Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Were you in a car accident?
I'll give you five hundred bucks for that coat.
Let me see the money.
Were you in a car accident?
Yeah.
- Gimme the money.
- It's right here. Give me the clothes.
Let him hold the money.
Gimme that beer too.
How much?
Brian. Give him the beer.
Medico. Por favor.
Any word on those vehicles yet?
Sheriff, I found out everything there was to find.
Those vehicles are titled and registered
to deceased people.
The owner of that Bronco's
been dead twenty years.
Did you want me to see what I could
find out about the Mexican ones?
No. Lord no.
Here's this month's checks.
That DEA agent called again.
You don't want to talk to him?
I'm goin' to try and keep from it
as much as I can.
He's goin' back out there and he wanted
to know if you wanted to go with him.
That's cordial of him.
Could I get you to call Loretta for me...
...and tell her I'm goin' to Odessa
to see Carla Jean Moss?
Yes, Sheriff.
I'll call her when I get there.
I'd call her now but she'll want me to come
home and I just might.
- You want me to wait til you've quit the building?
- Uhuh.
You don't want to lie without what
it's absolutely necessary.
What is it that Torbert says
about truth and justice?
Oh, we dedicate ourselves daily anew.
Something like that.
I think I'm goin' to commence dedicatin'
myself twice daily.
It might come to three times
before it's over...
Oh, what the hell?
Sheriff?
Have you looked at your load lately?
That is a damned outrage.
Oh. One of those tiedowns worked lose.
How many bodies did you leave with?
I ain't lost none of 'em, Sheriff.
Couldn't you all of took a van out there?
Didn't have no van with four-wheel drive.
You going to write me up for
improperly secured load?
You get your *** out of here.
I'm guessin' this isn't the future you had
pictured for yourself...
...when you first clapped eyes
on that money.
Don't worry. I'm not the man
that's after you.
I know.
- I've seen him.
- You've seen him?
And you're not dead.
Is this guy supposed to be the
ultimate bad-***?
- No, I don't think that's how I'd describe him.
- How would you describe him?
I guess I'd say... he doesn't have a
sense of humor.
His name is Chigurh.
- Sugar?
- Chigurh. Anton Chigurh.
- You know how he found you?
- I know how he found me.
- It's called a transponder.
- I know what it is.
He won't find me again.
- Not that way.
- Not any way.
- Took me about three hours.
- Yeah, well, I've been immobile.
No. You don't understand.
- What do you do?
- I'm retired.
What did you do?
- Welder.
- Acetylene? Mig? Tig?
Any of it. If it can be welded, I can weld it.
- Cast iron?
- Yes.
- I don't mean braze.
- I didn't say braze.
- Pot metal?
- What did I say?
Were you in Nam?
Yeah. I was in Nam.
So was I.
So what does that make me, your buddy?
Look, you gotta give me this money.
I got no other reason to protect you.
It's too late. I spent it.
About a million and a half on *** and whiskey
and the rest of it I just sort of blew it here.
How do you know he's not on his way to Odessa?
- Why would he go to Odessa?
- To kill your wife.
Maybe he's the one who needs to be worried.
- About me.
- He isn't.
You're not cut out for this.
You're just a guy who happened to
find those vehicles.
I'm across the river. At the Hotel Eagle.
Carson Wells.
Call me when you've had enough.
I can even let you keep a
little of the money.
If I was into cutting deals,...
...why wouldn't I just deal
with this guy Chigurh?
You don't understand. You can't
make a deal with him.
Even if you gave him the money back,
he'd still kill you...
...just for inconvenience in him.
He's a peculiar man. Might even say
he has principles.
Principles that transcend money or
drugs or anything like that.
He's not like you.
He's not even like me.
He don't talk as much as you, I
give him points for that.
Carla Jean. Thank you for comin'.
Don't know why I did.
I told you, I don't know where he is.
- You ain't heard from him?
- No I ain't.
- Nothin'?
- Not word one.
