Goofs for
There Will Be Blood (2007) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When Eli enters Daniel's office to ask about the blessing, as he starts to sit down his hands are starting to tent together, but when the camera changes his hands are at his side and when only after he sits down does he tent his fingers.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the tracking shot from the train tracks that follows the car of Daniel Plainview, you can see the dolly track for a moment when the camera pulls back, just before the camera pans to the right.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Daniel Day-Lewis' pierced earlobes are apparent in close-up profile shots.
  
  

• Anachronisms: A bright modern warning light is visible under the dash of one of the cars when a door is opened early in the movie. Several vehicles also display number-plates incorrect for the period.
  
  
• Continuity: In the bowling alley scene, Eli is clearly visible placing Daniel's refused drink above the center panel on the paneled divider. After the cutaway to Daniel, the drink is not above the center panel, but above the panel adjacent to the center one.
  
  
• Anachronisms: After H.W. returns, when he and his girlfriend are playing, in a close up you can clearly see that she has two, maybe three pierced earing holes.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Eli Sunday lists the towns he will be visiting on his mission, he includes Taft, which would have been named Moron until the 1920s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A fireside scene reveals Plainview's boot to have a waffle sole. The waffle sole was not invented nor used until the early-mid 70's.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the early scenes where the two miners are hauling buckets up the wells, a modern day "bow" shackle is used to hold the bucket to the rope.
  
  
• Continuity: During the final scene in the bowling alley, Eli pours drinks for himself and Daniel Plainview. Daniel however refuses the drink so Eli sets Daniel's drink and an empty glass behind him. As they converse, Eli drinks from his glass until Daniel orders him to stand up so that he can yell that he is a false prophet. As he stands, Eli takes one last sip of his drink without finishing it and sets it down about a quarter full besides the other two glasses. On the next shot when the glasses are visible over Eli's shoulder, we can see Daniel's untouched drink and two empty glasses whereas Eli's drink was still about a quarter full when he put it down.
  
  
• Continuity: At the beginning of the movie he blasts dynamite inside his mining hole. A cloud of dust and dirt is visible pouring out of the hole. When Daniel climbs down the ladder he is clearly visible and the cloud of dust is gone.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the start of the famous oil derrick scene an order was given to start drilling the new well. However instead of drilling, they merely powered up the pump lever which moves a pumping rod up and down to extract oil. This makes no sense because you'd have to first drill down to the oil and create the well before you could start pumping anything out.
  
  
• Anachronisms: This was a cable tool drilling rig and not a pumping unit and it is a very factual reproduction of it. Rotary rigs did not come into being until the 1930s.
  
  
• Continuity: When Daniel and young H.W. are heading to the Sunday ranch for the first time, a large white camping roll can be seen strapped to Daniel's backpack. When we cut to the shot of them from behind, walking to the ranch, the large white camping roll is strapped to a bag Daniel is carrying in his right hand.
  
  

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