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Audio/visual unsynchronised (3) |
Character error (7) |
Continuity (14) |
Errors in geography (6) |
Factual errors (4) |
Incorrectly regarded as goofs (2) |
Plot holes (2) |
Revealing mistakes (11) |
Spoilers (12)
Audio/visual unsynchronised
After Bond diffused the bomb, an officer comes up and says to him, "Thank you very much, you did a great job sir" but his mouth seems to be saying something else.
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Near the beginning, Bond's assistant says something like "They moved the flight up to this afternoon" but her mouth does not match what she is saying.
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During the raid when Octopussy's circus girls attack Kamal's men, there are many punches, kicks, and everything else that miss very badly, but sounds are still played as if they connected.
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Character error
When Bond runs the gate at the circus, the officer draws his pistol, presumably to shoot Bond or the vehicle, but instead shoots several warning shots. This is highly illegal.
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A shot of a sign which says "National Art Repository" in both English and Russian has the Russian word for "art" misspelled: the fourth letter should be the Russian "u" not the Russian "ch." The two letters do look alike, which suggests that the text was likely copied out of a dictionary erroneously.
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During Kamal's backgammon game with The Major, Kamal doubles then rolls a double 6 and the Major resigns. In fact, The Major had his home board locked and there is no roll that would have helped Kamal. (In the long shots, one can see the 1 through 5 points are closed; in the closeup of the double 6, one can the 6 point is closed).
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Cincinnati is misspelled Cincinatti on the sign of the tour boat to which Bond escapes after the hunt.
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During the Soviet rulers' meeting, the map on the wall shows both Koreas color-coded as communist countries.
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The US Master-Sargeant airman showed an unrealistic lack of judgement by firing his pistol in the air when Bond drove past him at Feldstadt AFB
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General Orlov, although supposedly a Russian, speaks English with a German accent throughout his scenes.
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Continuity
Bond blows out the front two tires when he fires his machine gun into the tires of the military transport he had just escaped from. When that transport veers off into a small shed, both front tires are still clearly inflated.
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When Bond is taking off in the jet in the beginning sequence, the jet's wheels are down as it lifts off over the cars in the roadway. In the next shot, the jet flies over the heads of the vehicle occupants, and the wheels are up.
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When Bond blows the tires out on the military transport, one of the guards flies out of the truck into the hay bales, yet when the transport is fully at rest, the guard is back in the truck.
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Dressed as a clown, James Bond alternates between wearing and not wearing long clown shoes.
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At the beginning, Bond takes his cap off and turns it inside out to create an army cap. However, he then puts on a 'stiff' cap for his officer uniform.
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When Bond tries to escape the rocket that is shot at his plane, he is seen in the cockpit pulling the control lever to the right. But the plane turns to the left.
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Bond's "rail car" gets hit by the train and ends up in the river. The car is towed and winched almost instantaneously after it lands in the water. This would not have been enough time for the vehicle to be called in, dispatched, towed, and winched.
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Bond would not have had adequate time and privacy to change into the gorilla suit in the same room as the attackers without them noticing. Likewise, Bond seems to instantly change out of the gorilla suit and back into his red/black outfit in the same room when Gobinda is coming after him.
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When Octopussy throws the bolos at the man on top of the wall, and he falls down, he falls straight forward. It cuts to the next shot, and he is falling sideways instead.
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Octopussy is hanging onto Bond's left arm to keep from falling, causing the injury to Bond's arm. However, his opposite arm is the one that is in the cast later on.
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When Bond bursts into Octopussy's bedroom and kisses her, they are standing next to her octopuses-shaped bed frame on the outside of the octopuses crossed tentacles. Without moving, when the camera pulls back, they are standing on the inside of the octopuses crossed tentacles so they can conveniently fall into bed.
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Once he has trounced Khan at backgammon, Bond splits the IR20,000, giving some to Vijay, who places it in his inner right coat pocket. Later, while being pursued by Gobinda in a 'company' tuk-tuk, Bond causes a crowd distraction by throwing the money into the air, but Vijay removes it from his left coat pocket. It's not a mirror-reversed scene, because Vijay's coat is done up left-over-right, in the correct fashion.
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Visiting Q in Delhi, 007's watch shows a date of Sunday 16th. A few hours later it reads Tuesday 18th. The events at the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt occur one week later (which would make the date at least Wednesday 25th), but it's only Saturday 22nd by his Seiko.
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In the pre-titles sequence, when Bond's little aircraft is about to come out of the horse box you can see the military vehicles rounding the corner. When the aircraft comes out of the horse box you can clearly see that there is nothing ahead. Then in the next shot the military vehicles are there again, and closer than in the first shot.
