Characters / No Country for Old Men

Llewelyn Moss

Played By: Josh Brolin

A trailer park inhabitant who accidentally comes across the remnants of a drug deal gone wrong while hunting, and decides to take the money he finds, sparking the events of the movie.

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• Action Survivor: In some parts. Not so much by the end.
• All for Nothing: He steals the drug money hoping to make a new life for himself and Carla Jean. 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.
• Anti-Hero: Given his Jerkass tendencies, and his willingness to let innocent people die to save himself. In fairness, he never wanted any of the innocent victims to get mowed down, but it remains that he refuses a sincere offer to give up the money and just walk away from it all.
• Badass Boast: He gives one to Chigurh after he threatens his wife, though unfortunately he never gets to make good on his claim.
  Moss: Yeah, I'm gonna 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 [hangs up].
• Bring It: Repeatedly does this to Chigurh, even flat out saying that he's gonna be the one to come look for him when he threatens his wife. However, the two never get to actually meet.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Every meaningful decision he makes in the story seems reasonable on paper but makes his situation even worse in the long run, eventually getting himself, and his wife, and several innocent people killed.
• Cassandra Truth: When he comes home to his wife with two million dollars.
  Carla Jean: What's in the sachel?
  Moss: It's full of money.
  Carla Jean: That'd be the day.
• Cold Sniper: He was a sniper in Vietnam and he uses a Remington 700 VLS rifle when he's hunting a pronghorn in the beginning of the film. He misses his kill shot due to the wind, though, and his disappointed expression implies that he's past his prime.
• Crazy-Prepared: He goes to some trouble setting up a proper hideout and trying to preempt his enemy's attacks. If it were not for his quick thinking and planning, he could have been killed very quickly.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's got a dry sense of humor, and he puts it to good use during his escape from Anton.
  Clothes Store Clerk: How're them Larry's holding up?
  Moss: Uh, good, good. I need everything else.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Moss is a deconstruction of the action hero, especially the older tougher variety. He thinks of himself as tough, resourceful, and morally righteous. To the audience, he comes across as greedy, vain, and stupid, never really thinking of the consequences of his actions, either to himself or those around him. Like Sheriff Bell, Moss is an archetype of an era that never existed when men never gave in to bad guys, the lines of black and white were clear, and the hero got to ride off into the sunset when it's over. He doesn't seem to realize that the world is and has always been a much darker place where men like that have no place. Unlike Bell, he never realizes, and pays the ultimate price for his arrogance.
• Decoy Protagonist: The movie follows him the most, but Bell is the real protagonist.
• The Determinator: Once he decides on a course of action, Moss is tenacious. He's set on keeping the drug money, leading him to face off against multiple threats, particularly the relentless Chigurh. He finally gives up when he decides to accept Wells' deal to surrender the money in exchange for his safety, but by then Wells is dead and Chigurh is dead set on killing him.
  Moss: Baby, at which point do you quit bothering to look for your two million dollars?
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In all badassery, he insults Chigurh when he is offered Carla Jean's life in exchange for the money.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He is unceremoniously killed by Mexican drug runners offscreen.
• Fatal Flaw: Stubbornness. He underestimates the situation that he's in and genuinely thinks that he can get out of this situation alive through his admittedly impressive skill-set. He doesn't.
• Guile Hero: He manages to survive being chased by the Mexicans and Chigurh by a combination of savvy foresight and street-smart cunning. Notably, of all the people Chigurh targets, Moss is the only one Chigurh ends up repeatedly failing to trap or kill.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Invoked and Subverted. After killing Wells, Anton Chigurh gives Moss a chance to give himself and the money up to him, reassuring him that he won't pursue Carla Jean if he does. Moss refuses and tries to kill him instead, a decision which ends up getting both him and Carla killed.
• The Hero Dies: After managing to evade Chigurh for most of the film, he ends up getting gunned down by the gangsters he robbed.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Everything that happens to him is entirely his own fault. He takes the money from the shootout, returns to assist a dying drug dealer All for Nothing, and stubbornly refuses to hand the money over to Carson to save his life (Chigurh wasn't going to spare his life anyway).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 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 Kick the Dog 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 the former safe (though not to the point where he would willingly sacrifice himself to ensure her safety). 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.
