Factual error: In some scenes, the Communist soldiers use the wrong armament: the Cubans use American M16s (whereas they should be using AK-47s), and Orlov's bodyguards (in the scene where the jewels are switched for the bomb) have Austrian Steyr AUGs. It would have been rather problematic for socialist countries (during the period of the film) to keep captured Western weapons constantly supplied with spare parts and ammunition.
Continuity mistake: When we see Q fishing, the lighting is totally different from when he's seen from the back in the next clip. Also the bank rises close behind him when seen from the front, but in the next clip the camera position is further back. Those are not shot in the same place. (01:09:30)
Continuity mistake: When Bond's Mercedes is on the railroad tracks, it is hit head on by an oncoming train. As it is shown sailing in the air backwards, it is very clear that the drive-train has been removed. When the car is shown again, it is now sailing nose first as it hits the water.
Suggested correction: The drive-train hasn't been removed, it's just damage to the car from being hit by the larger and more powerful train. Surely a head-on crash would with a train wouldn't just leave a few scratches on the front of the car.
Look at pictures of cars hit at high speeds; the drivetrain does not just fall out, everything forward would have compacted towards the firewall of the car, and the rear differential is attached in many places on the chassis and certainly wouldn't have just disappeared.
Other mistake: When Bond runs out of fuel in his mini-jet, his landing was obviously filmed on an airport runway, given the heavy black landing marks on it.
Continuity mistake: Just before the clown hits the embassy window the lighting changes significantly between shots. There are some strange reflections when he hits the glass, which were not there a millisecond before. (00:12:30)
Continuity mistake: In the final scene on the plane, Roger Moore and Maude Adams jump from the plane over the cliff. Moore grabs a crack in the rock. The next overhead shot his hand is by his head. Next shot it is in the crack again.
Factual error: When the German police are chasing Bond into the air base, they are simply waved in at the gate. That wouldn't happen - without authority, local authorities wouldn't be allowed to enter an armed forces installation, especially a foreign one.
Continuity mistake: When Bond and the twin fall off the train, Bond's movements do not make sense. In the first clip they are both moving away from the train. In the next clip they are rolling partly along the tracks, partly towards them. In the next clip Bond is rolling forward straight into the bushes. (01:40:25)
Audio problem: Just after Bond disarms the bomb at the circus, Octopussy asks Magda, "Where was Kahn heading?" Magda replies, "Back to India," but her mouth movements are "India, of course."
Factual error: When riding in the truck with the Cuban soldiers Bond pulls their parachutes. In the next clip they are 5-6 meters up in the air. That is impossible. First, parachutes are not shot out, but merely pulled by the passing air. And the truck does not go fast enough to pull the parachutes. Second, even if the truck went fast enough, the soldiers would be pulled horizontally - and just fall off the truck, not get pulled vertically up in the air.
Continuity mistake: In the opening story, Bond flies in the small plane with a single jet engine. When the plane approaches the hangar to fly through it (the shot taken FROM the hangar towards the plane) you can see that the plane has TWO engines at the back.
Continuity mistake: The knife-thrower attempts to use a welder to temporarily blind Bond - we can see in that shot that it's an acetylene torch. However, in earlier shots when the welder is being used (off-camera), the sound is that of an arc welder.
Plot hole: When Bond wakes up in the monsoon palace, his watch is still beeping with the activated tracking mode. Wouldn't somebody have noticed the constant beeping while he was brought there? The tracker is shown to have a range of several hundred meters, so it would certainly have been in range of the transmitter at least part of the time while Gobinda dragged him back to Kamal's palace.
Continuity mistake: When Bond is fighting the twin on the top of the train, there is a carriage behind them, but when both of them fall off the train, the carriage has suddenly disappeared.
Factual error: When Bond is being pursued through the jungle, we see what appears to be a crocodile swimming towards him. It is obviously an alligator, which can be identified by its broad snout (crocs have a narrow snout). There are no alligators in Asia. (01:05:00)
Continuity mistake: When Bond and M are driving through Berlin, in the outside shots, their car is a Mercedes-Benz Type W123 standard wheelbase sedan. In the take when the driver is talking, he's driving that vehicle. When the camera switches to Bond and M in the back seat, it's a long-wheelbase V123 Pullman sedan, evidence being the large pop out rear quarter windows and M leaning forward to open his door. (01:17:57)
Continuity mistake: When the Mercedes is hit by the train head on, the car flies through the air boot first, and not turning. When it hits the water the car has turned around and is now engine first.
Other mistake: In the end credits, Jeremy Bulloch's surname is spelt as "Bullock."
Continuity mistake: During the rickshaw chase 30 minutes in, all external shots show that it has a clear plastic windscreen in front of the driver's face, but in all of the close up shots of the driver the camera is mounted on the rickshaw filming him and the windscreen is gone. (00:30:00 - 00:35:00)
Factual error: Bond pulls his mini jet out of the path of the missile racing in from behind, making it narrowly miss his aircraft. Like most such piloting stunts from Hollywood, it wouldn't have worked. Modern anti-aircraft missiles have proximity fuses and fragmentation warheads or continuous-rod warheads. They actually deliberately pass by the aircraft they are trying to destroy and explode next to them, because the cross-section is greater that way. There have even been cases when a missile actually hitting an airplane just disintegrated without exploding, thus saving the target.
