Revealing mistake: 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.
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.
Other mistake: 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.
Factual error: In the opening monologue, Sheriff Bell remarks that at one point his father was the sheriff in Plano, Texas. However, the seat of Collin County, in which Plano is located, is actually McKinney.
Other mistake: Chigurh's shotgun is a Remington 11-87 semiautomatic shotgun, yet in none of the scenes where he fires it do we see it ejecting an empty shell casing.
Audio problem: When Anton Chigurh challenges the gas station proprietor to a coin toss, at a certain point he says "It's either heads or tails." If you listen carefully it's clear that the phrase said by him has been dubbed.
Audio problem: When, at the end of the movie, Chigurh leaves the accident site after he said to one of the boys: "You didn't see me, I was already gone", the boy answers saying: "Yessir", but his lips don't move.
Suggested correction: The boy's mouth is open. You can say "Yessir" with your mouth open without moving your lips. Try it.
I can't.
Factual error: In the gas station, the snickers logo is the one they started using in 2005.
Continuity mistake: 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.
Continuity mistake: 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 mistake: When Chigurh enters the hotel room and encounters the Mexicans, he shoots the guy on the bed. He then shoots the wall next to the TV. The bullet holes on the wall are behind the TV. The TV does not receive any damage from the gun blast. The angle is such that it looks like the TV should have been damaged by the bullets.
Continuity mistake: After Chigurh 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 Chigurh 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.
Revealing mistake: 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.
Continuity mistake: When Llewellyn places the money satchel into the motel (room #138) air vent there are a number of dust scratches to the bottom left of the vent. Then later on when Chigurh opens the vent with his dime and you look at the character shot from the inside the vent (from room #38), the scratches to the left are not there.
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.
Other mistake: It would have taken two hundred $10,000 wrapped stacks of $100 bills to equal $2 million. There is no possible way that suitcase could hold two hundred of them.
Factual error: The satchel isn't large enough to hold $2 million. Maybe $1 million. There were six stacks showing on top, so $60,000 across the top layer. Each stack is nearly an inch deep, meaning that the satchel would have to have been about 30 inches deep, in other words 2 and 1/2 feet deep.
Visible crew/equipment: A crew member seen standing on the far left of the frame when Llewelyn is being chased down the river. (00:19:34)
Continuity mistake: During the dialogue between Moss and Wells at the hospital, there is an ashtray on the bedside table next to him changing position in various shots.
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the movie in the car accident scene, when Anton steps out of the car completely injured, the door's window appears broken in a way and then in a different one in a next scene.
