Continuity mistake: When Kurt Russell gets his Jeep running again, after discovering the disconnected wires, the front wheels are pointing to the right. In the very next shot they are pointing to the left. (00:06:25)
Continuity mistake: When Kurt Russell is fighting in the car with the guy he gave the ransom money to, the car sideswipes a rock wall and the passenger-side rearview mirror gets torn off. A couple shots later it's right back where it should be. (01:22:05)
Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie Jeff and his wife were moving to San Diego from Massachusetts. Well, they were driving in their new Jeep (with Massachusetts plates) through Arizona. When Amy comments about how fast Jeff is driving, the camera shot shows the speedometer at 80 mph and the odometer shows the Jeep has only 245miles. That must be a new record from MA to AZ..... (Note: not visible on DVD version of film.)
Continuity mistake: When Kurt Russell's character is parked up on the highway with the truck driver and police, notice how in between shots, the cloud cover completely changes in an instant, not to mention the time of day which is clear from the different shadow angles cast from the Jeep.
Continuity mistake: The first three quarters of the film are supposed to take place during the course of one day, however the sun and sky change so often throughout the film, one wonders how long the day actually is.
Continuity mistake: When Kurt Russell's Jeep stops running you can see that there is no side road or pull-off when he finally stops, but when the truck driver helps him to push his car there is an easy pull-off that was not there before.
Continuity mistake: The police officer shows up to hear about the woman missing. When he stops the sun is behind him. The scene cuts and the sun is overhead. It changes several times after that.
Continuity mistake: When Jeff and Amy run out of the barn and to the truck, there is an angle where it shows the sun already above the horizon, but then the same angle is shown seconds later with Billy chasing them and now the sun hasn't quite risen yet. This is out of sequence.
Continuity mistake: When Jeff goes to the washroom in the bank, there is a mop/broom handle leaning against the corner of the wall by the door. After he rummages through the cupboard looking for a weapon, the handle is gone.
Answer: There was always a ransom, or at least that was always the intent. Anyone that didn't have money the kidnappers would just eliminate them. The kidnappers MO was to take a couple and force one of them to empty their bank accounts. Earl makes it clear that the difference in Jeff's case is that they were unable to kidnap the pair at the same time. For whatever reason, Jeff refused to get in the truck with Red, which caused the kidnappers to alter their plans slightly. Earl also gives some insight into how the group chooses their victims. He tells Jeff that he was targeted because he was driving a brand new SUV, which indicated he must have a fair amount of money in the bank. The kidnappers care very little about being caught, they have obviously committed many murders without being found out. They seem to leave very little evidence of their crimes for the police to find. Red is always several steps ahead of the police and is brazen enough to kidnap a man's wife and say directly to him in front of a police officer that the man must have him mistaken for someone else.
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