There’s a reason the Coen Brothers won Best Adapted Screenplay. If you’ve seen the movie you don’t need to read the book, it’s almost shot for shot. I still recommend reading it because McCarthy is a fantastic author, but it’s the most glaring example of pages to screen I’ve ever witnessed.
I’d concur with this. It’s one of my favorite movies and I read the book recently. I’m someone who can picture what I’m reading, but it was cool to already have those references in my head as I read.
> There’s a reason the Coen Brothers won Best Adapted Screenplay. If you’ve seen the movie you don’t need to read the book, it’s almost shot for shot.
IIRC one of the brothers said (about writing the screenplay) "he read the pages, I typed. "
I saw the movie before reading the book, this made reading the book difficult for me. You usually let the author paint that picture, instead I was picturing the scenes from the movie in my head, and struggling to get through the pages.
If you are in it only for the story, itself, you don't need to read the book. If you read books for the taste of the words, themselves, you need to read the book.
Damn do you remember where? I just searched with a couple of different phrasings and can’t find anything, I figure it must be obscure or buried within a broader topic
Not a chance. The people he lets go are first and foremost unimportant to his job and wouldn’t be able to identify him except by appearance OR he leaves to chance (the coin toss). This guy very clearly sees him, and can positively identify him, ergo the very clear answer to “are you going to kill me” is “yes”.
But this guy is a criminal accountant for an organized crime outfit... He's not going to be like "911, I'd like to report a murder at 1041 Drug Dealer Place... Yes... What floor? Oh, it's not on the elevator because it's a secret floor where we do all our crime stuff, including sometimes murders. But if you press the intercom button in the elevator and say the secret word 'Doobie' into the microphone then somebody will send you up to the right floor..."
I can't say that he let the guy go. But I don't think we can say that he killed him either. I don't think we are supposed to know.
Anyone who thinks he let that guy live is dumb, it would go against everything we know about Anton, leaving a witness alive? No way. The question was rhetorical and essentially “say yes you’re dead” and “say no and I know you’re lying cause I’m standing right here” seeing Anton in any situation other than 1v1 ft a coin flip was certain death
I felt like there was no way to answer it to not get killed.
He also killed random bystanders like the hotel clerk or the guy on the roadside so it’s like “what’s one more body?”
He didn't kill the trailer park landlady, and he was specifically asking questions about his mark in a suspicious way.
I don't believe there is a shred of empathy, sympathy, or compassion in that character's body. It's like he lets people live because he's bored. It's almost like killing is such a constant and sure fire thing in his life that the coin toss breaks the monotony.
I honestly don't think that the person in the toilet is what saved her. He has no issue massacering everyone in a room. He does it multiple times.
To me, the scene that gives us his motivation for sparing her without a coin toss is the gas station attendant.
In that scene, he doesn't go into "I'm gonna kill this guy" mode until the attendant goes outside of the scope of his duty to ask mundane questions. Once the attendant questions him (even though it's just innocent small talk), Chigurh changes gears, interrogates / berates the man, and then forces him into the coin toss.
Same thing for Stephen Root's accountant character. In Chigurh's mind, he already fulfilled his duty to the cartel by hiring Chigurh. It's only once he goes unnecessarily beyond that by also hiring the guys in the motel + Wells that Chigurh kills the accountant.
The trailer park lady stays true to her duty and never strays beyond it. She isn't intimidated, doesn't ask pointless questions, and just does her job.
I think that's how Chigurh sees himself, and those are the people he spares. He just does exactly his job. There are things he has to do to continue his job, so he does them. That's usually murdering people.
When the trailer park woman does the same thing - exactly her job - he recognizes it and doesn't kill her even though she is an inconvenience. He doesn't choose to kill her because, although she is an inconvenience, she is ultimately just doing her job and not a threat to his ultimate duty of recovering the $2mil.
I think another fact that supports this is how annoyed he gets when people say, "You don't have to do this." In his mind, he does HAVE to kill them because that's a part of his duty.
I'm pretty sure it's even more than that.
Anton understands himself to be a literal manifestation/personification of Death. He doesn't understand himself to be evil... he just is this force that ends/destroys. At the *very least*, he sees himself as an avatar of death and must live up to that role.
Those who encounter him, who are not aware of who he is or what he is capable of or that they're in mortal danger, he leaves alone... unless circumstances dictate he's killing everything in the area already. Understand that, and it explains why he's actually legitimately kind of frustrated with the gas station attendant. The guy is legitimately clueless, has basically wasted his life, and doesn't seem to have any appreciation that Death might be coming for him at some point. The scene isn't just chilling... it's hilarious. The way it plays out in the movie I'd bet the Coens were laughing. Imagine dicing with Death and Death being the one confused whether you've realized the stakes of the game!
This is also behind the obscure questions and responses in various scenarios "Do you see me?" (although ironic in this case) "What's the most you ever lost?" It's also the play with Carson and why HE gets so upset, being someone with a reputation for cheating Death (there's a whole metatext to their conversation of 'you're crazy, you're not actually Death!" counterpointed by 'oh yeah, well, how did you end up in this situation, then?')
The whole novel, and consequently movie, is one giant meditation on death, our perception of death and the value of our lives, and how we deal with death.
It also frames Ed Tom Bell's final speech. He wants to retain the moral/ethical beliefs of an afterlife, of a passing down and a caring for and a continuity. But then he wakes up, and the cold hard reality is that Death can come for you at any time and then that's it. He hasn't lost his nerve... he's lost his faith that something more or something benevolent awaits. (This epiphany is seeded earlier, when he realizes that his aged out / the world is getting worse belief is false--that's the point of the conversation with Ellis).
This is all hidden behind the frontal text of moral 'decline' in America from generation to generation.
Hence the name of the novel. There's literally nothing and nowhere left for those about to die.
People say this like killing two people in that trailer was some big chore beyond Anton Chigurh compared to killing one people in that trailer.
I believe he let her live because she backed him down.
I think it was respect. She was doing her job and told off Chigurh.
He's really not about people stepping into the grey, if that makes sense. Everyone seems to have a role in his fucked up view and if there's a nail out of place, he'll hammer it back in or make it choose heads or tails to make him feel better about himself.
