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Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, and Chris Pine in Hell or High Water (2016)

Goofs

Hell or High Water

Edit

Continuity

When driving off after the first heist, Tanner is seen taking off his right glove and putting the hand back on the steering wheel, In the next shot from outside the car, he is now wearing both gloves again. After the police cars pass them, Tanner is seen without the right glove again.
When Alberto and Marcus are in the hotel room, Marcus puts his beer into the six-pack case. The other five bottles clearly have red caps on them. When the scene changes position, none of the bottles have caps on them.
During the first robbery in the opening scene, when Tanner challenges the bank teller to call him stupid again, Toby's hood is down. In the very next shot, his hood is up.
Before the brothers cross into Oklahoma, the camera shows them both talking in the front seat. The next shot from behind the car entering Oklahoma does not show anybody in the front passenger seat.
When Marcus visits Toby, he strolls to the end of the porch and takes a seat in the furthest chair, in the sun. In the next shot, he's in the next-to-last chair, in the shade.

Factual errors

The actors in the film state several times that the foreclosure sale of the family ranch will occur on Friday. All foreclosure sales in Texas only occur on the first Tuesday of the month.
During a scene near the very end of the movie, multiple pump jacks can be seen on the ranch property, but no tanks for storing the pumped oil.
Marcus sports a mustache, but Texas Rangers are required to be clean-shaven.
The Texas State Troopers in the film wear visible white t-shirts under their uniforms, and one can be seen wearing brown cowboy boots during the roadblock scene. Texas DPS policy requires V-neck t-shirts only, so the undershirt is not visible when in uniform, and troopers are only authorized to wear black boots.
When the Texas Rangers are first discussing the two bank robberies, they say that the two branches are of a bank that does not operate outside Texas, therefore the FBI "don't want it." Bank robbery is a federal crime--the FBI always investigates.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs

When Toby is stopped at the very tense police checkpoint, it is clear that his car has no front license plate, which is illegal in Texas and therefore very noticeable to the police, but when the car was acquired it was stated that the car had a New Mexico plate, and New Mexico does not require front license plates.
Alberto says, "Sometimes a blind pig finds a truffle". Pigs locate truffles by their keen sense of smell. They are able to identify them as deep as three feet underground. Probably not a mistake, but Alberto poking fun at the way Hamilton talks.
Near the end of the film, when Marcus, just retired, goes to visit Margaret at the desk he previously worked at to discuss the Howard robbery case, she tells him Toby is not a suspect and gives the reasons why. In the conversation, neither of them mention that at least two suspects committed multiple bank robberies in similar fashion according to witness statements. Only one bank robbery was done by Tanner acting alone. Tanner Howard is the only suspect in all the cases, now deceased. Margaret does not say anything about making an attempt to find out who that second suspect may have been and furthermore, Marcus does not suggest that she do that. It seems the writer just wants to have Marcus and only Marcus seek out Toby as the mastermind.

However, this scene occurs some months after the main events of the film. It is likely that a major investigation has occurred, with other suspects considered and discounted. It seems the Rangers have written off the case as unsolvable (helped by Texas Midlands not wanting further investigations, since they are now managing the trust), but Hamilton is unable to allow the person he believes was involved to escape punishment.
Tanner refers to "Mr. Pibb" but that drink was renamed to "Pibb Xtra" in 2001. This is not an error because as of 2023 when ordering Dr. Pepper servers and staff will still ask if "Mr. Pibb is OK?" So it would not be uncommon for Tanner to still call it by that name regardless of any re-branding.

Revealing mistakes

Near the end when Tanner leads the cops up on the hillside. He sets his Ford pickup on fire and jumps out just before it rolls back down the hill. However the gear shift lever is still in 'park' just before he leaps out. No automatic transmission vehicle would roll backwards on its own in 'Park' even down a hillside incline. The engine's flywheel and the transmission's torque converter would be locked in the 'park' position. The truck would have remained stationary until it was taken physically out of 'park'.
When Tanner and Toby rob the bank in Post, a girl sends a message to her dad on her phone. The time on the phone is 6:07 PM. Seconds later we see the wall clock in the bank, and it is at 8:40. Clearly AM, as it is morning.
When Tanner shoots at the locals, he reloads his M4-type rifle twice - and both times it's wrong. When he runs out of ammo the first time, a distinct click is heard, meaning that the bolt is in the forward position. While all M4s have a bolt catch device, in theory it is possible that it failed. However, after inserting the new magazine, Tanner, instead of racking a new round into the chamber, hits the bolt release. The second time he reloads, he just inserts a new magazine - without either releasing the bolt or chambering a round..
When Alberto is preparing to fire on Tanner, the bolt is locked open.

Anachronisms

The patches worn on the Texas state troopers' uniforms are the old ones from the 20th century, not the current one.

Audio/visual unsynchronised

Toward the beginning of the movie at 4:48 when Toby and Tanner are driving away from the Texas Midlands Bank, Tanner says, "See little brother, not a worry in the world!" You can clearly hear two separate audio tracks being overlaid. Most likely, an ADR track was mixed over the production sound, which also had to stay for some reason.
When Toby and Tanner are escaping the bank robbery in the Ford Taurus, the exhaust note is that of a V8 engine, yet the Taurus SE has a V6 engine.

Crew or equipment visible

When Tanner and Toby drive into Post, the camera is reflected in Tanner's sunglasses.

Errors in geography

The Albuquerque skyline can be seen from the Rangers' office window.
Though the movie is set in West Texas, the first two bank robberies supposedly take place in Archer City and Olney, Texas, which would be considered North Texas.
When discussing the lack of video recording at the bank, the Texas Ranger refers to the failure of the Young County Sheriff to record the video. The bank, as evidenced by the reflection in the window of the police car, is in Archer City, which is in Archer County. The next robbery, in Olney, is in Young County.
When the two cops see the big bush fire for the first time, it's on the car's left side. Later, presumably after they cross it, the car is seen from the front heading down the road and the fire is now on the right side.
Hamilton is shown sitting in his front yard with thick green grass. Lubbock is a semi-arid location with limited rain and a huge amount of dust that tends to soak up humidity. A local saying is that there are so few trees that they all know each other by their first names. Such a lawn would require a daily commitment for the grass to be as healthy as this, or a sprinkler stem seen.

Plot holes

No car dealer sells a car with another state's license plate. The dealer would have removed the New Mexico tags and put on a temporary Texas paper license plate. A driver with a Texas Driver's License driving a car with New Mexican plates stopped at a roadblock would have been very suspicious.
Alberto mentions that the first two robberies only hit the cash drawers of each bank for a "couple thousand", but the first bank that was robbed was done before it was opened and "all" the money was in the safe.

Even if they had focused only on denominations of 20 and below, surely there would have been much more than a couple thousand in the safe for them to steal. In fact they may have gotten the full amount needed in that first robbery considering how much they were taking from the rest of the banks.

Character error

When Hamilton pulls up to the Archer City bank, he is told among the things taken was money from the cash drawer. But, that bank hadn't opened yet and they were told there was no money in the cash drawers and, upon inspection, found that to be true. So no money was taken from the cash drawer at Archer City.
When the casino cashier hands over the check the name of the bank is incorrect. The check shows "Texas Midland Bank" when it should be "Texas Midlands Bank".

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Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, and Chris Pine in Hell or High Water (2016)
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