Factual error: The 15 bus in London does not go over Westminster Bridge.
Factual error: In the balloon scene, it seems like Q can circle around and land on a spot where he flew past previously. A balloon can only fly in the direction of the wind.
Factual error: During the boat chase scene, Bond throws a grappling hook/anchor from the old boat he is driving onto the deck of the rubber boat "riding" his. The rubber boat is then violently yanked off of Bond's boat and crashes. This makes no sense. For the rubber boat to be yanked off that way, the other end of the anchor line would have to be tied to something stationary. However, the other end of the line is just lying in Bond's boat. There's even a shot of it sitting there.
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: In the scenes at Miami Airport, you see numerous CSA planes (Czech Airlines). Czech Airlines offer no direct flights to Miami. However, Prague Airport, where this scene was shot, is full of CSA planes. (00:44:50)
Factual error: As Bond is preparing for the HALO skydive, he is warned that he has to freefall for 5 miles, and without oxygen, he will be asphyxiated. However, he jumps from a non-pressurized aircraft. Surely, when the back hatch opened, the other people standing around would either also start to suffocate or be sucked out.
Factual error: When Oddjob has the Lincoln crushed at the junkyard, it is smashed into a small rectangle, and dropped into the little falcon pickup. Even though the crushed car fits into the bed of the Falcon, it still weighs at least 2 tons. That weight would have dropped the back of the truck to the ground, but the truck doesn't even squat a few inches, let alone being able to handle that load with the tyres it has. (01:16:55)
Factual error: When the air hose on the truck is severed, the brakes release. In reality, on an air-braking system, if the air hose is severed, the brakes lock on as a safety measure.
Factual error: Austria is famous for its mountains and ski resorts, but certain parts of Austria are quite flat. And the border region between Bratislava and Vienna is VERY flat. No chance to cross the border over a mountain with a ski resort like shown in the movie, unless you take a 600km detour with three more border crossings.
Factual error: Two rocket lift-offs are shown. For the American lift-off, they show an Atlas-Agena (American) rocket booster but for the Soviet lift-off, they show a Gemini-Titan (also American) rocket booster. Compounding the mixup is that the film's Jupiter capsules are basically just Gemini craft, which are seen atop what the film presents as the Russian rocket.
Factual error: When M and his entourage arrive at Bond's estate, their cars are surrounded by sheep. They then drive on down an unsurfaced road to Bond's house, past a pride of lions he keeps on the grounds. A series of sweeping overhead shots shows us that it is all one huge field, with no fences or the like. Those sheep aren't going to last very long.
Factual error: Although it's already been mentioned that the scene of the shuttle being stolen from the back of the 747 is impossible because the shuttle wouldn't be fueled while being transported, it should also be noted that even if the shuttle was fueled, it would still be just as impossible. During the getaway, the thieves ignited the shuttle's three main engines to get free of the 747 and escape. The thing is, the shuttle's main engines are fueled entirely by the large external tank the shuttle and the solid fuel boosters are attached to during liftoff, and once the tank is jettisoned, these engines cannot be used. The only engines the shuttle's internal fuel feeds are the reaction control thrusters and the Orbital Maneuvering System (which are the two smaller engines located in the bulges just above the main engines). Both the RCS thrusters and OMS engines are almost totally useless within the atmosphere, so even if the thieves managed to get the shuttle free of the 747, they could only get it as far as it would glide unpowered. In fact, they could probably get it further if it wasn't fueled. It should be noted that this is not a fictional, futuristic spacecraft. It's a bog standard shuttle, stolen from NASA, on the back of the modified 747 used by them to transport the orbiter from its landing site to Cape Canaveral.
Factual error: At the beginning of the film, with the boat chase down the River Thames, Bond manages to get from the Vauxhall HQ of MI6 to Docklands in a remarkably short time. To travel the distance in the time that it takes him, you would need to be going at about 700 mph.
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.
Factual error: When Professor Dent tries to shoot Bond at Miss Taro's and Bond is waiting for him in the darkened room, the 'Walther PPK' that Bond is busily screwing the silencer onto, at the beginning of the scene, does not have an external hammer, and is therefore not a Walther at all. It's a Browning 1910 .32 calibre. (00:55:10 - 00:56:35)
Suggested correction: Correct to say it's not a PPK, but it's not a Browning either - in a close up one can see the Beretta logo on the grip.
First off, it is certainly not a Beretta. That's not the Beretta logo (3 arrows), but it's the Fabrique Nationale logo (stylized FN). Plus the Beretta has an external hammer and the gun in question does not. It is indeed a Browning 1910 (which is manufactured by Fabrique Nationale. Finally, it is not necessary to submit a correction for mistakes that are accurate but have one or two words wrong (not that this mistake had any words wrong).
Factual error: In the scene where Kananga's henchman, Adam, is being interrogated by Sheriff Pepper by his car at the riverside, the boat chase arrives and two boats jump clearly overhead, disillusioning Sheriff Pepper and allowing Adam to make a quick getaway. However, as Adam is getting away in his car, screeches can be heard coming from the tyres, but they are on a dry dirt road.
Factual error: During Bond's fight with Patrice in the Shanghai high-rise, Patrice's sniper rifle fires several times, presumably by accident. However, moments earlier, when Patrice assassinates his target in the neighboring building, the rifle is shown to be bolt-action. A bolt-action rifle can't be fired more than once without manually re-cocking the gun in order to fire the next round. (00:45:50 - 00:47:20)
Factual error: When James Bond programs the two submarines to destroy each other, we see the paths of the missiles displayed on a globe. They swing across in two arcs, narrowly missing each other. However, we are looking down on the surface of the globe with no height perception, so the missiles should, in fact, travel in straight lines directly between the submarines.
Factual error: The film's car chase takes place in Thailand, where vehicles are right-hand drive (RHD) and travel on the left side of the road (as in England and Australia). Yet the American Motors (AMC) cars in the chase - the red Hornet X, gold Matador coupe, and several Matador sedan police cars, all 1974 models - are all left-hand drive cars. Scaramanga's car can be excused as something he specifically imported for himself, but the Hornet is 'borrowed' from a fictitious AMC dealership (none existed outside the USA) and the small amount of AMC vehicles sold outside the USA were shipped disassembled to various companies that reassembled them and sold them under their own company names (AMI in Australia, Karmann in Germany, etc). Companies such as these, in RHD nations, had to modify the cars to RHD themselves in order to be allowed to sell them 'locally'. So the Hornet would have been at a non-AMC dealership and would have been RHD, as would the fleet of police cars. Naturally, this 'error' was created by AMC's promotional deal with the filmmakers to use AMC cars in order to improve US sales to the US filmgoers.
Factual error: When we first see Fatima Blush, she is waterskiing. She is doing several stunts, which are only possible with one ski, the most notable being skiing backwards with one foot in the air. However, when she releases the tow rope and skis up the ramp into James Bond's arms, she is on two skis. (00:45:55)