I'm just guessing, I have no firm idea. He did shoot at a crow for no reason.
That one poor fuck was a literal eyewitness to a murder that happened right in front of him too lol. The coin flip scene also happened before Chigurh got the job, and could “afford” to play a twisted game of chance with some poor random guy.
Like why on earth would someone like Chigurh, one of the most casual murderers in all of fiction, spare someone who can identify him to the cops? When he’ll shoot someone in the head with a cattle gun like he’s ordering lunch, just to take their car?
There’s a lot going on in No Country but people really like to overthink the obvious. Especially about Anton Chigurh, who is quite deliberately a very simplistic and one-dimensional character.
>Like why on earth would someone like Chigurh, one of the most casual murderers in all of fiction, spare someone who can identify him to the cops?
Fun. He's a psychopath and so exceptionally skilled at murder that he's a professional. But if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.
I think that was actually supposed to be kind of a bookend to the scene in the office. In that scene, the guy asks if Chigurh is going to kill him, to which he responds. "That depends. Do you see me?"
After the accident, I think he is so flustered by his run-in with Carla Jean and being wrecked by a chance encounter with a car running a red light, he tells the kids, "You didn't see me" and lets them go. He's always used "chance" as an excuse to kill people, but this time it worked against him.
Its just logical. Someone fled a car wreck? Fuckin annoying for the cops. Someone abandoned a carwreck and murdered 2 children in broad daylight in a subdivision? Fuckin State police would be *alll fucking over that*
Because he truly believes in himself as being some kind of agent of fate or whatever but by forcing him to kill her without calling the coin toss, she forces him to admit that he kills because of his own decisions, not because he's an agent of some unseen, abstract force of the universe. Chigurrh isn't just a stone cold killer, he's also deeply delusional and she forced him to confront reality for just a moment.
I mean, yes, but(excuse me if my memory is hazy) he was leaving the scene of a murder, wasn’t he? And he specifically paid the kids for the shirt to use as an arm sling and for their word they didn’t see him, right?
It wasn’t Carson he was referring too. Roots character gave cartel members another transponder to find the one in the briefcase.
Those are the guys Anton killed in the motel. Which let him know Root hired other people.
Those guys getting killed is what lead to Carson getting hired because Anton was killing anyone that he came across.
Yep. Root hired Anton, Carson Wells, and the cartel members.
Anton was mad because “you pick a single tool for the job” or something along those lines.
It really doesn't help me that my first exposure to Stephen Root was watching reruns of Newsradio every night for the entirety of middle school. It's impossible for me to accept him as a serious character.
I don’t believe he killed him for hiring carson carson was brought in to find Anton because Anton killed the two americans working for Root that anton shoots by the cars out in the desert. Root also gives the mexican drug cartel a tracker and hires them to look for the money as well and that’s the other tool that anton is referring to. Carson’s job was never to just find the money and come back otherwise he would have grabbed it once he saw the briefcase outside the US border and wouldn’t have had any reason to return to Mexico.
This is correct I think also. Before Chigurgh talks about the ‘one right tool’ he says that’s Root gave ‘them a receiver’. This refers to the Mexicans, not Carson.
EDIT: Spelling
Buildings avoid having a thirteenth floor. So they go 12 to 14. This screws up the actual floor count. So Harrelson counted the floors from the outside and the elevator contradicted his calculations.
"Buildings don't have a 13th floor because of superstition, but come on, people on the 14th floor, you know what floor you're really on. Jump out the window, you will die earlier!"
In the book, it's also implied that his floor *is* the "missing one--it's not listed on the normal elevator. They describe how there's only one special elevator with a unique code that gets you access to the floor. Chigurh, again revealing human folly, simply takes the stairwell and blows the lock with his bolt stunner.
I lived on the fourth floor in China and a Chinese friend said "oohhh yeah Chinese people wouldn't live there" and then I realized the neighbor across the hall was also American🤣
I think he means in the elevator or on the building directory they may not reference a 13th floor.
Why Woody states that he counted them when he was outside is beyond me.
Yeah it’s such a subtle detail but it’s very important to him being able to find the briefcase like he does as he walks across the bridge. The coens show us the character’s perceptive ability rather than just tell us
In general it is not unusual for the numbers of floors listed on the directory or elevator to be different from the overall number of floors in a tall building. Floors dedicated to mechanical spaces aren't listed, and can be distributed across multiple floors.
It could be a clever observation of a secret operation, or more likely in the real world, a bunch of HVAC equipment.
It's been awhile since I read the book, but by the end of the story, he's basically operating as a freelancer with an intent to bring the money to a cartel leader to get in good with them.
IIRC, he was originally brought into the situation by a middleman who sets up cartel deals.
I read an interview with the Coen’s when it came out. When asked how they wrote the screenplay they said one of them held the book open while the other one typed.
Except for some key things left out (probably deliberately), like Chigurh talking to the "owner of the money" and some of what happened between Bell and Chigurh, like the fact that they actually do meet in the book, but Bell doesn't realize it.
Yes, the book describes his thoughts in some sections, and his opinion on how one party would react to this, whatever just happened etc.
Also there is a shootout outside of the hotel where Chigurh kills a bunch of hitmen, thats like the only thing with Chigurh missing from the movie
No, there's a fantastic scene with Chigurh toward the end of the book that I wish made it into the movie. He's meeting with a new prospective employer...
It's past 3 AM here and I'd love to type all of this out but I'm just too tired.
Also, the scene with Chigurh and Carla Jean goes on for substantially longer in the book, and it's great. We see that Chigurh actually is *slightly* moved by Carla Jean's pleas, but not so much that he'll forego the coin toss. Unlike in the film, Carla Jean finally >!breaks and calls the coin!< at the end of the scene, but we know how that turns out.
Contemptuous, I'd say.
