having $115 mil, he may as well have been all in. However, Bond's final count would be the 115 of the pot, plus the extra 5 not at risk.
Corrected entry: At the end of the poker game in Bahamas, Bond gives the opportunity to the other player to get his money back by accepting his car as a bet. Then the car keys are placed on the pot. Bond wins the hand, and before leaving the table, asks for the valet parking ticket, which is handed to him. If the car was on valet parking, the other player shouldn't have been able to provide the car keys at that moment.
Correction: It's not unheard of for people to carry a second key on a different chain with them in case they get locked out or if they want to leave the car running or a number of reasons. I do it.
Corrected entry: When Bond drinks the drugged Martini, he more or less bottoms-up the glass. But when he looks at the glass after feeling the drug it is at least half full.
Corrected entry: When Vesper lowers herself into the water while inside the elevator, the elevator car's "roof" is shown. As the car falls, the roof lifts completely away from the rest of the car, which would allow Bond quick and easy access. There are also many gaps in the bars and wire mesh that make up the elevator shaft that are large enough to easily allow both Bond and Vesper to pass through simultaneously. There's no reason Bond should have followed Vesper down from outside the shaft and attempted to break the elevator door open - he could have got to her from above, quickly and easily, whether she wanted him to or not. (02:13:30)
Correction: The roof does not lift completely off - the roof structure is clearly still in place after the lift goes into the water. One side can be seen to flap upwards (although not come off) as it goes down the shaft, but the image is not clear enough to show what might be underneath - given the need to stand on the roof for maintenance on occasion, there is likely to be a strong support structure underneath that could easily block access. Bond's decision to attempt to gain access through the comparatively weak door structure makes good sense.
Corrected entry: When Bond is hunting the bomb terrorist at the beginning, they both cross a fence of a building site. At the bottom of the fence is a heap of sand. When the terrorist crosses, the heap approximately reaches the middle of the fence. When Bond crosses a second later, the heap is suddenly higher, although the bulldozer, that is dumping sand, doesn't reach to the fence. Maybe it was to make it a little more comfortable for Daniel Craig to roll over it. (00:10:55)
Corrected entry: When Vesper puts her red dress on in the hotel room in Venice she isn't wearing a bra. When Bond and her walk down the stairs, a bra strap is visible across her back.
Corrected entry: Towards the end of the movie, Vesper goes to the bank and withdraws the 120 million dollars to deliver to Mr. White. Next we see her carrying a silver briefcase through the streets of Venice. Then after she's dead, Mr. White presumably fishes it out of the water, and we see him carry it off, but what is in it? Certainly not 120 million dollars or money of any denomination. It would never fit.
Correction: Bearer or corporate bonds would easily have fit into a briefcase of that size, even in the amount of 120 million dollars.
Correction: This is a stylized opening credits sequence, and is not meant to portray real life.
wizard_of_gore ★