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Errors in geography
After the Octopussy Circus train leaves East Germany and enters West Germany, the train passes through a tunnel entrance festooned by an East German-style propaganda banner.
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It is said that Karl-Marx-Stadt is east of Berlin. Karl-Marx-Stadt was the name of the city of Chemnitz between 1953 and 1990, which is situated slightly south-west of Berlin.
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The train scene (shot in Peterborough, England) is meant to be in Germany, but features quintessential English countryside and British pylons. East Germany's topography is markedly different, particularly as it has more pine trees as opposed to the hedgerows and broadleaf typical of England.
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You can just about make out that the cars driving over a bridge in the railway scene are driving on the left, not the right.
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When Bond and M drive through West-Berlin towards Checkpoint Charlie, they pass the same place at Kurfürstendamm several times, heading in the opposite direction to Checkpoint Charlie.
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The Horse Box that Bond parks his open top Range Rover alongside in the opening scenes at the military base is a distinctive 1960s/1970s British built Bedford TK series lorry. It would be extremely difficult to find one of these in South America where this scene takes place.
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Factual errors
The three Soviet soldiers Bond fights at the tunnel entrance carry the Austrian Army "Steyr AUG" standard rifle and not as they should (and all other Soviet soldiers in the movie do) a Kalashnikov or derivate of it.
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General Orlov's uniform features some inaccuracies, among them his cap is closer to the design of an enlisted Soviet soldier's cap rather than a General's cap.
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Bond escapes from Orlov in the General's black Mercedes 280S displaying a Soviet flag on the hood ornament and two stars (gold on red) that presumably denote the general's rank. Not only did Soviet generals not use this American style of rank decoration on their official vehicles, but no Soviet general would use a Mercedes as their official vehicle. The appropriate vehicle for someone of Orlov's rank would be a Chaika GAZ M13 or M14. Even if, as a corrupt official, Orlov did use a Mercedes, he certainly would not have drawn attention to it with official markings. (This may have been done by the film makers because the Chaika was generally unavailable in the West in 1983, unlike the lower status Gaz 24, which was exported in some numbers, that Orlov uses to chase the stolen Mercedes to the border.)
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While Bond is running through the jungle to escape Kamal and his men, at one point he turns around and runs into a large spider web and wipes a tarantula off of his elbow. Tarantulas do not build webs. They are burrowing spiders.
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Incorrectly regarded as goofs
Octopussy claims that her father was a leading expert in 'octopi'. Both octopuses and octopi can be a plural for octopus.
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Incorrectly regarded as goof: The train of the "Octopussy Circus" has a steam engine which was considered to be an anachronism as the film takes place in 1983. In fact, due to the rising oil prices in the 1970s the railroad company of the German Democratic Republic started re-using steam engine trains in their regular traffic. The last steam engine got out of order in 1988.
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Plot holes
The villains had set the bomb to go off in four hours prior to the circus arriving at the military base. This is not nearly enough time for the train to unload all crew, equipment and supplies and then set up to a full house audience to witness the last seconds of the timer.
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After spending the night with Bond, Magda takes the Fabergé egg and using her sari descends from the balcony to the ground. Knowing that the egg has a tracking device in it, Bond activates the tracking device in his watch which begins beeping. Gobinda then knocks Bond out. Bond later awakens in Kamal's mansion and the watch is still beeping. Evidently none of Kamal's people thought a constantly beeping watch was unusual enough to try turning it off or removing it from Bond's wrist.
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Revealing mistakes
The tiger head that roars out of the jungle at Bond during the hunt is a rather obvious, immobile stuffed head.
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When Bond and Vijay are trying to escape from Gobinda, Bond is fighting an assassin and flips him over, landing on the bed of nails. The nails are clearly made of rubber, as they bend around the assassin's body.
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When Gobinda attacks Bond on the train, he rolls over and the rubber sword bends.
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As the Acrostar jet is flying thru the hanger, you can see that it has been mounted on a pole and is being pushed through the scene.
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After James has the guards distracted thoroughly by his accomplice and pulls their ripcords, the two guards are pulled from the truck by a visible line.
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During a close-up of the car-on-railroad stunt, the car has proper flanged railroad wheels rather than shot up and skinned up automobile wheels (albeit dressed up to resemble the original wheels).
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When Gobinda and Bond fight on the roof of the moving train and fall, the sabre Gobinda holds in his hand bends on contact with the train roof.
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The stock footage of the tiger is obvious, as is the rear-projection. The plants in the footage don't match up with those in the current scene.
