Factual error: While Bond is watching the surveillance video in the security office at the Ocean Club he references the cell phone for the time the call was made. However, the phone also provides a geographic coordinate (59.47N 57.45W). These coordinates are located between Newfoundland Canada, and Greenland in the middle of the North Atlantic. This does not correlate to either where the call originated or where it was received. (00:28:45)
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: In the scene in which Bond is in his car after being poisoned, attempting to set up his defibrillator, the cardiac monitor at MI6 headquarters displays "ventricular tachycardia". The rapid beeping of the monitor makes this serious heart arrhythmia plausible, but the beeping then gradually slows, suggesting 2nd or 3rd degree heart block or approaching asystole (complete absence of heartbeat) rather than continued ventricular tachycardia or cardiac arrest (ventricular fibrillation). As tension mounts with his apparent impending death, the loose lead is reconnected, the defibrillator finally fires and he is saved. This sequence is not credible because defibrillation has no place in treating a slow heart rhythm, and certainly not heart block or asystole. The "correct" sequence of events should have been deterioration of ventricular tachycardia to ventricular fibrillation, and then the defibrillator shock to convert his heart back to a normal, life-saving rhythm. (01:33:05)
Factual error: If a house collapses into the waters of a Venice channel, after the collapse, the water would be so murky that the underwater visibility would be zero. But in the underwater scene, the visibility is like that of a swimming pool. (02:10:10)
Factual error: During the chase scene in the construction site, Bond jumps down on an elevated scissor lift, hits the control box, hydraulic fluid sprays out, and the machine drops. However, all controls in a scissor lift are electric, and all the hydraulics are in the base. If you hit and broke the control box on the platform, nothing would happen other than the user would be stuck elevated until someone released the emergency lowering system on the base of the machine.
Factual error: When James Bond is swimming underwater, trying desperately to save the trapped Vesper, if you look, he is constantly yelling and exhaling, sending bubbles from his mouth. The problem is that this continues almost constantly for at least a full minute. Nobody has the sort of lung capacity that enables them to expel that much air and still function underwater for that long.
Factual error: The name of the bank holding the winnings for the poker game is incorrrectly configured. The formulation of banks referencing cities in Switzerland (and Germany) are such that the name of the "Basel Bank" would actually be the "Basler Bank" in the same way that the "Zuerich Bank" would be "Zuercher Bank," usw. It is not a mistake that there is no such bank as the Basel Bank (because some bank would have to pay for such excellent product placement). However, there would never be a bank named Basel Bank in Switzerland. It would be named Basler Bank.
Factual error: In one scene, Bond blows up a propane tank with his 9mm. But, the 9mm couldn't possibly puncture a tank like that. And, even if it could, the result wouldn't be explosive. It would let off a lot of gas, but that's it. You would need incendiary rounds to do anything remotely similar to what we see in the movie and a much bigger, higher velocity round. Mythbusters tested this scene and even an armor piercing 9mm round couldn't penetrate the tank, nor could incendiary rounds ignite it.
Factual error: When Bond retrieves the bombmakers's phone in Madagascar, he finds the Ellipsis message with a time code of 19:12. After tracing the origin of the message to the Ocean Club in the Bahamas, he finds the security footage of Demitrios sending the message at 19:12. But 19:12 is the local time for the Bahamas, as indicated on the surveillance tape and Demitrios' phone. Madagascar is 8 hours ahead, so the bombmaker's phone should have indicated the message was received at 3:12 a.m. Also, there is a lot of sunlight and activity going on for 3 in the morning.
Factual error: A metal suitcase with USD 100 million in cash would not be able to float on water - the weight would simply be too great to overcome the buoyancy effect of what little air might be trapped in the small space remaining.
Factual error: During the nail gun fight in the sinking building one may have a nail gun's safety removed (I own one) in order to fire in rapid succession however, there is no battery pack or air hose attached to charge it to allow it to fire. Also, the nails used were the incorrect size (too large) for the gun and the heads of the nails were not the type used in any nail gun. There should be a notch in the head to allow the nails to lay on top of each other in the nail magazine.
Factual error: A caption "Montenegro" is shown when the train rides through some mountains. Just after, an inside shot shows the train passing a station. Briefly, the sign "Chur Ost" (a station in Switzerland) flashes by.
Chosen answer: Le Chiffre operates as the banker for Mr White's entire organisation. The Ugandan is only one of many individuals and groups for whom Le Chiffre provides financial services; killing him does little to solve the problem of the missing money. Plus there's the question of trust - if Le Chiffre can't keep the money safe, then Mr White's organisation have no use for him and, as we see in the movie, will readily eliminate him. Le Chiffre's desperate to recover the money to prove his trustworthiness and save his own life.
Tailkinker ★