Corrected entry: When Bond's mini-jet runs out of fuel, he coasts into a back-water gas station and tells the attendant to fill it up. However, jet engines do not run on gasoline. They burn jet fuel, which is essentially kerosene.
Corrected entry: When Bond flies the mini-jet through the hangar, he banks the wings to get through the closing doors, to the point where the wings are vertical as the plane exits the building. The problem is, aircraft are turned by banking the wings; if the wings are banked, the aircraft is turning, and the greater the bank, the tighter the turn. The hangar would have had to be almost u-shaped for Bond to have made it through.
Correction: It is perfectly possible to fly a straight line in a vertical-wing position - also known as knife-edge - for a limited time, even near ground level. While it is true that the vector of the wings' lift acts sideways during that, you can compensate that motion by changing the angle of attack with the elevator. At the speed of an airplane, the deflection would be 1-3m max on the length of that hangar anyways. To compensate for the missing lift, you'd use a bit of rudder and the momentum of the plane.
Corrected entry: After a long chase through the Indian streets, Bond goes to MI6's local HQ and gives the egg to Q to put a tracking device/bug into it. This was the same egg Bond showed off at the casino and was why he was being chased. Since MI6 had complete possession of the egg after Bond switched for it at the auction, they could have put the tracking device on it at any time before Bond took it to the casino. It makes no sense for Bond to risk losing the egg before it is properly adorned with the bug, especially given the risk he takes tempting Kamal Khan with it at the casino.
Correction: Bond asks Q "Is the tracking device ready?", thus detailing why it wasn't installed back in London. It is of course true that Bond probably shouldn't have risked the egg before it was properly bugged - but he is rash and daredevil by nature and loves playing situations by ear, so he seems to have trusted his abilities to protect the egg.
Corrected entry: In the scene in the walk-in cooler at Kahn's palace you don't see any breath - neither from Bond nor from the two guys picking up the bodies.
Correction: It isn't supposed to be a refrigerated room in the modern sense, but a cold room in the traditional sense: a thick-walled chamber in the basement that keeps relatively cool even in the hot summer. If you look closely, there isn't any ice or frost anywhere. Also it was probably meant as a butcher shop first and as a cold room only second: When Gobinda checks in because he finds the door open, cleavers, bone saws and knives can be hanging on the wall. As for why Bond has his collar turned up: when attuned to a hot climate, even the 15°C of a naturally cool room would seem quite cold.
Corrected entry: Bond says he heard the name Octopussy at Kamal's. In fact he heard it in his hotel room after sleeping with Magda when she described her tattoo.
Corrected entry: When General Orloff runs to his car, shouts "driver" and grabs the door handle, there is no one in the car.
Correction: When he calls for the driver it is clear to see that the driver stands in front of the car. So he shouts for him to start the chase. So I think this is the order for the driver to enter the car and follow Bond.
Corrected entry: When the clown falls into the water in Berlin, and floats down river, it is obviously a dummy - check the strangely wrinkled forehead.
Correction: The strangely wrinkled forehead is actually the latex from the clown wig 009 is wearing.
Corrected entry: What did the jewellery smuggling and the fake jewels have to do with the A-bomb? It wasn't payment to Kamal for services rendered, since the jewelry was transferred to General Orlov's car while Gobinda was watching. Kamal and Orlov could easily have placed a bomb in the circus without the jewelry-story.
