Sir Roger Moore was 57 at the time of this film's release, making him the oldest actor to play James Bond, tied with David Niven in Casino Royale (1967). Moore was also the second-oldest, as he was 55 when Octopussy (1983) was released. The third-oldest are Moore, Sir Sean Connery, and Daniel Craig, who were all 53 when For Your Eyes Only (1981), Never Say Never Again (1983), and No Time to Die (2021) were released, respectively.

At the time of this movie's release, Sir Sean Connery told the press, "Bond should be played by an actor 35, 33 years old. I'm too old. Roger's too old, too!"

Although only appearing briefly, this movie is Dolph Lundgren's first on-screen role, playing General Gogol's KGB bodyguard Venz. He landed the position because he was dating Grace Jones at the time of filming, and was conveniently on-set when director John Glen realized he quickly needed someone to fill in as a simple gun-wielding bodyguard.

When Stacey comes out of the shack in Silicon Valley wearing a pair of coveralls, Bond comments "Pity you couldn't find one that fits", and Stacey gives him a dirty look. Sir Roger Moore ad-libbed the line, and Tanya Roberts' reaction was genuine. Roberts had refused to film the scene until the wardrobe department made her a pair of custom-fitted coveralls that would look flattering on her. Because she was so difficult to work with, director John Glen decided to leave it in.

In his DVD commentary, Sir Roger Moore said that of the seven Bond films in which he starred, this is his least favorite. He didn't like the increased violence, and he felt he was getting too old for the part.

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.

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 pulled into the blimp, Stacey has only one shoe. Later on the bridge, she has both.

Zorin's shoes change between shots at the end of the movie.



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.

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 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.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

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. In this scene, they both reference already meeting at Zorin's estate and he says the Smythe name was a "friend's" name that he used.



Revealing mistakes

After Pola Ivanova sneaks out of the baths, she climbs into the car with General Gogol, who can be seen to be a double and not Walter Gotell. The next shot, in the interior of the car, shows Gotell behind the steering wheel.

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 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.

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.



Miscellaneous

When the snowmobile explodes, the trajectory of the ski falling next to Bond is highly unlikely, considering that the snowmobile was already ahead Bond and that the explosion happened above the skis and not under or beside them. The ski also lands nearly vertically.

Zorin's airship has a registration beginning with G indicating it is registered with the Civil Aviation Authority of the UK. Odd for a vehicle being used by a corporation based in the US.

At 43:41, as May Day is getting into bed with Bond, there is a very short jump, the angle of the camera changes slightly with this edit too, and May Day's head is now in the shot without any movement of her getting in.

At the thoroughbred sale, the white horse filling the screen in the very first scene doesn't move and seems frozen. It is clearly a stuffed animal.



Anachronisms

During the snowmobile/snowboard chase scene, the majority of the shots are followed by ricochet sounds. You only get these sounds from a ricochet, usually from hitting rocks and such. A few could have hit surrounding rocks, maybe the snowmobile, but there is too much snow cover for the frequency of ricochet sounds we are hearing.



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.

When Bond says 'a little restless, but got off eventually' his lips don't move (an obvious post-production re-dub).



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.

When the Siberians are shooting at Bond in the glacier, a piece of snow kicks up and gets stuck to the camera lens.

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.



Plot holes

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.

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.

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.

In the time it took Bond to get out of the lift and climb down the ladder, the Police had somehow climbed the tower, put out the raging fire, discovered Bond's gun and the dead guy, realized Bond's gun had killed him, made it all the way back down and finally put the gun into an evidence bag ready to present to Bond as he stepped off the ladder.

Gogol awards Bond the Order of Lenin. All foreign awards by a British citizen are subject to approval by the Sovereign. It was not clearly specified whether Queen Elizabeth II approved the award.



Boom mic visible

When Bond sneaks into Stacy's house and goes upstairs, a mic boom can be seen in the mirror over the stairs.

Reflected in the side windows of the goons' limousine as it leaves Stacey's house following the fight.



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.

The Division of Mines paperwork on Zorin's wells has HAYWOOD written across it. All other references, and the actual fault, are spelled HAYWARD.

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.

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.

Early in the movie, Zorin comments that they make microchips out of silicon, "which is common sand." Sand is mostly quartz (silicon dioxide).