Moss lived close by. Chigurh seems like the type to at least troll through the neighboring towns until that transponder hit. But, I could possibly be nitty here.

Moss didn't live that close by. It is unclear whether Chigurh would have found Moss via the transponder if Moss hadn't gone back to the scene. Moss wasn't just going to sit in his trailer with the satchel on top of his bed. He was leaving no matter what.

However, this isn't that important. You don't need to be so rational here. The bottom line is, Moss' fate is sealed when Chigurh finds out his identity. Chigurh finds out Moss' identity because Moss went back to the scene to bring water to the Mexican. Both the Coen's and McCarthy are trying to make a thematic point here. The Coen's hinted at the importance of this in their Charlie Rose interview, and McCarthy highlights it in the book by comparing Moss to Bell (Bell left some of his men to die in WWII)

It doesn't matter that Chigurh might have found him even if he didn't go back. He did go back, and that is why he died.

I've read the book twice, and I always get confused as to exactly who Chigurh is working for. I'm sure if I went back again I could sort it out. Next time I read it I will be doing that.

In the book, Chigurh returns the money to someone (I believe it is the drug sellers) and creates a business relationship of sorts with them.

GTL what are your thoughts on this(taken from comments section on blog in regards to Jones final speech)


"One of the things I most love about the end of the film is the ambiguity of Tommy Lee Jones' final monologue. I'm not referring to the film suddenly ending and some not understanding the point the film is making. Instead, I'm referring to the final line of dialogue that Sheriff Ed Tom Bell tells his wife about his second dream.

"I continue to think long and hard about that final line. And I ask myself how I'm supposed to take that line coming from that man.

"Is the story of the second dream supposed to provide a ray of hope, a sense of eventual contentment of a full life lived to its fullest being finally rewarded? Or am I supposed to take the final line as an admission that this kind of hope has been completely, irrevocably taken away? That the good sheriff had that dream of a hopeful place there in the dark, a warm place made by his father waiting for him out there in all that dark and all that cold.

"And then I woke up".

"And that the events he's recently seen have removed any possibility of that hope coming to pass?

Found the screenplay

http://www.youknow-forkids.com/nocountryforoldmen.txt

Enjoy!

it takes place in exactly 1980. In the gas station scene he talks about how the 1958 quarter has been around for 22 years.

Great movie, great discussion. Not sure if we should still be whiting out spoilers this deep into a thread, but I will anyway just in case.

I picked up on most of what has been talked about so far. I thought the boldest choice in the entire movie was not showing the "protagonist" finally meet his end in the hotel at the hand of the Mexicans. That took real balls by the Cohen brothers and I think it'll be the downfall of this movie with the general public. In my theater it seemed that I was the only person who liked the movie, with a couple people even shouting "I want my money back" to the screen during the credits.

The scene in the hotel room with Tommy Lee Jones confused me because I also don't know where Anton was. But unlike most of you in the thread, I thought the window latch was "locked" and that focusing on it was to heighten the suspense that he couldn't have slipped out the back and must still be in the room.

The one other thing that I haven't seen discussed yet is that there wasn't much money in the satchel that everyone is killing each other over. In the scene where he finds the transponder by flipping through the stacks of money, everything below the first layer is a $1 bill instead of $100. The tragedy of all that death over a much smaller amount of money may have been too obvious to generate much discussion, but I thought I'd throw it out there since it seemed my wife missed it.

I was under the assumption that all of the bills inside the satchel were $100's, except for the one stack of $1 bills which were cut in the middle to hide the locator that Anton was using.

I thought he flipped through a couple other stacks that were like that, but I could be wrong. Darn, another excuse to go watch it again.

He flipped through the top two stacks starting from the right until he got to the 4th stack from the end which had a bunch of ones and the transponder in between.

This one's a bit complicated of course, and i don't feel like organizing my thoughts and writing the essay that would be necessary. I got choked up when I read it, and I got choked up when I watched it. To me, I think it represents something very positive and is a statement about a common life experience. We might all live in a brutal world, but it has always been this way. All the people that we respect are probably just as bad as us, and we should be hopeful because of this, not despondent.

