History Characters / NoCountryForOldMen

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: For most of the film, he's presented as a snide asshole who's clouded by {{Greed}} and stubborness, but he feels remorse for his KickTheDog moments and often ''tries'' to make things right to clear his conscience (even if he ends up putting himself above the others when shit kicks the fan). He also loves his wife and mother in-law, and goes to extreme lengths to keep her safe (though not to the point where he would willingly sacrifice himself to ensure her safety). [[spoiler:Tragically, his decision to steal the money and help the Mexican gunman put her life in jeopardy, and his decision to keep defying Chigurh lead to her death.]]

* ManlyFacialHair: He is definitely a tough, manly badass, and he has an appropriately impressive mustache.

* {{Jerkass}}: He leaves a wounded Mexican man to die when the latter asks him for water in the middle of the day. [[spoiler:That night, [[HeelRealization he decides to get him some water]]; [[CantGetAwayWithNothing this decision]] [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished leads to the Mexicans' pursuit of him as the man who stole their money]].]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He loves his mum in law. He also believes he loves his wife and convinces himself that her safety is his number one concern. [[spoiler:Realistically, his decision to steal the money and help the Mexican gunman put her life in jeopardy, and his decision to keep defying Chigurh lead to her death.]]

* NominalHero: Moss may be the protagonist, but he's definitely no hero. He's an arrogant, gruff opportunist who constantly gets innocent people killed, and never seems hugely bothered by that. The only thing he really has going for him is that his opponents are morally ''way'' worse than he is, and that he made at least a token effort to move his wife out of the line of fire.

* ControlFreak: His existential beliefs may be some kind of rationalization on his part of controlling his destiny in some small way, and that extends to just about every other action he takes. He keeps himself as clean as possible, he sports a strange but manageable haircut, he approaches every task with laser-like precision and attention to detail, he keeps a tight grip on his emotions at all times, and he tries to remain unflappable in response to everything happening around him–never once yelling or even moaning in pain. [[spoiler:When he survives his car wreck, he ''insists'' the children take his money for the shirt (but possibly also as a bribe) o he can have ''some'' control in response to what just happened to him.]]

* FatalFlaw: Stubbornness. He underestimates the situation that he's in and ''genuinely thinks'' that he can get out of this situation alive. [[spoiler: He doesn't.]]

->'''Played By:''' Creator/JavierBardem
->'''Dubbed By:''' Creator/FredericVanDenDriessche (European French)

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Everything that happens to him is entirely his own fault. [[spoiler:He takes the money from the shootout, returns to assist a dying drug dealer AllForNothing, and stubbornly refuses to hand the money over to Carson to save his life (Chigurh wasn't going to spare his life anyway).]]

* PoliceAreUseless: In a sense. It's not that Bell is incompetent, lazy, or in any other way a bad detective -- on the contrary, he's rather perceptive and insightful. He's just up against forces hopelessly out of his depth and whose motives he simply can't understand, to the point that he can hardly investigate anything the bad guys do (Chigurh and the Mexican cartel both) before one or the other are already perpetrating even ''more'' carnage.

* CrazyPrepared: He goes to some trouble setting up a proper hideout and trying to preempt his enemy's attacks.[[ProperlyParanoid If it were not for his quick thinking and planning]], he could have been killed very quickly.

->'''Played By:''' Creator/TommyLeeJones
->'''Dubbed By:''' Creator/YvesRenier (European French)

* StrawNihilist: He sees all people (including himself) as helpless pawns in the hands of fate, making morality worthless.

** Refusing his coin toss or generally defying him in any way. When Carla, in her DefiantToTheEnd moment, tells him that his coin toss does not excuse his actions, it is the only time when Chigurh is genuinely ''unsettled''.
** Also, according to Javier Bardem's interpretation of the character, he hates it when people take what he considers to be shortcuts in life. It's why he almost killed the gas station clerk; because he married into owning the business instead of creating it from the ground up.

* BadassBaritone: His voice is deep, guttural, and scratchy.

* AllForNothing: He steals the drug money hoping to make a new life for himself and Carla Jean. [[spoiler: In the end, he succeeds only in getting both of them killed (along with a lot of other people), and Chigurh escapes with the money.]]

--> '''Llewelyn:''' What's this guy s'posed to be: the ultimate badass?\\

* DeclarationOfProtection: Narrowly averted. He offers to protect Moss from Chigurh, in exchange for the money, but Moss initially refuses. [[spoiler: Moss later recants and calls Wells, only to discover that Chigurh has already killed him.]]
* HitmanWithAHeart: As a ProfessionalKiller, he has doubtless taken lives in cold blood before the movie's narrative began, but compared to Chigurh, he's a saint. Instead of threatening or torturing Moss when he's in no position to get away, Wells honestly tries to ''bargain'' with him (offering him protection and even a "finder's fee" for the cash).

