Okay, I actually think MovieMistakes.com is a pretty cool site and you can hit their homepage and spend a good 10-15 minutes just browsing the silliness. However, a recent list of seven supposed errors for this week’s release of Quantum of Solace (already released in the UK) is absolutely insane.
Below is all seven as they stand on the site right now (see the page here). One of them is blacked out because it is a pretty big spoiler, but I will tell you what, if these kinds of things bother you or are seen as mistakes then you really shouldn’t be going to movies.
- Factual error: The city of La Paz, Bolivia is shown as a humid and hot city when the truth is, its elevation is 3,640 m (11,942 ft) and the average temperature is 8°C (30°F).
- Continuity: During the scene where Mathis dies in Bond’s arms, the position of Mathis’ head changes between some of the shots.
- Factual error: When Bond walks into the hotel in Haiti, a notice can be seen on the inside of the door, giving instructions on what to do in case of fire in French and English. The French section is headed “EN CASE D’INCENDIE”. The correct French for “in case of fire” is “en cas d’incendie”. The French word “case” means various things but does not have the meaning “event” that the English word “case” does.
- Other: Bond reads the registration of an English registered aircraft over the phone. He reads it saying a word instead of the letters themselves. I remember only the first two letters: G-0XXX, but that’s where the mistake is. G is Golf. O is Oscar, but Bond says it as Zero. And since he flies the DC3 later on, he should know better.
- Factual error: The Austrian number plates were wrong. The prefix (district) and postfix (number) were changed. correct: e.g. LL (emblem) 123AB; Bond: 123AB (emblem) LL; maybe due to legal issues.
- Continuity: When Bond is talking to Mathis at a table at the cottage in Italy, pay attention to the watch on Mathis’ wrist. First it faces the side of his wrist because that way it is best shown on screen, but in the next shot, still at the table, it suddenly faces the outside of his wrist like watches are usually worn.
- Factual error: In the opening car chase, the Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo go round a pack of cars stuck in traffic. When the policeman uses his radio, you can see a blue Vauxhall Corsa in the background. You can see the badge on it and it is actually a Vauxhall Corsa with Italian number-plates, which is incorrect as Vauxhall cars are branded as Opel in continental Europe.
I have already weighed in on the film and plan on seeing it again this Thursday I liked it so much. You can read my review right here, and the release even comes with a couple of added treats, the new trailers for Star Trek and Watchmen. Yay!
One thing is for certain, the Chinese are interested in James Bond, the film net 11.4 million yuan ($1.67 million) on its opening day making it the highest opening day ever for a movie, foreign or domestic, released in November. Even more staggering is that Quantum accounted for 90.3% of China’s total B.O. on its opening day.
