History Characters / NoCountryForOldMen

* 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.

** 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's 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.

* TheChick: To Moss's TheHero.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: He is this combined with CorruptHick. He has a nice office in a Houston highrise, from which he apparently runs the day-to-day operations of a Texan drug cartel.

* 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).]]
* 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.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: 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.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: He will not murder anyone who correctly calls his coin toss. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality It's a bizarre standard,]] [[YouWillBeSpared 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 [[spoiler: 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.

* {{Expy}}: With his stoic expression, CreepyMonotone, and extremely violent behavior, it's possible the character was inspired by the equally monstrous [[Film/{{Fargo}} Gear Grimsrud]], although Chigurh is visibly more cunning than the impulsive Grimsrud.

* HeroKiller: [[spoiler: He kills Carson Wells and Carla Jean]].

* ImplacableMan: Anton Chigurh is a deconstruction of the ImplacableMan. 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, [[DisproportionateRetribution 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, [[BreakThemByTalking and calmly and methodically makes sure that you realize how poor your decisions were before he blows your brains out.]] Compare with UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and his "I am the flail of god" quote to see where he is coming from. [[spoiler: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.]]

* SeventiesHair: 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.

* TheSpook: Absolutely ''nothing'' is known about him, except for, maybe, his name. This is a habit he's cultivated, as [[spoiler: 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.]]

* 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.

* UselessProtagonist: For all his good intentions. he ultimately fails to save [[spoiler: Moss or stop Chigurh]].

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: In the film.]]

* TheIngenue: 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 NominalHero Llewelyn is driven to protect her as best he can.

* 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.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: The money Moss finds and that Chigurh is after belongs to his organization. [[spoiler: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".]]

* NiceHat: He sports a few throughout the movie. Even after returning to the United States without any clothes other than hospital robes, one of the first orders of business is to buy one.

* NiceHat: He's a GoodOldBoy operating in rural Texas circa 1980, so of course he has one.

->'''Played By''': Creator/JoshBrolin

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

* 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 would have been killed very quickly.
* DecoyProtagonist: The movie follows him, but Bell is the real protagonist.

* DoNotTauntCthulhu: He bravely refuses Chigurh's offer, speaking up to him all the while.

* GuileHero: He manages to survive being chased by the Mexicans and Chigurh by the combination of savvy foresight and street-smart cunning.
* {{Jerkass}}: He leaves a gun-shot wounded Mexican 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]].]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Everything that happens to him is entirely his own fault. [[spoiler: He took the money from the shootout, returned to assist a dying drug dealer, AllForNothing, and stubbornly refuses to hand the money over Carson to save his life (Chigurh wasn't going to spare his life anyway).]]
* 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 save her certifiably, and before he possibly cheated on her at the motel in which he was shot) guaranteed her death almost entirely.]]

* ManlyFacialHair: He is definitely a tough, manly badass and he has an appropriately impressive mustache.
* NiceHat: Even after returning to the United States without any clothes other than hospital robes he buys one.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: He ultimately decides to go back to the wounded Mexican and give him water. [[spoiler:Not only did the Mexican die of his wounds, but he is also attacked by several more Mexicans for his trouble.]]
* RetiredBadass: Prior to the events of the story, Moss had served in the Army as a sniper during Vietnam, which explains why he did so well against Chigurh in a gun battle.
* TheVietnamVet: Her served two tours in Vietnam.
* 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.]]

->'''Played By''': Creator/JavierBardem

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

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: 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.
** YMMV here but he is also the personification of evil or the evolving type of criminal, a strange terrifying new evil that can’t be understood by anything except himself.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Chigurh is very close to how he was in the book, but Javier Bardem is much more expressive and his performance borders on FauxAffablyEvil whereas in the book Chigurh was pathologically stoic.
* AdaptationalWimp: A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed example]]. At the end of the movie and book [[spoiler:he gets T-Boned]]. In the book this moment showed his ingenuity and quick thinking; [[spoiler:the car crashes into the drivers side, and he reacted quick enough to throw himself to the passengers 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]].
* ApologeticAttacker: Played with in the book. When he talks to [[spoiler:Carla Jean Moss]], he repeatedly says to [[spoiler:her]], "I'm sorry." But it's clear that he doesn't actually feel any remorse for killing [[spoiler:her]] and that he simply believes himself to have no real choice in the matter.

-->''I have no enemies. I don't permit such a thing.''
* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Moss is killed, though not by him, but Moss' murderers fail to obtain the money, and he instead finds them. He subsequently kills Carla Jean, and escapes justice perfectly. He gets injured in the car crash, though.]]

** Compromising his veil of mystery instantly sets him in the 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 DefiantToTheEnd moment tells him that his coin toss does not excuse his actions, it is the only time when Chigurh is genuinely ''unsettled''.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: His ridiculous haircut says nothing about the ruthless and implacable killer he actually is.
* BigBad: The primary antagonist of the work.

