A View to a Kill (1985)
Goofs
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Audio/visual unsynchronised (4) |
Boom mic visible (2) |
Character error (8) |
Continuity (44) |
Crew or equipment visible (7) |
Errors in geography (1) |
Factual errors (11) |
Plot holes (4) |
Revealing mistakes (25) |
Spoilers (13)
Audio/visual unsynchronised
When Bond follows Stacey to her home from San Francisco, a radio announcer is discussing the weather. His dialogue is continuous, yet in each shot of Bond and Stacey driving, there is a different background, indicating time-lapse in their journey.
Inside the iceberg submarine, Bond says something to his assistant like "Be a good girl will you, and put her automatic" but his mouth is not even moving.
When Stacey hits the intruder on the head with the vase, the breaking sound is heard before the vase actually hits his head.
In the shower, Bond is engaged in a deep lip-lock with Stacy, yet, he laughs "HAHA" very loudly. Obvious over-dubbing.
Boom mic visible
Reflected in the side windows of the goons' limousine as it leaves Stacey's house following the fight.
When Bond sneaks into Stacy's house and goes upstairs. A mic boom can be seen in the mirror over the stairs.
Character error
When Bond and Tibbett break into the laboratory, Bond does not even have the basic burglar/spy item of gloves, and leaves his fingerprints all over the lab, being so inept as to "announce" his presence by putting the vial back into the wrong spot.
Bond climbs out of the elevator shaft easily. There is no reason why Stacy can't climb out. Yet, Bond has to come back with a separate rescue for Stacy - using a fire hose as a rope, rather than putting the fire out with it.
Early in the movie, Zorin comments that they make microchips out of silicon, "which is common sand." Sand is mostly quartz (silicon dioxide).
The Division of Mines paperwork on Zorin's wells has HAYWOOD written across it. All other references, and the actual fault, are spelled HAYWARD.
Zorin checks Bond's identity with facial recognition technology which confirms he is James Bond 007, Licenced to Kill. This adds to the ever growing list of people who seem to know the personnel of MI6.
Zorin is first identified as psychotic but Bond later calls him a psychopath, which is a completely different thing.
James reconnected Stacy's phone poorly. One wire is moving after he's punched them all down. These are insulation displacing connections, and a loose wire wouldn't work well.
Just before Bond carries Stacy down the ladder from the top of the California State Office Building at 1 hr 32 min., a female news reporter covering story mistakenly refers to the building as City Hall.
Continuity
Bond falls through the roof of the boat onto a wedding cake. He gets up, perfectly clean. Bond should be covered with frosting.
When Bond is using the fire hose to pull Stacey up from the burning elevator shaft, there is a patch of flames immediately below him which would certainly impede her progress, but when the camera angle switches to show her from his point of view, there are no flames.
During the fire truck chase scene, the police are driving two Dodge Monacos when they sideswipe each other and lock fenders. A moment later, they hit a post which separates the cars and causes them to spin out of control. When this happens, suddenly the Monacos have turned into Dodge Diplomats. When the police begin the chase again, the cars have turned back into Monacos.
Bond sprays the police chief with water from the fire truck and yet minutes later in the chase scene, the police chief is completely dry.
When Bond's Renault taxi is crushed in two pieces by an oncoming car, the other car is a grey Renault 20, but at first it is a BMW.
The Rolls Royce has blackwall tires. However, after it has been pushed underwater the tires are clearly marked Michelin in bold white letters in the scenes where Bond is using the air in one to breathe.
When Dr. Mortner fires at Bond, he shoots 8 times from his 6-shot revolver without reloading.
When James is chasing May Day up the Eiffel Tower, she turns around and whips a fishing line at him, which sends him sprawling over the rail. As he is suspended upside-down halfway over the railing, his legs are spread apart, however when he regains his balance and begins unwinding the fishing line, his legs are now bound together.
The recorded conversation between Max Zorin and Bob Conley in the dock warehouse does not match the actual conversation.
Zorin's shoes change between shots at the end of the movie.
During the Paris car chase scene, Bond is going in reverse down a small set of stairs, but it cuts to a different camera angle and we see Bond is going reverse down a much larger set of stairs, which appear to be in a different area.