- Would you tell me if you had?
- Well, I don't know.
- He don't need any trouble from you.
- It ain't me he's in trouble with.
- Who's he in trouble with then?
- Some pretty bad people.
These people will kill him, Carla Jean.
They won't quit.
He won't neither.
He never has.
He can take all comers.
You know Charlie Walser?
He's got that place out east of Sanderson?
Well you know how they used to slaughter beefs,
hit 'em right there with a maul...
..truss 'em up and slit their throats?
Here Charlie's got one all trussed up
and all set to drain him...
...and the beef comes to.
It starts thrashing around.
Six hundred pounds of very pissed-off livestock
if you'll excuse me.
Charlie grabs his gun there to shoot the
damn thing in the head...
...but with all the swayin' and then the trashin' it's a glance-shot and
ricochets around and comes back hits Charlie in the shoulder.
You go see Charlie,...
he still can't pick up his right hand for his hat...
The point bein', even in the contest
between man and steer,...
...the issue is not certain.
When Llewelyn calls, just tell him
I'll make him safe.
Course they slaughter steers a lot
different these days.
Use a air gun.
Shoots out a little rock, about that far into the brain.
Sucks right back in. Animal never knows what hit him.
- Why you telling me that, Sheriff?
- I don't know.
My mind wanders.
Hello, Carson.
Let's go to your room.
We don't have to do this.
I'm a daytrader. I could just go home.
Why would I let you do that?
I'll make it worth your while.
Take you to an ATM. Forteen grand in it.
And everybody just walks away.
An ATM...
- I know where the satchel is.
- If you knew, you would have it with you.
Find it from the river bank. I know where it is.
I know something better.
- What's that?
- I know where it's going to be.
- Where is that?
- It will be brought to me and placed at my feet.
You don't know to a certainty.
Twenty minutes it could be here.
I do know to a certainty. And you know
what's going to happen now, Carson?
You should admit your situation.
There would be more dignity in it.
You go to hell.
Alright.
Let me ask you something.
If the rule you followed
brought you to this,...
...of what use was the rule?
Do you have any idea how crazy you are?
You mean the nature of this conversation?
I mean the nature of you.
You can have the money, Anton.
Hello?
Yes?
Is Carson Wells there?
Not in the sense that you mean.
You need to come see me.
Who is this?
You know who it is.
You need to talk to me.
I don't need to talk to you.
I think you do.
Do you know where I'm going?
Why would I care where you're going.
I know where you are.
Yeah? Where am I?
You're in a hospital across the river.
But that's not where I'm going.
Do you know where I'm going?
Yeah. I know where you're going.
Alright.
You know she won't be there.
It doesn't make any difference where she is.
So what're you goin up there for?
You know how this is going to turn out, don't you?
No.
I think you do too.
So this is what I'll offer.
You bring me the money and I'll let her go.
Otherwise she's accountable.
Same as you.
That's the best deal you're going to get.
I won't tell you you can save yourself
because you can't.
Yeah, I'm goin to bring you somethin' alright.
I've decided to make you a special
project of mine.
You ain't goin' to have to come
look for me at all.
- The motel in Del Rio?
- Yessir.
None of the three had ID on 'em,...
...but they're tellin me that all three is Mexicans.
Was Mexicans.
There's a question. Whether they
stopped it? And when?
Yessir.
Now, Wendell, did you inquire about
the lock cylinder?
- Yessir. It was punched out.
- Okay.
You wanna drive out there?
No, that's all I've to look for and it sounds like
these old boys died of natural causes.
How's that, Sheriff?
Natural to the line of work they was in.
Yessir.
My god, Wendell, it's just all-out war. I can't
think of any other word for it.
Who are these people?
Here last week they found this couple out...
...in California, they'd rent out
rooms to old people.
Kill em, bury em in the yard and cash their
social security checks.
They'd torture them first.
I don't know why.
Maybe their television set was broke.