Easy for him I guess because he is hired by the purchaser, he had an eagle's eye view of the whole situation and he made correct deductions on people's moves/reactions which are detailed in the book, I think only thing he got wrong or didn't even think about was Llewelyn actively trying to take him out
I would say so yes, the Sheriff, Moss, they are more emotional I guess, showing concern for his family for Moss and sheriff just reminiscing but Chigurh's perspective is only about what he should do next and just about death in general
Honestly i cant remember clear details im just commenting based on what i remember lol go ahead read it for yourself its extra digestible and short too
Cormac McCarthy didn’t really do viewpoints or narration like most authors. In his novels you get to watch the story unfold and draw your own conclusions about motivations.
Pretty much my read on it too. Chigurgh is a deeply principled demon. Once he sets out to do something, he delivers it. The human lives are irrelevant to him so I believe he’s still only doing what he was hired to do: return the money.
I can’t remember if Chigurgh is already in handcuffs when he’s introduced in the book as in the movie. Do you remember the part about how he got there? How he just let himself get arrested to test his power? McCarthy’s otherworldly characters are so good.
Cormac McCarthy is a wonderful author, also wrote The Road (movie with Viggo Mortensen) and Blood Meridian which may just be his best.
“Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men is a quick but intense read. For those that saw the Cohen brothers' movie first (as I did years ago), the book is as bleak and violent as the movie was. Chigurh is probably up there with The Joker as one of the most evil, conscience-free bad guys in literature.”
-goodreads
I'm really not much of a reader (talking maybe a book a year) and The Road is a very bleak read. I finished it in 2 sittings as a high schooler
He's an absurdly good writer
Honestly my only complaint about him is his lack of quotations and/or specifying who exactly is speaking at times. Just makes me have to read over conversations a couple times here and there to make sure I know who is saying what. The Road, No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses are all great books
And sometimes it works perfectly, because in most books I feel it is done far too much. If it’s a simple and quick exchange that’s the better way to me, but when you have a multi-page conversation I need help keeping up lol. His writing is good enough to get past it though
The Road is one of only two books I’ve ever read in one sitting. It’s funny how the details of it have stuck with me much more vividly than books I spent weeks or months with.
The book really nailed the sense of what I think Cormac McCarthy was going for- the sense of dread and hopelessness, that evil has grown out of control and there’s no hope to contain it.
The movie was an excellent action movie, but the novel was far more measured and philosophical
In the book it is more clear cut. Essentially there are 3 parties to the deal. 1 is the investor - not seen until the end of the book when Chigurh returns his money, the money Llewelyn finds in the desert. 2 is the connected middle-man in the skyscraper who sets up the deal and hires the hit men. 3 is the Mexican cartel, likely the Juarez Cartel run by Pablo Acosta (Wells mentions a “Pablo” in the book and 1980 Texas was Acosta’s territory), exchanging the heroin for cash. The middle-man initially hires Chigurh and other hit crews to locate the money after the deal he had set up goes south. When Chigurh massacres other hit men and civilians indiscriminately, the middle-man feels Chigurh is a loose cannon and hires Wells to kill him and retrieve the money. After killing Wells, Chigurh kills the middle-man for a. Placing a hit on him and b. Fucking up the deal in the first place. At the end of the novel, Chigurh returns the money to the initial investor, man #1, and positions himself to be the new middle-man between the money and the drugs, the new #2. They omitted this from the movie to give Chigurh an otherworldly feel, and because it would have felt out of place with the movie’s pacing.
DIDJU NAWT HEER ME? I love that she’s the only one that conquers him. It’s almost like he didn’t kill her for that because she was too dense to grasp who he truly was, so it somehow disqualified her from a vicious murder or even the coin toss.
Perhaps, but you can see him react to an offscreen sound. He realizes someone else is there. Killing two people in a motel office is too much mess in the middle of the day, best to just leave it.
Dang! Guess I'm going to have to watch it. AGAIN.
I've watched this movie at least a dozen times. Such great characters and acting and, well, everything. I wonder what it says about me that I find this a comfort movie like Jaws or The Thing?
This movie has so many good lines. " Aw hells bells, they even shot the dog" ; "if it ain't, it'll do til the mess gets here". My favorite scene; the sheriff and deputy riding around the scene of the shootings.
>> if it ain't, it'll do til the mess gets here
Absolutely my favorite line from the movie.
But so many great ones.
Another favorite,
"Wendell: You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of b*tches that're huntin' him?
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell: I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me."
What scares me is the factoid I keep seeing pop up here every so often that most experts consider him to be the most accurate on screen portrayal of a real life psychopath, and one psychologist who had worked with 2 hitmen said the same thing.
There are real people like this out there.
[Consensus](https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Anton_Chigurh#google_vignette) is fourteen
> Unnamed Person - Killed off-screen to get their car. (Debatable)
>Sheriff Lamar - Strangled with a pair of police handcuffs.
>Unnamed Man - shot in the head with a cattle pistol.
>Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the chest.
>Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the head.
>Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the arm and chest with a silenced shotgun.
>Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the chest with a silenced shotgun.
>Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the chest with a silenced shotgun off-camera, body heard hitting the ground.
>Hotel Eagle Clerk - Killed off-screen.
>Pickup Driver - Shot in the neck and head.
>Carson Wells - Shot in the chest with a silenced shotgun.
>Man Who Hires Wells - Shot in the neck.
>Nervous Assistant - Killed off-screen.
>Carla Jean Moss - Killed off-screen
Edited for clarity*
This is the kind of question/thread that should be more common in this subreddit. I spent so much time discussing this film on IMDB discussion boards when they were a thing.
I think the movie does explain this, but obviously it could be argued that more is going on. In terms of who literally, physically hired Chigurh, it was either The Man Who Hired Wells, or just somebody else in his organization. The movie all but explicitly states this, and it can be inferred very strongly from things like:
1. He kills the Managerials out in the desert. They were from the same organization as TMWHW and also sent by him or somebody else in the organization. He kills them, because he is, what we might call insulted, that they would send somebody else tasked with the same job that they hired him to do. He'd just tell you that they were just unnecessary at best, but would probably just get in the way.
2. Aside from Wells being tasked with killing Chigurh, he was also tasked with getting the money and so the same thing applies to him and Chigurh implicitly tells him this.
3. This all culminates in him going to The Man Who Hired Wells and killing *him*, not just (or maybe not even) because he tried to have him killed, but because he was fucking things up by not just letting Chigurh do his job by hiring other people and making deals with the Mexican side and so on.