Correction: Kamal and Orlov are using Octopussy's circus to smuggle the bomb into the air base. The circus is one of her many legitimate business ventures used to circumvent customs and border security as she smuggles jewels. She thinks she has been working with Kamal and Orlov to sell Russian jewels on the black market. Orlov steals the jewels and replaces them with fakes created by Kamal, and gives the real ones to Octopussy to smuggle out of Soviet territory. 009 discovered this and stole the Faberge egg, probably thinking Orlov was using the funds to secretly finance a covert Soviet operation. The jewels exchanged for the bomb were a necessary ruse because Octopussy wasn't really a bad guy who would go along with a plot to kill thousands in a nuclear explosion. So Orlov and Kamal had to make her think she was smuggling jewels so she wouldn't think anything was wrong. As Orlov explains when he takes delivery of the fake jewels, Kamal was to gain the real ones as payment after the bomb exploded. Orlov had to take the jewels with him after switching them out for the bomb because Kamal had to continue on with the train, and letting Orlov hold onto them was easier than Kamal having to smuggle them across the border into Western Europe and then hold onto them as he escaped, and then smuggle them back to India (presumably it's easier for Orlov to smuggle them back to India through Soviet controlled Afghanistan). But seeing Bond on the train, Orlov felt the need to warn his accomplices, which is why he made a break for the border.
Corrected entry: When Bond falls between the railway carriages fighting the man with the scimitar, the brake hose is sliced and Bond sprays him with the air rushing out. If these lines are cut or broken, the brakes in the entire train come on automatically and stop the train, they cannot be cut and the train keep moving. I am a train driver, and this is called (obviously) "Losing all your air" and stops a train quick smart.
Correction: As this is a steam train, and given the henchman's reaction to getting the gas in his face, I suspect these may be steam heat pipes rather than air brake pipes.
Corrected entry: The performance of the Octopussy Circus is amazing. After the performers left K-M-Stadt by train, the Russian soldier explains in the train that the maximum delay of explosion for the bomb is four hours. After the train has crossed the inner-German border, Gobinda activates the bomb, which will be deactivated by Bond just in time. Within these four hours: 1) the circus goes about 100 km from the border to the US base "Feldstadt" near Nürnberg (to be seen by the "N" on the numberplates of the police cars) 2) the circus celebrates a parade through Feldstadt 3) the circus people put up the tent 4) the circus performs a whole show.
Correction: Most circuses had more than one train so that the tents etc could be set up by the time the rest of the circus arrived. Octopussy's Circus also has more than one train as there are no vehicles in the train for carrying animals, yet the circus has elephants and horses. So it's likely the tent had already been erected at the air base by the time the circus train arrives. It also wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume the train doing an average speed of 60mph, which would have it arriving in Neustadt at around 1pm - plenty of time for a parade before the circus begins at 3pm. And there isn't a complete show performed - the bomb is timed to go off 45 mins in whilst most people are in the tent. However the performance is cancelled after the bomb is discovered.
Corrected entry: There is no way Bond has time to switch the Faberge eggs. You can see his fingers the whole way below the booklet. His finger position does not change. It is impossible that he opened his fingers and grabbed the other egg in that motion. (00:21:50)
Correction: I have re-watched this scene dozens of times; in the fraction of a second that his hand is behind the booklet a person with good sleight-of-hand skills could drop one egg and pick up another. Not very likely that he could have made the switch and positioned his hand on the fake egg exactly as it was on the real egg, but not impossible.
Corrected entry: At the end of Octopussy, in the credits it says "James Bond will return in From A View To A Kill"; but the film he returns in is just called "A View To A Kill."
Correction: Trivia, not a movie mistake. At the time of Octopussy's release, the upcoming film was still called From A View To A Kill until its title was changed later on.
Corrected entry: Q isn't a field agent, so why would they send him over to keep surveillance on Bond while he's in Octopussy's island mansion?
Correction: This is a question, not a mistake. Q was already there to give Bond his equipment. This was a low-risk assignment keeping watch on Bond from across the lake (even though it did prove fatal to Vijay). It is never specified in the series if Q is or is not trained as a field agent, but he does relish the opportunity to get out in the field on several occasions.
Corrected entry: Kamal says, "The egg has been recovered" to Octopussy. And then, "You should be pleased." She replies, "I'm not pleased; it was stolen in the first place." Well, Kamal just brought the original egg back - but it was the fake that was stolen.
