Continuity mistake: When Hammer takes the parrot away from Ivan, the Russian's black jacket keeps swapping from opened to closed between angles.
Continuity mistake: At the Stark Expo in the beginning, when Tony Stark talks about "kicking back", as he says "on my best day" his hands are by his sides, then we cut to a different angle and his hands are instantly behind his back.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning when Tony's press conference is on TV in Anton Vanko's home, the dialogue exchange between Tony and Christine Everheart has more talking than that same scene in "Iron Man" at the end. In "2", Christine mentions that Tony hates body guards in the exchange, but, this is never said in the first "Iron Man".
Continuity mistake: When Ivan crashes Stark's car during the race there is a close-up of Tony's face showing a red scrape on the cornea of his eye. When he puts the suit on there's another close-up of his face inside the armor and both eyes are completely undamaged.
Continuity mistake: Before Hammer starts eating dessert (and thus much before the "moving spoon and cherry" continuity mistakes), there's a back angle where he dips his spoon into the dessert and starts eating. The angle cuts to a front view with the spoon laying spotless on the saucer, and Hammer saying "I'll start with dessert", and then repeating the whole previous scene as if it were the first time.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film Tony Stark is at the Expo wearing a tuxedo with a white shirt under it. When he leaves the stage and checks his blood toxicity it changes to a black shirt.
Continuity mistake: Ivan doesn't have a toothpick in his mouth when he was handcuffed, his head covered with a hood, and put in a van. As soon as the hood is taken off and he walks towards Hammer, one suddenly appears in his mouth after an angle change.
Continuity mistake: During the questioning by the Senator the jars on the congressmen's table disappear in the angle from behind, only to reappear in the front ones.
Continuity mistake: During the Monaco part of the film,when Hammer and Christine Everhart are talking at the table and the camera is angled towards her,Christine is holding her phone in her right hand and her recording device in her left. When the camera changes angle to face Hammer and Christine stands up to leave,the phone and recorder change hands.
Continuity mistake: When Hammer breaks Ivan out of prison and they have dinner together in the aircraft hanger after, the butler fills up Ivan's glass with red wine but in the next shot both glasses (wine and water glass) are full and he has a bottle of vodka even though we don't see the butler give him the vodka or fill the water glass.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the Whiplash-Iron Man racetrack fight scene in Monaco, Whiplash has Iron Man hooked with his right hand whip and Iron Man is down on one knee. The shot switches to focus on Whiplash's face and it appears as though his left hand is forward and hooked to Iron Man. This can also be seen in the 'suitcase suit' clip.
Continuity mistake: Throughout the entire film, the black and white shapes in the hair of Ivan's beard are different in almost every single scene he's in.
Continuity mistake: During the first fight between Tony and Ivan he's got his right hand's whip wrapped around him then camera cuts to Ivan and it's suddenly his left hand's whip.
Continuity mistake: Natalie knocks Hogan down and does a lock on him choking him with her legs. From one angle she is leaning her body and right arm over him, but a frame later she has her body and right arm resting behind his arm in a totally different position.
Continuity mistake: When Fury and Stark are talking in the destroyed house, the butler is seen relaxing in the background with both arms resting by his lap. A frame later, from a different angle, the butler has his arms raised and he's watching through a pair of binoculars.
Continuity mistake: The executive toy on Pepper's desk is moving around throughout their conversation, but the positions don't always match as the camera angle switches - keep an eye on the longer bit of metal, which is sometimes pointing upwards then is suddenly upside down in a different shot.
Continuity mistake: When Ivan's father dies, his neck in covered in some sort of scarf that hides it completely. When the angle changes, the neck is perfectly visible.
Continuity mistake: When Whiplash and Hammer are in the hanger, the butler comes in and removes the same thin wine glass twice. Other glasses disappear and reappear and move position between camera angles. Also one glass fills instantly between shots with water when no-one was nearby to fill it.
Continuity mistake: When Stark leaves the box of strawberries on Pepper's table, its position keeps changing between shots.
Continuity mistake: A waiter is pouring wine in Ivan's glass but in the next angle, a tenth of a second later, the man is gone.
Chosen answer: Hammer is impatient. he did not want to waste time and money to go find Vanko's bird. he just wanted Vanko to get the work done.
MasterOfAll