It took crocodile wrangler and stuntman Ross Kananga (the villain in the movie was named after him) 6 takes to complete the scene where he doubles for Sir Roger Moore when Bond flees the bad guys by running across the backs of 3 crocodiles in a swamp. Kananga received $60,000 for the stunt, filmed at Swamp Safaris, his 350 acres of mangrove swamp on Jamaica's north coast, where he kept a herd of over 1000 crocodiles. In a 1973 interview, he explained; "something like that is almost impossible to do. So, I had to do it six times before I got it right. I fell five times. The film company kept sending to London for more clothes. The crocs were chewing off everything when I hit the water, including shoes. I received one hundred ninety-three stitches on my leg and face."

Sir Sean Connery turned down the then astronomical sum of $5.5 million (close to $32 million in 2019 dollars) to play James Bond for a seventh time. Connery gave Sir Roger Moore his personal seal of approval for inheriting his role, calling him "an ideal Bond".

Sir Roger Moore was 45 when he made his debut as 007, making him the oldest actor to portray the iconic character. The youngest was George Lazenby, who was 29 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).

The producers offered Clint Eastwood the role of James Bond, fresh from his success with Dirty Harry (1971). He was flattered, but declined, saying Bond should be portrayed by an English actor. Ironically at this point, James Bond had never been played by an English actor. Sir Sean Connery being Scottish and George Lazenby being Australian. The first Englishman to play Bond was Sir Roger Moore.

The boat chase through the bayous was originally written in the script as just "Scene 156 - The most terrific boat chase you've ever seen". Bond's speedboat jump made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for its distance of one hundred ten feet (thirty-three and a half meters), a record that stood for three years. Clifton James' spontaneous reaction in that scene was kept in the final print. Bond's stunt boat used to make the high jump over Sheriff Pepper's car was specially designed with redistributed weight so it would fly through the air with more stability. The second boat was not scripted to collide with the police car, but after this happened while shooting the stunt, the script was changed to accommodate it.

Continuity

When Bond gives Mrs. Bell her "flying" lesson, the wings are torn off the plane. Yet when he asks her "Same time tomorrow?", the reaction shot of Mrs. Bell shows an intact left wing. It's the same 'reaction' shot as when he climbed into the plane.

When Bond is stranded on the island with Alligators crawling towards him, he uses the magnetic Rolex to pull a metal canoe towards him. Several minutes later, while driving in the getaway boat, he is not wearing the Rolex but a watch with a completely different bracelet.

When Bond makes M a cup of coffee the coffee grinder is alternately empty/full between shots.

When the real Baron Samedi rises up from underground, the snake handler is shown among the crowd of people witnessing the "vision". He had supposedly been killed by Bond before he shot at the robot Baron Samedi.

In the opening scene, the voodoo priest is carrying a green snake with the snake's mouth agape, and he is holding it about 15cm from the head when the scene is on the priest. However, on the close-ups of the man tied to the stake, the priest is holding the snake right behind the head, as one might do with a poisonous snake.



Factual errors

In the train scene, Tee Hee opens the electric isolator box and uses his claw to short circuit the power. The lights only go out when his claw makes the short circuit. But electrical isolators are safety manufactured in that when the handle is turned to open the box, the power is automatically switched off.

When Kananga shoots the inflatable couch where Whisper is sitting, the couch should just deflate through the hole the gas bullet would have left. It might inflate a little, but it would likely quickly fail by tearing around the bullet hole.

In the U.N., the U.K. is shown seated next to Honduras, but countries are actually seated in alphabetical order.

Bond is leaning over to steer the runaway car from the back seat when it leaps across a stone staircase then smashes into a van, yet he is not catapulted through the windscreen, then emerges completely unharmed and still perfectly groomed.

When Felix says Kananga has returned to his Embassy; he should have said that Kananga has returned to his UN Mission.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

In order for Tee Hee to be able to break the gun, he would need to have quite a bit of strength in both his claw and his real hand equally, otherwise the gun would just slip out of his hand when he tried to bend it. If there were enough strength within Tee-Hee's claw to crimp the gun hard enough, he would not need an equal amount of strength in his own organic hand for it to bend.

The only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles meet in the wild is in the Everglades of Florida, where salt and fresh water meet in estuaries. But Tee Hee's Louisiana crocodile farm is not in the wild, it is where captive crocodiles have been bred by humans.

Despite being handled as poisonous, there are actually no poisonous snakes in Baron Samedi's casket. The snakes are mostly pythons and tree boas, all non-venomous. The real-life non-venomous serpents are portraying fictional deadly snakes that exists within the Bond universe.

During the fight scene on the train between Bond and Tee-Hee the train car window breaks. Yet after Tee-Hee's ejected, Bond raises the window and the glass is intact. However, the window that breaks is a narrower one near the opening to the bathroom. The wider window does not break. Both windows can be seen briefly after Tee-Hee breaks the ladder.

