One of the most iconic films of all time is Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. A young Robert De Niro took on the lead role with incredible skill, showing us how he can demonstrate good-willed kindness, psychopathic menace, and downright aggression all within two hours. It has been remembered as one of Scorsese and De Niro’s (and Jodie Foster, who was first introduced to the world as just a teenager) finest films, and one of the greatest ever made.
But even Scorsese couldn’t create something perfect. We’ve collected ten plot holes and continuity errors from the 1976 thriller.
Changing Hair
There is one particular moment of hair-change in Taxi Driver that has gone down in history as one of the greatest reveals in cinema. However, there is another that doesn’t make quite as much sense.
When Travis is talking to the Secret Service agent, his hair is a little bit shorter than it was in the scenes before and after it - clearly they weren't filmed at the same time, and it's an issue.
Changing Hair Part 2
Travis isn’t the only one who is able to change his hair with incredible skill. During their chat over some food, Iris’ hairstyle changes subtly based on different camera angles, suggesting that Jodie Foster was messing with it between takes. Fun fact, though: the change of during the same scene was an intentional reference to the real person she was based on, who apparently liked to keep things fresh by changing glasses even during a conversation.
Magical Hamburgers
During one of the many scenes in Taxi Driver set in a diner, Travis orders a coffee. This time he is sitting with Doughboy and Wizard and placing an Alka-Seltzer in his glass of water.
Despite only ordering a cup of coffee, when the shot changes, he ends up with a burger that has mysteriously made its way onto his plate.
And Some Lies About Coffee
Speaking off coffee, there is a certain voiceover in which Travis explains that he ordered a black coffee. If you look at the table and his cup, you can very clearly see that his coffee is as milky as they come. This might have been an error in continuity, but also could have been seen as a clever way for Scorsese to represent an unreliable narrator.
And A Special Sandwich
During the scene in which Travis and Iris are eating (which, despite her being such a prominent character, doesn’t actually happen until well into the second half of the film), the 12-year-old makes herself a jam sandwich.
For some reason, between shots, the sandwich Iris creates has been changed to look as if it was placed together perfectly when the previous shot showed that it wasn’t.
The Moving Flowers
There are a lot of great visuals in Taxi Driver thanks to Martin Scorsese’s genius eye for filmmaking. One of the best comes when Travis burns a bunch of flowers in his sink. Despite them reducing to ashes, when the shot changes, they are unharmed on the floor behind him, suggesting that they shot these scenes in reverse order.
The Robber’s Body
Just before Travis heads out on his dangerous mission of revenge and redemption, he encounters a robber in a shop and shoots him.
When the owner of the shop comes round to add insult to injury by beating his body, you can see that between shots his lifeless form alternates between being laid out on the floor and propped up against the wall.
A Moving Bald Cap
Obviously, Robert De Niro didn’t actually fashion his hair into a mohawk for the purposes of Taxi Driver (though we sort of wish he had). As such, he had to wear a bald cap to make it look realistic. After he is shot in the climactic scene of the film, you can actually see him wrinkle the cap, proving to the audience that this wasn’t his real hairstyle. Then again, given the tension and drama of the scene, its highly likely that anyone would have noticed this slight slip-up the first time around...
The Police Would Have Taken The Gun
One slight plot hole is revealed during one of the most brutal and artistic shots in the film. After the shoot-out at the end, we see various police officers closing in on Travis, walking past dead bodies on their way.
One of those dead bodies was holding a gun, and whether the person was dead or not, the police would have removed the weapon from his hands just to be on the safe side.
Where Was Betsy Going?
We had already seen a variety of people getting into the back of Travis’ taxi across the course of Taxi Driver (including Martin Scorsese in his impressive cameo), but the final person we see is Betsy once again. Unless the only reason she got in the cab was to see Travis again, she didn’t give any directions at all, and Travis just started to drive off. Where was she actually going?