No Country For Old Men (2007) - 28 mistakes

Factual error: At the motel where Brolin's character first hides the money in an air vent, and when the hitman arrives to look for him, a silver 1985-1990 era Dodge Aries is parked prominently in the parking lot, despite the film's events taking place in 1980.

Factual error: The glass milk jar in the Moss trailer that various characters drink from is labeled Promised Land Dairy. Although the movie is set in and around 1980, Promised Land Dairy didn't start producing milk products until around 1990 (http://www.promisedlanddairy.com/web-content/Our%20History.html).

Factual error: At the very end of the movie, right before Javier Bardem is in the car accident, there is a shot out the driver's side window, past his face. In one of the driveways he is passing, a new Subaru Forester sits parked. The film is set in 1980.

Revealing: Worst rubber 'dead dog' ever. Shot in mid air, it's stiff as a board as soon as it hits the ground.

Revealing: In the scene at the motel where Chigurh kills three men, he goes to sit on the bed where he removes his socks. In the background one of the 'dead' men opens his eyes and looks around.

Continuity: When Chigurh places his handcuffs around the police officer's neck to choke him, the handcuffs are more like manacles and contain 7 or 8 links between the cuffs. When he goes to wash the blood off of his wrists and drops the handcuffs in the sink, they are much smaller, containing only 3 links between the cuffs.

Other: The case of money is in the complete opposite physical orientation when Moss retrieves it from the air duct in room 38. When Llewelyn Moss hides the money in the air duct from room 138, he pushes it to the end of the ductwork with the closet rod and then pushes it to the left with the top of the case and handle going in first and the bottom slightly sticking out. So the top of the case (with the handle) appears to be pointing left in looking at it from 138. When he pulls off the grill in room 38 the next day we can see the top and handle protruding on the right side of the air duct (handle facing left, as he peers into the ductwork). Since we know from the motel room map, that room 38 is directly behind 138, with common rear wall, the top of the case and handle should be facing the right, (from a visual perspective), as you look into the ductwork from room 38 - and it is not.

Other: After Chigurh kills the deputy at the beginning of the film, the next shot is an overhead, downward view of the sink and the killer's arms only, as he washes the blood from his cut wrists. Your attention is naturally focused on the handcuffs and bloody hands in this brief shot, but watch the extreme right edge of the screen. Chigurh has very dark, almost black hair, however, a small portion of the actor's head is seen twice during the shot, revealing light brown, or blond-like hair. The actor appears to be purposefully leaning away from the scene in the very beginning, but inadvertently leans forward during the washing action and the camera caught the hair. I believe the director used a hand model for this one shot.

Continuity: In the motel room scene at The Del Rio Regal Motel, after Chigurh kills the Mexicans in his stocking feet, he removes his socks and tosses them into the bathroom. In the following shots, as he begins searching the room, we can see his bare feet. After he notices the vent above the doorway, however, the camera focuses downward on his hands, as he reaches into his pocket for change to use to unscrew the vent cover. The camera in that shot is in close-up focus on the hands, but, looking down toward the floor, you can make out the familiar reddish-brown, pointed toe boot on his right foot.

Continuity: In the gas station scene, Chigurh places a crumpled candy wrapper on the counter as he is intimidating the owner, and the camera stays on the wrapper for a few seconds as it unwrinkles itself. Moments later, as Chigurh reveals the coin toss result, it is a completely different, blue and white wrapper.

Continuity: After Chigurth escapes from the police department in the police cruiser, he pulls over the white 1977 Ford in order to "swap". As both cars pull to the shoulder of the road and stop, a long shadow is being cast onto the highway by the Ford. In the next shot, as Chigurth is walking up to the Ford, the shadow does not even reach the pavement, indicating that the second shot was filmed much closer to mid-day.

Factual error: Despite the film's events taking place in 1980, several scenes feature a much newer 1986-1990 series Chevy Caprice (evidenced by the flush-mounted tail lights). The most obvious example is in the very first scene showing the rear of such a police car.

Continuity: When Sheriff Ed Tom Bell returns to the motel room where Llewellyn had been shot, his cruiser lights illuminate the room after he opens the door. We see the horizontal shadows cast by the police crime scene tape on the walls of the room, including the back wall,above the picture, as Bell walks through the room. After returning from searching the bathroom, however, there is no longer a tape shadow on the back wall, as he sits down on the bed. Note, that in the next camera angle shot of him turning his head to look down at the open vent, you can again see the shadows on the side wall, indicating the tape should still be intact and headlights still on.

Factual error: The international bridge was in 1980 staffed by US Customs agents who wore blue uniforms. The agent questioning Brolin's character is wearing Border Patrol green.

Factual error: As Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is driving up to The Desert Sands Motel, which is supposed to be located in El Paso, Texas, there is a sign on the right hand side which says "Route 66" - advertising a business on site. Route 66 did not go through El Paso - it was a few hundred miles to the north.

Revealing: When Chigurh is preparing to blow up the car in front of the drugstore, he uses a piece of cloth as the fuse. He removes the gas cap, places a piece of cardboard over the opening, and lays the cloth on the cardboard. He then lights the cloth and walks into the drugstore. After the flames burn through the cardboard and reach the fumes from the gas tank, the car explodes. If you watch the burning cloth as he walks into the drugstore, you will notice that it never moves, not even when the car explodes. If the explosion had been real, the burning cloth would have been blown away from the car by the hot gases expanding out of the gas tank opening.

Revealing: Chigurh's shotgun is a semi-automatic, yet in none of the scenes where he fires it do we see it ejecting an empty shell casing.

Factual error: When he first gets to Del Rio, Brolin's character buys a pair of Larry Mahan boots to replace the ones he lost at the river. He later hitch-hikes to Eagle Pass, gets wounded, and crosses to a hospital in Piedras Negras. He comes back into the Del Rio store for 'everything else', but he should still be in Eagle Pass, not Del Rio.

Revealing: As Moss runs away after jumping out of the hotel window Chigurh shoots at him. There is a quick flash of light that allows us to see the silhouette of Chigurh standing in the room as he fires the shotgun and we see the pattern of pellets strike the sidewalk. We are supposed to believe that the flash of light was from the muzzle flash of the shotgun, but that is impossible. The muzzle flash would be in front of Chigurh, but in order to show Chigurh in silhouette the light source would have to be behind him.

Revealing: Chigurh's shotgun has a black finish and a synthetic stock. While these are popular on today's "tactical" shotguns they were not available in 1980.