Continuity mistake: In the museum, Bond is sitting down and Q sits next to him. Note part of Bond's coat goes over the edge of the seat. Where in the next shot, that part of the coat over the edge is now back on the seat. (00:37:05)
Continuity mistake: After meeting Q, as Bond says, "And youth is no guarantee of innovation", the direction of Bond's head changes between cuts. (00:38:00)
Visible crew/equipment: When Q meets Bond, when Q turns his head to Bond, he shakes Bond's hand and says "007." A reflector screen is reflected in his glasses when this happens. (00:38:20)
Continuity mistake: When Q shakes Bond's hand after meeting him, he starts smiling. The shot cuts and he suddenly is not smiling. (00:38:25)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the assassin is about to go up in the elevator the 3rd button down on the right has been pressed and is lit. As the elevator closes the button is no longer lit. (00:43:10)
Visible crew/equipment: In the Shanghai hotel, Patrice goes into a lift and Bond jumps onto the side of it. Whilst the lift is rising, Patrice looks outside of the lift. The shot cuts to an exterior shot of the lift. When it cuts to the exterior shot, for just the first few frames a camera can be seen attached to the lift, used to film the shots of Bond. (00:43:20)
Factual error: When Bond climbs up from under lift/elevator after hanging under the assassin's lift car he opens adjacent lift/elevator landing doors just by pulling them apart. This is not possible without first disengaging the door lock mechanism, which is operated when car is at that level. If this were possible anyone could push lift/elevator doors open from any level and fall down the shaft. (00:44:20)
Factual error: During Bond's fight with Patrice in the Shanghai high-rise, Patrice's sniper rifle fires several times, presumably by accident. However, moments earlier, when Patrice assassinates his target in the neighboring building, the rifle is shown to be bolt-action. A bolt-action rifle can't be fired more than once without manually re-cocking the gun in order to fire the next round. (00:45:50 - 00:47:20)
Continuity mistake: When Bond confronts the assassin and lets him fall to his death from the building in Shanghai, he then looks over to the opposite window where Severine is standing in the smashed window hole, her hair blowing in the breeze. When it cuts to the closeup of her leaving you can see the light reflected in the window glass that has magically reappeared. (00:48:00)
Continuity mistake: Whilst Bond and Eve are in the Macau hotel, Bond's bullet wound noticeably alternates in size and shape throughout the scene. (00:49:50)
Continuity mistake: While talking with Severine in the casino bar, Bond gets his martini in a frozen glass. He picks it up, the camera's point of view changes, and the glass is instantly completely unfrozen. (00:57:15)
Factual error: When there is a BBC News Report for the BBC News at 10 (clock bottom right) the wrong news studio is used rather than the correct one. They also used the wrong opening standing position. The studio shown is for the BBC News at 6pm, and the position used is only used for the intro after the half way segment, not the lead headline. (01:04:20)
Continuity mistake: When Silva places the glass of whiskey on the girl's head, the liquid is full to the brim in some shots, or a finger below in others. (01:15:15)
Continuity mistake: When Silva is first seen in the London Underground station, he walks down a flight of stairs. On the left side of the stairs, there are two men. In the next shot, it is now only one, an entirely different man. (01:28:00)
Factual error: On the District line, Temple and Embankment stations do not have two platforms between each train. They actually run side by side, and not with the platforms in between the two trains. (01:28:35)
Factual error: Bond and Silva travel from Temple station on the District/Circle line, which is a sub-surface line that has square tunnels (dug out from above and then covered over) and uses large trains with an almost square cross-section. However, the train they board is of the type used on the deep-level lines (eg. Northern and Jubilee lines), smaller and almost cylindrical in shape, and is seen to fit snugly into the cylindrical tube tunnel as the train leaves the station. They therefore can't be travelling on the District/Circle line, and must be on a deep-level line instead. The disused Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross are often used for filming, and photographs available online show one such platform recently dressed as Temple station. (01:28:40)
Factual error: When Bond is chasing Silva through the London Underground system they both supposedly get on a train at Temple Station on the District Line. The train is in fact a Jubilee Line train, but with District Line route maps on the inside, and destination 'Wimbledon' on the back. It was filmed in Charing Cross (with Circle/ District line signage added) and the platform scene was filmed on the disused Jubilee line platform, from before that line was extended. (01:29:40)
Deliberate mistake: When Bond walks through the tube train he leaves the doors open so the cameraman can follow him. This scene was shot several times to get the front and rear shots. When filming from the front, he closes the doors behind him. (01:30:30)
Factual error: M is called to a House of Commons Committee - Commons Committees are staffed by "backbenchers" (members of parliament not in their party's cabinet), but present here are a minister and a civil servant (Fiennes). (01:30:50)
Continuity mistake: When Silva is about to slide down the escalator, Bond runs past the same blonde woman twice between shots. (01:31:40)
Answer: Silva's objective was not just to kill M - if it was, he could have blown up her office with her in it when he hacked into MI6 the first time. He wanted to humiliate and terrify her by showing he could get to her again and again, whatever measures were put in place to protect her.
Sierra1 ★