And this went on until, and here I quote:
Neighbors were alerted when a man ran
from the premises wearing only a dog collar.
You can't make up such a thing as that.
I dare you to even try.
But that's what it took, you'll notice.
Get somebody's attention.
Diggin graves in the back yard
didn't bring any.
That's all right. I laugh
myself sometimes.
There ain't a whole lot else you can do.
Tell me something.
Who do you think gets through this gate
into the United States of America?
I don't know. American citizens?
Some American citizens. Who do
you think decides?
- Well, you do, I reckon.
- That is correct. How do I decide?
- I don't know.
- I ask questions.
And if I get sensible answers then they get to go to America.
If I don't get sensible answers they don't.
- Anything about that you don't understand?
- No sir.
Then I ask you again. How you come to be
out here with no clothes?
I got an overcoat on.
- Are you jackin' with me?
- Oh, no sir.
- Don't jack with me.
- Yes sir.
- Are you in the service?
- No sir. I'm a veteran.
- Nam?
- Yes sir. Two tours.
What outfit?
Twelfth Infantry Battalion.
August 7th 1966 to July 2nd 1968.
- Wilson!
- Yessir.
Get someone to help this man.
He needs to get into town.
- How those Larries holdin' up?
- Oh, good.
- I need everything else.
- Okay.
You have a lot of people come in here
without any clothes on?
No sir, it's unusual.
She don't want to talk to you.
Yes she does. Put her on.
Do you know what time it is?
I don't care what time it is. And
don't you hang up this phone.
- Llewelyn.
- Hey you.
- What should I do ?
- You know what's goin' on?
I don't know, I had the sheriff here
from Terrell County.
What did you tell him?
What did I know to tell him?
You're hurt, ain't you?
What makes you say that?
I can hear it in your voice.
There is falseness in his voice!
Look, I want you to meet me at the
Desert Sands motel in El Paso.
Cause I'm gonna give you the money
and I'ma put you on a plane.
Llewelyn, I ain't gonna leave you in the lurch.
No. This works better. With you gone and
I don't have the money, he can't touch me.
But I can sure touch him.
And after I find him I'll
come and join you.
Find who? What am I supposed
to do with Mother?
- Nah, she'll be alright.
- She'll be alright?
Be all right?! I've got the cancer!
Ain't nobody's gonna bother her.
Who are you?
- Me?
- Yes.
Nobody. Accounting.
He gave the Mexicans a receiver.
He feels...he felt that...
the more people looking...
That's foolish. You pick the one right tool.
I see. Are you going
to shoot me?
That depends.
Do you see me?
I always seen this is what it would come to.
Three years ago I pre-visioned it.
It ain't even three years we been married.
Three years ago I said them
very words. No and Good.
Here we are.
Ninety degree heat.
I got the cancer. And look at this.
Not even a home to go to.
We're goin' to El Paso Texas. You know how
many people I know in El Paso Texas?
- No ma'am.
- That's how many.
- I didn't see my Prednizone.
- I put it in, Mama.
- Well I didn't see it.
- Well, I put it in. That one.
You just set there. I'll get tickets
and a cart for the bags.
Do you need help with the bags, madam?
Well, thank god there is one gentleman
left in West Texas.
Yes, thank you. I am old
and I am not well.
- Which bus are you taking?
- We're going to El Paso. Don't ask me why.
It's not often you see a Mexican in a suit.
You go to El Paso? I know it.
Where are you staying?
Carla Jean, how are you?
Sheriff, was that a true story about
Charlie Walser?
Who's Charlie Walser?
Oh! Oh, I, uh... True story? I couldn't swear to ever detail
but it's certainly true that it is a story.
Yeah, right.
Sheriff, can you give me
your word on somethin'?
Yes ma'am?
If I tell you where Llewelyn's headed,...
...you promise it'll be just you goes
and talks with him?
You and nobody else.
Yes ma'am, I do.
Llewelyn would never ask for help.
He never thinks he needs any.
Carla Jean, I will not harm your man.