• Kick the Dog: He leaves a wounded Mexican man to die when the latter asks him for water in the middle of the day, saying that he "ain't got no agua". He also doesn't shut the car door when the man asks him to. That night, his guilt makes him go back and get him some water; this decision leads to the Mexicans' pursuit of him as the man who stole their money.
• Killed Offscreen: He's shot and killed offscreen in a firefight with Mexican gangsters. We only learn he's dead when Bell finds his corpse.
• Manly Facial Hair: He is definitely a tough, manly badass, and he has an appropriately impressive moustache.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Other than stealing the money and repeatedly refusing to let go of it (though it's not like Chigurh was ever going to let him go anyway), he gets a lot of innocent people killed in his quest for survival simply by interacting with them, and later unwittingly seals his wife's fate by refusing to give himself up to Chigurh.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He ultimately decides to go back to the wounded Mexican man and give him water. 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, who also learn who he is from his truck's license plate.
• Pet the Dog: He's nice to the poolside woman at the motel, and politely rejects her flirting by stating that he's married.
• Retired Badass: Prior to the events of the story, Moss had served in the Army as a sniper during Vietnam, which explains why he does so well against Chigurh in a gun battle.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Though he uses a variety of weapons in the film, he buys a Winchester 1897 Field shotgun to fight off Chigurh, sawing off the stock and barrel for further efficiency. Notably, this is the only weapon with which he manages to wound Anton with.
• A Simple Plan: A very dark take. All Moss has to do is escape the cartel, send his wife away, and run long enough to ensure he's shaken them off his tail before he returns and gets to safety with his wife and the money. Then Anton Chigurh comes in.
• The Stoic: Moss often remains calm under pressure, even as he sees innocent people die around him. His experiences in Vietnam likely played a role in shaping this aspect of him, enabling him to make clear-headed decisions even when faced with extreme danger.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Though the arrival of the Mexican gangsters was foreshadowed in the scene with Carla Jean's mother, the reveal that Moss was killed in the ensuing skirmish comes as a surprise to many.
• Too Clever by Half:
  • He proves to be a competent tactician (probably because he's The Vietnam Vet), but he underestimates the situation he's in, as well as Chigurh and pays the price for it with his life.
  • He knows that the gangsters who shot at him in the desert will call in the vehicle number on the inspection plate of his ditched truck when the Courthouse opens, and will come barging in looking for him, so he sends his wife away with her mother-in-law and then goes into hiding. Properly Paranoid as he was, he later makes the mistake of giving his location away to Carla Jean, as the gangsters tap her phone when she gives it to Sherriff Bell, and Moss is found.
• The Unapologetic: He doesn't apologize to Carla Jean for forcing her to move away because of his fuck-up, thinking that she ought to be grateful for him making her rich.
  Carla Jean Well don't fall down apologizing
  Moss: Baby, things happen. Come on, I can't take them back.
• Undying Loyalty: Deconstructed. He loves his wife Carla Jean. He tries his best to keep her from danger, arranges to give her the money at El Paso, and refuses to cheat on her on one occasion. However, he refuses to give himself up to Chigurh to ensure her safety, which Chigurh sees as a sign that he never really loved her. When informed of this, Carla Jean doesn't hold it against Moss, knowing that it wasn't a fair deal.
• Unscrupulous Hero: 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 (aside from several Pet the Dog moments that make him somewhat sympathetic) 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.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His seemingly reasonable decision to steal the drug money from the dead gangsters end up triggering the events of the story, which culminates in tragedy for so many people, including himself.
• The Vietnam Vet: He served two tours in Vietnam. This status helps him get through the border.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He thinks he's like the archetypical macho action hero in an old school John Wayne/Steve McQueen flick. This ends up getting him, his wife, and a lot of innocent people killed. Lampshaded during his conversation with Chigurh.
  Chiguth: You know how this is gonna turn out, don't you?
  Moss: Nope.

