Continuity mistake: In the scene where Gustav Graves is demonstrating the power of Icarus, the audience has their sunglasses on to block the sunlight. After Icarus is shut down we see a shot of a man and a woman behind Bond to each side without sunglasses on (just after the shot of the 3 guys in suits removing their glasses). When we cut out to a wide shot we see these two people removing their glasses. (01:12:25)
Continuity mistake: When Bond cuts the hole in the ice, he uses the laser on his watch at an angle. Yet he still manages to cut a perfectly round circle with vertical sides. (01:19:40)
Continuity mistake: When Bond uses his sound-ring to break the glass floor, we see the floor crack twice. (01:26:35)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Bond is in the rocket sled he is in the ice palace. But when you see the bad guy with the binoculars looking out the window, in the reflection of the binoculars it shows a desert type of land. (01:27:40)
Continuity mistake: Just after James loses the hind legs of the rocket sled in the scene where he is being followed by the huge beam of light from the Icarus craft, the back end of the vehicle gives off smoke. But when you next see a picture of the whole vehicle a few shots later, there is no smoke. (01:28:45)
Continuity mistake: During the car chase on the ice, Bond's Aston Martin flips over. You can see the left wing mirror break off as this happens, together with a chunk of something else. When the car flips back over, the wing mirror's back on in one piece. A chunk of something else falls off though, but there's no visible damage to the car afterwards. (01:35:10)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Bond and Jinx cuts the fence to get onto the plane it is totally black night. But when the plane takes off it is broad daylight. (01:45:00)
Continuity mistake: Before Bond and Jinx get on board the plane, a long shot shows its nose to be solid, as normal. But in the first shot of the inside, when Graves enters, the nose is entirely paned glass. (01:45:10)
Continuity mistake: In the US Command Bunker, when the group gathers in front of the large satellite monitor on the wall to discuss Graves' whereabout, the shot from behind shows a man in business suit already passing Bond completely; when cut to the front in the next shot showing Bond's face, the same man is seen crossing right behind Bond again. (01:46:13)
Continuity mistake: When Jinx and Bond sneak onto Graves' plane, Jinx can be seen with a nickel-plated pistol (this is also evident throughout the entire film). Yet, when Jinx is in the cockpit and Frost tells her to hand over the gun, it's now no longer nickel-plated but standard gunmetal black. (01:52:20)
Continuity mistake: When Miranda Frost finally gets killed, her right arm goes from being held up, then outstretched when she gets kicked, to up just before she falls over, to outstretched as she actually does fall over. (01:55:15)
Continuity mistake: The first time we see the inside of the transport plane, the helicopter is very close to the yellow car, with its tail sticking most of the way over it. When Bond and Jinx come to escape and start up the conveyer belt, the yellow car's nowhere near the tail. Nothing to do with the conveyer itself - it's just two standard belts moving backwards. The car can't move any faster than the chopper. (01:58:10)
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film as Bond and Jinx are in the helicopter after being dropped from the plane, as he is starting the engine, the caution/annunciator lights turn off 3 times in 3 different shots for no apparent reason whatsoever. (01:59:05)
Continuity mistake: In the final fight scene on the plane between Jinx and Agent Frost, Jinx is slashed across her stomach, drawing blood. In a later scene, when Jinx and 007 are pouring diamonds over one another in the hut on the cliff, her stomach is unblemished. (02:02:25)
Continuity mistake: As Graves says "Global warming. . ." watch Miranda Frost's hands. They're clasped in front of her. A second later, as Graves finishes his line and the generals bow to him, her hands her are on her hips. It's too quick a shot for her to have simply moved them.
Continuity mistake: When Bond rescues Jinx from the frozen water, for the same angle his hair has two styles and keeps swapping between shots: Sticky fringe to the right, loose fringe to the left.
Continuity mistake: When Bond goes over the ice cliff into the sea he surfs a wide stretch of sea, flies up onto an ice edge on the other side, catches a guy on a snowmobile and is suddenly back at the ice palace - which should by then be far behind him.
Continuity mistake: Bond watches the island through the binoculars - and sees it very close up. When he watches Jinx come out of the water she would be huge if watched with the same magnification.
Continuity mistake: During the first lovemaking scene between Bond and Jinx, you see her open a knife and cut a piece of fruit. In a close-up (when you can see her whole face) you can see her eating the fruit. The camera cuts to a side view of both characters and you see Jinx put the fruit up to James' mouth so he can have some too. But when the camera cuts back to Jinx, she's still eating the fruit.
Continuity mistake: In the scene at the fencing club when Bond and Graves are fencing, they knock over a suit of armor that is holding a sword. When Graves picks up this sword, Bond picks up another sword from the same place on the ground, but there was only one sword with the suit of armor. Also, the sword with the armor is a bastard sword, but neither character is using such a large sword in the rest of the fight.
Answer: By this stage, it's become a habit.
J I Cohen