* GuileHero: He manages to survive being chased by the Mexicans and Chigurh by a combination of savvy foresight and street-smart cunning.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He loves his mum in law. He also believes he loves his wife and convinces himself that her safety is his number one concern. [[spoiler:Realistically, his decision to steal the money and help the Mexican gunman (the latter after an entire afternoon of double-mindedness) put her life in jeopardy, and his decision to attempt to kill Chigurh (after Chigurh gave him the choice to certifiably save her, and before he possibly cheated on her at the motel in which he was shot) guaranteed her death almost entirely.]]

A hitman, and the primary antagonist of the story. He is tasked with obtaining the money lost in the drug deal shootout, but he goes rogue, and starts killing everyone he comes across in his pursuit of the money.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Chigurh's true strength is his ability to get the element of surprise. When that is no longer in his favor, he's not nearly as effective. Notably, he flees from a open firefight with Moss when the latter manages to wound him, and does not try such an approach again.

* LeaveNoWitnesses: He's compared to the bubonic plague by Wells, because once he draws the gun, everyone is fair game.

* AntiHero: Given his {{Jerkass}} tendencies, and his willingness to let innocent people die to save himself.

* {{Jerkass}}: He leaves a gun-shot wounded Mexican man to die when the latter asks him for water in the middle of the day. [[spoiler:That night, [[HeelRealization he decides to get him some water]]; [[CantGetAwayWithNothing this decision]] [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished leads to the Mexicans' pursuit of him as the man who stole their money]].]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He loves his mum. He also believes he loves his wife and convinces himself that her safety is his number one concern. [[spoiler:Realistically, his decision to steal the money and help the Mexican gunman (the latter after an entire afternoon of double-mindedness) put her life in jeopardy, and his decision to attempt to kill Chigurh (after Chigurh gave him the choice to certifiably save her, and before he possibly cheated on her at the motel in which he was shot) guaranteed her death almost entirely.]]

* NominalHero: Moss may be the protagonist, but he's definitely no hero. He's an arrogant, gruff thief who constantly gets innocent people killed. The only thing he really has going for him is that his opponents are ''way'' worse than he is.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: He ultimately decides to go back to the wounded Mexican man and give him water. [[spoiler:Not only has the man died of his wounds in the intervening time, but he is also attacked by several more Mexicans for his trouble.]]

* WrongGenreSavvy: He thinks he's the archetypical macho action hero in an old school John Wayne/Steve [=McQueen=] type of film. [[spoiler:This ends up getting him, his wife, and a lot of innocent people killed.]]

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Him murdering Wells, and also (to quite a lesser degree) his pursuit of Moss.]]

* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: He's a good man who simply can't fathom much of the crime he sees now or how someone like Chigurh can even exist. Foreshadowed in his opening narration, where he describes arresting another murderer who was later executed, but not before the latter dispassionately described to Bell how he had wanted to kill for as long as he could remember, that he'd do it again if he were set free, and that knew he was going to hell ("Be there in about 15 minutes"). Bell concludes "I don't know what to make of that, I sure don't."

* PoliceAreUseless: In a sense. It's not that Bell is incompetent, lazy, or in any other way a bad detective -- on the contrary, he's rather perceptive and insightful. He's just up against forces hopelessly out of his depth and whose motives he simply can't understand.

* CreepyMonotone: He never raises his voice.

* IWasNeverHere: He does this on occasion to people he can't or would prefer not to kill, but without compromising his mystique.

** His biggest example, however, would be forcing the coin toss on the gas station owner. All of his other murders had a point, even to somebody without a warped sense of morality like his. Killing the cop was to get free, killing the driver was to take his car, killing the gangsters was to accomplish his goal, killing a random passerby was to stop Moss' escape, and even killing [[spoiler:Carla Jean]] was to satisfy a promise that he intended to keep. Unlike all of them, he is perfectly willing to kill the gas station owner solely because the guy annoyed him, and there is nothing to gain from his murder. It's only that warped sense of morality that lets him leave the guy alive.

* PragmaticVillainy: His defining feature is his ability to analyze and adapt to any situation, even refraining from killing when the risk of witnesses is too high.

* TranquilFury: While he's too emotionally stumped to express his anger in a usual way, he ''definitely'' gets pissed when people try to converse with him or defy his coin toss.

* DespairEventHorizon: After [[spoiler:the death of Moss, and presumably Carla Jean, although we don't see him react to it, he retires, finding himself incapable of reacting to all the pointless violence around him.]]