And he needs help, whether
he knows it or not.
What's the problem there, neighbor?
That'll suck some power.
Over time.
- You from around here?
- Alpine. Born and bred.
Here ya go.
- What airport would you use?
- Well? Airport or airstrip?
- Airport.
- Well, where ya goin'?
- I don't know.
- Just lightin' out for the territories, huh?
Brother, I been there.
Well...
There's airstrips.
The airport is El Paso.
You want some place specific you might could
be better off just drivin' to Dallas.
Not have to connect.
- You gonna clamp them, buddy?
- Can you get those chicken crates out of the bed?
What're you talkin' about?
- Hey. Mr. Sporting Goods.
- Hey yourself.
You a sport?
Yeah, that's me.
I got beers in my room.
Waiting on my wife.
- That's who you keep lookin' out the window for?
- Half.
- What else then?
- Just lookin' for what's comin'.
Yeah, but no one ever sees that.
Beer. That's what's comin'.
I'll bring the ice chest out here.
You can stay married.
No ma'am. I know what beer leads to.
Beer leads to more beer.
Call police.
Your local law enforcement.
I'm not on their radio.
Buy you a cup of coffee
before you drive home?
No money in his room there?
Couple hundred on his person. Those hombres
would've taken the stash.
I suppose so. Though they was
leavin' in a hurry.
It's all the *** money, Ed Tom.
The money and the drugs.
It's just *** beyond everything.
What's it mean?
What's it leading to?
You know, if you'd a told me twenty years
ago, I'd see children walking...
the streets of our Texas towns with green
hair and bones in their noses.
I just flat out wouldn't of believed you.
Signs and wonders. But I think once
you quit hearin' sir and ma'am,...
...the rest is soon to follow.
Oh, it's the tide.
It's the dismal tide.
- It is not the one thing.
- Not the one thing.
None of that explains your man though.
He's just a *** homicidal
lunatic, Ed Tom.
- I'm not sure he's a lunatic.
- Yeah well, what would you call him?
I don't know. Sometimes I think
he's pretty much a ghost.
- He's real all right.
- Oh yeah?
All that at the ???
Motel. It's beyond everything.
Yeah, he has some hard bark on him.
That don't hardly say it.
He shoots the desk clerk one day.
Walks right back in the next
and shoots a retired army colonel.
It's hard to believe.
Strolls right back into a crime scene.
Who would do such a thing?
How do you defend against it?
Good trip, Ed Tom.
I'm sorry we couldn't help your boy.
Min back!
- How'd you know I was here?
- Who else'd be driving up your truck?
- You heard it?
- How's that?
- You heard what I'm - you havin fun with me?
- What give you that idea?
- I seen one of the cats heard it.
- But - how'd you know it was my truck?
I deduced it. When you walked in.
How many of those things you got now?
Cats? I don't know. Several.
Well, it depends on what you mean by got.
Some of 'em are half-wild, and
some of 'em are just outlaws.
How you been, Ellis?
You lookin' at it. I got to say
you lookin' older.
I am older.
Got a letter from your wife.
She writes to me pretty regular,
keep me up on the family news.
- Didn't know there was any.
- She told me you were quittin'.
- You want a cup?
- 'Preciate it.
How fresh is that coffee?
I generally make a fresh pot ever week
even if there's some left over.
That man who shot you died in prison.
In Angola.
Yeah.
What would you a done if
he'd been released?
I don't know. Nothin.
Wouldn't be no point to it.
I'm kindly surprised to hear you say that.
Well, all the time you spend
tryin' to get back...
...what's been took from you more
is goin' out the door.
After a while, you just have to try
to get a tourniquet on it.
Your granddaddy never asked me
to sign on as a deputy.
Loretta tells me you're quittin'.
How come're you doin' that?
I don't know.
I feel overmatched.
I always figured when I got older,...
...God would sort of come into
my life in some way.
He didn't.
I don't blame him.