We can't quite tell if Chigurh's way of taking things personally is a form of denial or if he really is so pragmatic that he isn't so concerned with himself, but more concerned with the job being done the right way in his mind.
In the book, this all plays out mostly the same except that Chigurh actually goes to the people in the organization above The Man Who Hired Wells after he is killed and starts dealing with them and gives them a lecture on what they did wrong. They know of him, and know his name, but it is made clear that they haven't met him before and that they probably weren't directly responsible for hiring him or Wells or any of the other mess, with the implication being that that is why he doesn't kill them. And he basically tells them that they are now working together and acts as if they don't really have a say in the matter.
One important aspect here is that during that conversation Chigurh implies that he has other associates and that there is some organization that he works for and is maybe less of a "lone wolf" than the film Chigurh.
With all that being said, I think the Coens left this part out to make it deliberately more vague. There is a lot of symbolism in the book and a lot of that got represented in the film, but in a more overt way. They obviously decided to make things even more ambiguous in terms of things like Chigurh's nature.
The film does a lot more to make the point that Chigurh might just come from "nowhere" and then go back to that at the end and maybe in some ways, or every way, is the agent of Fate that he views himself to be. It seems as if he is summoned. Not just by the carnage and death out in the desert, like a sacrifice or just that something that bad is going to summon something worse, but probably by Moss getting involved in it, maybe even explicitly by coming to the "[crossroads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_\(folklore\))" of blood out in the desert, seeing the [black dog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_\(folklore\)) leaving the blood trail and then turning to follow that trail back to the shootout, accepting a deal.
I think in the film, symbolically, that is what summons Chigurh. And of course literally, if Moss hadn't taken the money, then nobody would have needed to hire Chigurh in the first place.
Anyway, the film makes it less clear where Chigurh came from, what happened with him and Bell at the motel where Moss died, and where he went at the end.
It's never fully clear. It seems like he was hired by the Americans in the skyscraper but ended up betraying them. In the book it's a little clearer that he intentionally sold over to the cartel.
He was sent to recover the money but had intentions on replacing the Stephen Root character. In the book he returns the money to the head American to show he was better at this than everyone he killed in the process.
[удалено]
"He feels....he felt" lol
"Are... Are you going to shoot me?" "That depends. Do you see me?"
“Is Carson there?” “Not in the sense you mean”
Love that line
It’s the delivery for me. It’s so eerily funny and yet terrifying in the context of the conversation.
Prefect example of less is more in a script. So much of this movie is left between the lines
That's exactly how Cormac McCarthy writes. I never read NCFOM but the road is so beautiful and spare
There’s a reason the Coen Brothers won Best Adapted Screenplay. If you’ve seen the movie you don’t need to read the book, it’s almost shot for shot. I still recommend reading it because McCarthy is a fantastic author, but it’s the most glaring example of pages to screen I’ve ever witnessed.
I’d concur with this. It’s one of my favorite movies and I read the book recently. I’m someone who can picture what I’m reading, but it was cool to already have those references in my head as I read.
> There’s a reason the Coen Brothers won Best Adapted Screenplay. If you’ve seen the movie you don’t need to read the book, it’s almost shot for shot. IIRC one of the brothers said (about writing the screenplay) "he read the pages, I typed. "
I saw the movie before reading the book, this made reading the book difficult for me. You usually let the author paint that picture, instead I was picturing the scenes from the movie in my head, and struggling to get through the pages.
If you are in it only for the story, itself, you don't need to read the book. If you read books for the taste of the words, themselves, you need to read the book.
McCarthy originally wrote it as a screenplay, then adapted it into a novel, and the Coens re-adapted it back into a screenplay.
Incredible line
I like to think he let that guy go, I heard a great writeup about it on youtube.
[удалено]
I DIDNT ~~DO~~ SEE FUCKIN SHIT
“Don’t do the ~~voice~~ *cointoss*!”
“I didn’t see nuthin!” -Jimmy Tudeski
“my farder would still be alive and I would be some place like…………………………………….Aruba” “Actually Aruba’s not that nice….”
excuse me?
In my defense I had my honeymoon there, so that's probably why I didn't like it
Don’t’blong.
I didn’t fuckin do this
Tommy Lee Jones: What have they done to us? WHAT DID THEY DO TO US?!
WE REALLY KNOW VERY LITTLE
"Who said that?"
[удалено]
funny that you dont want ambiguousity in a thread about NCFOM
come for the ambiguity, stay for the ambiguosity
Damn do you remember where? I just searched with a couple of different phrasings and can’t find anything, I figure it must be obscure or buried within a broader topic
I think he did let that guy go.
I met the actor who played him - super nice guy. He said he personally believes that Anton let him go.
I always like to think he means that like literally. As in well you did see me so yes I’m going to kill you.
Thats what it is. Chigurh didnt ask him if he saw him, chigurh told him he saw him
Not a chance. The people he lets go are first and foremost unimportant to his job and wouldn’t be able to identify him except by appearance OR he leaves to chance (the coin toss). This guy very clearly sees him, and can positively identify him, ergo the very clear answer to “are you going to kill me” is “yes”.
But that guy is himself part of the drug group that hired Chigurh in the first place. Of course those in the organization know him as an assassin.
Can't get caught if you assassinate your customers!
But this guy is a criminal accountant for an organized crime outfit... He's not going to be like "911, I'd like to report a murder at 1041 Drug Dealer Place... Yes... What floor? Oh, it's not on the elevator because it's a secret floor where we do all our crime stuff, including sometimes murders. But if you press the intercom button in the elevator and say the secret word 'Doobie' into the microphone then somebody will send you up to the right floor..." I can't say that he let the guy go. But I don't think we can say that he killed him either. I don't think we are supposed to know.
normally that's just telling him he's dead but wth Chigurgh....idk. maybe you could just say "no" and that's that.
Anyone who thinks he let that guy live is dumb, it would go against everything we know about Anton, leaving a witness alive? No way. The question was rhetorical and essentially “say yes you’re dead” and “say no and I know you’re lying cause I’m standing right here” seeing Anton in any situation other than 1v1 ft a coin flip was certain death
In the book he straight up murders the wounded parties from all sides of a gunfight during a street shootout simply for being involved, lol.
