Continuity mistake: In one scene, Steve Martin is shot in the arm and bleeds, but when the trio return after the riot the wound has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: When the gang of bad guys ride to the ranch there are nine of them. When they leave, and throughout the rest of the movie there are only seven, despite only one being shot off his horse at the ranch. (00:15:15)
Continuity mistake: In the final shoot-out scene where Clint Eastwood kills 5 men in rapid succession, Clint crouches and exchanges gunfire with two deputies who are standing side-by-side. A blood stain suddenly appears on the abdomen of the younger deputy on the left, but there is no bullet hole, it does not coincide with any gunshot sound effect, and the deputy does not react to the wound. A moment later, as Clint continues firing, both deputies topple over backwards.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Spaniard is beating up all the guys that Maverick paid off he ties one guy's neck to a post with his whip. As the shot changes you see the whip go only around his neck, but in the last shot of the scene it's around neck and post again. (00:36:00)
Continuity mistake: In one of the final scenes where Tom Selleck has a gunfight with Alan Rickman, the time of day during the few minutes (in movie time) the scene takes place varies from noon (full sunlight) to dusk. Just prior to the gunfight, when Selleck is getting ready to draw on Rickman and his two henchmen, there are almost no shadows and there is bright sunlight indicating it is in the middle of the day. Just after the gunfight there are now long shadows on the characters and moments later the camera pans across the hills and the sun is setting.
Suggested correction: Shadows exist before and after try to watch it again.
Continuity mistake: The movie is supposed to have been filmed and taken place exclusively in Pasadena, TX, and MOST of it is. The trailer park that they live in, however, is NOT in Pasadena, or anywhere near there. There are several scenes where they show someone driving into the trailer park, and you can see mountains in the background. There aren't any mountains within hundreds of miles of Pasadena.
Continuity mistake: When Colonel Marlowe blows the bridge near the end of the film, a pair of spectacular explosions ensue, tossing planks and beams into the air. However, as Hannah Hunter gazes at his retreating form, the bridge is still intact.
Continuity mistake: In the middle part of the film, as they look out across the field you can see the shadow of a aeroplane cross the field.
Continuity mistake: At the end the nasty man is out of bullets so the Bad girl throws him a bullet from her rifle. He puts the bullet in but fails to revolve the cylinder so of course he loses as you would have to thumb-cock and pull the trigger 3-4 times to get to the live ammo. Dumb, dead desperado.
Continuity mistake: On the first day of the battle when Longstreet and Lee are talking, Longstreet's cigar is unraveling and in the next shot he has a new cigar.
Continuity mistake: During the fight inside the spider, West wraps one of Loveless' men in a chain and kicks him out the door. You clearly see that the chain comes completely off its roll and falls to the ground, presumably with the body. Yet later on in a wide shot of the spider you can see the body and chain still suspended from the spider. Then when it crashes, West uses the hanging body to save himself.
Suggested correction: We do actually not see it fall to the ground, just vanish outside. It could be that the end of the chain got caught onto something just beneath the opening.
Continuity mistake: In the barn dance scene Gideon is doing flips on the sawhorse. His shirt becomes untucked and then retucked between flips.
Continuity mistake: When Rick Nelson tells Angie Dickinson to throw the plant pot through the window to distract the gunmen who threaten John Wayne he seems to have had a hair cut between scenes as his sideburns are halved by the time he reaches the street and grow again later.
Continuity mistake: There is no way the cow (a Hereford I think) could have given birth to that calf (a Jersey or something like that). [The mom is a mixed-breed BEEF cow, the calf a purebred Jersey DAIRY calf. An amazing feat of animal husbandry.]
Continuity mistake: All the action occurs near Claremore, Oklahoma. The picturesque mountains in the background of several scenes are lovely, but there are no mountains even close to that size within hundreds of miles of Claremore.
Continuity mistake: At the fair when Isabelle goes to give Suzanna the baby, she actually hands it to her in one shot, but in the next (a split second) Suzanne shows no sign as if the baby ever left Isabelle's hand. (01:38:24)
Continuity mistake: When Kevin Costner gets hit on the head by the top frame of the door, he is knocked out unconscious. Yet, when he gets back up after regaining consciousness, the blood from is head had been running down his nose. Don't you think that as he was lying down in a horizontal position, the blood would run down over the eyes towards the ears?
Continuity mistake: When Jack Twist is chopping wood, right before Joe Aguirre visits him on his horse, he sets up a piece of wood to chop. Jack talks to Joe and when the camera pans out to show him ready to chop again, the piece of wood is gone.
Continuity mistake: In an early scene Travis and Dickenson are in Travis's office. Travis goes to the mantel, gets a cigar and pours himself a glass of sherry. In a later scene, when Travis meets Crockett in the cantina he refuses a drink from Crockett claiming he doesn't drink, ever.
Continuity mistake: When the church bell is rehung and struck, it goes from shoulder height to well above head height, then back to shoulder height in subsequent shots. (01:28:15)