If I was him I'd have the same opinion
about me that he does.
You don't know what he thinks.
I sent Uncle Mac's thumbbuster and
badge over to the Rangers.
Put up in a museum.
Your daddy ever tell you how
Uncle Mac come to his reward?
Gunned down on his own porch
over in Hudspeth County.
Seven or eight of 'em come up to here.
Wantin' this and wantin' that.
Uncle Mac went back in the house
and got the shotgun,...
They was way ahead of him.
Shot him in the doorway.
Aunt Ella came out and tried to stop the bleedin'.
Uncle Mac all the while tryin'
to get that shotgun.
They just sat there on their
horses watchin' him die.
After a while, one of 'em says somethin in
*** and they all turned and left out.
Well, Uncle Mac knew the score
even if Aunt Ella didn't.
Shot through the left lung.
And that was that. As they say.
- When did he die?
- 1909.
No, I mean was it right away or in
the night or when was it?
I believe it's that night. She
buried him the next mornin'.
Diggin' in that hard old caliche.
What you got ain't nothin new.
This country is *** people.
You can't stop what's comin'.
Ain't all waitin' on you.
That's vanity.
- I knew this wasn't done with.
- No.
I ain't got the money.
What little I had is long gone and
there's bills aplenty to pay yet.
I buried my mother today.
I ain't paid for that neither.
I wouldn't worry about it.
I need to sit down.
You got no cause to hurt me.
No. But I gave my word.
- You gave your word?
- To your husband.
That don't make sense. You gave your
word to my husband to kill me?
Your husband had the
opportunity to save you.
Instead, he used you to try
to save himself.
Not like that.
Not like you say.
You don't have to do this.
They'll always say the same thing.
What did they say?
They say you don't have to do this.
You don't.
This is the best I can do.
Call it.
I knowed you was crazy when
I saw you sittin' there.
I knowed exactly what was in store for me.
- Call it.
- No.
I ain't gonna call it.
- Call it.
- The coin don't have no say.
It's just you.
Well, I got here the same
way the coin did.
Mister, there's a bone stickin' out of your arm.
I'm alright. Let me just sit
here a minute.
There's an ambulance comin'.
Man over yonder went to call.
Alright.
Are you all right? You got a
bone stickin' out of your arm.
What will you take for that shirt?
Hell mister, I'll give you my shirt.
Look at that ***' bone.
Tie this for me.
Just tie it.
Hell mister. Look, I don't mind helping
someone out. That's a lot of money.
Take it. Take it and you
didn't see me.
I was already gone.
Yessir.
- Part of that's mine.
- You still got your damn shirt.
- That ain't what it was for.
- Well maybe, but I'm still out a shirt.
- Maybe I'll go ridin'.
- Okay.
- What do you think?
- I can't plan your day.
I mean, would you care to join me?
Lord no. I'm not retired.
Maybe I'll help out here then.
Better not.
- How'd you sleep?
- I don't know. Had dreams.
Well you got time for 'em now.
Anything interesting?
They always is to the
party concerned.
Ed Tom, I'll be polite.
Okay. Two of 'em. Both
had my father. It's peculiar.
I'm older now than he ever
was by twenty years.
So, in a sense he's the younger man.
Anyway, first one I don't remember
too well but...
It was about meeting him in town someplace
where he gave me some money.
I think I lost it.
The second one, it was like we
was both back in older times...
...and I was on horseback goin'
through the mountains of a night.
Goin' through this pass in the mountains.
It was cold and there's snow on the ground. He rode past me and
kept on goin'. Never said nothin goin' by. He just rode on past.
He had his blanket wrapped around
him and his head down.
When he rode past I seen he was...
...carryin fire in a horn...
...the way people used to do and I could see
the horn from the light inside of it.
About the color of the moon.
And in the dream I knew that
he was goin' on ahead...
and that he's fixin to make a fire somewhere
out there in all that dark and all that cold.
I knew that whenever I got
there he'd be there.
Then, I woke up.