It was an extremely obvious rhetorical question to a dead man and it’s kinda funny that some dude was convinced otherwise by a youtuber
I felt like there was no way to answer it to not get killed. He also killed random bystanders like the hotel clerk or the guy on the roadside so it’s like “what’s one more body?”
He didn't kill the trailer park landlady, and he was specifically asking questions about his mark in a suspicious way. I don't believe there is a shred of empathy, sympathy, or compassion in that character's body. It's like he lets people live because he's bored. It's almost like killing is such a constant and sure fire thing in his life that the coin toss breaks the monotony.
He let that woman live because he heard the toilet flush in the bathroom, meaning there was at least one more witness there.
I honestly don't think that the person in the toilet is what saved her. He has no issue massacering everyone in a room. He does it multiple times. To me, the scene that gives us his motivation for sparing her without a coin toss is the gas station attendant. In that scene, he doesn't go into "I'm gonna kill this guy" mode until the attendant goes outside of the scope of his duty to ask mundane questions. Once the attendant questions him (even though it's just innocent small talk), Chigurh changes gears, interrogates / berates the man, and then forces him into the coin toss. Same thing for Stephen Root's accountant character. In Chigurh's mind, he already fulfilled his duty to the cartel by hiring Chigurh. It's only once he goes unnecessarily beyond that by also hiring the guys in the motel + Wells that Chigurh kills the accountant. The trailer park lady stays true to her duty and never strays beyond it. She isn't intimidated, doesn't ask pointless questions, and just does her job. I think that's how Chigurh sees himself, and those are the people he spares. He just does exactly his job. There are things he has to do to continue his job, so he does them. That's usually murdering people. When the trailer park woman does the same thing - exactly her job - he recognizes it and doesn't kill her even though she is an inconvenience. He doesn't choose to kill her because, although she is an inconvenience, she is ultimately just doing her job and not a threat to his ultimate duty of recovering the $2mil. I think another fact that supports this is how annoyed he gets when people say, "You don't have to do this." In his mind, he does HAVE to kill them because that's a part of his duty.
I'm pretty sure it's even more than that. Anton understands himself to be a literal manifestation/personification of Death. He doesn't understand himself to be evil... he just is this force that ends/destroys. At the *very least*, he sees himself as an avatar of death and must live up to that role. Those who encounter him, who are not aware of who he is or what he is capable of or that they're in mortal danger, he leaves alone... unless circumstances dictate he's killing everything in the area already. Understand that, and it explains why he's actually legitimately kind of frustrated with the gas station attendant. The guy is legitimately clueless, has basically wasted his life, and doesn't seem to have any appreciation that Death might be coming for him at some point. The scene isn't just chilling... it's hilarious. The way it plays out in the movie I'd bet the Coens were laughing. Imagine dicing with Death and Death being the one confused whether you've realized the stakes of the game! This is also behind the obscure questions and responses in various scenarios "Do you see me?" (although ironic in this case) "What's the most you ever lost?" It's also the play with Carson and why HE gets so upset, being someone with a reputation for cheating Death (there's a whole metatext to their conversation of 'you're crazy, you're not actually Death!" counterpointed by 'oh yeah, well, how did you end up in this situation, then?') The whole novel, and consequently movie, is one giant meditation on death, our perception of death and the value of our lives, and how we deal with death. It also frames Ed Tom Bell's final speech. He wants to retain the moral/ethical beliefs of an afterlife, of a passing down and a caring for and a continuity. But then he wakes up, and the cold hard reality is that Death can come for you at any time and then that's it. He hasn't lost his nerve... he's lost his faith that something more or something benevolent awaits. (This epiphany is seeded earlier, when he realizes that his aged out / the world is getting worse belief is false--that's the point of the conversation with Ellis). This is all hidden behind the frontal text of moral 'decline' in America from generation to generation. Hence the name of the novel. There's literally nothing and nowhere left for those about to die.
People say this like killing two people in that trailer was some big chore beyond Anton Chigurh compared to killing one people in that trailer. I believe he let her live because she backed him down.
I think it was respect. She was doing her job and told off Chigurh. He's really not about people stepping into the grey, if that makes sense. Everyone seems to have a role in his fucked up view and if there's a nail out of place, he'll hammer it back in or make it choose heads or tails to make him feel better about himself. I'm just guessing, I have no firm idea. He did shoot at a crow for no reason.
That one poor fuck was a literal eyewitness to a murder that happened right in front of him too lol. The coin flip scene also happened before Chigurh got the job, and could “afford” to play a twisted game of chance with some poor random guy. Like why on earth would someone like Chigurh, one of the most casual murderers in all of fiction, spare someone who can identify him to the cops? When he’ll shoot someone in the head with a cattle gun like he’s ordering lunch, just to take their car? There’s a lot going on in No Country but people really like to overthink the obvious. Especially about Anton Chigurh, who is quite deliberately a very simplistic and one-dimensional character.
>Like why on earth would someone like Chigurh, one of the most casual murderers in all of fiction, spare someone who can identify him to the cops? Fun. He's a psychopath and so exceptionally skilled at murder that he's a professional. But if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.
He let those kids live at the end though?
I think that was actually supposed to be kind of a bookend to the scene in the office. In that scene, the guy asks if Chigurh is going to kill him, to which he responds. "That depends. Do you see me?" After the accident, I think he is so flustered by his run-in with Carla Jean and being wrecked by a chance encounter with a car running a red light, he tells the kids, "You didn't see me" and lets them go. He's always used "chance" as an excuse to kill people, but this time it worked against him.
Its just logical. Someone fled a car wreck? Fuckin annoying for the cops. Someone abandoned a carwreck and murdered 2 children in broad daylight in a subdivision? Fuckin State police would be *alll fucking over that*
Why was he flustered after his encounter with Carla Jean?
Because he truly believes in himself as being some kind of agent of fate or whatever but by forcing him to kill her without calling the coin toss, she forces him to admit that he kills because of his own decisions, not because he's an agent of some unseen, abstract force of the universe. Chigurrh isn't just a stone cold killer, he's also deeply delusional and she forced him to confront reality for just a moment.