Anton Chigurh

Played By: Javier Bardem
Dubbed By: Frédéric van den Driessche (European French)

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 almost everyone he comes across in his pursuit of the money.

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• '70s Hair: His unusual haircut was based on a photo from the 70s. As the film takes place in 1980, it's justified — cultural decades don't line up neatly with chronological ones.
• Adaptational Badass: In the book he gets bushwhacked by Moss in the hotel, and only survives because Moss can’t bring himself to shoot a man who’s not an immediate threat and basically just tells him to buzz off. In the film, he does got wounded, but escapes on his own.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: He sees himself as one for the very idea of destiny and consequences, reasoning that those he has been hired to kill made decisions which made their deaths at his hands inevitable, and so he is simply carrying out fate's will. In his mind, he's not a hired killer. He's the culmination of a lifetime of choices, good and bad.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Chigurh is very close to how he was in the book, but Javier Bardem is fairly expressive and his performance borders on Faux Affably Evil, whereas in the book Chigurh was pathologically stoic.
  • His film version is less talkative than in the book, which had Chigurh give a short monologue to the gas station clerk, giving more insight into his worldview. His film counterpart is far more inscrutable as a result.
• Adaptational Wimp: A downplayed example. At the end of the movie and book, he gets T-Boned. In the book, this moment shows his ingenuity and quick thinking; the car crashes into the driver's side, and he reacts quickly 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; 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.
  • In the book when he talks to Carla Jean, Anton’s unfazed by her (initial) refusal to fill the coin and her insistence that shooting her is his choice and not the coin’s; in fact, it’s pretty clear that he thinks shooting her is the right and moral choice and is using the coin to give himself an excuse not to. In the movie he seems unsettled by her refusal and it appears she’s correct that he uses it as a way of distancing himself from his crimes.
• Apologetic Attacker: Played with in the book. When he talks to Carla Jean Moss, he repeatedly says to her, "I'm sorry." But it's clear that he doesn't actually feel any remorse for killing her, and that he simply believes himself to have no real choice in the matter.
• Ax-Crazy: A subversion. Even if they don't make sense to a normal person, Chigurh has his reasons, and he's more coldly logical than crazy. He does, however, have one of the primary traits of a true Axe-Crazy, which is the immense amount of danger involved in even speaking to him.
• Badass Boast: In the book.
  "I have no enemies. I don't permit such a thing."
• The Bad Guy Wins: Moss is killed, though not by him, but Moss' murderers fail to obtain the money, and he finds them instead. He subsequently kills Carla Jean, and escapes justice perfectly. He gets severely injured in the car crash, though.
  • In the book he still isn’t the one who kills Moss, but he does find the money and even gets a promotion out of it. Granted we still don’t see what happens to him after the crash.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: At one point while driving around he randomly tries to shoot a pigeon for no apparent reason.
• Berserk Button:
  • Compromising his veil of mystery instantly sets him in a confrontational mood. In fact, the reason he almost kills that gas station clerk is because he mentions that Chigurh's car plates are from Dallas.
  • Refusing his coin toss or generally defying him in any way. When Carla, in her Defiant to the End moment, tells him that his coin toss does not excuse his actions, it is one of the very few instances 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 another reason why he almost killed the gas station clerk; because he married into owning the business instead of creating it from the ground up.
• Beware the Silly Ones: His ridiculous haircut gives away nothing about the ruthless and implacable killer he actually is.
• Big Bad: He's the primary antagonist of the work.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Chigurh does have some sort of ethical code. It just happens to be incomprehensible to anyone but himself. It's explained in some detail here.
• Control Freak: 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. When he survives his car wreck, he insists the children take his money for the shirt (but possibly also as a bribe) so he can have some control in response to what just happened to him.
• Creepy Monotone: He never raises his voice, no matter how frustrated or angry he gets.
• Deadpan Snarker: As demonstrated in the gas station.
  Chigurh: You don't know what you're talking about, do you ?
• Determinator: He's basically a human Super-Persistent Predator.
• Disproportionate Retribution: 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. The salesman guesses correctly, but still... And the reason he gets arrested in the beginning? Because he killed a random guy just for being rude to him.
• Dissonant Serenity: One of his most chilling aspects. His stoicism breaks only once in the film, when he strangles the deputy with that Slasher Smile on his face.
• The Dreaded: In the drug business. He's even compared to the bubonic plague, for a pretty good reason. Carson is deeply afraid of him when he confronts him and surely you can't blame him.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He looks like death warmed over.
• Entitled Bastard: As he sees himself as somewhat of a messanger for death instead of a normal human, he feels entitled to take the lives of everyone who either inconveniences him or might do so at some point. During the conversation with the gas store owner, Anton gets irritated when he can't follow or remember every single thing he tells him, to the point where he considers killing him over it.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first scene of the movie has him strangling a deputy with his handcuffs, and then killing a random driver with his captive bolt gun. Also, when he buys gas at a highway store, he forces the coin toss on the salesman for trying to small talk with him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He will not murder anyone who correctly calls his coin toss. It's a bizarre standard, but it is one he keeps to. He will also occasionally spare witnesses who he believes will remain silent, and doesn't threaten or intimidate the kid whose shirt he uses as a wrap for his broken arm at the end, even giving him some money and insisting he take it. Both show that he is capable of some restraint and is willing to spare people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He cannot understand why his victims always implore him to have mercy, though given his You Can't Fight Fate mentality and his belief that its 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 judgment on them. Less evil not being able to comprehend good and more evil not being able to comprehend chance, free will, and personal responsibility.
