Octopussy

Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, Bond chases Khan following the battle at Octopussy's mansion. In the short time it takes to run to a nearby plane, it turns from pitch darkness to bright sunshine.

Continuity mistake: When Bond is taking off with his Mini-Jet, he nearly hits the jeeps and trucks that are chasing him. The landing gear is still down. After the cut, you can see the scene from the other side, and now the gear is suddenly up. There is no interruption between the two shots, not even the two or three seconds the gear takes to retract.

Octopussy mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Bond takes off in the plane, we see - in one shot from Bond's view - the Cubans approaching. The background is a flat (English) countryside. In the next clip, we see a close-up of one of the Cubans. behind him are quite large hills/mountains. (00:04:55)

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When Bond passes under the Autobahn bridge you can see the traffic is very slow. But seconds before - when Bond's car left the Autobahn, there was no traffic congestion. (01:45:15)

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When we see Q fishing, the lighting is totally different from when he's seen from the back in the next clip. Also the bank rises close behind him when seen from the front, but in the next clip the camera position is further back. Those are not shot in the same place. (01:09:30)

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When Bond's Mercedes is on the railroad tracks, it is hit head on by an oncoming train. As it is shown sailing in the air backwards, it is very clear that the drive-train has been removed. When the car is shown again, it is now sailing nose first as it hits the water.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The drive-train hasn't been removed, it's just damage to the car from being hit by the larger and more powerful train. Surely a head-on crash would with a train wouldn't just leave a few scratches on the front of the car.

Look at pictures of cars hit at high speeds; the drivetrain does not just fall out, everything forward would have compacted towards the firewall of the car, and the rear differential is attached in many places on the chassis and certainly wouldn't have just disappeared.

demodon

Continuity mistake: Just before the clown hits the embassy window the lighting changes significantly between shots. There are some strange reflections when he hits the glass, which were not there a millisecond before. (00:12:30)

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: In the final scene on the plane, Roger Moore and Maude Adams jump from the plane over the cliff. Moore grabs a crack in the rock. The next overhead shot his hand is by his head. Next shot it is in the crack again.

Continuity mistake: When Bond and the twin fall off the train, Bond's movements do not make sense. In the first clip they are both moving away from the train. In the next clip they are rolling partly along the tracks, partly towards them. In the next clip Bond is rolling forward straight into the bushes. (01:40:25)

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: In the opening story, Bond flies in the small plane with a single jet engine. When the plane approaches the hangar to fly through it (the shot taken FROM the hangar towards the plane) you can see that the plane has TWO engines at the back.

Continuity mistake: The knife-thrower attempts to use a welder to temporarily blind Bond - we can see in that shot that it's an acetylene torch. However, in earlier shots when the welder is being used (off-camera), the sound is that of an arc welder.

Octopussy mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Bond is fighting the twin on the top of the train, there is a carriage behind them, but when both of them fall off the train, the carriage has suddenly disappeared.

Continuity mistake: When Bond and M are driving through Berlin, in the outside shots, their car is a Mercedes-Benz Type W123 standard wheelbase sedan. In the take when the driver is talking, he's driving that vehicle. When the camera switches to Bond and M in the back seat, it's a long-wheelbase V123 Pullman sedan, evidence being the large pop out rear quarter windows and M leaning forward to open his door. (01:17:57)

Continuity mistake: When the Mercedes is hit by the train head on, the car flies through the air boot first, and not turning. When it hits the water the car has turned around and is now engine first.

Continuity mistake: During the rickshaw chase 30 minutes in, all external shots show that it has a clear plastic windscreen in front of the driver's face, but in all of the close up shots of the driver the camera is mounted on the rickshaw filming him and the windscreen is gone. (00:30:00 - 00:35:00)

Continuity mistake: Gobinda kills the two helpers at the Monsoon Palace and throws them on the floor in the freezer and we hear the thumps. Minutes later Bond hides in the freezer. The bodies now hang on meat hooks, and have already turned gray.

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When we see the Monsoon Palace from the lake, it is set very high on a barren brown mountain. When Bond escapes on foot, he very quickly is in a dense and moist jungle - and walking out in a low-lying marsh land with a wide river. That can't be the same lake, since we don't see him running down a steep barren cliff-side.

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: Octopussy is standing next to her bed when Bond comes to kiss her. They kiss. In the next shot when they lay down on the bed they are inside the golden 'legs' of the bed. But they didn't move sideways and definitely did not step over the leg. (01:12:15)

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: When 009 is knifed in the back, the knife goes in all the way to the handle. When he crawls out of the water, the blade is visible. And if the knife had moved out by itself, it would be loose and would have fallen out.

Jacob La Cour

Plot hole: Bond would not have had (nor taken himself) time to lay a complete and careful clown make-up while changing clothes in the circus trailer.

Jacob La Cour

More mistakes in Octopussy

General Anatoly Gogol: My government categorically denies the incident ever occurred.

More quotes from Octopussy

Trivia: The "blink and you'll miss it" part of Smithers (Q's assistant, who triggers the powerful door-slam) is played by Jeremy Bulloch. Only worth noting because we see his face for once, as he's most famous for a part where he wears a mask - Boba Fett in the Star Wars sequels.

Jon Sandys

More trivia for Octopussy

Question: The opening scene shows a military base with an equestrian event taking pace, which Bond infiltrates and places a bomb in an aircraft before getting caught, then escapes with the aid of his assistant and a small jet aircraft. How was this related to the rest of the plot?

Answer: It wasn't meant to be related at all. It was just an action sequence to start off the film as Bond completes a previous assignment before a segue into the familiar 007 opening theme and a new song. I recall there were some other earlier Bond films that also used this formula. After the opening bit, the story starts as Bond meets with "M" for a new mission, then a briefing with "Q" about the latest spy gadgets. There was also the obligatory flirtatious banter between Bond and Miss Moneypenny.

raywest

I see what you mean. I'm thinking of those films where the opening scene has some link to the main plot (e.g. The Spy Who Loved Me), but Moonraker is like this one, it starts off (spectacularly) with Bond at the end of a previous assignment.

More questions & answers from Octopussy

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