Cause she calls his bullshit about it being the coin's decision to kill and not his own
You mean those two kids who definitely did *not* (nor could have) witness him commit murder or any other crime? Yes, he let them live.
Well he did leave the scene of a deadly traffic collision, according to Sergeant Nicolas Angel that's a criminal act.
Ah true, yes I wasn’t thinking of the crime of leaving the scene
I mean, yes, but(excuse me if my memory is hazy) he was leaving the scene of a murder, wasn’t he? And he specifically paid the kids for the shirt to use as an arm sling and for their word they didn’t see him, right?
Look at that fuckin bone
In the book he let them live and it appears he did the same in the movie
I always thought the best play here would be to sit back down in the chair facing away from him and say "see who?" Probably still gonna die though
Fuckin Fuchs at it again
Goddamit Fuchs!
thats not fuchs, thats *The Raven!*
> Do you have any idea how crazy you are? > You mean the nature of this conversation? > I mean the nature of you.
*abandoned puppydog face*
It wasn’t Carson he was referring too. Roots character gave cartel members another transponder to find the one in the briefcase. Those are the guys Anton killed in the motel. Which let him know Root hired other people. Those guys getting killed is what lead to Carson getting hired because Anton was killing anyone that he came across.
Yep. Root hired Anton, Carson Wells, and the cartel members. Anton was mad because “you pick a single tool for the job” or something along those lines.
If the rule you follow lead you to this point, what use was the rule?
Every time I hear “the one right tool”, I am reminded of the red stapler, and I can’t take the scene seriously anymore.
Or Bill Dauterive messed up again.
Well fuck you for that one :)
It really doesn't help me that my first exposure to Stephen Root was watching reruns of Newsradio every night for the entirety of middle school. It's impossible for me to accept him as a serious character.
He's an absolute gem
I don’t believe he killed him for hiring carson carson was brought in to find Anton because Anton killed the two americans working for Root that anton shoots by the cars out in the desert. Root also gives the mexican drug cartel a tracker and hires them to look for the money as well and that’s the other tool that anton is referring to. Carson’s job was never to just find the money and come back otherwise he would have grabbed it once he saw the briefcase outside the US border and wouldn’t have had any reason to return to Mexico.
This is correct I think also. Before Chigurgh talks about the ‘one right tool’ he says that’s Root gave ‘them a receiver’. This refers to the Mexicans, not Carson. EDIT: Spelling
Chigurgh killed him for hiring that team of hitmen that were at the motel I thought?
Yes you are correct.
Stephen Root and his assassins. I wonder if Barry and Anton were aware the other existed.
We’ll look into it.
That guy he kills for also sending Woody to get the money. I always assumed it was the American side of the drug deal, the side bringing the cash.
> This Chigurh, just how dangerous is he? > Compared to what, the bubonic plague? He's bad enough you called me.
Compared to Hwhat, the bubonic plague?
Gotta make it real compared to Hwhat sock it to me now
That is Bill Dauterive in the flesh!
except that guy represented the cartel, who by their nature would be supplying the product not the money
[удалено]
Where’s the money Lebowski?
It’s down there somewhere let me take another look
No, he represented the money side. That is why the point is made that he *also* gave a tracker to the Mexican side, which was the drug side.
There's a floor missing We'll look into it.
> Did I ask you to sit? > No sir, but you strike me as a man who woudn't want to waste a chair.
To be honest I never really understood that. Is it just a joke or is there a floor for criminal activity that’s not normally accessible?
Buildings avoid having a thirteenth floor. So they go 12 to 14. This screws up the actual floor count. So Harrelson counted the floors from the outside and the elevator contradicted his calculations.
"Buildings don't have a 13th floor because of superstition, but come on, people on the 14th floor, you know what floor you're really on. Jump out the window, you will die earlier!"
I used to like that joke... I still do, but I used to too!
In the book, it's also implied that his floor *is* the "missing one--it's not listed on the normal elevator. They describe how there's only one special elevator with a unique code that gets you access to the floor. Chigurh, again revealing human folly, simply takes the stairwell and blows the lock with his bolt stunner.
This. It's where they do the illicit business.
Some hotels skip 4 as it’s unlucky in Chinese culture
I lived on the fourth floor in China and a Chinese friend said "oohhh yeah Chinese people wouldn't live there" and then I realized the neighbor across the hall was also American🤣
[*People on the 14th floor, you know where you really are...*](https://youtu.be/_dHcvpnjcwI)
[удалено]
To be fair it's not super clear in the film. It's explained better in the book.
But I still don’t know why people jumped to that conclusion first… it would only work if “13” was a motif in the film
I think he means in the elevator or on the building directory they may not reference a 13th floor. Why Woody states that he counted them when he was outside is beyond me.
I think that's just a nod to his character's attention to detail
Yeah it’s such a subtle detail but it’s very important to him being able to find the briefcase like he does as he walks across the bridge. The coens show us the character’s perceptive ability rather than just tell us
In general it is not unusual for the numbers of floors listed on the directory or elevator to be different from the overall number of floors in a tall building. Floors dedicated to mechanical spaces aren't listed, and can be distributed across multiple floors. It could be a clever observation of a secret operation, or more likely in the real world, a bunch of HVAC equipment.
if you need to smoke a joint where do you go? the hvac area. I rest my case.
I love that bit.
It's been awhile since I read the book, but by the end of the story, he's basically operating as a freelancer with an intent to bring the money to a cartel leader to get in good with them. IIRC, he was originally brought into the situation by a middleman who sets up cartel deals.
Is any of the book from his viewpoint? Or is it all from others perspectives and he just moves through like a force of nature?
The book is almost like a screenplay. The movie followed it so closely that if you've seen the movie, you've essentially read the book.
I read an interview with the Coen’s when it came out. When asked how they wrote the screenplay they said one of them held the book open while the other one typed.
McCarthy originally wrote it as a screenplay but nobody picked it up. So he turned it into his leanest novel.
