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: We can see the ice palace surrounded by mountains and icebergs, but when Bond escapes Icarus, they're gone. (01:05:45)
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: During the scene where James Bond and Gustav Graves are having their sword fight Gustav cuts James' knee but for the rest of the scene there is no blood. (00:54:59)
Continuity mistake: In the scene,where Bond meets Jinx the very first time, the bartender in the background does weird things. First, Bond asks him for a mojito, he comes to him. Later, when Bond looks at Jinx, the bartender is in the far left side of the counter. When next time Bond is seen, the bartender is close behind Bond. And next time the camera changes its view, the bartender is in the far left corner again. He remains there in the rest of the scene. (00:34:30)
Continuity mistake: When Q brings out the flatcar with the invisible car on it, the flatcar appears empty. Q explains how the invisibility is achieved, and he walks behind the car. We see Q's legs distort cartoonishly as he does so. Why doesn't this distortion take place when the car is moving out of the tunnel? (01:03:15)
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.
Continuity mistake: During the scene when Bond sees Jinx emerging from the water, the angle cuts back and forth between the both of them. You can see that is some shots Bond's cigar is not lit; there is no smoke coming from it and also the "cherry" does not light up as he puffs it. In others it's lit properly. The length of the cigar and the height of the Mojito drink also change. (00:36:21)
Continuity mistake: When Bond jumps down from the truck after being captured, he is handcuffed (or has his hands tied). However, when he lands, he's holding a guard in each hand - for stability - but in the next scene, during the General's speech, he's tied again. (00:17:35)
Continuity mistake: During the scene when Graves parachutes in for a publicity stunt, when he hits the ground and starts walking, a guard (guy in black suit with a headset) walks towards him and assists him by grabbing the parachute cords to pull it off of him. The camera angle changes to in front of graves, and the same guy is merely standing beside him while he removes the parachute belts himself. (00:51:14)
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the torture sequence, as Bond's face is lifted from the tub of ice water, the Korean woman leans toward him to the point where their faces are almost touching. But a fraction of a second later, as he's pushed back into the water, she's sitting back. It's too quick a change in shot for her to have simply moved - we'd have seen it.
Continuity mistake: In the pre-credit sequence, the guy who becomes Graves demonstrates the power of his shell launcher by blowing up Bond's chopper. The soldier beside him has his AK-47 raised, covering Bond. It skips to the helicopter exploding, and comes back to Graves firing the shell launcher a second time. The soldier lifts his AK up a second time. (00:07:00)
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: 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: In the scene where Bond's new car is introduced to him, Bond can't see it, even though it moves, but when Q walks past it, it distorts the image quite a lot. Further on in the film, whenever the car is invisible, it distorts the image behind it.
Continuity mistake: When Q hands Bond his new watch, he puts it on his left wrist, as the Pierce Brosnan "Bond" always has. Every scene from there after shows it on his left wrist. However, when he later removes it to use the laser emitter to cut a hole in the ice, he removes it from his right wrist. All following scenes show it again on his left wrist.
Continuity mistake: When James is first talking to Jinx after she comes out the water, her hand position changes on the glass she is drinking from.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the Bond/Graves sword fight (after Miranda has stepped between them), in the close-up of Bond, he lowers his sword. In the long shot a fraction of a second later, it's raised in front of him again. (00:56:25)
Continuity mistake: When Gustav Graves arrives in his ice-slidey-vehicle, in the long shot the top starts to slide open, but in a closeup it's shut, and his assistant opens it. Plus he has the helmet in his hand when the glass lid is opened, but his head was so close to the top of the glass that there is no room for him to remove the helmet with the cockpit shut. (01:06:30)
Answer: By this stage, it's become a habit.
J I Cohen