* CreepyMonotone: Never raises his voice.
* DeadpanSnarker: Demonstrated in the gas station.

* 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 reason he got arrested in the beginning? Because he killed a random guy just for being rude to him.
* DissonantSerenity: One of the most chilling aspects of him.
* TheDreaded: In the drug business. He's even compared to a bubonic plague, for a pretty good reason.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first scene of the movie has him strangling a deputy with his handcuffs, and then killing a random driver with his air canister. Also, when he buys gas at a highway store, he forces the coin toss on the salesman for trying to small-talk with him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: He will not murder anyone who correctly calls his coin toss. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality It's a bizarre standard,]] [[YouWillBeSpared 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 [[spoiler: 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.
* 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 lead 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.

* {{Expy}}: With his stoical expression, CreepyMonotone, and extremely violent behavior it's possible the character has been inspired by the equally monstrous [[Film/{{Fargo}} Gear Grimsrud]] although Chigurh is visibly more cunning than the impulsive Grimsrud.
* TheFatalist: Anton 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 it 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, Anton of any responsibilities for his actions as he can simply rationalize that the victim simply chose wrong. [[spoiler: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.]]
-->'''Anton:''' You've been putting it up your whole life, you just didn't know it.
* FauxAffablyEvil: 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.
* TheFettered: Believe it or not, he's an example of this as well as the [[TheUnfettered 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 it and honoring the result, no matter what it might be. Anton sees himself as less an unstable killer and more the personification of destiny.
* ForTheEvulz: Either this or ItAmusedMe. The book describes in the opening, how he allows himself to be arrested, just in order to see if he can escape with his supreme act of will. [[spoiler:He can.]]
* GeniusBruiser: 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.
* HatesSmallTalk: The reason why he nearly kills the gas station attendant. That the accountant in the office avoids this after Anton shoots the Man Who Hired Wells is an argument in favor of his survival.

* IGaveMyWord: Villainous case. [[spoiler: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.]]
* ImplacableMan: Anton Chigurh is a deconstruction of the ImplacableMan. He isn't a killer robot from the future, and he can bleed and get hurt, but Anton is still as close to a terminator as you could get in real life. Like a Dostoyevskean character, Anton is completely driven by an idea. In this case, the idea is that every action you take, will ultimately decide your fate. If Anton is hired to kill you, that means that somewhere along the line you have committed an action that warranted it [[DisproportionateRetribution 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 Chigurhs sights. Anton simply views himself as fate's messenger, [[BreakThemByTalking and calmly and methodically makes sure that you realize how poor your decisions were, before he blows your brains out.]] Compare with UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and his "i am the flail of god" quote, to see where he is coming from. [[spoiler:Nevertheless, like anyone else, Anton is still a human who isn't entirely in control of his fate, as demonstrated by the random car accident he winds up in.]]

* IWasNeverHere: He does this on occasion to people he can't or would prefer not to kill but without compromising his mystique.
* KarmaHoudini: Partially. [[spoiler: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 reconcile a completely random accident in his mind.]]

** His biggest example, however, would be forcing the coin toss on the gas station owner. Unlike all of his other murders, there was a point, even to somebody with 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's escape and even killing [[spoiler:Carla Jean]] was to satisfy a promise that he intended to keep. Unlike all of them, he was perfectly willing to kill the gas station owner because the guy annoyed him and there was nothing to gain from his murder. It's only that warped sense of morality that lets him leave the guy alive.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Murdering Wells, and also (to quite a lesser degree) his pursuit of Moss.]]

* LackOfEmpathy: Because he's TheSociopath. Also, his cattle gun symbolises the way he perceives people around him.
* LeaveNoWitnesses: He's compared to bubonic plague, because once he draws the gun, everyone is fair game.
* NeatFreak: 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. [[spoiler:Him checking his boots as he leaves Carla's house is the only way the audience knows he killed her.]]
* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: 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 his threatening of killing him seems of no consequence to him; [[spoiler: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; 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 be all logic) so that she can die with a clear head]].
* NeverMyFault: Part of the reason why Anton 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 somehow earn his ire. He also makes sure they call it after it's flipped so there is no way he has any say/action on the outcome and can internalize it as the victim choosing wrong if they fail.
* NoNonsenseNemesis: Puts PragmaticVillainy to its best use.

--> '''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) [[DeadpanSnarker I'd say he doesn't have a sense of humor]].

* PetTheDog: 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 and is insistent 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.

