No Country for Old Men

Sheriff Bell recalls that he became sheriff when he was twenty-five years old. He was just back from World War II with some medals, and he followed in his grandfather, Jack’s footsteps. He says that he has been lucky his whole life, but the luckiest thing that ever happened to him was meeting his wife. They have been married for 31 years, and they lost a daughter—their only child.

Bell. Bell and Wendell go to Moss’s trailer. They find the lock shot out and the Mosses gone. The two law men realize that they are following in the footsteps of the drug dealers looking for their drugs and money, and probably the serial killer. They realize that the Mosses lives are in danger.

The DEA sends agent McIntyre, who arrives by helicopter. The Texas Rangers and the Border Patrol are expected to send agents later that day. McIntyre, Bell, and Wendell meet at the drug scene, where Moss’s truck stands nearby and the bodies and shot up vehicles still lie. The men discuss what they believe happened.

Chigurh. Driving at night on the highway in his truck, Chigurh picks up a signal on his receiver just west of Del Rio. When he sees a large bird sitting on the highway divider, he shoots at it, missing.

Moss. Moss returns to his original motel after dark. After consulting a map of the motel, he pays for a different room, in addition to the original one. In the second room, he constructs a hook on the end of the tent poles and opens the air duct. He can see the case with the money sticking out. He uses the tent poles to retrieve the case from the air vent. He takes the money and his bag with him, leaving the key in the room.

Chigurh. Using the receiver, Chigurh follows the signal to the motel. He pays for a room, and uses the receiver to locate the room from which the signal is coming. Using his air gun, he breaks open the lock and enters the room with a homemade silencer on his shotgun. He kills the two Mexican men in the room. He cannot find the money. Eventually, he looks in the air vent and sees the tracks of a case in the dust. He cleans the blood off himself as best he can and leaves.

Bell. Bell reads the autopsy report on the Dallas man found in the trunk of the deputy’s cruiser. He realizes that the man was killed with the same weapon used to kill cattle in a slaughterhouse. He tells Torbert.

Moss. Moss arrives in Eagle Pass at about 2 a.m., having hitched a ride with a trucker. He gets a hotel room. He realizes that the men found him very quickly, more quickly than he had bargained for, so he searches the money and finds the radio transponder unit inside one of the money packets. He knows that men will arrive for him soon, just not when. He gives the clerk $100 to call him if anyone else checks in. He doesn’t get a call, but he hears something that wakes him.

Chigurh arrives. Moss hides under the bed, after starting the shower, planning to ambush him. When Chigurh doesn’t open the bathroom door, Moss announces himself, briefly taking Chigurh hostage. He takes Chigurh’s shotgun and the money and runs out of the hotel. The hotel clerk is dead behind the counter. He runs, and Chigurh shoots him from a balcony. Moss shoots back and hits Chigurh. A car arrives with two men in it, and they start shooting at both Chigurh and Moss.

Though he is shot in the side and the arm, Moss runs away, crossing the bridge into Mexico. As dawn arrives, he buys a coat from a drunken college kid to disguise himself, tosses the money case over the bridge, and bribes a Mexican street sweeper to help him get to a doctor.

Chigurh. Chigurh is wounded in the leg. He manages to kill both of the men who arrived by car and who are firing on the hotel with machine guns. He limps to his truck in the hotel parking lot.

Bell recollects how he conducted himself in the past, participating in community events, such as cemetery cleaning, in order to be seen and to socialize with the community. It was a form of campaigning, but it was also to show respect and care for his community. He believes that the dead have a hold on the living, and that it is difficult to get the dead to let go.

Bell. Bell arrives at Carla Jean’s mother’s house in Odessa. Carla Jean answers the door. She believes that the sheriff is there to tell her Moss is dead. He quickly reassures her that Llewelyn is alive, but that he wants to talk to her about her husband.

To protect her mother, who is really her grandmother, they go to a nearby café to talk. Like Llewelyn, she focuses on the fact that Llewelyn hasn’t done anything legally wrong, yet. The sheriff tells Carla Jean that Llewelyn’s only chance to survive is to return the money; he could return the money and the police would publish that in the paper. She tells the sheriff that Llewelyn is smart and can take care of himself. She also never admits that Llewelyn took the money. The sheriff also tells her that the bad men will be coming after her too.

Carla Jean knows that the sheriff cares about what happens to Llewelyn. She tells the sheriff that her mother is dying of cancer. She also tells him the story of how she and Llewelyn met; she took a job at Wal-Mart after graduating high school at sixteen. She knew she would meet her future husband. After three months, Llewelyn came into the store. They have been together ever since, married for nearly three years. Carla Jean is nineteen. She says she will think about what the sheriff has told her, but she’s plenty old enough to realize that if you love someone that they can easily be taken away from you.

The sheriff in Eagle Pass calls Bell early in the morning to report the shootout in his streets. Bell arrives there about 9 a.m. and goes over the scene with the sheriff. When the sheriff reports that the hotel clerk was shot right between the eyes, Bell tells him to take a good look at the autopsy, because they won’t find a bullet.

As the sheriff drives home, it begins to snow. He eats dinner and talks with his wife, finding respite and comfort with her. He discusses Llewelyn Moss and Carla Jean’s situation with his wife.

Wells. In the light of gas flares, a man in a Houston office tower interviews Carson Wells for a hit on Chigurh. He believes that Chigurh, whom he describes as a “loose cannon” (140), has killed his men, even though they are on the same side, and he wants Chigurh stopped before he does any more damage. Wells is ex-military, and he is being hired to kill Anton Chigurh. The man hiring him is the buyer of the heroin.

Wells arrives in Eagle Pass and books a room in the shootout hotel. He searches Moss’s room and Chigurh’s, finding blood in Chigurh’s bathroom.

The next morning Wells searches the street outside. He locates a window with two bullet holes in it and finds a dead woman inside. He takes pictures of the scene and leaves.

Moss. Moss wakes up in a hospital. Carson Wells is sitting next to his bed with flowers. Wells tells him that he’s very lucky that Wells found him first. He tells Moss that he can make Chigurh go away, and that if he returns the money, Wells will let him live, and perhaps even keep some of the money. If Chigurh finds him, he will kill him even if Moss returns the money. He will probably also kill Carla Jean. Moss tells him to go to hell. Wells leaves his card.