The police car stuck at the top of the drawbridge is a Dodge Diplomat. In the close-up of its rear tire spinning before it falls, the wheel arch is different and is in fact a shot of an earlier Dodge Monaco, which are also used in the scene.
When Bond is chasing May Day on the Seine, Bond falls onto a party cake. In one shot, he has cake on his sleeve, but in the next shot, his sleeve is clean.
When pulled into the blimp, Stacey has only one shoe. Later on the bridge, she has both.
On the main cable of the Golden Gate Bridge, when 007 and Zorin are fighting, they appear to be on a flat platform where the roadway cables would loop around, however in the next shot the roadway cables just loop around the main cable, there is no platform.
When Bond is hanging from the mooring rope of the blimp as he passes over the city, a wide shot shows that it is a cloudy day and the top of the Golden Gate Bridge is covered in fog, way off in the distance. 30 seconds later as the blimp approaches the bridge, almost all of the fog has disappeared and it's now sunny.
In the Golden Gate Bridge scene, the boats consistently change position. First, a wake passes and a small boat is seen on the left most part of the screen for a split second. Two shots later, that same boat is seen entering from the right side. Moments later, a cargo ship is exiting the right side of the screen. Two shots later it is seen entering from the left side.
Angle of the drawbridge when the officer looks down at the patrol cars beneath them.
Mr Howe's exit-only office door is marked "Divisions of Oil and Mines" during the corridor shots and when James goes out, but is marked "Division of Oil and Mines" when Stacey leaves.
The locomotive seen outside in the quarry has a higher exhaust pipe above the muffler, in the mine interior sequence filmed at Pinewood the pipe has been cut down to clear the tunnel roof.
At the first horse race you see that Pegasus is gray. Later at Zorin's stables when they are bringing Pegasus out of a horse trailer, he is brown. Then a few scenes later when they show Pegasus going into a stall he is gray again.
When Bond is submerged in the Rolls Royce, there are many bubbles rising up to the surface. When it cuts to the camera shot of the surface of the water, there are no bubbles rising.
In the mine office, Bond smashes the glass window in the office with a chair. He jumps out. There is no glass down below the window.
When Zorin is sneaking up behind Stacy in his blimp, he is far back in the distance. The camera cuts away and then cuts back, and Zorin is right behind her and swoops her up.
During the fight in the warehouse, the amount of crates on the conveyor belt and their position keeps changing.
Bond attempts to free himself of May Day's wire in the Eiffel Tower. He is seen holding his gun when he goes to reach the wire. In the close-up shot, he is shown freeing himself with both hands and no gun. The next shot has him back holding the gun.
During the firetruck chase, Bond climbs successfully on top of the free-swinging ladder. In the next shot, when the ladder swings towards the fire truck, Bond is under the ladder.
When May Day drops a man from Zorin's airship, two buttons can be seen on the wall: first with the upper one she opens the floor, than with the lower one she flats the stairs. After his fall, May Day uses the buttons to revert everything to its original state, however, even though she presses only the upper one, both the floor and the stairs go back to the original position.
When escaping the burning elevator, Stacey loses one of her high heeled shoes. After the fire engine chase and eventually ending up at the mine, it can be seen that Stacey has both heels.
At the drawbridge, with the cop cars having crashed into each other sliding down the raised bridge, the operator makes a move to lower the bridge. But the motion of the counterweight crushing the police captain's car is indicative of the bridge rising, not lowering.
During the fire engine chase, when James becomes tillerman, the ladder is locked.
On the blimp when Max Zorin is explaining plan "Main Strike", May Day can be seen in the background with her sunglasses on and then in her hand without enough time to remove them.
Bond is sleeping with the gun in his lap. When he is awoken by Stacy, the gun has changed positions, and Bond is holding it upright.
When Bond and Sir Godfrey go down the stable elevator to the lab, there is straw on the floor. When the two goons approach the elevator, there isn't any straw. A moment later when they go down the elevator, there is straw again.
When Bond is chasing May Day up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower, three red lifts go up the shaft within the space of a minute. This is impossible as there is only one lift per shaft, and it takes longer than a minute to go up and come down again. When Bond jumps onto the next lift traveling down, it is yellow, showing they are filming in a different shaft.