In the beginning of the movie, Jones' character says,

I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job - not to be glorious. But I don't want to push my
chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. You can say it's my job to fight it but
I don't know what it is anymore. ...More than that, I don't want to know. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. ... He would have to say, okay, I'll be part of this world.

When talking about his dream at the end of the movie, the warm place he refers to seems to be the world he has fancied himself a part of, the olden days when times were better. He does not want to be a part of the new cruel world that doesn't make sense to him, and tries to escape by retiring. However, his wheelchair bound friend tells him that times haven't changed that much by telling him a story of a bunch of outlaws killing a sheriff. In his dream, Jones' character wakes up and realizes that is a part of this new, cruel word not the warm and cozy days of yester year.

Edit: In the screenplay I just read, it says the final line is " Out there up ahead", not " And then I woke up."

me and silver have pretty different interpretations of the dream. i don't see anything wrong with his. there are probably a ton of perfectly reasonable interpretations.

I loved this movie. It took me two times watching it to understand what happened to the money. Anton ends up with it, that is why he went to the hotel. Right before that scene with TLJ ends, there is a dime on the floor next to the vent. Anton knew Moss hid the money in the vent from the previous hotel so that's how he knew where to look.

This movie sucked.

You make a compelling case.

i'm assuming the book provides a more complete explanation of the parties involved in looking for the money. can someone who has read the book provide some of the background for some characters like the guy who hired woody harrelson, the guys who hired chigurh, how the mexicans tracked down the package before chigurh gunned them down in the hotel, etc.

would appreciate anything you have time to describe for us. thanks.

How the Mexicans tracked it down doesn't need the book to clear up. They also had a device like Anton. He complains about it "you gave them one too!". It seems like the person that hired Anton was the same guy that hired Woody Harrelson.

it did seem that way, but i'd like a little confirmation about what that actual relationship was. is it definite that the 2 guys chigurh killed at the drug deal site were working with the guy who hired harrelson? were the mexicans also hired by that same person? was the guy behind the desk part of the organization that was buying the drugs or selling the drugs?

less interested in speculation by people who have only seen the movie, because i can do that myself, but background information from the book that was left out of the movie.

The two guys Chigurh killed at the drug deal weren't necessarily working with the guy who hired harrelson, but he gave them the device, which could have been done at a cost (selling it).
Anyway, in this thread people have commented on those questions you asked, in particular with respect to the person that hired harrelson. GTL commented on it and if I recall correctly, he said the book wasn't very explicit about that guy.

i'm pretty sure that you can figure out exactly who everyone is working for with the book. some of it is vague and would require you to reread certain parts a bunch of times.

when he goes to kill the guy in the office, the other guy tells him he gave the mexicans a second transponder.

the reason he hired woody harrelson was because Chigurh killed 5 of his men (2 in desert, and 3 mexicans in hotel) and he thought he was a loose cannon so he brought in woody but Chigurh took him out.

they guy behind the desk was most likely just a middle man for whoever the boss was.

I'am going out on a limb, and predicting an academy award for best movie.

The mexicans aren't working for Stephen Root's character, they're the other aggrieved party in the [censored] drug deal. They are out both the money and the drugs and as a gesture of good faith they are given another transponder.

A few things:

This was the best movie I have seen this year. I should say it is in top movies I have seen in the theater. There was a definite wow factor with it, at least for me there was.

In the end I thought it possible, not likely, that Anton was in the other motel room. After all, Moss was smart enough to use a different room the first time and it was not altogether clear if that was his room or the woman with the beer's room. Who knows because it did not look possible for Anton to hide anywhere in that room. I am going to rewatch this movie to see it was at all possible for him to be in another room.

Did anyone else catch the 10 spot when he was flipping through the bundles of cash? He flipped through the bundles and one had a 10 spot. Then he started flipping through the next that had all the singles. No big deal, just thought it funny.

The coin flip thing was weird. It I think gave Anton a little bit of conscience without wrecking his code. He is so nuts that he can not out right let people go. Especially in the end with the wife. He realizes that killing her has no point but he can not let her go............. flip a coin. I guess that is his way of showing mercy and not wrecking his code. For some odd reason that coin flip thing really fascinated me. It was a great study into human behavior.
I think I can watch the scene with the old guy in the gas station a 1000 times over and not get sick of it.