Goofs for
Fargo (1996) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Gaear's jacket and the beer bottles in the opening scene in the bar.
  
  
• Continuity: Gaear's cigarette after shooting the cop in the top of the head.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When the kidnappers first enter Minneapolis, they are driving northbound on 35W, which means they're approaching from the south. Brainerd is north of the Twin Cities, so they should be approaching from the north.
  
  

• Crew or equipment visible: Shadow at lower left during zoom into Marge's bed.
  
  
• Continuity: The alarm clock in Scotty's room when he talks to Jerry goes from 8:52 to 8:50 to 8:53.
  
  
• Continuity: The bag of nightcrawlers is folded several different ways in a single scene.
  
  
• Continuity: Marge's burger when she is having lunch in her office.
  
  
• Continuity: Marge's scarf swaps sides on her first visit to Jerry's office.
  
  
• Continuity: Jerry's sketch pad changes after he storms out to do a lot count.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Carl shoots Wade repeatedly, the gun fails to fire once, yet the sound of gunshots is heard.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Norm Gunderson indicates the existence of a 29 cent stamp in 1987, four years before they were introduced.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Jean Lundegaard dials 911 from a phone in the upstairs bathroom. A few seconds later the phone is disconnected. While most current 911 systems could automatically identify the calling location, this is a relatively recent innovation. Therefore, the dispatcher might not have been able to take any further action.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Jerry drives past the parking garage booth, a crew member is reflected in Jerry's rear window.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A jar in the kidnappers' shack has a modern "Nutrition Facts" label.
  
  
• Continuity: Right before Jerry flees the interview, Marge gazes forward and sees the picture of Jean. When Marge gets out of the chair as Jerry flees, the picture is clearly behind her.
  
  
• Continuity: When Carl is burying the money, the fence is different on each side. From the far side, we see three or four meshes sticking up from the snow. From Carl's side, we only see one.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Some of the buildings in the Minneapolis skyline scene were built after 1987.
  
  
• Continuity: The blood on Carl's face after the State Trooper is shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Shep tries to strangle Carl with a belt, Carl's hands are first grabbing the belt with his fingers away from his neck and then toward his neck.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Oldsmobile Ninety Eights featured in the movie are "refreshed" 1989-1990 models with a revised grille, side moldings, emblems, nameplates, and rears.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the hide-out cabin, a plastic cup on the table has an image from Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", which released well after 1987.
  
  
• Continuity: The kidnapper's Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera is a 1987 or 1988 (with a straight flat rear window) in some shots, and a 1989 or 1990 (with a restyled back end and a rounded rear window) in others.
  
  
• Continuity: During the parking garage sequence, the neon clock at Minneapolis City Hall (visible in some shots) shows a very different time from when the money was supposed to be exchanged. According to the same clock, nearly an hour elapses between Carl's departure and Jerry's arrival.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: Shep throws an obvious stunt double over the couch.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Some billboards, including a "Miller Genuine Draft" billboard in the Twin Cities are clearly seen that did not exist in 1987.
  
  
• Continuity: In the ransom transaction scene between Carl and Wade, the camera shots alternate between a snowing parking lot and no snowing.
  
  
• Continuity: As Jerry and Jean tell Scotty they don't want him playing hockey, Wade calls Jerry to set up the meeting the next day. When Jean answers the phone, the time on the microwave is 10:44. When she hands the phone to Jerry, it's 7:43. When he turns his back, it's 11:05.
  
  
• Continuity: Gaerd shoots the boy in the red jacket in the back, and the boy falls dead face down. When the boy is next seen he is on his back, and there is no snow on the front of his clothing.
  
  
• Factual errors: Minnesota license plates have numbers on one side and letters on the other; they are not mixed together as shown on the car at the beginning of the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: Grimsrud is smoking when the state trooper pulls the car over. You can tell by the smoke trails that the footage jumps.
  
  
• Factual errors: The murder of a State Trooper would automatically fall under the direction of the Minnesota State Police, not local law enforcement. The lack of response by the State Police to the murder of one of their own is highly questionable.
  
