Goofs

When Glass crawls to the first river for water he acts as if he is about to die of thirst but when opening his canteen water runs out as if already full.

When Glass escapes the Indians by floating down the river, the river is first clear of ice and running through a snow free area. Soon after, when Glass climbs out, the river is full of broken ice and running through snow covered terrain.

Whilst is possible that his journey in the river could have taken him to a different area with snow, it's unlikely that the river would also become full of floating ice in such a short time.

When the search party is looking for who they believe could be Hawk, they hear a close gunshot directly in front. It's night time and they are carrying torches when the search party and Glass approach each other. Behind Glass there are several torches that can be seen. There wasn't enough time for party members to circle in behind him not to mention they would have been in the line of fire if there was a problem.

Glass wakes up in the early morning when the Arikara Indians try to ambush him. He shoots one Indian then he takes his shoulder-bag over his neck and starts running towards his horse. He runs in front of a tree (scene cut here!), falls off and you can see that when he stands up he does not wear his shoulder-bag any more while jumping on his horse. In the next scene he is wearing his shoulder-bag again while riding on his horse.

When Bridger places the canteen on Glass's chest in his "grave", the top is pointing at Glass's feet. When Glass raises his hand out of the dirt, the canteen top is pointing towards his face.

Glass is attacked by a grizzly bear with her two cubs. But the film is set at a time of year when a grizzly bear (especially a mother bear with cubs) would be in hibernation: early- to mid-winter. We know this is the time of year because of the weather, and the drinking scene midway through the film, when Captain Henry says to Fitzgerald, "Happy New Year."

The real-life Hugh Glass was mauled by a mother bear around May, 1823 - a time of year when bears are far less likely to be in hibernation.

As the Native American starts to leave the bison carcass, you see he has left his arrows in the wolves. He would never do that. It's so labor intensive to make arrows, arrowheads, and fletchings, that he would pick them out of the carcasses and reuse them.

It's winter time and Hugh Glass spends a lot of time in and out of very cold water. At one point, he takes an extended trip down stream with most of his body under water (at times, he is completely submerged). While he might have survived a bear mauling, it is very unlikely that Glass could have survived hypothermia emerging from cold water to freezing or near freezing temperatures.

Two times Hugh Glass shoots his single-shot flintlock pistol twice in rapid succession without reloading it or having any time to do so. Loading these pistols is fairly time-consuming - requiring the shooter to point the pistol upward, pour gunpowder down the barrel, then insert a lead ball with a cloth patch around it, ram it down with a ramrod, pour priming powder into the pan, close the frizzen, and cock the hammer. He does this when he steals a horse from the french, and again when the Indians attack him shortly after this. An experienced shooter could do this fairly quickly, and maybe take a shortcut or two, but in both these instances the movie depicts him firing the pistol, then immediately jumping on a horse and shooting someone else with the pistol only seconds later.

Several times during the movie characters have the frizzen, which makes the spark in a flintlock, open. The gun will not fire in this condition. More importantly, this opens the pan which holds the priming powder. This means the priming powder can be easily dumped onto the ground, rendering the firearms useless.

When Fitzgerald and Bridger return to camp and are being paid for staying behind with Hugh Glass, the captain pays them in dollar bills. There was no paper money in 1823 and the 2 would have been paid in coin. While paper money did exist at the time, bills were referred to as "treasury notes" and were only issued on special occasions. Due to the Panic of 1819, many banks in the US refused to issue coinage and insisted on distributing these treasury notes to be drawn on gold or silver bullion held in bank vaults. While one might assume most people might insist on hard currency, in actuality, on the frontier and in remote outposts, specie would have been very difficult to come by, and very few merchants would be able to make change for gold or silver coins.

When Glass and Fitzgerald fight near the river, after Fitzgerald's fingers are cut off there are several noticeable blood drops that splatter the upper right corner of the camera lens which appear on the screen briefly. However, the blood disappears during the single continuous shot, revealing it to be an post-processing effect. This is in keeping with similar effects in the film such as the camera lens fogging up as if breathed upon.

Glass, while recovering from his wounds, has a couple dream sequences. One of the images he recalls is a memory of seeing a huge pile of animal skulls during his time in the wilderness. Humans hunting wildlife to this degree (and piling up their skull bones) didn't occur in the 1820's. It happened later in the 19th Century American West, with the resultant near-extinction of the Plains buffalo herds.

It is revealed by the director that this is more a vision of the future rather than a recollection of the past.

When it is clear that Leonardo DiCaprio is floating down the rapids, and not a stunt double, the background reveals that these shots were done at another time of year. There is no snow and the forests in the far background are bright green. The one scene showing him in the river in the winter is as he's climbing out.

When Glass traps and captures a fish and raises the fish to his mouth to take a bite out of it, you can see that the fish has been gutted.

Many of the characters repeatedly use modern-day figures of speech in their conversations, not the realistic vernacular of 1823, whether in English or in French.

A Pawnee is accompanied by a voiceover in Inupiak. Inupiak is spoken in Arctic Alaska only, and comes from a different language family than Pawnee.

The bows that are used by the Indians look to be made out of fragile sections of cane. They don't look to be capable of driving arrows to such distances and power as shown in the movie.

At the start when Glass finishes urinating, he clearly zips up his trousers. The film takes place in 1823 and the earliest zipper-like design was patented in 1851.

Fitzgerald uses a term "Texas ranger" in one of his monologues. The very first time the term "ranger" was used was in 1823 by Stephen Austin, according to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame website, and at the time Austin called for "ten men...to act as rangers for the common defense..." The website continues, "But not until November 24, 1835, did Texas lawmakers institute a specific force known as the Texas Rangers." Therefore, Fitzgerald could not have referred to such an organization.

When Glass is tracking Fitzgerald through a pine woods, the trees are in nice neat lines. It's obviously shot in managed woodland and not the wilderness. The idea of conservation and managing woodland in the US didn't begin until almost 1900.

When Hikuc speaks to Glass about also losing his family, his vocals do not match his lip movement, and appears to be dubbed.

You can see a 'chopper' making waves on the river water when Glass escapes from the Indians by diving into the river.

Throughout the movie you will hear Green frogs and Pickerel frogs vocalizing in the background. Both of these species range in the eastern United States/southeast Canada and therefore would never be heard in the North American Rockies. Not to mention, frogs are not active and do not call in winter.

At 1hr 4 min, Glass crawls out to the end of a ledge. In the distance are snowcapped mountains. However, the story takes place in South Dakota, which has hills in the west, but not massive mountains. The Rocky Mountains are about 500 miles to the west.

Fitzgerald and Bridger pick up horses at the massacred Indian village. But when they ride into the settlement, these Indian horses inexplicably have saddles.

When Glass gets back on his horse after finding Fitzgerald's tracks he clearly kicks the other horse behind in the head.