• Evil Is Petty: As Carson puts it, he doesn't have a sense of humor. He is willing to belittle and possibly kill a gas station attendant for trying to make small talk with him.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He has a really deep voice.
• Expy: With his stoic expression, Creepy Monotone, and extremely violent behavior, it's possible the character was inspired by the equally monstrous Gaear Grimsrud, although Chigurh is visibly more cunning than the impulsive Grimsrud.
• The Fatalist: Chigurh doesn't believe in random chance or coincidence. While he uses a coin toss to decide whether or not to kill someone, he only lets them call heads or tails after he flips the coin. This is because by flipping the coin first, the result is already set, and it's up to the person calling to choose correctly. He also makes a comment about how each decision a person makes has consequences and that people are blind to the reality that death might come for them at any time. This also absolves, in his eyes anyway, him of any responsibilities for his actions as he can simply rationalize that the victim simply chose wrong. That's why his car accident at the end is a fitting punishment for him, as he can't gleam any kind of deeper meaning from it, which shakes him to his core worse than if he had met his end in a gunfight.
  Chigurh: You've been putting it up your whole life, you just didn't know it.
• Faux Affably Evil: When he has to, he can be chillingly polite, as seen in the opening when he pretends to be a cop and pulls over a pedestrian before killing him or his interaction with Carson Wells before killing him.
• The Fettered: Believe it or not, he's an example of this as well as the other side. For all his sadism, he doesn't believe he kills people randomly, seeing himself as the culmination of their paths up to that point. As such, he often gives them a fair chance to escape him with the coin toss, letting them call the coin and honoring the result, no matter what it might be. Chigurh sees himself as less an unstable killer and more the personification of destiny.
• Fluffy the Terrible: By what seems to be an amusing coincidence, Chigurh happens to resemble chigüire, the Venezuelan Spanish word for capybara. While capybaras aren't entirely harmless, their more popular image as lazy Gentle Giants is completely at odds with Anton's persistence and ruthlessness.
• For the Evulz: Either this or It Amused Me. In the opening of the book, it describes how he allows himself to be arrested, just in order to see if he can escape with his supreme act of will. He can.
• Genius Bruiser: He is incredibly intelligent, planning tactical entries into his victims' rooms and capable of patching a wound from a shotgun blast and a very capable combatant, both with weapons and his own hands, as evidenced by the opening when he brutally strangles a police officer to death using his handcuffs.
• Hates Small Talk: The reason why he nearly kills the gas station attendant. That the accountant in the office avoids this after Chigurh shoots the Man Who Hired Wells is an argument in favor of his survival.
• Hero Killer: He kills Carson Wells and Carla Jean.
• I Gave My Word: A villainous case. He "promises" Moss that Carla Jean will be hurt if he does not comply. He does not, and is killed, and Chigurh retrieves the money, and he still kills Carla Jean just because he gave his word to do so.
• Implacable Man: Anton Chigurh is a deconstruction of the Implacable Man. He isn't a killer robot from the future, and he can bleed and get hurt, but Chigurh is still as close to a terminator as you could get in real life. Like a Dostoyevskean character, Chigurh is completely driven by an idea. In this case, the idea is that every action you take will ultimately decide your fate. If Chigurh is hired to kill you, that means that somewhere along the line you committed an action that warranted it, whether or not you realized this at the time, and there is NO amount of begging and pleading that will save you once you're in Chigurh's sights. Chigurh simply views himself as fate's messenger, and calmly and methodically makes sure that you realize how poor your decisions were before he blows your brains out. Compare with Genghis Khan and his "I am the flail of God" quote to see where he is coming from. Nevertheless, like anyone else, Chigurh is still a human who isn't entirely in control of his fate, as demonstrated by the random car accident he winds up in.
• Improbable Weapon User: Although he uses ordinary guns, he also inflicts a Boom, Headshot! on a driver with a captive bolt pistol, something normally used for stunning cows. Otherwise, he uses it to blast open locks. He also garrottes a policeman with a pair of handcuffs.
• Insane Troll Logic: His moral code is almost incomprehensible.
• I Was Never Here: He does this on occasion to people he can't or would prefer not to kill, in order to preserve his mystique.
• Karma Houdini: Partially. He survives and manages to escape, but with a fracture that leaves his arm bone sticking out. Worse, the crash clearly shakes his convictions in his existential beliefs, as he can't reconcile a completely random accident in his mind.
• Kick the Dog: Frequently.
  • Notably, strangling the deputy to see if he could, killing the driver, and eventually killing Carla Jean.
  • 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 eliminating rivals for the stolen money, killing a random passerby was to stop Moss' escape, and even killing 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.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: 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... that said, another strength of his is being able to recognize when he's making a bad move, allowing him to withdraw until he can put together a new plan. Notably, he flees from a open firefight with Moss when the latter manages to wound him, and does not try such an approach again.
• Lack of Empathy: Because he's The Sociopath. Also, his cattle gun symbolises the way he perceives people around him — as little more than livestock.