When Bond puts the oxygen tank into the turbine, the bottom part of the tank is the part that gets jammed in the fan blade. Notice that the paint is not damaged very much. When Zorin pulls the oxygen tank out of the turbine, the center of the oxygen tank is where it has been cut, and the paint is also badly damaged.
When Mayday is about to eject the man from the blimp, she is wearing her sunglasses when she puts her finger on the door release button, then they are off and in her hand between shots.
The length of rope with a grappling hook at one end, is far less than the distance which Bond skis before clasping the other end to the snowmobile driver.
Q's surveillance robot enters Stacey's cat door, then travels to her bathroom - but since the device runs on wheels, it could never climb that big staircase.
In the car/parachute chase, as Bond approaches the yellow ramp, only half of his car (at most) is aligned with the ramp - yet a second later, the entire car neatly drives up the ramp. Then, when the car drives along the bus roof, sending luggage flying, much of this "luggage" is clearly empty cardboard boxes.
When entering the underwater pipe, Bond comfortably fits through its narrow opening, despite wearing a bulky oxygen cylinder. Yet when exiting the pipe without the oxygen cylinder, he struggles to squeeze through the same gap.
When Bond leaps from the bridge, he lands on and crashes through the boat's roof. Seconds later, when viewed from the outside, the boat's roof is perfectly intact.
When the Oriental businessman falls out of Zorin's airship, the hatch is square from the inside, but rectangular from the outside.
On discovering the large quantity of dynamite at the mine, Bond looks up and says, "Here's the next one," before the delivery truck actually comes into view.
Crew or equipment visible
When May Day pushes Bond's Rolls Royce into the water, a cable that pulls the car is visible for a moment.
Obvious stunt man driving during the Paris car chase (plus a boom mike reflected in the car window), and subsequently crashing through the wedding on top of the cake.
During the fire engine chase in San Francisco, on the back end of the truck you can see two crew members with a camera.
Just after Stacey has climbed out of the mineshaft, a shot of the airship coming over the edge of the quarry towards the camera shows a crew member lurking in the bushes immediately below.
When the Siberians are shooting at Bond in the glacier, a piece of snow kicks up and gets stuck to the camera lens.
When Zorin leans out of the blimp to grab Stacey, a safety cable, attached to Christopher Walken is visible.
During the quarry scene the Zorin airship swoops and Zorin leans out to scoop up Stacey. The boom of the red crane to suspend the airship can be seen reflected in the cabin windows.
Errors in geography
Stacey's kitchen has an AGA stove in it; common in English country houses, these large oil-fired cast iron stoves were rarely used in the united states.
Factual errors
As Bond and Stacey are climbing up the elevator shaft, the cables burn through and the elevator falls down the shaft. Elevators have braking systems that prevent them falling even in the event of loss of their supporting cables.
When Bond and Sutton are on top of the burning elevator fire burns the cables and it falls down the shaft. In reality a Molotov cocktail can't produce enough heat to burn through heavy steel cables.
Bond's Rolls Royce is shown sinking a long distance from the shore. We then see Bond looking up from under the water and seeing Zorin and Mayday standing on the shore. At such a large angle to the vertical, you can't see anything outside the water: total internal reflection means that the surface of the water from below looks like a silvered mirror. You can only look out of the water through a narrow vertical cone, up to about 60 degrees from the vertical.
In the Paris chase, Bond drives the front half of a car which apparently still runs. This is impossible even with front wheel drive because the gas tank would be in the back. The brakes would also no longer work because the lines would have been cut.
The type of water intake for the pipeline is incorrect. The blades on the turbine are nearly flat, and thus would not generate any appreciable amount of suction, especially at the low speed is is shown rotating in the film. Additionally, a system dedicated to pumping large volumes of water would use an impeller type of turbine, not the axial type depicted.
The idea that a bomb of any magnitude could create an earthquake is totally preposterous. The San Andreas Fault is caused by the Pacific Plate moving across the North American Plate, and no surface activity, even a large bomb would be enough to aggravate the plate tectonics that already occurs along the more than 800-mile long, 16-mile deep San Adreas Fault--akin to a firecracker altering the course of a six-mile wide asteroid, Zorin's bomb would have an infinitesimal, negligible effect on causing an earthquake in that zone.
The San Francisco City Hall would not like house Californial State offices, such as the Dept of Geology.
