Blooper

A large pool of blood disappears from around killer's body.

Cans and boxes behind Graham and his son in the supermarket.

Obvious editing shows where Will Graham jumps through Dollarhyde's window in the climactic sequence: the pose that William Petersen is holding when he jumps at the window in slow motion is clearly not the same as that of his stunt double who actually falls through the window (following the cut between shots).

Graham loosens his tie after running from the hospital, but it is soon done up again.

In the Atlanta hotel at the beginning, Will Graham is viewing the home movies in his hotel room. The TV set is a different size when there is an angle change. The first person shot is a multi frame rate monitor, and the shot from the back is a regular TV set.

In Lecktor's cell, the hinges are on the inside. Prison doors swing outward, so the prisoner can't compromise the hinges.

The Chinese character carved in the tree (zhong1) doesn't mean "red dragon", it means "middle". The term "dragon tile" is a Western convention introduced by Joseph Park Babcock in his 1920 book introducing mahjong to America, and the zhong tile was originally related to archery: it indicated a hit on a target.

Graham is told that the films of the families have been transferred to 1/2-inch VHS, but the tapes appear to be 3/4-inch.

The movie implies that Will Graham uses a Charter Arms Bulldog .44 special pistol. If this were true, then Will could not shoot Francis Dollarhyde six times. A Charter Arms Bulldog only holds five rounds. Graham actually shoots the gun seven times, but two of the shots are repeated; the first and second shot that we see are actually the same one, as are the six and seventh. Thus, he only actually fires five bullets, which is the number that the gun can hold.

After Graham shoots and kills Dollarhyde, just after he walks out of the shot, Dollarhyde swallows.

When the St. Louis police officer is thrown into the windshield of his car, the glass is already damaged before his head hits it.

The two cops on the front porch are taken by surprise by Dollarhyde with his shotgun, despite there being eight foot high windows on either side of the door.

FBI man Will Graham attempts (successfully) to play a 3/4-inch video tape in a VHS machine.

When Dollarhyde shoots the police officer with his shotgun, he only holds the gun with a single hand and it has no shoulder stock, yet it is not kicked back by extremely violent recoil.

During Will Graham's conversation with Crawford at his home that starts the movie, there is a shot where Graham's chin is obviously moving, as he spoke some dialog, but no words are heard.

Wires for a squib charge visible on kitchen floor when Dollarhyde shoots at the glass bottles.

When Will Graham hears the answering machine in the master bathroom of the Leeds murder scene, he walks out of the room. As he passes by, a crew member's forearm is revealed.

Towards the end of the movie, just as Dollarhyde is throwing Graham into the refrigerator, a person can be seen in the lower, left-hand corner. He is wearing a blue shirt. The victim is wearing a pink shirt and is later shown as still being on the table.

As Graham walks through the woods toward the house in the final scene, the dolly tracks for the camera are visible on the ground.

In the final raid on the house, the elastic bungee cord used to propel a policeman is clearly visible against the ground.

When Dr. Lektor has the operator make a phone call for him, he gives a Maryland area code (301) and gets a University of Chicago operator.

When the St. Louis police pull up Dollarhyde's driver's license, it says he lives in "Chester, MO 64101". 64101 is a Kansas City, Missouri zip code, and Kansas City is 250 miles from St. Louis.

When Graham and Crawford argue over the videotapes and the Tooth Fairy, you can first see the boom pole, then the boom mic itself, very clearly.

One of the headlines shown on the Tattler is "FBI Persues Pervert". "Persues" should be spelled "Pursues".

Graham's house number changes during the film. When Dr. Bloom's secretary gives it to Lecktor, it's 3680. Later in the movie, when Crawford mentions it, it's 3860.

The pulse dialing telephones, such as the one given to Lecktor in his cell, had the ability to dial a number even without the rotary dial. All Lecktor needed to do is tap the digits of a telephone number on the switch hook to establish connection.

When one detective tells other investigators about the perpetrator's teeth, he explains that he has "pegged lateral incisors", but he then points to at least one wrong tooth on the plaster cast, namely the right cuspid instead of the lateral incisor.