* RaceLift: Or at least implied FakeNationality. In the book Chigurh's nationality is ambiguous. In the movie he's played by Spanish Javier Bardem and most assume him to be Mexican.
* RogueAgent: After killing the drug executives accompanying him to the crime scene with the Mexicans.
* {{Sadist}}: While he's usually very cold and no-nonsense at his work, he ''does'' feel 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.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Not so much [[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.]]
* SeventiesHair: His unusual haircut was based on a photo from the 70s. As the film takes place in 1980, it is somewhat justified.
* SlasherSmile: Has one when he's choking his arresting officer to death.

* TheSpook: Absolutely ''nothing'' is known about him, except for, maybe, his name. This is a habit he's cultivated as [[spoiler: 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.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler: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 suburban street.]]
* 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.

* TheUnfettered: He will not stop at ''anything'' to kill his targets. Though 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.
* 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.]]
* WeaponOfChoice: His captive bolt pistol and oxygen canister. As well as his silenced shotgun.

->'''Played By''': Creator/TommyLeeJones

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

* CoolOldGuy: In his later years but a noble, kind and brave person all the same.

* DemotedToExtra: 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 the monologues are cut from the film and the last act sees significant AdaptationDistillation, leaving him the least-seen of the main characters.
* 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.]]
* 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 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 these are genuine cowardice or simple pragmatism, but Bell himself believes the former.

* GrumpyOldMan: Downplayed but he's a bit irritable and bad tempered.
%%* NarratorAllAlong
* NostalgiaFilter: Believes the modern world is beyond hope, and that earlier times were better, more just. [[spoiler:His uncle Reeve 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.

* TheSheriff: And has the badge to prove it. [[spoiler:He retires, though, after the deaths of Llewelyn and Carla Jean Moss, unable to adapt to the current world of lawlessness.]]

* WhenIWasYourAge: Does not say it outright, but he laments all the violence spreading in Texas, when compared to in his youth.

->'''Played By''': Creator/KellyMacdonald

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

* AdaptationalBadass: 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.
* AdaptationalIntelligence: In the novel she was childlike to the point of being a BrainlessBeauty: the film verison is the voice of reason to Moss
* AgeLift: In the novel, she's 19, while Llewelyn is older. In the film, Creator/KellyMacdonald was 30 at the time.
* TheChick: To Moss's TheHero

%%* TheIngenue
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler:Chigurh resorts to this to keep his word.]]
* KirkSummation: [[spoiler:When Anton shows up to kill her and offers her a coin toss as a last chance]] she flat out rejects it and tells him that [[spoiler:all his talk of fate is really just an excuse he uses to justify his own choices]]. Of special note, [[spoiler:her dissection of his philosophy is the only thing in the entire story that seems to legitimately shake Chigurh on some level]].
%%* NiceGirl

->'''Played By''': Creator/WoodyHarrelson

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

* AdmiringTheAbomination: Speaks of Chigurh as, in the words of Moss, "The Ultimate Badass"
* AffablyEvil: He's a hitman and he'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 that he can give extra money to Chigurh. It doesn't help.]]
* ContractOnTheHitman: Is hired to take care of Chigurh, after he goes rogue.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Offers to protect Moss from Chigurh, in exchange of the money.
* HitmanWithAHeart: At least when compared to Chigurh....

* NiceHat 'cause he's a GoodOldBoy

->'''Played By''': Creator/StephenRoot

* ContractOnTheHitman: Hires Carson Wells to kill Chigurh after the latter goes rogue, but it [[AssassinOutclassin backfires]].

* DeadpanSnarker: Shows shades of this in his interactions with Carson Wells.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The money Moss finds and that Chigurh is after belongs to his organization. [[spoiler: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".]]
* NoNameGiven: We never learn his name. Or anything else about him.

* ProperlyParanoid: Gives transponders to both Chigurh and the Mexicans, [[spoiler:which backfires spectacularly when Chigurh takes offense at 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.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Only appears in two scenes, [[spoiler:and in the second one he gets blasted in the throat with birdshot before he can have any lines]], but his actions have a large impact on the plot.
* TheSyndicate: Runs one in Texas that does business with [[TheCartel their counterparts south of the border]].

* 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 it and never told anybody; 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 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 these are genuine cowardice or simple pragmatism, but Bell himself believes the former.

* 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 it and never told anybody; 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 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. These are both absent in the movie but there's still subtle signs of trepidation when investigating the events.

* 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 it and never told anybody; 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 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.

* DemotedToExtra: 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 the monologues are cut from the film and the last act sees significant AdaptationDistillation, leaving him the least-seen of the main characters. In particular it cuts out his admittance that his WWII service was marred by (what he considers) cowardice and that he hasn't changed at all on that front, the only plot point to not make it into the movie.

* ActionSurvivor: In some parts. [[spoiler: Not so much by the end.]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: He is unceremoniously killed by Mexican drug runners offscreen.]]

* 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.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Moss is killed, though not by him, but Moss' murderers fail to obtain the money, and he instead finds them. He subsequently kills Carla Jean, and escapes justice perfectly. He gets injured in the car crash, though.]]

