Mistakes - You Only Live Twice
Several times we see the enemy spacecraft, the earth, and the
U.S. spacecraft together in the same frame on monitor screens
in the SPECTRE base. This leaves no place for SPECTRE to have
placed their video camera.
When the Russians launch their ship, they are talking about
stats of the Sputnik. In Russian, the technician says that it
is 36 degrees while the English subtitle reads 72, which is not
possible. 36°C is 96.8°F. A further error is that the
capsule atop the rocket is not only not the one we later see
being captured; it is a US Gemini spacecraft. The Gemini vehicle
was first launched in 1964 and was in use until the end of 1966.
There were two unmanned and ten manned flights. In 1967, the
Soviet Union was already using the Soyuz-class spacecraft.
In the Russian launch sequence the rocket shown lifting off
from the pad is an American made Titan III-C ICBM modified to
launch the Gemini series spacecraft. Also there are palm trees
in the foreground which indicates a tropical location far south
of the Soviet Baikonuir Cosmodrome complex.
When Bond has infiltrated and is escaping from Osato Chemicals
for the first time, the security guards that are shooting at
him are using silenced revolvers (at least the ones inside the
building), yet when they fire, the noise made is that of an unsilenced
weapon.
When No. 11 is dropped into the piranha tank there is much movement
of the water, but the water doesn't turn red as one would expect
it to from the blood, nor are there any clothing fragments.
When Bond and Kissy leave the boat, it's obvious that Bond has
nothing on under his shirt. Upon arrival at the volcano, he removes
his shirt to reveal a Ninja outfit.
The timer changes from 12 seconds remaining to 25 seconds remaining
[widescreen only].
When Aki is driving Bond to see Henderson, she is driving a
car with the steering on the right side. As they approach Henderson's
residence, Aki is seen briefly to be on the left side of the
car. When the camera cuts to a close-up, she is back on the right
again.
Kissy's shoes change when diving and arriving at the volcano.
After Little Nellie has been assembled, Bond gets aboard. A
technician is seen to begin the removal of the red rotor brace.
The next close-up of Bond sees the brace in position. The next
longer shot sees the technician completing the removal of the
rotor brace.
On a monitor in Aki's car Bond sees Tiger's helicopter from
above lifting Osato's gunmen's car. But there is only one helicopter
shown in all the other shots so this leaves no place for Tiger
to have placed a video camera that would be able to transmit
the picture Bond sees.
When Helga Brandt traps Bond in the plane and bails out, the
plane was shown retracting the landing gear after take-off and
after she bailed out the plane in the background had the gear
down.
When Kissy returns to the volcano with Tiger, she has changed
from her bikini. However, when everyone is fleeing the exploding
volcano, Kissy is back in her bikini.
The amount of lava/status of exploding volcano in distance shots
is inconsistent with conditions in close ups.
While flying Little Nellie during the engagement with the SPECTRE
helicopters, Bond expends all of his weaponry. Afterward, however,
when Bond is told to proceed to a certain position, the helicopter
is seen pulling away fully armed.
When Blofeld's control room proves to be less than "impregnable",
he flees with some of his henchmen and Bond in tow. Blofeld takes
a Webley from Mr. Osato and shoots him with it. He then cocks
it and motions at Bond with the pistol. The gun is knocked from
his hand and goes off, yet when it is shown on the ground in
close-up it is cocked again. The hammer would have to have been
re-cocked by hand. Bond then grabs the weapon as Blofeld flees.
He joins the ninja assault wielding the top-break British revolver
but as he fights, it changes back and forth several times into
a Smith and Wesson revolver with a swing out cylinder.
The number of tanks on divers recovering Bond's "body" change.
As part of Bond's disguise as a Japanese man, they shave all
the hair from his chest. Yet in the final scene of the movie,
when Bond and Kissy are in the lifeboat, Bond's chest is quite
hairy, even though this is only a few days later.
Bond stows away on a monorail cart which stops at the astronauts'
quarters. After Bond gets out of the cart, a second cart passes
by, even though the cart he arrived in is still on the track
(out of shot). No one moved the cart before the second cart passed
through.
As the four helicopters begin to attack little Nellie, Bond's
helmet microphone switches from his right side to his left and
back again.
When Bond is being suited up by the astronaut
and cosmonaut, they connect the blue inlet hose of the air conditioner
to the
left connector of his suit and the red outlet hose to the right
connector. However, when Bond arrives at the SPECTRE rocket,
the hoses have switched sides.