* GrumpyOldMan: Downplayed, but he's a bit irritable and ill-tempered.
* NostalgiaFilter: He believes the modern world is beyond hope, and that earlier times were better, more just. [[spoiler:His uncle disabuses him of this notion, calling it vanity]].

* PoliceAreUseless: In a sense. It's not that Bell is stupid or a bad detective -- on the contrary, he's rather perceptive and insightful. He's just up against forces hopelessly out of his depth and whose motives he simply can't understand.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: In the book, he claims that he prefers [[CoolGuns Colt Single Action Armies]] chambered in .44-40 Winchester.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: He speaks of Chigurh as, in the words of Moss, "the ultimate badass."
* AffablyEvil: He's a hitman who's only interested in money, but other than that he's a pretty cool guy. He even offers to help Llewelyn deal with Chigurh, [[spoiler:though it doesn't work out for him.]]
* AintTooProudToBeg: [[spoiler:[[DownplayedTrope He doesn't resort to full-fledged begging]], but at the hands of Chigurh, he, with increasing desperation, tries to convince him to let him live, as he knows where the money is, and offers that he can give extra money to Chigurh. It doesn't help.]]
* ContractOnTheHitman: He's hired to take care of Chigurh after he goes rogue.
* DeclarationOfProtection: He offers to protect Moss from Chigurh, in exchange for the money.
* HitmanWithAHeart: He's not exactly the nicest person around, but compared to Chigurh...

* PunchClockVillain: A normal guy off the job. It's clear he is OnlyInItForTheMoney and nothing more.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Chigurh's true strength is his ability to get the element of surprise. When that is no longer in his favor, he's not nearly as effective.

* {{Ubermensch}}: He has his own set of moral codes.
* TheUnfettered: He will not stop at ''anything'' to kill his targets. However, he strangely also qualifies as an example of the [[TheFettered other side]] given his adherence to coin tosses and his honoring of their outcome, as well his very occasional decisions to spare those who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

* CoolOldGuy: He's in his later years, but is a noble, kind and brave person all the same.
* DeadpanSnarker: He has his moments. Being played by Tommy Lee Jones makes it inevitable.

* DirtyCoward: A downplayed example in the book. In WWII, he fled a battle after his platoon was wiped out by artillery, was given a medal for holding the position, and never told anybody what actually happened; he acknowledges that he couldn't have helped anybody (assuming there were any other survivors) and would have died if he tried, but it haunts him all the same. In the present, he also admits that the main reason he's quitting as Sheriff is so he won't be called on to hunt down Chigurh. It's left up to the reader whether this is genuine cowardice or simple pragmatism, but Bell himself believes the former.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: He's a good man who simply can't fathom much of the crime he sees now or how someone like Chigurh can even exist.

* UselessProtagonist: For all his good intentions. he ultimately fails to save [[spoiler:Moss or stop Chigurh]].
* WhenIWasYourAge: He doesn't say it outright, but he laments all the violence spreading in Texas when compared to the mythical "good old days" of his youth.

* AdaptationalWimp: A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed example]]. At the end of the movie and book, [[spoiler:he gets T-Boned]]. In the book, this moment shows his ingenuity and quick thinking; [[spoiler:the car crashes into the driver's side, and he reacts quick enough to throw himself to the passenger's side, still injuring himself but barely surviving]]. The film makes the incident less severe and he's slower to react; [[spoiler:in the film, the car crashes into the passenger side of the car, and that's what saves him; in this incident he's not the hyper-aware person he was in the book]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: Inflicted by him on the shop owner early on. He tries conversing with Chigurh, who responds by having him call a coin toss for his life. [[spoiler:The salesman guesses correct, but still...]] And the reason he gets arrested in the beginning? Because he killed a random guy just for being rude to him.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He cannot understand why his victims always implore him to have mercy, though given his YouCantFightFate mentality and his belief that it's fate that leads him to the people he kills, it's more like he cannot understand why they are asking mercy from him when it's obviously fate passing judgement on them. Less evil not being able to comprehend good and more evil not being able to comprehend chance, free will, and personal responsibility.

* TheChick: To Moss' TheHero.

* WeaponOfChoice: His captive bolt pistol and oxygen canister, as well as his silenced shotgun.

* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Not as much as he seems, [[spoiler:because he's relying on the tracker in the money suitcase.]] Though even without it, [[spoiler:he manages to locate Moss, Wells, Carla, ''AND'' the money.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: While he can't express it with any emotion, [[TheStoic per usual]], he is actually shaken by [[spoiler:Carla's claim, in both the book and the movie, that it's his own choice to kill rather than something he is required to do by fate. In the book, he feels the need to pontificate at length as to why his way of thinking is right and justified before he finally kills her. In the film, it may have bothered him enough that he didn't notice the other car come in before it T-bones him.]]