Diamonds Are Forever

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: The first laser beam was not generated via a diamond, as Willard Whyte says. The first functional laser device, which was constructed by Theodore Maiman, used a ruby rod.

Factual error: Shady Tree opens the coffin with bare hands - and keeps his hand on the lid for 6 seconds - notwithstanding the fact that it was just pulled out of a blazing furnace and must have been incredibly hot to touch.

Jacob La Cour

Factual error: In Blofeld's offshore control room there's an Earth-globe turning under a model of the satellite, to illustrate its orbital groundtrack. The way it's arranged, however, shows an orbit which is impossible. It shows the satellite tracing a groundtrack over a constant latitude. The only instance in which this is possible is if the orbit is directly over the Equator, whereas the model shows it over a latitude well within the Northern Hemisphere.

Factual error: When Bond is in the trunk of the car, being taken out of the lower level of the White House, a trap door opens out into the desert. There are two Saguaro cacti shown, one on the trap door and one in the distance. Saguaro cacti do not grow wild any where near Las Vegas.

Dennis Gannon

Factual error: When Bond is inside the oil rig, the shots switch from the satellite control room to the satellite itself orbiting. When the satellite fires at the underground missile, it's orbit direction reverses. Then, when it fires at the Russian sub and the Chinese military base, it stops before it fires. This is impossible, as Newtons 3rd law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For the satellite to reverse or stop, boosters would be needed at the front of the satellite (of which there aren't any) to counter it's speed. And even if they were there, the direction change and stop wouldn't be as sharp as the movie shows.

Factual error: When Mr. Wint and Mr. Kid assassinate the doctor in the South African desert, they use a scorpion. Scorpions are poisonous, but the sting is more like a bee's, and woudn't kill a healthy adult.

Factual error: The satellite uses a laser as its weapon, which can be only as powerful as its root energy source. It obviously doesn't have a nuclear reactor large enough to yield that much power, and it can't be solar power, since the collecting area of the dish is orders of magnitude too small to provide power at a level sufficient to lay waste to whole submarines and missile installations.

Factual error: Diamonds, being pure carbon, would burn in the cremation of the body containing them. Cremation temperature is about 1,000 degrees Celsius, diamonds burn at about 850.

Factual error: When the submarine blows up under water the explosion we see shows no water being thrown up.

Revealing mistake: Bond escapes from the buried pipeline when two technicians open a hatch from the outside. One tech unlocks the hatch by rotating a large wheel, which drives the locking mechanism. But when he finally opens the hatch, there's absolutely no mechanism attached. There's just a bare axle that the wheel turns on.

More mistakes in Diamonds Are Forever

Plenty: Hi, I'm Plenty.
James Bond: But of course you are.
Plenty: Plenty O'Toole.
James Bond: Named after your father, perhaps?

More quotes from Diamonds Are Forever

Trivia: When Bond first meets Tiffany Case in her apartment, she is playing some music. If you listen carefully, you will notice that it is the theme song for the film.

More trivia for Diamonds Are Forever

Question: Is it actually explained in the movie why Willard Whyte is in hiding?

Answer: If you mean by hiding - why is he never seen normally - then it's because he is a recluse and doesn't like to be seen in public (like Howard Hughes was). If you mean by hiding - why was he not seen during the movie - then it's because he was being held captive by Blofeld and his minions. Spectre didn't want him out and about ruining their plans.

Zwn Annwn

More questions & answers from Diamonds Are Forever

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