When Stacey hits one of the bad guys over the head with the vase containing her grandfather's ashes, no ashes or dust come out of it. The bad guy would have been covered, and the floor would have some on it as well.
The color pattern of the phone box is incorrect for a 25 pair phone line. And the wire position, (IE the 2 wires in the middle of the block) are in the wrong spot. They should be in the far left if they are coming into the block or far right if they are going into the house.
When Bond is in the restaurant with Aubergine, Bond is offered a taste of the Champagne before a full glass is poured. Sparkling wines, especially Champagne are never tasted before the glass is poured.
In the chase scene with the fire engine at one point Bond encounters two cable cars. While the cable cars are moving over the track, the cars actually have rubber tires rather than the metal wheels of the actual San Francisco cable cars.
Plot holes
When Bond and Stacy exit the burning building, there is a fire ladder leading up to the top floor, even though no firefighters are entering the building that way. Also, the firefighters seem to just stand there on the ground and watch Bond and Stacy make their way down the ladder without trying to help them in any way. It seems as though the ladder was just left there and the survivors are responsible for making their own escape.
Zorin's plan is conceptually flawed. By the mid 80s "silicon valley" was not a center of manufacturing of semiconductors. Essentially all of the manufacturing was in Asia by this time. Rather, silicon valley was (is) a center for innovation and investment in the tech sector. Destroying it via an earthquake and flood would not decrease competition in the semiconductor market. Quite the reverse, it would destroy the companies that are purchasing Zorin's microchips to build their products. In essence, he is killing his customers.
For Zorin's plan to have worked (flooding Silicon Valley and causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and uncounted billions in property losses) his role in the event could never be uncovered. Yet James Bond uncovers his plan relatively quickly in the film's narrative and yet never goes to the US government with the information.
Even if the US government somehow did not believe Bond initially, in the aftermath of the disaster, Zorin's arrest and prosecution would be virtual certainties along with the seizure of all of his available assets. Basically unless Zorin's "plan" was to kill and destroy for nothing, he failed when Bond discovered his involvement in the scheme.
When Bond is undercover at Zorin's estate, he introduces himself to Stacey Sutton as James St. John Smythe. Yet, later in the film, she doesn't recognize him when he introduces himself as James Stock of the London Financial Times.
Revealing mistakes
When May Day jumps off the Eiffel Tower, she is about halfway up in the tower after being chased up the stairs, but when the jump is viewed from below, it is obviously made from the top of the tower. A special platform made for jumping is clearly visible mounted on top of the Eiffel Tower.
After Pola Ivanova sneaks out of the baths, she climbs into the car with General Gogol, who can be to seen to be a double and not Walter Gotell. The next shot, in the interior of the car, shows Gotell behind the steering wheel.
The police captain's patrol car is hit by a taxi at a major intersection during the fire truck chase, and five other vehicles swerve to avoid a collision. All come from three directions at once with no signs of yielding to each other, and thus would have crashed or swerved anyway, had the pursuit not blasted through the intersection to stop them.
When Bond is talking to Dr. Mortner, the same clip of Bond using the "ring camera" to take a picture is re-used from earlier. You can tell because Bond is not holding a champagne glass at the time he takes the picture, but there is a champagne glass in his hand in the shot.
When Pola Ivanova sneaks out of the Japanese bath-house with the (wrong) tape, she leaves her clothes and underwear behind in a pile; supposedly, she's wearing only a robe. Outside, the robe slips, and briefs are visible.
Zorin's safety harness is visible as he pulls Stacey into his blimp.
When Bond is fighting Zorin's men in Sutton's mansion at the top of the stairs, the railing is perfectly precut and gives way as Bond pushes the thug past the railing, with only the slightest pressure.
Flipped image: when Bond is hanging from the ladder of the fire truck, he knocks the hats off men in a white Cadillac, which appears to be driven from the right side.
The way in which Stacey is driving the fire truck does not correspond to the actual turns shown on the background (projection) screen.
When Bond is hanging on the ladder during the fire truck chase, there is a mirrored rear-projection shot that shows cars driving on the wrong side of the street.
During the opening sequence, Bond takes a runner from a skidoo and uses it as a snowboard. The trail he leaves behind is from a real snowboard instead of from a skidoo runner, as it leaves a smooth track instead of leaving the mark of a running groove.