  
• Continuity: During the interview, the pencil on the clipboard in the office is pointing down. When Jerry flees, it's pointing up.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In Brainerd, when Officer Olson interviews Mr. Mohra about the guy "going crazy at the lake," they each refer to lakes that are nowhere near Brainerd. Officer Olson asks if it's White Bear Lake, about 130 miles southeast of Brainerd. Mr. Mohra tells him it was Moose Lake. Minnesota has more than 1 Moose Lake, but the closest one is in adjacent Cass County, which is outside of the Brainerd Police department's jurisdiction. The error is repeated later, when Marge Gunderson says she is on patrol around Moose Lake.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Marge arrives on the second murder scene about 35 minutes into the film, as she examines the slain trooper, his eyelids move up and down.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Jerry, Wade, and Stan are standing outside of the Embers, you can see I-394 over their shoulders. An overhead sign shows an HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle, or carpool) lane. Minnesota introduced HOV lanes in 1991.
  
  
• Errors in geography: When Marge and Lou are talking, they get a lead that their two suspects stayed at the Blue Ox Inn on I-35. However, I-35 runs about 60 miles east of Brainerd, MN.
  
  
• Continuity: While driving, the shots of Gaear show him in a cloud of cigarette smoke. When the shots switch to Carl, there's no smoke at all.
  
  
• Factual errors: The poster in Scotty Lundegaard's room spells accordion "accordian."
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In Lungrend's first plan to raise some money he asks his Father-In-Law for seed money in a parking lot project of $750,000. The FIL refuses to give him the money but offers him a 10 percent finders fee. If he took the finders fee he would have netted $75,000 instead of the $40,000 he would have netted from his second plan of splitting the $80,000 ransom with the kidnappers. However, the ransom was for one million dollars - Jerry only told the kidnappers it was $40,000.
  
  
• Continuity: When Marge arrives at the hideout cabin to find Gaer pushing the leg into the woodchipper she passes the front door through clean white snow. In the previous scene that front door had been the scene of an axe murder. The snow should have been bloodied.
  
  
• Continuity: in the opening scene, when Jerry drives the car and trailer into the bars' car park, it is pitch black outside. The only light, coming from the street lamps. But upon entering the bar, the camera goes from jerry to some guys playing pool, and the window behind them clearly has natural light/daylight coming in through it.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Carl shoots Wade, before Wade's gun goes off, you can see the plastic strip on Carl's face where he will eventually get shot.
  
  
• Errors in geography: At the scene of the triple homicide Marge asks Lou where the State Trooper is and he points to the direction from which Marge just traveled (according to the orientation of her car when she parks). If she had come from that direction she would have encountered the first murder scene, not to mention the personnel who would be attending to it, and she would have stopped there first.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Margie asks if the Blue Ox is the "truckers' joint on I-35." Interstate 35 does not run through Brainerd.
  
  
• Continuity: After his meeting with Stan and Wade, Jerry gets into his car and the windshield is covered in snow. When he goes out to scrape the ice and snow off it vanishes.
  
  
• Continuity: In the opening scene, Jerry meets the kidnappers in Fargo at 8.30pm. Jerry is able to conclude his business with them, drive back home to Minneapolis (230 miles away), pick up groceries, have dinner, and still have enough time left over to tell his son Scotty to be home by 9.30pm. Jerry could not have accomplished all this in the time available.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Marge was investigating the murder scene of the trooper, there was no other law enforcement people at the scene when they arrived and when they left, which means anybody who happens to run into that area can contaminate or destroy evidence.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILERS: Carl and Gaear approach the Paul Bunyan statue from the front when going *towards* their hideout. Margie and Gaear approach the statue from the front when going *away* from the hideout.
  
  
• Continuity: SPOILER: When Marge pulls her revolver from its holster, just before she shoots Gaear, she has a Smith & Wesson with a 2-inch barrel. When she fires, it becomes a 4-inch revolver, then back to a 2-inch barrel.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: SPOILER: When Shep Proudfoot is beating Carl with the belt, his mouth does not sync correctly with his words.
  
  

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