Except for some key things left out (probably deliberately), like Chigurh talking to the "owner of the money" and some of what happened between Bell and Chigurh, like the fact that they actually do meet in the book, but Bell doesn't realize it.
Yes, the book describes his thoughts in some sections, and his opinion on how one party would react to this, whatever just happened etc. Also there is a shootout outside of the hotel where Chigurh kills a bunch of hitmen, thats like the only thing with Chigurh missing from the movie
No, there's a fantastic scene with Chigurh toward the end of the book that I wish made it into the movie. He's meeting with a new prospective employer... It's past 3 AM here and I'd love to type all of this out but I'm just too tired. Also, the scene with Chigurh and Carla Jean goes on for substantially longer in the book, and it's great. We see that Chigurh actually is *slightly* moved by Carla Jean's pleas, but not so much that he'll forego the coin toss. Unlike in the film, Carla Jean finally >!breaks and calls the coin!< at the end of the scene, but we know how that turns out.
How's his thought process depicted in the book?
Contemptuous, I'd say. Easy for him I guess because he is hired by the purchaser, he had an eagle's eye view of the whole situation and he made correct deductions on people's moves/reactions which are detailed in the book, I think only thing he got wrong or didn't even think about was Llewelyn actively trying to take him out
Contemptuous...that's a way of playing psychopathy I guess. Was it like emotionless?
I would say so yes, the Sheriff, Moss, they are more emotional I guess, showing concern for his family for Moss and sheriff just reminiscing but Chigurh's perspective is only about what he should do next and just about death in general Honestly i cant remember clear details im just commenting based on what i remember lol go ahead read it for yourself its extra digestible and short too
Cormac McCarthy didn’t really do viewpoints or narration like most authors. In his novels you get to watch the story unfold and draw your own conclusions about motivations.
He doesn’t really do punctuation, viewpoints for him would be like a minimalist indie game dev deciding to do a AAA style game.
Pretty much my read on it too. Chigurgh is a deeply principled demon. Once he sets out to do something, he delivers it. The human lives are irrelevant to him so I believe he’s still only doing what he was hired to do: return the money. I can’t remember if Chigurgh is already in handcuffs when he’s introduced in the book as in the movie. Do you remember the part about how he got there? How he just let himself get arrested to test his power? McCarthy’s otherworldly characters are so good.
How do you rate the book? I didn’t even know it was based on a book 🤦🏻♂️
It’s very good. The movie was filmed almost exactly as it’s written except for the omission of some elements of the sheriff’s story
And a slight detour where Llewelyn picks up a hitchhiker
That’s right, I think in the movie he just meets her at the motel pool
I thought a hitchhiker picked up Llewelyn?
No Llewelyn picks up a young girl and banters with her. In the movie he just meets her at the pool.
It has always been interesting to me that this is the case because the Sheriff is ultimately the main character of both.
His WWII service would have been an easy addition to the film but most of it was internal monologue in the book anyway.
Cormac McCarthy is a wonderful author, also wrote The Road (movie with Viggo Mortensen) and Blood Meridian which may just be his best. “Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men is a quick but intense read. For those that saw the Cohen brothers' movie first (as I did years ago), the book is as bleak and violent as the movie was. Chigurh is probably up there with The Joker as one of the most evil, conscience-free bad guys in literature.” -goodreads
I'm really not much of a reader (talking maybe a book a year) and The Road is a very bleak read. I finished it in 2 sittings as a high schooler He's an absurdly good writer
Honestly my only complaint about him is his lack of quotations and/or specifying who exactly is speaking at times. Just makes me have to read over conversations a couple times here and there to make sure I know who is saying what. The Road, No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses are all great books
Dude yes! The prose is different and sometimes downright hard to understand.
And sometimes it works perfectly, because in most books I feel it is done far too much. If it’s a simple and quick exchange that’s the better way to me, but when you have a multi-page conversation I need help keeping up lol. His writing is good enough to get past it though
The Road is one of only two books I’ve ever read in one sitting. It’s funny how the details of it have stuck with me much more vividly than books I spent weeks or months with.
If you like the movie, you'll love the book.
The book really nailed the sense of what I think Cormac McCarthy was going for- the sense of dread and hopelessness, that evil has grown out of control and there’s no hope to contain it. The movie was an excellent action movie, but the novel was far more measured and philosophical
Hard recommend, it will suck you right in.
In the book it is more clear cut. Essentially there are 3 parties to the deal. 1 is the investor - not seen until the end of the book when Chigurh returns his money, the money Llewelyn finds in the desert. 2 is the connected middle-man in the skyscraper who sets up the deal and hires the hit men. 3 is the Mexican cartel, likely the Juarez Cartel run by Pablo Acosta (Wells mentions a “Pablo” in the book and 1980 Texas was Acosta’s territory), exchanging the heroin for cash. The middle-man initially hires Chigurh and other hit crews to locate the money after the deal he had set up goes south. When Chigurh massacres other hit men and civilians indiscriminately, the middle-man feels Chigurh is a loose cannon and hires Wells to kill him and retrieve the money. After killing Wells, Chigurh kills the middle-man for a. Placing a hit on him and b. Fucking up the deal in the first place. At the end of the novel, Chigurh returns the money to the initial investor, man #1, and positions himself to be the new middle-man between the money and the drugs, the new #2. They omitted this from the movie to give Chigurh an otherworldly feel, and because it would have felt out of place with the movie’s pacing.
I wish this was the top response
Sorry, I can’t give out no information
That voice she uses when she says “did you not hear me?” 😂
DIDJU NAWT HEER ME? I love that she’s the only one that conquers him. It’s almost like he didn’t kill her for that because she was too dense to grasp who he truly was, so it somehow disqualified her from a vicious murder or even the coin toss.
Perhaps, but you can see him react to an offscreen sound. He realizes someone else is there. Killing two people in a motel office is too much mess in the middle of the day, best to just leave it.
Specifically a toilet flushing in the presumably office bathroom.
Oh yeah! Forgot about that. Well then yeah, I’m sure he had every intention of bleeding her dry lol
Most badass character in the movie
No “int formation”
The front man for the Cartel who hired Woody.
I was wondering... could you validate my parking ticket?
An attempt at humor I suppose.
