No Country For Old Men- Character Endings

 Llewelyn Moss' final scene in No Country For Old Men is by a swimming pool outside a hotel. A woman who is sitting in a chair, in an attempt of flirting with Llewlyn, offers him a beer and asks who he is waiting for, to which he responds with his wife. Despite this, he clearly looks as if he is tempted by this woman, as he continues the conversation smiling, rather than ending it or changing the topic right there. He also says that he is "looking out for whatever's coming". When we hear this, the audience assumes straight away that he is looking out for Chigurh, like he probably does; however, this drops a subtle hint at the fact that more people may be coming for him, such as the Mexican gang, as it is revealed were the true culprits for his death. This is reinforced by the woman who says that "no one ever sees that". Llewelyn Moss seems to reach his cockiest point in this scene, as not only does he asssume he can take on Chigurh, but also he turns down the offer to drink a beer with this woman, solely because he "knows what beer leads to", while still waiting for his wife.

When Ed Tom Bell discovers Llewelyn Moss' body, it is the first time in the film we see him truly shocked and panicked, with his shock and panic affirmed and portrayed by the use of shaky cam, replicating the same emotion in the audience. He then appears to be disappointed, both in his own failings to save Llewelyn, and in the failings of his ideals of justice and the American law system. When Carla Jean appears at the scene of the crime, he can not even speak to her and he can barely look at her, he just takes off his hat and sighs, and from this she knows exactly what has happened to Llewelyn. When Bell arrives to Chigurh's hotel room, his shadow is always on the wall, mirroring cinematography of classic film noir, one of many influences this film takes from classic Hollywood. During this scene, we see a shot of Chigurh hiding in the cupboard as Bell walks past, building a sense of tension which, defying audience's expectations, is never released as Chigurh does not attack. The fact that Chigurh turnsdown an opportunity to easily catch Bell off guard and kill him, further suggests that his moral compass is more complex than we thought; even though he enjoys killing, he does not kill Bell as he has no real need or desire to, despite it being so easy to do so. 

After attending her mother's funeral, Carla Jean returns home to find Chigurh sitting in her house. While she looks scared, she does not look at all suprised, and she says "I knew this weren't done with. 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, ain't paid for that neither." Chigurh responds dismissively saying "I wouldn't worry about it.", telling her that he came with the intention of killing her. Carla Jean sits down, and the shot reverse shot continues to build the tension between these two characters, like the ending shootout scene in a traditional western. Chigurh continues to tell Carla Jean that he "gave his word" to Llewelyn, and that he is carrying out the promise he made to Llewelyn, that he would kill her if Llewelyn did not deliver the money to him, showing that he is staying true to his sense of morality and justice, despite it's crookedness. Carla Jean calls Chigurh out on the nonsensical nature of his morality and refuses to call it when Chigurh flips his coin, being the first character in the film to do so. Chigurh's stern demeanour slowly changes as this is the first time in the film he is made to think about his actions, and be human, rather than having to stick to his code, that we still know very little about the workings of. The film then cuts away to Chigurh leaving Carla Jean's house, leaving it ambiguous as to whether or not he killed her, however, he looks at his shoe, which he seems to do often after killing, suggesting that he did. As he drives away, he appears deep in thought after what happened with Carla Jean, for the first time in the film, before crashing his car into another car.  He gets out, hobbling and covered in blood, but seemingly completely unphased by it, showing how differently he treats life from everyone else with his strict philosophy, as if he is not even human, and only just learning how to be human. After he sits on the ground, two boys approach him to tell him an ambulance has been called, and he asks to pay one of them for their shirt to bandage his arm, and despite being offered it for free, he pays for it anyway. This serves as an interesting contrast to a scene from earlier in the film, when Llewelyn crashes his car, and he must haggle with a man for his jacket. This says a lot about the theme of morality, and could be suggesting that it is a lot more complicated than "heroes" winning and villains losing, as good things and bad things could happen to anyone. This reinforced by Chigurh walking into the sunset, essentially winning, as he gets the traditional western hero's ending, escaping the police, and being given an opportunity to change his life, whether he takes it or not.

In the final scene of the film, Chigurh sits at home, presumably many years later as he looks as if he has aged, but this could also be due to the stress of being a sheriff. Most traditional westerns end with the villain either dead or in prison, and the hero walking into the sunset; and while Llewelyn is certainly by no means a hero, he is the protagonist for a large part of the film, and the ending of this film is the complete opposite. While Chigurh of course ends the film walking into the sunset, Llewelyn's story is finished as he is killed, and while not literally in prison, figuratively speaking, the last time we see Bell he is in an enclosed environment. Behind him, through the window, there is a tree that is withering away with age, similarly to Bell who sits just in front of it. Next to him, hung on the wall there is a painting of the road, replicating that of many shots of the film. This could be reminding us of Chigurh's ending, as he is still presumably out in the open, after getting away with his crimes; it could also mean this is the ending that Bell is dreaming of, and feels that he deserves, but he never achieved. He tells his wife about a dream that he had the night before about his father. In the dream, his father makes a fire, to light and warm up the surrounding area, bringing comfort to Bell as he knows his father is there to guide him through the unknown and scary, and through the cold and dark. However, when he wakes up, he returns to reality, creating a stark contrast with the dream. In reality, he has no one to guide him through the coldness and darkness of the real world, which there is also a lot we don't know about, even at Bell's age, which can be intimidating, but there is nothing to guide us through life, we must navigate through life ourselves, despite the cold and dark. Chigurh, being a cold and dark character himself found no issue with this, as this environment was perfectly natural to him. Though to someone such ass Bell or Moss, it can be a lot more difficult to navigate their way through it.