• Leave No Witnesses: He's compared to the bubonic plague by Wells, because mere contact with him is a lethal risk.
• Neat Freak: He goes out of his way to avoid dirtying himself with blood; when he strangles the deputy, he backs his head away when the cuffs begin to cut through his arteries. He also walks around in socks during the motel shooting, as he doesn't want to get his cowboy boots dirty. Him checking his boots as he leaves Carla's house is the only explicit way the audience knows he killed her.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: He doesn't seem to hate anybody: after eventually conceding a conversation to the literal gas station attendant, he schools him a little on how the world works (from his perspective) — that he's threatening to kill him seems of no consequence to him. He greets Carson like an old friend even as he walks towards him with intent to kill him quietly in his room — he knows Carson is aware of this, and he simply wants him to accept it completely. Then, after calmly explaining to Carla Jean why she needs to die, he decides to give her a chance to survive their encounter anyway by presenting the coin toss — even as she refuses, he continues to explain to her his logic (believing that it is logic) so that she can die with a clear head.
• Never My Fault: Part of the reason why Chigurh uses the code and philosophy he does is that he believes he doesn't have any say in what he does, and thus bears no responsibility for his actions. He uses a coin toss for people he's not contracted to kill yet have somehow earned his ire. He also makes sure they call it after it's flipped so there is no way he can have any say on the outcome, and thus can internalize the results as the victim choosing wrong if they fail.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: He puts Pragmatic Villainy to one of its best uses in cinema.
• No Sense of Humor: Carson Wells names him as this almost verbatim:
  Llewelyn: What's this guy s'posed to be: the ultimate badass?
  Carson: That's not how I'd describe him.
  Llewelyn: Well, how would you describe him?
  Carson: [considers] I'd say he doesn't have a sense of humor.
• No Social Skills: Coupled with Hates Small Talk. His attempts to appear normal just come off as awkward and stilted, like in his attempt to imitate a police officer at the beginning.
• Obviously Evil: That face just screams untrustworthy doesn’t it? Especially that hair.
• Perpetual Frowner: His face almost never changes from the same unhappy expression. When it does, it's usually not a good sign.
• Pet the Dog: Minor, but he does let the gas station clerk live after he correctly guesses the coin toss. He also gives the boy at the end a hundred dollars for his shirt to sling his broken arm, insisting that he take it, and he doesn't kill the employee who happened to be in the the room with Wells' employer when the man states he will claim to have not seen anything.
• Pragmatic Villainy: His defining feature is his ability to analyze and adapt to any situation, even refraining from killing when the risk of witnesses or his own death is too high.
• Professional Killer: His profession, though he is much more than that.
• Psycho for Hire: He's hired by the the man who hires Wells to kill him after Chigurh becomes rogue, and is essentially Michael Myers with a gun.
• Race Lift: Or at least implied Fake Nationality. In the book, Chigurh's nationality is ambiguous. In the movie, he's played by the Spanish Javier Bardem, and most assume him to be Mexican, although his nationality is still ambiguous beyond that.
• Rogue Agent: After killing the drug executives accompanying him to the crime scene with the Mexican drug cartel, he becomes one.
• Sadist: While he's usually very cold and no-nonsense at work, he does get a great deal of pleasure from murdering people. Just look at that twisted grimace on his face when he's strangling that cop! He also loves to psychologically torture people for kicks before killing them.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Not as much as he seems, because he's relying on the tracker in the money suitcase. Though even without it, he manages to locate Moss, Wells, Carla AND the money.
• Slasher Smile: He sports one when he's choking the deputy that arrested him to death.
• The Sociopath: He is such a potent one that he's basically a walking force of unstoppable evil. Real life psychological professionals consider him the most accurate depiction of a psychopath ever put to film.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: See Creepy Monotone above.
• The Spook: Absolutely nothing is known about him, except for, maybe, his name. This is a habit he's cultivated, as after he gets in a car accident which pops his bone out of his arm, he pays the kids who help him in order to keep them quiet.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: He gets an unpleasant reminder that being a nigh-unstoppable killer won't protect you from something as mundane as someone plowing through a red light on a quiet suburban street.
• Tranquil Fury: While he's too emotionally stunted to express his anger in a usual way, he definitely gets pissed when people try to converse with him or defy his coin toss.
• Terminator Impersonator: A highly stoic Implacable Man assassin with a thick vaguely European accent.
• The Stoic: He's not one for emotions.
• Übermensch: He has his own set of moral codes that makes sense only to him.
• The Unfettered: He will not stop at anything to kill his targets. Even if he must withdraw because the risk has become too great, he'll be back the minute he can calculate a better trap. However, he strangely also qualifies as an example of the 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.
• Villainous Breakdown: While he can't express it with any emotion, per usual, he is actually shaken by 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. Notably in the film version, her refusal to call the coin toss causes him to briefly demand she do so, almost seeming angry or desperate.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Javier Bardem intentionally muddied his natural Spanish accent to make Chigurh's nationality more ambiguous.
• You Can't Fight Fate: His personal philosophy, which he waxes poetical about during the coin toss scene at the gas station.
• You Didn't See That: To the accountant after he kills the cartel boss.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Chigurh does this to almost everyone he deals with, to the point that it's almost impossible to deal with him.
• You Will Be Spared: If he doesn't feel like killing you is a necessity and you guess his ensuing coin toss, he will walk away and leave you be for the moment.

