Factual error: When the riders are watching the wagon train, in the background you can see a communication tower with conical speakers.
Factual error: Outside the Territory Hotel, during the storm, and once earlier in the movie, the taxi cabs are shown with the modern "flip over" vacancy/hired signs that were not used then.
Factual error: The El Paso newspaper is dated Monday June 15 1872. June 15 1872 was a Saturday. (00:48:14)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Gerald Tetley confronts Major Tetley (his father)and talks about how his father gave the order for three innocent men to be hanged. His father listens till Gerald finishes then walks to a door feeling guilty, opens it and goes inside the room. The shot is focused on the door. A shot rings out and the Major has killed himself. Meanwhile we still see the door, then it opens and within a second the shot goes back to Gerald. (01:10:10)
Factual error: The rifles that Jake Cutter has Paul Regret dig up are Henry repeaters, or possibly 1866 Winchesters. Either way weapons unavailable in the period depicted in the movie.
Continuity mistake: When they pick up Warren on the stagecoach, the second shot from inside has the wrong direction of landscape outside, so it seems that Warren changed from the front to the back row.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the film when all the women are dressed up after making clothes out of tablecloths, you can see the Italian woman riding in the front of the wagon. The shot changes and she's riding on the side looking at all the men and smiling. The shot changes again and she's back to the front.
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Captain Love and Antonio Banderas (as Zorro) meet in the hallway of the hacienda, two guards rush down the hallway and drop their rifles and swords. Zorro asks them to bend over and then proceed to kick/nudge them out the window. If you watch carefully, you'll notice that the guard on the right (furthest from Zorro) reacts to the kick too early. (01:33:30)
Character mistake: When Wes is drinking the mezcal with the worm in it, he makes a toast to "la vida luna" and tells Sissy it's Spanish for "the crazy life". This is untrue, the correct Spanish translation for "the crazy life" is "la vida loca". "La vida luna" literally translates as "the life moon" or better yet "the moon life", but a more accurate translation is "the night life."
Revealing mistake: In the scene where Cobb's mean attack Emmitt, Mal shoots one of the men in the hand. The shot pauses long enough to show that hand is quite a cheap, plastic-looking fake prop hand.
Continuity mistake: When Edwards is teaching Hunt the alphabet, whenever he turns it around or you see it from another angle, the upper and lower case changes.
Visible crew/equipment: When the guitarist almost gets hit by a bus, you see a shot from inside the bus about what happens outside. If you watch carefully you can see Robert Rodriguez in the rear view mirror holding the camera with a towel on his head. (00:27:00)
Continuity mistake: In one scene, Steve Martin is shot in the arm and bleeds, but when the trio return after the riot the wound has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: When the gang of bad guys ride to the ranch there are nine of them. When they leave, and throughout the rest of the movie there are only seven, despite only one being shot off his horse at the ranch. (00:15:15)
Continuity mistake: In the final shoot-out scene where Clint Eastwood kills 5 men in rapid succession, Clint crouches and exchanges gunfire with two deputies who are standing side-by-side. A blood stain suddenly appears on the abdomen of the younger deputy on the left, but there is no bullet hole, it does not coincide with any gunshot sound effect, and the deputy does not react to the wound. A moment later, as Clint continues firing, both deputies topple over backwards.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the Spaniard is beating up all the guys that Maverick paid off he ties one guy's neck to a post with his whip. As the shot changes you see the whip go only around his neck, but in the last shot of the scene it's around neck and post again. (00:36:00)
Factual error: The aged brave, singing his death chant, has fillings.
Continuity mistake: In one of the final scenes where Tom Selleck has a gunfight with Alan Rickman, the time of day during the few minutes (in movie time) the scene takes place varies from noon (full sunlight) to dusk. Just prior to the gunfight, when Selleck is getting ready to draw on Rickman and his two henchmen, there are almost no shadows and there is bright sunlight indicating it is in the middle of the day. Just after the gunfight there are now long shadows on the characters and moments later the camera pans across the hills and the sun is setting.
Suggested correction: Shadows exist before and after try to watch it again.
Revealing mistake: Although the film is set during the aftermath of the Mexican War (1848-50), the mountain vistas display some lovely radio towers and fire ranger stations.
Revealing mistake: In the extended version of the film during the buffalo hunt, there is a shot of a buffalo making a turn and in the distant horizon, you can briefly see a modern radio tower on top of a hill.