Goofs

Chigurh hurt his wrists badly from handcuffs in the beginning of the film. Yet for the rest of the film - the story takes place in the span of a few days - his wrists don't show any marks or scars whatsoever, even in the close-up shots.

When Chigurh is shooting at the pickup that Moss is in, the rear-view mirror is broken and hangs down at an angle. Later, Moss adjusts the mirror to see where Chigurh is.

There is more milk in the bottle when Bell pours himself a glass in Moss's home than when Chigurh takes the same bottle some time earlier in the film.

After Anton crashes, when he gives the boy the $100 bill for his shirt. First the bill is a $100 then changes to a $1, then back to a $100.

When Chigurh kills the two men who gave him the transponder the taller one is on the left and the fatter one on the right. They both fall backwards. When Bell sees the bodies the next morning the taller man is on the right.

The physics of Chigurh's punching the locks out with a compressed air rod, while being quite captivating and fascinating, are impossible. In order for this method of entry to succeed, either one of two physical factors must be involved: (1) either the deadbolt, which traverses the interior of the door, must already be cracked or broken in the middle, or (2) the opposing force must be equal or greater than the original force. In the second case, Chigurh is seen holding the punch rod to the door lock and not suffering any kickback. Chigurh would have to physically hold the air rod so firmly that the counterforce of the rod hitting the lock would actually work and blow the lock out. In reality, the air rod hitting the lock would create such a counterforce that Chigurh's hand would be instantaneously pushed back, because a traverse deadbolt could not be punched out as depicted.

The cattle gun used to blow the cylinder out of the center of the lock is not possible as shown. If the center of the lock was blown out, the bolt that secures the door to the frame (the large steel piece that slides out of a lock when you turn the key on a deadbolt) would still remain in place, and would still secure the door to the frame. Simply blowing the cylinder out would not be sufficient for quick or easy entry; it would simply eliminate the need for a key. One would need to fit a tool or finger into the hole that was created and somehow pull the bolt back into the door, or possibly have to rotate the entire mechanism inside of the lock housing, as one would with the rotation of a key. This would ruin the element of surprise.

$2 million would consist of 200 packs of 100 $100 dollar bills. That much money would weigh about 44 pounds and take up about as much space as nine reams of copy paper..

When Carson Wells is trying to talk Anton out of killing him, he offers to go to "an ATM" to withdraw $14,000. Although ATMs were invented in 1969, they were not in widespread deployment until banking deregulation in 1984. The small Texas town they were in would not have had an ATM, and even if it did, it would not dispense $14,000. However, Carson would have said just about anything to avoid getting his head shot off at the time he made this dubious claim.

When Anton prepares to blow up the car, he handles the gas soaked rag with his bare hands. When he lights the rag, his hand should have also ignited.

When Llewelyn finds the radio transponder in the briefcase containing the money, the stack the transceiver is in is actually a stack of $1 bills with a $100 bill on the top. Which is understandable because a typical stack of one-hundred dollar bills amounts to ten thousand dollars. Why destroy that much cash when one could achieve the same effect (hiding the transponder) by defacing far less currency?

It is true that mobile home doors are sealed in a way that would prevent mail from being slipped under the door. However, all doors for older mobile homes were also made to swing outwards to open, never inwards. The door in this movie swings inwards. It is obvious that the set-makers modified this home, especially for the dramatic effect when the door swings open to reveal Chigurh standing there. But, who is to say that somebody hasn't replaced the door in the past so that it opens inwards now?

After Llewelyn fires a shot at Chigurh through the door at the Eagle Hotel, Llewelyn jumps from the second-story window to the sidewalk, after which he is bloodied heavily on his right side. There is no evidence that he would have suffered such an injury just from landing on his feet. However, the lock that Anton blew out hit Llewelyn on his right side, which caused the injury.

When Llewelyn checks into the Del Rio Regal Motel, he tells the front desk woman that, "I'm just one person, so it doesn't matter the size of the bed." The room he is assigned is room 138, and it has two beds in it. Later when Llewelyn returns and asks about renting another room, he selects the room right across, room 38, and the same woman says "it's got two double beds", inferring a question as to why would he need a room with two double beds when he actually already has one.

No Goof is identified; it's simply a plausible explanation of a character's action.

In the gas station, Anton Chigurh asks how much the peanuts are, then adds, "And the gas." But the proprietor replies only that the peanuts are 69 cents, and doesn't respond about the price of the gasoline.

Anton didn't care how much the gas was; it was a necessity to him. He would pay it regardless. He might not have bought the peanuts if he thought they were too expensive.

At the shootout scene between Moss and Anton Chigurh there are numerous cars on what appears to be the main street of a small town. It would be unusual that they would be parked there since no businesses are open. Also, the sounds of numerous gunshots and a truck crashing into a car would certainly draw police or others responding to such a racket.

Moss conceals the case of money in his motel room's ventilation duct, pushing it with a pole to the crosswise main duct then all the way left, such that it's reachable, by logic only from the left, via the duct in the opposite room on the back side of his. (Ducts offset between back-to-back motel rooms are a frequent layout.) But when Moss goes to the opposite room to retrieve the money, he pulls the case from the *right* out of the main duct, which is impossible. (That however was likely a deliberate error by the creators, who may have decided this was a rare case of logic actually looking "less natural" to the audience and thus more confusing.)

