The Quick and the Dead (1995) - 18 mistakes

Factual error: At the end when Sharon Stone's character shoots Hackman the second time, you follow the bullet in-eye as it approaches Hackman's head. You see and hear Hackman screaming after the bullet is shot. That is not possible. A bullet from a Magnum revolver would go 1500-2000 feet the first second. And with Hackman standing a mere 50 feet away from the Magnum, he wouldn't be able to open his mouth before the bullet hits his head and kills him.

Continuity: When Sharon Stone confronts Gene Hackman at the end, she throws the marshal star at his feet. It is an inch or two in front of his boots. After he is shot, he gets flung backwards several feet. Stone then picks the star up and throws it to Russell Crowe. She picks it up from behind Hackman's body, several feet away from where it landed but still sticking out of the sand the same way.

Other: During the first round of the duels we see a part of the participants list and "Scars" is missing. He should appear between "Spotted Horse" and "Sparks" according to their order of entering the competition.

Continuity: When Sharon Stone and the old man are talking in the graveyard it's raining. In the closeups, the sky is seen to be somewhat white and cloudy, but in the wide shots, the sky is a deep blue, and almost completely cloudless - and it's still raining.

Continuity: After the woman speaks to Russell Crowe at night when he is chained up he knocks over the glass of water which was just out of his reach. Next scene when the woman is speaking to that man you can see in the background the glass of water isn't there.

Continuity: When Ellen flings the marshal badge towards Herod, it flies horizontally. You can even see it, still flying horizontally, on a downward curve as it starts to land. But when it hits the ground it hits vertically, so it can stick up out of the dust. It should be lying flat on the ground.

Continuity: Near the end, when Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone are finally duelling, the shadows change too fast. Before the first shots there are no shadows, then when Hackman has the little hole in his chest, there is a long one in front of him, and when Russell Crowe arrives, everything (even buildings) projects shadows over Hackman's dead body.

Continuity: When Sharon Stone blows up the building near the end, money flies everywhere. Then when she shoots Gene Hackman through the head, he flies back and falls to the ground, and there is a paper bill under his head, flapping in the wind. Later it's not there. He didn't move either.

Continuity: After almost every gunfight it rains, yet there's never any mud, or even wet spots on the ground afterwards - it goes back to being as dusty as it ever was.

Continuity: When Russell Crowe is in the gun shop, he has one scab on his knuckles. When he is getting ready to shoot just after, he has two.

Continuity: Just before Russell Crowe duels with Spotted Horse, there is a rope strung across the street with what appears to be lanterns attached to it. In the next shot of Russell Crowe, the rope is gone, but Spotted Horse later accidentally shoots it down.

Other: When Leonardo DiCaprio is shot by Gene Hackman, he lays on the ground with his feet splayed out. The bottoms of his shoes are perfectly clean, no dirt, no dust, no wear and tear. The girl that is tending to him seems to have a french manicure, or very shiny perfect nails.

Deliberate "mistake": In the scene where the characters are initially signing up for the contest, Gene Hackman's henchmen cock their weapons as they enter, then after Sharon Stone shoots the rope apart the henchmen cock their rifles again. The problem is that with a second cocking the rifles would be ejecting any chambered brass. It seems like a deliberate mistake because they cock their rifles an inordinate number of times throughout the movie; I would guess the director wanted the effect of hearing the weapons being cocked multiple times at the expense of continuity with the rifles.

Continuity: Near the end of the film, Ellen tosses her father's marshal badge into the sand at Herod's right foot. In the next shot of Herod looking down at the badge, it's suddenly shifted a few inches away from his shoe.

Continuity: When Gene Hackman is shot at the end he looks down and sees the hole in his shadow. However if he was shot from someone at the same level as him, the hole would be straight, parallel to the Earth's surface. So if he could he the reasonably proportioned shadow the angle of the sun wouldn't show any hole in him at all.

Factual error: In the scene just before Harrod fights Ace Handlin, we see a view of Harrod's feet passing a blood stain in the dirt. This bright red color would be impossible when mixed with the dirt. Also we are led to believe that fights happen on the hour, each hour. The blood would have coagulated and been nothing but a dark spot on the ground. This has obviously been done to emphasize that the ground is bloody.

Continuity: Sharon Stone is warned at one point that the clock clicks before it chimes, the chime that tells the gunpersons to draw. The click is quite prominent in all of the times that it is used, but it only chimes after the click on a few occasions, and when it does, it's not the time indicated on the clock.

Factual error: At the end of the film, Gene Hackman's character realizes that he has been shot by looking at his shadow and seeing the sunlight shining through the bullet hole in his body. Oddly enough, when you see the front of his shirt, he's not bleeding. There might have been a one or two second delay, but he would have been bleeding profusely from such a wound.