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell

Played By: Tommy Lee Jones
Dubbed By: Yves Rénier (European French)

The elderly sheriff of the unspecified Texas county where the events of the novel takes place, and the narrator of the story.

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• Adaptational Sympathy: In the book he's never completely dispossessed of his notion that things were better in the good old days; in the film he has enough self-awareness to come to terms with it.
• Cool Old Guy: He's in his later years, but is a noble, kind, and brave person all the same.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, being played by Tommy Lee Jones and all.
• Declaration of Protection: At one point, he promises Carla Jean that he will do his best to protect her husband. In vain.
• Demoted to Extra: Entire chapters of the novel are dedicated to his internal monologues, and almost the entire last third of the story is told from his point of view. All of these monologues are cut from the film, and the last act sees significant Adaptation Distillation, leaving him the least-seen of the main characters.
• Despair Event Horizon: After the death of Moss, and presumably Carla Jean, although we don't see him react to it, he retires, finding himself incapable of dealing with all the pointless violence around him.
• Dirty Coward: 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 (if there were even any other survivors) and would have died if he stayed, 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.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: 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 he 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."
• Grumpy Old Man: Downplayed. He's a bit irritable and ill-tempered, but given the world he lives in, it's surprising he's not more of a grump.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He sees his world as an increasingly wretched place, and from an early stage of the story, he's clearly aware this is not going to end well and he probably won't be able to do anything about it. Yet he goes forth anyway. The outcome of the case, with both Moss and his wife dying, is the last straw for him, and he retires.
• Nostalgia Filter: He believes the modern world is beyond hope, and that earlier times were better, more just. His uncle disabuses him of this notion, calling it vanity.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: With Deputy Wendell.
• Pinball Protagonist: He has no effect on the plot whatsoever, but is still the protagonist.
• Police Are Useless: In a sense. It's not that Bell is incompetent, lazy, or in any other way a bad sheriff — on the contrary, he's 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 elsewhere.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: In the book, he claims that he prefers Colt Single Action Armies chambered in .44-40 Winchester. Downplayed, in that he never actually gets to use his revolver before the story is over.
• The Sheriff: He's the latest in a long line of lawmen, and has the badge to prove it. He retires, though, after the deaths of Llewelyn and Carla Jean Moss, unable to adapt to what he sees as an increasingly lawless modern world.
• Took a Level in Cynic: After the events of the story, he finds himself struggling in a morally grey world, causing him to give up and retire.
• Useless Protagonist: For all his honest efforts, he ultimately fails to save Moss or stop Chigurh.
• When I Was Your Age...: 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. Ellis, however, is quick to remind him that the region has always been a cesspool of senseless violence.