Correction: She's pissed that her security wasn't good enough to prevent it from being stolen, real or fake.
Corrected entry: How does old Q manage to float into the middle of a gun battle in the castle, knocking out some soldiers, without being at least shot at by a stray bullet? He doesn't even take cover in the basket. And when he lands, his balloon stays inflated and still nobody shoots at it. Fat chance of the bad guys hitting James Bond if they can't hit a hot air balloon.
Correction: This happens during the most intense part of the battle. Khan's henchmen have their hands full with Octopussy's gang, who have already taken out all the men on the walls and towers - thus clearing the path for the balloon.
Corrected entry: When Bond and Khan are playing backgammon, Khan says that Bond "must" throw a double 6. But Khan's pieces are on the 3&4 spaces, which would not guarantee him a win.
Correction: Bond has four pieces on the board at 2, 3, 6 and 6 (a close-up shows this). So a double-six is the only single roll that would win.
Corrected entry: When Bond is taken prisoner in the opening sequence, all we see in the background is flat ground and some hills. But when Bond flies the mini jet back to the base, he seems to be flying over what looks like a canyon. Talk about changing geography.
Correction: The AcroStar (Bede BD-5J) microjet Bond is flying can do 600km an hour - if we was in the air for ten minutes he'd be 100km from the Air Force base from which he escaped. Plenty of space for a major change in the geography.
Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie Bond's predecessor is killed in the line of duty while clutching a counterfeit Faberge egg. In an effort to sniff out the counterfeiters Bond attends a Sotheby's event where the real egg is being put up for auction. When bond returns to headquarters, we're told and Bond modestly brags to his superiors that through careful slight of hand he switched his counterfeit egg with the real egg during the bidding process. So the buyer (the bad guy) purchased the fake egg instead. Back at headquarters (after the auction/switch scene) Q inserts a bugging device in what would have to be the real egg. Later in the movie however, the fake egg is destroyed over an argument between the two bad guys which results in the bug being exposed. How did the bug get implanted into the fake egg? Q put the bug into the real egg after Bond came back to headquarters from the auction.
Correction: General Orlov destroyed the real egg. That is why Kamal Khan is so "shocked" when he does it since he wanted to keep the real one. General Orlov believes it is the fake egg though and crushes it.
Corrected entry: After James and the Yo-Yo assassin fall into the water, one of them is eaten by a crocodile/alligator. We see the arms of the victim being pulled under and he has sleeves. This must be James, as the Indian had no shirt on.
Correction: Soon after Bond is eaten by the alligator, there's a shot of Q on the bank where he was fishing. The alligator pulls up next to Q and Bond pops out. It was just an invention, not a real alligator.
Corrected entry: The cannon is too big to fit in to the railway freight carriage, as the loading doors are in the wrong place for this size of equipment.
Correction: The cannon was probably loaded into the carriage, disassembled, and then reassembled inside the carriage.
Correction: You never actually see the attendant fill up the plane. The statement from Bond may be no more than one of his usual wisecracks - after all, he is relieved that he successfully completed his mission and escaped across the border. On the other hand, turbine engines can usually handle a much wider variety of fuels than piston engines - and not all run on kerosene, many require aircraft gasoline in the first place. Even without tinkering from the Q branch, the chances aren't bad that the engine would have run on either gasoline or diesel. (After Q has been left alone with it, who can tell what it would run on?).
Doc ★
Added explanation: Many people seem to think that aircraft fuel is some sort of a magical mixture of stardust and newt eyes. Not so. Kerosene and aircraft gasoline are remarkably similar to diesel and regular gasoline respectively, only with much more predictable and stable properties. Any gasoline engine will purr along happily on aircraft gasoline. A diesel car would probably run fine on JP1, A modern, highly efficient TDI might have some trouble coping, as JP1 - also known as "kerosene" - is less viscous than diesel fuel.
Doc ★