When Bond takes his seat at the sumo arena, he first takes off
his shoes. When he and Aki leave shortly later to go to meet
Henderson, he leaves without putting his shoes back on. He is
wearing shoes when he arrives at Henderson's apartment.
When James Bond is in Tanaka's underground train enjoying the
sake wine, a servant enters saying that the photograph is ready
for viewing. This servant then walks to the door, which is on
the left-hand side of the carriage. After going through the door,
we can see the servant taking a left turn, but where to? Outside
the moving train?
In the volcano when Blofeld drops the cat and the gun goes off
the cat is missing in the next shots because the gunshot scared
the cat and it took them hours to find it. The cat had hidden
in the scaffolding above the soundstage.
During the fight scene with the large goon in Osato's office,
the goon's suit and shirt repeatedly become disheveled and un-tucked,
then straightened and tucked, as the shots change.
When Osato and Brandt land on the helicopter landing pad to
meet Bond (as Mr. Fischer), the helicopter lands across the top
of the "H" on the pad, near the edge of the circle,
and it is facing slightly to the left of the camera. After a
close-up of the tail rotor, the helicopter is now resting along
the side of the "H", is further inside the circle,
and is now facing to the right.
In the climactic scene in the control room, the white ceiling
material hanging behind Bond disappears and reappears between
shots.
Blofeld dismisses the Chinese representatives from his apartment
and they leave. He then calls for Osato and Number 11 and the
Chinese are still in the apartment.
Just before Bond opens the safe at Osato Chemicals
he drinks some "Siamese Vodka". Then there is a shot
of the safe that includes the outline of his overcoat. When the
camera returns
to the same safe shot there is no overcoat outline and Bond walks
toward the safe from off-camera.
When Bond and Kissy Suzuki go to the sea, the sun is setting
down from shot to shot, yet the next time is day.
When Bond enters the volcano, it is already dark, yet when we
see the crater opens from within, the sky are blue. Each shot
of the opening from the inside shows random amount of light outside.
Little Nellie takes some bullet hole damage to its rudder during
the helicopter battle scene. The bullet holes disappear in all
subsequent scenes.
While Bond and Kissy are climbing the volcano, his "Japanese" make-up
disappears somewhere along the way. Since it was applied surgically,
it's unlikely he could have casually pulled it off and tossed
it away; he also had no way of knowing he wouldn't be needing
it again.
Bond and Kissy are prevented from entering the cave passageway
to SPECTRE's base by poison gas. At the end of the film, however,
Bond, Kissy, and the ninjas escape through the cave with no ill
effects.
During the climactic battle scene, one of Tiger's ninja's slides
down a rope into the SPECTRE base and runs off, but he has a
row of bullet holes across his back.
Just as Bond enters the crater, there is a message audible,
that says that the US Spacecraft will be intercepted. Yet the
Ninjas arrive in time. It took Bond hours just climbing up the
volcano and yet Kissy makes it to the island and makes it back
with the ninjas in time.
It's Only A Movie
According to the commentary, the Americans and Russians are
seen to be launching each other's spacecraft toward the end of
the film.
When Kissy Suzuki dives in the cave, a diving-mask is visible
just before emerging from the water.
When Helga Brandt traps Bond in the plane and bails out, you
can see that the wooden board holding Bond's arms to the chair
has a pre-made crack down the center where he eventually breaks
loose.
A wire is clearly seen lifting "Bird 1" off the launch
pad during lift-off.
When Bond first sees the "crack" ninja training facility,
one of the running ninjas trips and almost falls.
Just before the SPECTRE rocket touches down at their base, the
cable lowering it is visible against the smoke, and the crane's
hook is visible at the top of the screen.
While rolling the SPECTRE rocket on to the platform only one
of the visible wheels under the platform spins correctly. One
of the four wheels doesn't spin at all. The left wheel spins
in the wrong direction.
In the volcano Ninja fight finale, the ace swordman's weapon
bends and straightens several times.
In the Little Nellie helicopter battle scene, the same footage
of enemy copters being destroyed is used three times.
When the divers recover Bond's body and take it to the submarine,
multiple shots show that they are only three or four feet underwater.
The submarine in the background is a very small model, as the
real thing would have most of the hull and all of the conning
tower above water.
The tachometer in the Toyota 2000 is always at zero (the interiors
were shot with rear screen projection). Also, the driver's use
of the steering wheel in no way matches the visible turns on
the rear-screen.
At the end of the movie when the submarine surfaces under Bond's
raft, you can clearly see that the film has been reversed.