Goofs

In the distant shot of Quigley tying his bandanna around his wounded leg as the soldiers ride away in the distance, the sun is just about to set behind a hill. Just before and after that shot, the shadow of his hat falling on his face and shoulders shows that the sun is high overhead. In addition, there should be three dead men on the ground -- Marston, the Scotsman, and the Kid - but only two are visible and in different positions.

At 0:59 into the movie, Marston offers 50 pounds in gold to the man who kills Quigley. At 1:32, Dobkin asks Marston about the 200 pound reward offered. There's no change in the amount mentioned between.

When Quigley shoots the bucket to prove his marksmanship to Marston, the vernier sight is at different settings during the three shots fired. First in the middle. Second shot (close-up) shows at bottom. Last shot shows somewhere above middle. At the distance he is shooting, it should be at or near the top causing the end of the barrel to rise making the bullet follow an arc to the target.

When Cora collapses of exhaustion, the prominent sunburn on her chest disappears in the next shot when Quigley bends over to pick her up, and then reappears.

When Quigley kills the man after they are dumped in the desert, there is a drastic difference between the shadow on the dead man's face between the moments just before Quigley shoots and after he shoots.

Quigley and Crazy Cora are taken to a camp by the native Aboriginal people. There they chant and play a Didgeridoo. In this part of Australia, Western and Central there are no didgeridoos. The Yirdaki and Mago Didgeridoo are endemic to only Arnhem Land. In the Western part they use Mago, in the North East part they use Yirdaki. This is at the very northern part of Australia, in a small delimited area. When this scene was cited to have taken place none of the the central and western Aboriginal Australians, namely in the desert, used a Didgeridoo in playing music. Only in later times has it spread more though out Australia.

Marsden says describes native Americans as being uncivilized and that they had no concept of farming. While the plains Indians were not farmers, those in the north and east certainly were. To use the Cherokee as an example, not only were they farmers living in proper farmhouses, but a number had college educations, including a Cherokee lawyer in 1831 - decades before the Quigley story - who argued before the Supreme Court and won.

While the rifle used by Quigley fires a supersonic round, it decelerates quickly. At ranges less than 300-400 yards, the bullet would arrive sooner than the "bang", but only by a fraction of a second. At ranges greater than this, the sound of the shot would arrive before the bullet. Thus, there would never be a point where the sound of the shot would follow the bullet by several seconds.

Marston was misinformed. The Inca, Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecs, Taino, Pueblo, Cherokee and Iroquois tribes were all farmers. Corn beans and squash were known as the three sisters and crops were rotated on calendar system. Bad writing.

When Marston is holding the announcement that Quinley answered, the distance listed is 900 yards and the holes in the paper are cleanly cut, indicating a bullet with a sharp shoulder. A 50-110 bullet has a round nose and would leave a ragged hole in a piece of paper at any distance.

During the fight at the harbor, Cora hits Quigley with an oar that visibly bends like rubber. It was not a rubber oar. It was a "spoon blade oar" with a manufactured bend for rowing efficiency.

During the fight scene which occurs after Quigley meets Cora, the third actor struck can be seen to have a bloody hand before he puts his hand to his face.

When they're dumped in the desert, Quigley stabs Coogan to death and props up on his body to take the rifle shot. Coogan can be seen breathing several times, but it's entirely possible this is because he's still alive; he's only been stabbed once in the stomach, so it might have taken him several minutes to expire.

When Crazy Cora passes out in the desert and falls forward, she puts her hands out at the last moment to break her fall. In reality, when a person loses consciousness, it's impossible to put ones hands or arms out to lessen the impact of the fall like this (although it is very difficult to fake this type of fall without some form of involuntary movement to soften the effects).

When Quigley turns down Marsden's offer and knocks Marsden through his doors, there is a bright fire burning inside clearly visible in everyone's line of sight through the doors. Quigley sits out of sight off to the side, After Marsden orders his men to get Quigley, the fire is gone and a lamp is turned down to eliminate the light inside. Then Quigley is shown with a bright lamp burning nearby.

When Quigley demonstrates his marksmanship for Marston, he adjusts the vernier for distance and checks the wind speed & direction. In all later shots, he never adjusts the vernier or checks the wind speed & direction. He just picks up the rifle and fires it.

After Quigley is beaten by Marsten's cowboys (for lack of a better word) Marsten tells Coogan to put him in a wagon and haul him two days from here. When Coogan and Miller stop to unload Quigley and Cora there are no provisions, water or bedrolls that would be needed for spending 4 days away from the station.

Ironic Marston complained about backward people when he himself bit off the tip of his cigar instead of using a cigar cutter.

When sailing south, the boat rises on a wave and reveals a bow thruster, not in common use on sailing vessels of that size until the 1980s. Not even invented until the late 1960s.

In the opening credits the sailing ship has a propeller wake.

While never stated within the movie itself, behind the scenes information places the story somewhere in the 1860's. However, Matthew Quigley carries an 1874 Sharps Rifle, making arguably the most iconic element of the movie anachronistic by at least half a decade.

Some of the men have belt loops on their trousers but belt loops were not invented until 1922.

At 26:10, Quigley uses OCB cigarette paper, a brand founded in France in 1918.

At the start of the fight in the harbor, Quigley hits the first man to swing at him with his rifle butt. The sound of the impact arrives well before the rifle strikes home.

Quigley lands in Freemantle, Western Australia, and rides overland for more than 3 days, the last 2 on Marston's property, and ends up in desert country. WA is a peninsula surrounded by water on 3 sides so, even though the wagon is shown leaving Freemantle heading south along the coast, the facts only fit a location far east in the Gibson Desert. However Quigley is told in the desert by the gut-shot man that Marston's ranch is 2 days ride south west and the town of 'Michatanga' 20 miles beyond that. Quigley then tells Cora the town is 'a hard day's ride away' and when he gets there it's on the sea. So the ranch must be 20 miles from the sea, and indeed from a small port it seems, so it can't be anywhere near the Gibson desert or a 3 day wagon ride from Freemantle.

Marsden tells Quigley the aboriginals have learned to stay out of rifle range. This is the reason he has sought out a long range rifle marksman. However, twice in the film Marsden's men kill many natives by simply riding up and shooting them.

Someone said an experienced rifleman like Quigley would not blow into his rifle as it would rust the barrel. In reality with black powder cartridge guns, people would blow the smoke out of the gun before it could settle in the barrel and the moisture from your breath would help keep the black powder from hardening and "fouling" the barrel. So it is quite reasonable for him to blow the smoke out of his rifle.

In describing his rifle to Marston, Quigley says it is a "lever action." Actually, it has a falling-block action. Pulling the lever forward opens the breech and ejects the spent cartridge case. The new cartridge is then inserted manually, as Quigley is seen doing many times, and the lever pulled back, closing the breech.