Carla Jean Moss

Played By: Kelly Macdonald

The wife of Llewelyn Moss, and involuntary object of a wide range of problems caused by his schemes.

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• Adaptational Badass: In the movie, she refuses to go along with Chigurh's coin shtick, and is one of the rare characters to face him with courage and stoicism.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In the novel, she was childlike to the point of being a Brainless Beauty; the film version is the voice of reason to Moss.
• Age Lift: In the novel, she's 19, while Llewelyn is older. Kelly Macdonald was 30 at the time of filming.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Downplayed. She briefly tries to reason with Chigurh when he shows up at her house, but she doesn't lose her composure and even tells him that she knew what was in store for her.
• Brutal Honesty: Bluntly tells Chigurh that his Blue-and-Orange Morality doesn't make any sense, and that his atrocities are all on him.
• Face Death with Dignity: In the film.
  Carla Jean: The coin ain't got no say. It's just you.
• Honor Before Reason: Calling Chigurh's coin toss had a 50% chance for her to live, but she refused to play his sick games, sealing her fate.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In a similar vein to Sheriff Bell, she is a character who is not evil at all in any way, but instead powerless in an evil world.
• The Ingenue: She's not exactly completely pure and innocent (she's sexually active with Llewelyn), but she's the closest thing that the film has to an ingenue, nonetheless. She's a sweet, good-looking younger woman who is the least exposed character to the darkness and evils of the world, and our Nominal Hero Llewelyn is driven to protect her as best he can.
• Kill the Cutie: Chigurh resorts to this to keep his word to Llewelyn.
• Kirk Summation: When Chigurh shows up to kill her and offers her a coin toss as a last chance, she flat out rejects it and tells him that all his talk of fate is really just an excuse he uses to justify his own choices. Of special note, her dissection of his philosophy is the only thing in the entire story that seems to legitimately shake Chigurh on some level.
• Love Interest: To Moss' The Hero.
• Nice Girl: She maintains her compassion and good nature despite being justifiably stressed out at her husband's erratic, unexplained behavior.

Carson Wells

Played By: Woody Harrelson

A hitman hired by the same drug runners that previously hired Chigurh in order to track down the money and kill the rogue Chigurh.

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• Admiring the Abomination: Unlike every other main character, he is fully aware of how dangerous Chigurh is, and speaks of his Blue-and-Orange Morality with a grudging respect.
• Affably Evil: He's a hitman who's only interested in money, but other than that he's a pretty cool guy. We never see him hurting or threatening anyone he doesn't have to (very unlike Chigurh), and he even brings Moss flowers when he approaches him in the hospital.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: 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. But Chigurh is having none of this, and kills Wells.
• Casting Gag: A dark version, since Woody Harrelson's father Charles was a notorious hitman who was convicted to life in prison for killing Texas Judge John H. Wood Jr, dying there in 2008.
• Contract on the Hitman: He's hired to take care of Chigurh after the latter goes rogue. Unfortunately for him, Chigurh ends up getting the drop on him.
• Declaration of Protection: Narrowly averted. He offers to protect Moss from Chigurh, in exchange for the money, but Moss initially refuses. Moss later recants and calls Wells, only to discover that Chigurh has already killed him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's a hitman, but he considers Chigurh to be batshit insane since he's in for the thrill of the hunt instead of the money, and doesn't understand his Blue-and-Orange Morality (nor does he want to).
  Wells: You have any idea how crazy you are?
  Chigurh: You mean the nature of this conversation?
  Wells: I mean the nature of you.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Or "Lesser Evil Cannot comprehend Greater Evil". Contract criminal Wells cannot understand the drive of Blood Knight Anton Chigurh, seeing his Blue-and-Orange Morality as absolute insanity. During their last conversation, he cannot understand why Anton won't take his deal when he would be much better off financially speaking.
• Hitman with a Heart: As a Professional Killer, 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 the latter is 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).
• Ignored Expert: Both Moss and Chigurh ignore everything he says at diffrent points of the story, which ends up making things worse for both of them in the long run.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Like Chigurh, he's a professional hitman but unlike the former he doesn't take pleasure in killings and he's surprisingly very reasonable.
• Mr. Exposition: His effect on the plot is limited, but he serves to give some exposition on Chigurh.
• Oh, Crap!: A subdued reaction when he realizes that Anton is right behind him.
• Only in It for the Money: He makes it clear to Moss that the only reason why he's protecting him is because he has the money.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He brings Moss flowers while visiting him in the hospital.
  • While negotiating with Moss, he offers him a portion of the money if he reveals its location. Moss refuses, but Wells gets points for trying.
• Professional Killer: A more straightforward example than Chigurh, in that he's pragmatic, reasonable, efficient, and completely money driven.
• Punch-Clock Villain: A normal guy who gives off none of the sociopathic vibes that Chigurh constantly does. It's clear he is Only in It for the Money, and won't spill blood if he doesn't have to.
• The Vietnam Vet: He says he's one like Moss, though it's unclear if he only said so to relate to him.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: After a short period of action in the middle of the movie, mostly to create exposition for Chigurh, Chigurh kills him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Ambiguously. In the book, it's revealed that he saw a dead little girl in a foriegn country, implied to be during the Vietnam war. It's not clear if he himself killed her or not. This aspect of him isn't seen in the film.