After Anton shoots into the room of Mexicans, the man he shot in the bathroom blinks after being shot and lying against the wall.

When Anton removes his socks after shooting the Mexicans at the hotel, a 'dead' body in the background blinks and is still breathing.

When the Mexican in the motel bathroom is shot the shot passes through the wall, which should hit his left hand, but hits him in the chest. As he falls his gun is firing at the bathroom door, but leaves no holes.

Radio transmitting devices in the early 1980s would have used large batteries to transmit for lengthy periods of time and due to the batteries not holding a charge. Such a device would have been noticeable inside of the briefcase as it would have been at least the size of a box of bank checks or larger.

Smaller transmitters only became possible with the widespread introduction of cellular technology from the mid-1990s and forward. It would not have been available in the film's 1980s setting.

Near the end of the movie, when Anton drives after encountering Carla Jean, he drives by a 2002 or newer Subaru Forester. It is parked on a driveway.

Area code 210 (San Antonio) appears on Llewelyn's phone bill, however this area code wasn't created until 1992. In 1980, San Antonio's area code would have been 512, with the rest of Central Texas.

The ambulance used outside the hotel scene has modern multi-flash strobe lights. Those type of lights were not introduced until the mid 1990s.

In the scene where Anton is chasing Llewelyn through the streets at night, a modern day Dominos Pizza sign can be seen in the background.

Obvious voice-over in the hospital scene when Carson Wells says Chigurh's full name, "Anton Chigurh".

After Chigurh enters the motel room and shoots the first Mexican, he closes the door with his foot. He was wearing only socks, but it sounds like he has shoes on.

When Carla Jean and her mother are riding in the taxi on their way to the bus station, the cameraman sitting in the front passenger seat is reflected in the mother's glasses.

When Moss is swimming across the river after being shot in the shoulder, a crew member can be seen standing on the left bank in the second wide shot from behind Moss.

At 1:35:35, as Sheriff Bell is driving towards the motel in El Paso, you can see two actors crouching, completely still, for three or four seconds. Seemingly waiting in position until they're told to run and jump into the back of the black Ford that peels out of the parking lot.

During the shot of Sheriff Bell's reflection on the TV in Llewelyn's home, the reflection of three crew members can be seen at the far right corner of the television.

When Moss returns across the bridge from Mexico back to Eagle Pass, he has no clothes. He returns to the Western store where he bought his boots, but the plot established that the store was in Del Rio, over 55 miles away. Then he is in his new clothes by the river in Eagle Pass retrieving the satchel of money. Did he travel 110 miles to buy clothes?

Moss is crossing the bridge into Mexico. The river is shown flowing to the right instead of to the left as the Rio Grande does when seen from the Texas side.

The sign that shows that Anton is driving towards Del Rio is incorrect. There is an arrow that shows Highway 90 veering off towards the left and Del Rio veering off in the opposite direction of the fork in the road to the right. In fact, the only highway that comes in and out of Del Rio is Highway 90. If Anton was driving to Del Rio, he would be on Highway 90 heading towards Del Rio.

In the opening monologue, Ed Tom says his father was sheriff up in Plano; Plano is in Collin County, Texas, but the county seat is McKinney.

The ZIP code on Moss's phone bill, 79821 is for Anthony, TX, about 300 miles away from Sanderson where Moss lives.

Moss had Chigurh dead to rights when Chigurh found him at the second motel (room 213). After Chigurh blew the lock out at Moss, Moss fired one shot from his shotgun, slung arms and then threw the money out the window where he jumped. Why didn't Moss just stay where he was and ensure that Chigurh was dead? Why did he give Chigurh another chance to kill him, when Moss had several shots remaining pointed right at the door?

When the American border guard asks Llewelyn what outfit he was in Vietnam, the answer is "12th Infantry Battalion." This answer wouldn't make any sense to anyone familiar with how the army is organized and in fact would indicate that Llewelyn had never been in the army. (Every infantry regiment has ad-hoc numbered battalions. No regiment has as many as 12.) An infantry soldier would identify his unit by company and regiment, or just by regiment.

When Anton enters the Texaco Station and asks the owner behind the counter how much the peanuts cost, the owner replies "69 cents". As he says this, immediately to his right (viewer's left), there is a clip strip of the same peanuts all labeled 99 cents. (It is the same wrapper as Anton later discards on the counter.)

When Bell enters the El Paso motel he draws his 45 auto and thumb cocks the hammer. No experienced lawman would ever carry this kind of pistol in the half-cock position. He would carry the gun at full cock with the positive safety engaged.

When Moss (Josh Brolin) offers $500 for a jacket at the border, the three men ask him to first hand over the money. But Moss hands over only one bill - $100 at the most.

When Llewelyn shoots the deer at the beginning of the movie he adjusts the vertical screw of the telescopic sight on his rifle. There would be no reason to do that with a target available to allow precise adjustments.