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There are scenes where it shows the front facing of the atomic bomb, fully lit, even though it is locked inside its casing, in which it would be pitch black at the time.
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When Bond comes out of hiding among the circus trailers (right before the clowns start running) and the German police charge by his hiding place, you can hear one shout "He's got to be around here somewhere!" in German with a very clear American accent.
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The sheep's eye that was eaten was clearly a small egg, probably a quail's egg, hard boiled and painted with the eyeball graphics. When he bites into it, there is no snappy crunch or popping sound you would hear if you bit into a real eyeball (cooked or uncooked), and the inside of it is clearly an egg, with cooked white on the outside and cooked yellow yolk on the inside.
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Spoilers
Audio/visual unsynchronised
After Bond disarms the bomb, Octopussy asks the blonde thief were Kamal was going. She responds "Back to India." But her lips say something else.Share this
Audio/visual unsynchronised
When Bond and Octopussy jump off the plane, Bond apparently says the words "Octopussy jump" or something similar, but his mouth is not moving.Share this
Character error
Bond is involved in a lengthy & dramatic chase to reach and disarm the atomic bomb that is hidden on the circus train, headed for the American military base. Instead of focusing on reaching the bomb himself (which of course makes for an exciting movie), why doesn't he just get to a telephone and phone in the dangerous situation to headquarters, who can then send in back-up and/or dispatch a team of bomb experts to meet the train as it arrives? At one point during the chase, he is even dropped off in a town after hitching a ride; he attempts to use a payphone, but gives up in less than 30 seconds after a women in the phone booth won't relinquish the phone - he then steals her car instead to continue the chase. Surely this isn't the only telephone in town - why not find another one? It's true that he may not have money or an ID on his person, but surely the British Secret Service has made provision for an agent to call in on a phone without these things (call collect, a special toll free number, etc.).Share this
Character error
With only 5 minutes left before the bomb explodes, Bond sneaks into a trailer at the circus and manages to disguise himself in an elaborate clown make-up and costume before making his way to the big top (where the bomb is located). Moments later, when he confronts the General, Bond states that the bomb will explode in "90 seconds". The clown make-up Bond wears is very professionally done, and, conservatively estimating that it took only 30 seconds to leave the trailer, enter the big top, and approach the General, that means that Bond entered the trailer, applied the complicated make-up, AND got into the elaborate clown costume in 3 minutes or less. This is highly unlikely. Anyone who has done professional clowning will affirm that it takes considerably longer than three minutes to properly apply a professional clown make-up and costume. If time is so critical (5 minutes before bomb explodes), why waste precious minutes applying the make-up and costume? Why not just grab a broom and/tool/clipboard & pose as one of the dozens of stagehands/crew people/clean-up crew that can be found at all such events?Share this
Continuity
By the end of the film, after having escaped from Kamal's plane, Bond is holding Octopussy with his left hand, preventing her from falling off the cliff. In this scene the position of his right arm significantly changes between shots, once being strung-out and away from his body, then suddenly being very close to his body.Share this
Continuity
When Gobinda knocks Octopussy unconscious and throws her over his horse to transport her to the awaiting getaway plane, she is placed over the horse with her head on the right of the horse and her legs on the left. When they arrive at the plane and he removes her from the horse, she is in the opposite position with her head on the left of the horse and her legs on the right.Share this
Factual errors
When Bond is on the airplane he scoots back and moves the elevator down with his feet for just a moment, then scoots back forward again. In the movie this puts the airplane in an uncontrollable dive and crashes. In reality there would be no loss of control.Share this
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
Bond kills the first twin, Mischa, and hides him in a cannon. Later the border guards search a different cannon.Share this
Revealing mistakes
When Gobinda is fighting Bond on the outside of the plane toward the end, his jacket opens up to reveal the stuntman's parachute underneath, just as he falls from the plane.Share this
Revealing mistakes
When Gobina slashes at Bond atop the plane, a medium shot clearly shows a stunt double (note the bald spot) who is wearing a black outfit, not a blue suit.Share this
Revealing mistakes
when the plane crashes to the ground, if you slow down the footage, you see what appears to be 3 different explosions. Furthermore, the source of the explosions seems to be the ground itself, and not the airplane.Share this
Revealing mistakes
During the fight scene atop the aircraft at the end of the movie, just after Bond uses the aerial to flip Gobinda in the face knocking him from the top of the airplane, there is a cut to a 1/2 second scene of Khan at the controls - the film is mirror reversed, with all of the placards and aircraft instructions shown mirror reversed.Share this