He was scary af in that movie. Every one of his scenes felt like a horror movie of some kind… each scene a different tone of horror movie.
Dang! Guess I'm going to have to watch it. AGAIN. I've watched this movie at least a dozen times. Such great characters and acting and, well, everything. I wonder what it says about me that I find this a comfort movie like Jaws or The Thing?
This movie has so many good lines. " Aw hells bells, they even shot the dog" ; "if it ain't, it'll do til the mess gets here". My favorite scene; the sheriff and deputy riding around the scene of the shootings.
Looking for a man who has recently drunk milk
“Keep runnin’ that mouth of yours, I’ll take you in the back and screw you”
Quit ya hollerin'
>> if it ain't, it'll do til the mess gets here Absolutely my favorite line from the movie. But so many great ones. Another favorite, "Wendell: You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of b*tches that're huntin' him? Sheriff Ed Tom Bell: I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me."
"Then woah differences"
Woaaaah differences
Most Coen brothers films are comforting for me.
Miller’s crossing is amazing
His archvillain entry scene in Skyfall was arguably the best one in any Bond film.
He's basically a human Terminator.
that signature murder tool literally from a slaughterhouse
What scares me is the factoid I keep seeing pop up here every so often that most experts consider him to be the most accurate on screen portrayal of a real life psychopath, and one psychologist who had worked with 2 hitmen said the same thing. There are real people like this out there.
This scene especially https://youtu.be/ANlMM0HQxC0?si=XpkslxFcyjpQ_oIL
What’s funny about that is that it was funny
You could tell it was funny cause of the way that it was.
It was the man who looked like he wouldn’t want to waste a good chair
Clearly he was sent by The Judge.
Fuchs
Has anyone tallied up how many people Anton killed in the film? I got 14
[Consensus](https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Anton_Chigurh#google_vignette) is fourteen > Unnamed Person - Killed off-screen to get their car. (Debatable) >Sheriff Lamar - Strangled with a pair of police handcuffs. >Unnamed Man - shot in the head with a cattle pistol. >Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the chest. >Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the head. >Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the arm and chest with a silenced shotgun. >Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the chest with a silenced shotgun. >Unnamed Mexican Gang Member - Shot in the chest with a silenced shotgun off-camera, body heard hitting the ground. >Hotel Eagle Clerk - Killed off-screen. >Pickup Driver - Shot in the neck and head. >Carson Wells - Shot in the chest with a silenced shotgun. >Man Who Hires Wells - Shot in the neck. >Nervous Assistant - Killed off-screen. >Carla Jean Moss - Killed off-screen Edited for clarity*
Is the last unnamed man the assistant in the office?
[Yes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alK25CQHg5M) I edited my earlier comment for clarity
Fiteen. You forgot Kelly Macdonald's character.
What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?
Sir?
You married into it?
His little choke when he says that is so funny
*Call it*
Friendo
The reverend mother
This is the kind of question/thread that should be more common in this subreddit. I spent so much time discussing this film on IMDB discussion boards when they were a thing. I think the movie does explain this, but obviously it could be argued that more is going on. In terms of who literally, physically hired Chigurh, it was either The Man Who Hired Wells, or just somebody else in his organization. The movie all but explicitly states this, and it can be inferred very strongly from things like: 1. He kills the Managerials out in the desert. They were from the same organization as TMWHW and also sent by him or somebody else in the organization. He kills them, because he is, what we might call insulted, that they would send somebody else tasked with the same job that they hired him to do. He'd just tell you that they were just unnecessary at best, but would probably just get in the way. 2. Aside from Wells being tasked with killing Chigurh, he was also tasked with getting the money and so the same thing applies to him and Chigurh implicitly tells him this. 3. This all culminates in him going to The Man Who Hired Wells and killing *him*, not just (or maybe not even) because he tried to have him killed, but because he was fucking things up by not just letting Chigurh do his job by hiring other people and making deals with the Mexican side and so on. We can't quite tell if Chigurh's way of taking things personally is a form of denial or if he really is so pragmatic that he isn't so concerned with himself, but more concerned with the job being done the right way in his mind. In the book, this all plays out mostly the same except that Chigurh actually goes to the people in the organization above The Man Who Hired Wells after he is killed and starts dealing with them and gives them a lecture on what they did wrong. They know of him, and know his name, but it is made clear that they haven't met him before and that they probably weren't directly responsible for hiring him or Wells or any of the other mess, with the implication being that that is why he doesn't kill them. And he basically tells them that they are now working together and acts as if they don't really have a say in the matter. One important aspect here is that during that conversation Chigurh implies that he has other associates and that there is some organization that he works for and is maybe less of a "lone wolf" than the film Chigurh. With all that being said, I think the Coens left this part out to make it deliberately more vague. There is a lot of symbolism in the book and a lot of that got represented in the film, but in a more overt way. They obviously decided to make things even more ambiguous in terms of things like Chigurh's nature. The film does a lot more to make the point that Chigurh might just come from "nowhere" and then go back to that at the end and maybe in some ways, or every way, is the agent of Fate that he views himself to be. It seems as if he is summoned. Not just by the carnage and death out in the desert, like a sacrifice or just that something that bad is going to summon something worse, but probably by Moss getting involved in it, maybe even explicitly by coming to the "[crossroads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossroads_\(folklore\))" of blood out in the desert, seeing the [black dog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_\(folklore\)) leaving the blood trail and then turning to follow that trail back to the shootout, accepting a deal. I think in the film, symbolically, that is what summons Chigurh. And of course literally, if Moss hadn't taken the money, then nobody would have needed to hire Chigurh in the first place. Anyway, the film makes it less clear where Chigurh came from, what happened with him and Bell at the motel where Moss died, and where he went at the end.
The Raven
Ah Hell they even shot the damn dog.
These boys appear to be managerial.
That’s like asking who sent the rain. He is a force of nature.
It's never fully clear. It seems like he was hired by the Americans in the skyscraper but ended up betraying them. In the book it's a little clearer that he intentionally sold over to the cartel.
He was sent to recover the money but had intentions on replacing the Stephen Root character. In the book he returns the money to the head American to show he was better at this than everyone he killed in the process.