When Bond enters Stacey's house and climbs the staircase, the cutaway banister (used for a later stunt) moves.
After the fight with the intruders, Stacey tells James that the vase contained the ashes of her uncle (it's OK, he always liked a good fight) but when she broke it over the intruder's head, we can see it was empty as no ashes were released.
Bond's safety harness is visible as he flips over the railing of the Eiffel Tower.
When Bond and Tibett enter Mortner's lab by the horse-elevator, the light of the elevator isn't low enough to see the silhouettes you see in the elevator windows.
One of the invaders in Stacey's house is wearing a wig and is obviously a stuntman, but as they depart, the outside shot shows the proper actor with his natural hair.
At the end, the video the surveillance robot is shooting doesn't match up with the direction it is pointed in.
In the fight scene below the laboratory, Bond and Tibbett are fighting the villains, and their punches are not even close to making contact.
Obvious stunt double for 007 as he jumps onto the elevator at the Eiffel Tower.
When May Day military presses the agent over her head, you can see the wires holding him up. You can also tell he is being suspended, because of the way his body is bent in the middle.
Obvious double for Patrick Macnee during the warehouse fight. It starts at 40:17. Their positions also change, with the stand-in sitting almost upright, while Patrick Macnee is almost vertical.
When May Day throws the businessman from Zorin's blimp, it's an obvious dummy shown falling--you can see its legs flapping in the wind.
Bond's boots are sometimes clearly attached to the snowmobile skid which, unlike the snowboard this really is, would not be designed for human feet.
Obvious stunt double after the Eiffel Tower chase.
Clearly mannequins were in demand in this movie, when Bond falls through the roof of the wedding boat it is clearly a mannequin that lands on the wedding cake and during the city hall fire scene Bond carries not Stacey down the fireman's ladder but a mannequin.
Spoilers
Audio/visual unsynchronised
When May Day tells James that she has to hold the brake, the audio does not match her lips.
Continuity
Just after Zorin shoots Howe, his accomplice Jenny Flex enters behind Bond, then turns to leave again. In the next shot, she is still facing Bond, and once more starts to turn.
Zorin and May Day push the car into the water with Bond and Tibbet's body in the car. When Bond is in the car underwater, Tibbet's body has mysteriously disappeared.
At the end of the movie, General Gogol has a medal in his right hand. In the next shot, he is drinking a sip of champagne, holding the glass in his right hand too, and the medal is gone.
At the Golden Gate Bridge, Stacey is missing when Bond and Zorin are fighting, there are inconsistencies in the ships sailing underneath and then when Stacey and Bond are together at the end, the fire axe has disappeared.
When the mine is flooded and May Day and 007 are caught in the water, May Day's hair is completely drenched and ruined. She even has to push the damp bangs from her eyes. Later, when she and James are discussing what they should do about the bomb in the power keg, her hair is perfect again, despite James' shirt still being wet and plastered to him.
Crew or equipment visible
Just as Zorin pulls Stacey into the Airship you can see a large number of crew reflected in the Airship's windscreen. The next windscreen shot shows a guy in a white shirt clearly visible.
When Zorin floods the fault, the explosive charge in the lake is visible for a few frames before detonation.
Errors in geography
When Max Zorin falls from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge he is on the Sausalito side, but when he hits the water he is on the San Francisco side.
Factual errors
When the airship gondola explodes, the reduction in weight should make the gasbag shoot upwards (not sink gently into San Francisco Bay) even though it's ruptured at the bottom, since the gas it still contains is much lighter than air.
Plot holes
Zorin's plan to drain the San Andreas Reservoir to flood Silicon Valley could not possibly have worked, as the volume of water would have long dissipated and soaked into the ground along the more than 35-mile stretch to the Valley.
In the climatic fight near the end, the blimp has an array of weapons at Zorin's disposal, yet he goes after Bond with the puny fire ax. Then, when Zorin has Bond in a position where he can kill him, he instead uses the handle in an attempt to choke Bond when he could take a few good swings at his head.
After Zorin falls to his death, Mortner recovers and tries killing Bond with a six shooter hand gun, missing him. Instead of choosing a more powerful available weapon, he then chooses dynamite which he lights from inside of the blimp first, giving Bond the advantage over him with enough time to cut the blimp free.