* 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 reason he got arrested in the beginning? Because he killed a random guy just for being rude to him.

* IGaveMyWord: Villainous case. [[spoiler: 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.]]

** Notably, strangling the deputy to see if he could, killing the driver, [[spoiler: and eventually killing Carla Jean.]]

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

* NeatFreak: 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. [[spoiler: Him checking his boots as he leaves Carla's house is the only way the audience knows he killed her.]]

* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Not so much [[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.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler: 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 suburban street.]]

* 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.]]

* 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.]]

* NostalgiaFilter: Believes the modern world is beyond hope, and that earlier times were better, more just. [[spoiler: His uncle Reeve disabuses him of this notion, calling it vanity]].

* KirkSummation: [[spoiler: When Anton shows up to kill her and offers her a coin toss as a last chance]] she flat out rejects it and tells him that [[spoiler: all his talk of fate is really just an excuse he uses to justify his own choices]]. Of special note, [[spoiler: her dissection of his philosophy is the only thing in the entire story that seems to legitimately shake Chigurh on some level]].

* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler: After a short period of action in the middle of the movie, mostly to create exposition for Chigurh, Chigurh kills him.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: The money Moss finds and that Chigurh is after belongs to his organization. [[spoiler: 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".]]

* OhCrap: The look on his face when [[spoiler: Chigurh bursts through the door]] says it all.
* ProperlyParanoid: Gives transponders to both Chigurh and the Mexicans, [[spoiler: which backfires spectacularly when Chigurh takes offense at 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.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Only appears in two scenes, [[spoiler: and in the second one he gets blasted in the throat with birdshot before he can have any lines]], but his actions have a large impact on the plot.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: He will not murder anyone who correctly calls his coin toss. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality It's a bizarre standard,]] [[YouWillBeSpared 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 [[spoiler: 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.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: He will not murder anyone who correctly calls his coin toss. [[BlueAndOrangeMorality It's a bizarre standard,]] [[YouWillBeSpared but it is one he keeps to.]]

* GeniusBruiser: He is incredibly intelligent, planning tactical entries into his victims' rooms and capable of patching a wound from a shotgun blast.

* PetTheDog: 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 and is insistent that he take it.

* {{Expy}}: With his stoical expression, CreepyMonotone and extremely violent behaviour it's possible the character has been inspired by the equally monstrous [[Film/{{Fargo}} Gear Grimsrud]] although Chigurh is visibly more cunning than the impulsive Grimsrud.
* TheFatalist: Anton 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 it 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 you at any time. This also absolves, in his eyes anyway, Anton of any responsibilities for his actions as he can simply rationalize that the victim simply chose wrong.

* KarmaHoudini: Partially. [[spoiler:He survives and manages to escape, but with a fracture that leaves his arm bone sticking out.]]

* {{Expy}}: With his stoical expression, CreepyMonotone and extremely violent behaviour it's possible the character has been inspired by the equally monstruos [[Film/{{Fargo}} Gear Grimsrud]] although Chigurh is visibly more cunning than the impulsive Grimsrud. Some fans also says that he's basically what [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]] would be like without his iconic white mask and most of all if he talked more often. He's also been compared to Film/TheTerminator quite often, and it's also possible that [[Film/TheHitcher John Ryder]] might have served some inspiration for Anton. His fixation on coin tosses and absolute adherence to their outcome also call to mine [[ComicBook/TwoFace a certain Batman villain.]]

* ManlyFacialHair: He is definitely a tough, manly badass, as evidenced from the entries here, and he has an appropriately impressive mustache.

* BadassMoustache: Justified because of the year.

* AntiHero/ NominalHero: Type IV or Type V , given his {{Jerkass}} tendencies, and his willingness to let innocent people die to save himself.

* 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 save her certifiedly, and before he possibly cheated on her at the motel in which he was shot) guaranteed her death almost entirely.]]
* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:He's shot and killed offscreen in a firefight. We only learn he's dead when Bell finds his corpse.]]

* 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.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: In a sense. It's not that Bell is stupid or a bad detective. He's just up against forces hopelessly out of his depth and which he simply can't understand.

* PetTheDog: Minor but he does spare a witness who swears they will pretend to have never seen him and lets 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 and is insistent that he take it.

* {{Expy}}: With his stoical expression, CreepyMonotone and extremely violent behaviour it's possible the character has been inspired by the equally monstruos [[Film/{{Fargo}} Gear Grimsrud]] although Chigurh is visibly more cunning than the impulsive Grimsrud. Some fans also says that he's basically what [[Franchise/{{Halloween}} Michael Myers]] would be like without his iconic white mask and most of all if he talked more often. He's also been compared to Film/TheTerminator quite often, and it's also possible that [[Film/TheHitcher John Ryder]] might have served some inspiration for Anton.