Skyfall and its mistakes

PGA-nominated ‘Skyfall’ is the second most mistake-filled movie of 2012

By Bryan Enk | Movie Talk – Wed, Jan 2, 2013 9:36 PM EST

Photo: Columbia PicturesHey, no one expects a 007 mission to go completely perfectly, do they?

"Skyfall" is still going strong after almost two months in domestic release, having recently passed the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office. It's also finally getting some official accolades, as it's the surprise entry on today's list of Producers Guild of America movie nominations.
So it would appear that audiences, critics and awards organizations either haven't noticed -- or, just as likely, don't mind -- all of the film's continuity and factual errors.
MovieMistakes.com has released the list of 2012 releases with the most errors, with "Skyfall" coming in at #2 with 35 mistakes. Those spotted by hawk-eyed viewers range from the rather formidable:
- Just before Bond reaches the Chapel, he plunges into icy water. In the next scene, in the Chapel, he is perfectly dry.
- In the bar with Bond drinking and watching television he reaches over for a bottle which is 80% full. He pours a small amount into his glass and watches the TV. In the next shot the bottle is only about 20% full.
- When on the motorbike on the rooftops of Istanbul, Bond at first has no sunglasses on, then sunglasses on, then no sunglasses.
To the rather detail-oriented (Q himself would be proud):
- In the car scene just before the MI6 explosion, invalid IPv4 addresses (with digits larger than 255) are displayed on the laptop screen.
- James Bond is seen driving down Whitehall in London. Behind him a number 38 bus is seen. However the 38 does not travel down or indeed particularly near Whitehall.
While a total of 35 errors may seem high, it's not quite as impressive (or unimpressive, depending on how you look at it) as the whopping 63 mistakes that were in "Men in Black III," which came in at #1. Some of the blunders in the Barry Sonnenfeld-directed sci-fi comedy include:
- When the cops are frisking J, the small cop on the left's left hand keeps changing position in every shot, with no logic whatsoever.
- When K takes the prize out of the Crackers box, the size of the box magically becomes very tiny.
- When J is being swallowed by the fish, the floor around him swaps from very dirty, to slightly dirty, to spotless between frames.
Tied at #3 and #4 with 24 mistakes each is the one-two superhero punch of "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Amazing Spider-Man," with "The Avengers" following close behind at #5 with 22 mistakes. While many criticized the occasional lack of logic in the plot of Christopher Nolan's final Batman film, there were good old-fashioned continuity errors as well, such as:
- The plane in the beginning has at least 4 rows of seats in the left and 5 rows in the right. In the final shot where Bane and the doctor "slip" out of the plane, the left has only 3 rows and the right one also seems to have no more than 3.
- When Bane is about to blow up the stadium, the stadium has players on the field. However, when Bane says "Let the games begin", all the players have disappeared. Then all the players reappear again in the next shot.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man's battles with the Lizard took a few "creative liberties":
- While fighting against Lizard in the lab, Peter's jacket changes randomly from spotless to covered in dust, to partially covered in dust, back and forth.
- When Lizard launches Peter through a wall into a classroom, books and huge chunks of concrete fly above Peter, but when he lands and slides backwards they're suddenly gone.
As well as a variation on what we like to refer to as the "Hulk Purple Pants Effect":
- When Connors becomes a humongous Lizard, his robe magically grows from a Medium size to an XXL.
Speaking of the Hulk, he seemed to avoid being a part of any mistakes in "The Avengers" ... though the same can't be said for his alter ego, Bruce Banner:
- When Bruce Banner meets Natasha Romanoff for the first time in Calcutta, there's a shot from behind her where Natasha is heard talking but her reflection in the small mirror behind Bruce isn't.
- Just after Dr. Banner asks Nick Fury how many spectrometers the Helicarrier has access to, he takes off his jacket, rolls it up, and puts it under his arm. In the next shot, the jacket is suddenly draped over his arm.
And this one's for all the Galaga fans:
- When one of the computer operators resumed playing Galaga, the sound effect heard is for an enemy ship attempting to capture the player's ship, but what's shown on screen is normal gameplay.
Anyway, looking at the films that make up the Top Five, one can conclude that it's apparently hard to keep track of everything in big budget action movies where things are exploding, vehicles are crashing into each other and the actors are, well, moving around and touching things a lot.