When Baron Samedi is being introduced to the crowd at the hotel, the compere says, "The legendary Baron Samedi, folks. That's Saturday for those of you who speak French." Surely it should be "for those of you who don't speak French." People who speak French would know that Samedi = Saturday in French. This is a common style of phrase used in North America.



Revealing mistakes

Tee Hee's right arm very clearly appears to be much longer than his left; his prosthetic hand is obviously just a mechanical device being held in his real hand.

When the hang glider is supporting Bond's weight in flight, the fabric would be taught and snapping. Instead, it is fluttering as in a light breeze.

In the bungalow, when James first meets "Mrs. Bond" (Rosie) as she pokes a gun through the door, he throws her on the bed. The person that gets thrown is obviously a MALE stunt double.

Visible ramp built onto steps of building in NYC when taxicab goes up steps and then onto trash cans.

After Bond destroys the fake Baron Samedi and rescues Solitaire, a man rushes towards him with a machete. Bond shoots him twice. There are two errors. The man's shoulder is already covered in Blood before Bond shoots him, and also, the second shot Bond fires appears to not hit the man, yet the man goes flying backwards as if he is shot.



Miscellaneous

When in the bathroom, while the snake is heading towards him, Bond uses the shaving lotion container as a flame thrower. This is not possible using a cigar to light it up. You need an open flame to do so.

Kanaga's henchmen threaten to take him up in a Lear Jet 35 and throw him out at 10,000 feet over Lake Ponchartrain. Opening the aircraft door in flight (If it could be opened at all against the pressure of the oncoming air) would likely result in it being torn off and drawn into the port side engine (along with Bond). This would result in catastrophic damage and probable takedown of the aircraft.

When sheriff Pepper "radio" calls Billy Bob to get his boat and hurry up, Billy Bob answers out loud "I'm on my way" without even touching the radio as if Pepper would be there.

Red candles during a tarot card reading are an odd choice as red traditionally means love and passion, orange would have been more appropriate for someone foreseeing the future.

The crocodiles/alligators near the rowboat were not pointing their snouts towards Bond, whereas all the others were.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

After Bond and Solitaire go underground via the grave, the guards they avoid can be heard to be running on a manufactured floor (perhaps tiled or vinyl). There is no floor in the cave at that point, just rough rock.

When the taxi driver picks Bond up in New Orleans, his dialog and his lip movements don't match.

After escaping from the cave where Kananga is killed, Bond and Solitaire are seen talking on a railway platform with Felix. The echoing reverb used for the cave scene remains on the soundtrack for a couple of seconds during this dialogue before being abruptly removed.

When Bond visits the Voodoo shop, a shop bell sounds as the door opens there is no bell fitted to the door.

The scarecrow that kills Rosie - the shot is heard before the flash of the gun.



Crew or equipment visible

The whole crew and spectators are reflected in the cab's window when Bond leaves the Voodoo shop.

When being chased by road by the police etc., when the police cars crash, the stuntman wearing a helmet can clearly be seen behind the steering wheel.

The wake from one of the camera boats is visible in one of the boat chase scenes.



Errors in geography

In NY, James Bond travels from the airport to CIA address that Felix Leiter says is close to E 57th St. But he somehow travels on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive southbound all the way to the Battery Park when in reality driver would have taken Midtown tunnel instead, or would have traveled northbound on FDR from Brooklyn-Battery tunnel.



Plot holes

Near the start of the film, Leiter's staff trace the white car to an address which is in a block containing the Oh Cult Voodoo Shop, yet they fail to recognize the fact that this is also the building that Kananga and his people have just entered.



Character error

When making the coffee for M, Bond puts the milk in the coffee and then puts the steam into the coffee, demonstrating that neither he nor anyone involved in the scene had the faintest idea how to use the machine.

When Quarrel Junior takes Rosie's revolver from her on the boat, he tells her, "You might have even killed me if you took off the safety catch". Revolvers have no safety catch, only a semi-automatic pistol like Bond's Walther PPK would have one.

At the beginning of the film, when Bond demonstrates the magnetic ability of the wristwatch, he pulls the pin out to turn the watch into a magnet (and even describes this when explaining it to 'M'). However, during the crocodile farm and Kananga's Underground Lair sequences, when Bond wants the magnetic ability of his watch he simply turns the face of the watch slightly.

Bond claims the magnetic watch will "deflect bullets," though bullets are generally copper over lead, and thus nonmagnetic. It's doubtful that any magnetic field would deflect a steel jacketed or steel cored armor piercing military bullet.

When Bond is attempting to get information from Rosie, he points his Walther at her head. When she doesn't come forth with information, he racks the slide, thus putting a round in the chamber. So, not only has he been carrying a pistol which is not ready to use, the PPK is literally designed to be carried with a round in the chamber and the hammer down, just needing the trigger to be pressed. Not very spy-like.