Wendell

Played By: Garret Dillahunt

The young and idealistic deputy of the unspecified Texas county where the events of the novel takes place.

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• Deadpan Snarker: When they find Chigurh's second ditched (and torched) car:
  Ed Tom Bell: You wouldn't think a car'd burn like that.
  Wendell: Yessir. We shoulda brought weenies.
• Heroes Love Dogs: He's appalled when he finds a dead dog at the scene of the shootout.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: The "Young Cop" to Sheriff Bell's "old".
• Overshadowed by Awesome: He isn't incompetent by any means, but the more experienced Sheriff usually figures out things much faster than him, making him look like The Load in comparison.
• Satellite Character: The deputy is never seen without his sheriff.
• The Watson: While investigating the crime scenes, his job is to point out the evidence allowing Sheriff Bell to brainstorm the events.
  Wendell: You know, there might not have been no money.
  Ed Tom Bell: That's possible.
  Wendell: But you don't believe it.
  Ed Tom Bell: No. Probably I don't.
  Wendell: It's a mess, ain't it, sheriff?
  Ed Tom Bell: If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here.
• Yes-Man: He tries to be this to Sheriff Bell, and his most used words are "yessir" and "no sir", but the old and jaded Sherriff is rather laid-back, occasionally forcing Wendell to take the initiative.

Loretta Bell

Played By: Tess Harper

The wife and confidant of Sheriff Ed Tom Bell.

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• Cool Old Lady: She seems to be about her husband's age, and just as cool as him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has shades of this with her husband.
  Loretta Bell: Be careful.
  Ed Tom Bell: I always am.
  Loretta Bell: Don't get hurt.
  Ed Tom Bell: I never do.
  Loretta Bell: Don't hurt no one.
  Ed Tom Bell: [smiles] Well. If you say so.
• Happily Married: To Sheriff Bell, or at least happier than the other main couple in the story. Late in the movie, she gets him to confide in her about his nightmares.
• Nice Girl: She's very caring and supporting to her husband.
• Satellite Love Interest: She's only shown interacting with her husband and Pinball Protagonist Sheriff Bell.

Man Who Hires Wells

Played By: Stephen Root

An enigmatic middle manager for the Matacumbe Petroleum Group who hires Anton Chigurh to recover the money, and Carson Wells when Chigurh goes rogue.

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• Contract on the Hitman: He hires Carson Wells to kill Chigurh after the latter goes rogue, but it backfires.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He has a nice office in a Houston highrise, from which he apparently runs the day-to-day operations of a Texan drug cartel.
• Deadpan Snarker: He shows shades of this in his interactions with Carson Wells.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The money Moss finds and that Chigurh is after belongs to his organization. In the book, however, he is only middle management. After killing him, Chigurh returns the money to his boss, an even more mysterious "Greatest-Scope Villain."
• No Name Given: We never learn his name. Or anything else about him. The epithet given above is what he's credited as.
• Oh, Crap!: The look on his face when Chigurh bursts through the door says it all.
• Properly Paranoid: He gives transponders to both Chigurh and the Mexicans, which backfires spectacularly when Chigurh takes offense to this and kills him. Also, his office is only accessible by entering a secret code into the elevator, which changes after every use. In the film version, he keeps a pistol in his desk drawer.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in two scenes, and in the second one he gets blasted in the throat with birdshot before he gets any lines, but his actions have a large impact on the plot.
• The Syndicate: He runs one in Texas that does business with their counterparts south of the border.

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