This is one of the best finds EVER.

Thanks so much for posting this, seriously

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Why did they end it like that?
The answer is simple. It's the same way the book ended.

That movie was done with as much respect for the book as possible & I for one am happy this was the case for a change.

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The movie set up the ending perfectly, especially how quickly the credits came up after Tommy Lee Jones dream monologue. I didn't notice the music playing during the credits until I was almost out of the movie theatre, it was the final chilling note to a brillant film.

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SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE
Donald: I don't want to insult you, so I'll try to keep this
respectable.

The movie did resolve things with the characters:
Moss & His Wife Are Dead
Chigurh gets away.
Sheriff Bell is worn down & weary. He wants nothing to do with the new breed of criminal. So he quits.
What happens with the money, I don't think is relevant.

You should go watch it again. It ends where it should end. It may not be what the audience wants, but it is honest to the characters. The grim point is that you can't stop the evil coming this way. Not a very happy ending & I can see why some people would be wanting more. Not meaning you in particular Donald, but most people want the spoon
fed happy ending. This movie is not for them.

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I must agree that it resolved everything. My parents did not think so, but I thought it was fine.

The suggestion I would have to rectify this would be, perhaps, with the final words of TLJ's monologue, show a cutaway of Churgh walking down the road into the distance.

I do not think it needed this. I think a cliche such as that would have detracted from the film. But it would have been a minor detraction at most, and it would have given familiar closure to many movie-goers. Seeing him walk into the distance would let everyone know he won.

As it stands I guess TLJ's quitting, more accurately just giving up, was a bit subtle. The killing of the wife was very subtle, I guess, as most people I've spoken with missed him cleaning the soles of his shoes, the only hard clue as to her fate (although his words seemed enough.)

The thing that seems to have left most people I've spoken with confused is what happened when TLJ went into the hotel room. Seems many people think Anton jumped out the window (which was locked.) Or they think he was never there. I don't see what gave any of them that impression. I thought it was clear he was there. Watching through the broken lock, seeing the reflection of someone outside, then likely sneaking out when the opportunity arose. I suppose it was the weakest scene in the film, but so many people I've spoken with were so confused that I'm not sure that what I thought was clear, obvious and unambiguous is actually right.

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SPOILERS!!!! (Though one would think that reading comments about the ending of a film would kinda make spoilers an obvious risk.)

The moeny was the McGuffin of the plot. Chigurh would have killed Moss, if he handed him the money on a silver platter. The money only set the plot in motion but the real story was a chase between the hunter (Chigurh) and the hunted (Moss) and all the twists along the way.

Anyway, when the sherrif goes into the room #114 where Moss was killed he sees a dismantled vent. Chigurh was hiding behind the door of the hotel room, and it is heavily implied that he had gotten the money. Carla Jean saying she didn't have the money further proves this.

I can't believe anyone would expect a happy ending, its a Coen brothers film based on a Cormac McCarthy novel! The ending is realistic. If you had to bet would you choose the killer for hire or the guy living in a trailer who accidentally found drug money?

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To Donald (since the reply isn't working)-

Have you considered that flimmakers wanted to leave you with a "bad taste"? Not all endings are meant to be or should be satisfying. As for a sequel, I don't think they would even consider it.

"No Country for Really Old Men: The Further Adventures of Pyschopath Killer for Hire?"

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Was Chigurh peeking out from the ajoining room?Was he looking thru a blown lock? When the sherrif walked up,you can see the ajoining room door(right). The vents were accessed from ajoining rooms before but I believe that the vent was going up the left wall.I had first assumed that he was in the right room.I suppose he could have been in the left room out of frame, on the wall of the vent. i seem the remember Chigurh peeking to his left.Can't remember if it was thru lock or window.

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First time I saw this movie, I was too shocked by the abrupt ending to really form a conclusive opinion of it. Second time around though, I was prepared for the ending, and my heart was racing. It was one of the most thriling experiences I have ever had at a movie.

As for the fate of the money, well, thats a whole other debate. (I personally beleive TLJ has it, not Anton).

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I thought Chigurh was behind the door, peering into the reflection of the missing lock. He could see TLJ's reflection through it, barely, but enough to know someone was absolutely just outside. When the door opened you saw nothing but darkness in that corner, and TLJ never turned around and looked.

I remember him clutching his shotgun to his chest. I do not recall the money bag. While it would make sense for him to have it, as he had been the one smart enough to look in the vent, and likely the only one with time to look in the vent, for some reason I remember dollar bills flying around as the Mexicans took off down the street.

That's likely more fuzzy memory and cliche clouding my recollection, though. I really just don't remember exactly.

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Most UN-satifying movie experience. Have seem something like this done better in Fargo. It leaves a lot of loose ends, does not follow through with the characters (lead character dies unexpectedly with no followup on that). Left a lot of sour taste in the mouth. Most of the time it was slow. And the last hope, the Sherif, quits his job and ends the movie while talking about his dream.... Yawwwn. If the book end this way then I don't think much of the book either. After investing more than an hour of your life following the characters and not getting any satifactory result is a shame. Definitely nothing to write home about.

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I think the sheriff is killed in the motel room we just don't see it - like the wife's meeting the killer at the end. He is sitting on the motel bed and before his death we go to a dream sequence of the sheriff at his kitchen table.

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The movie is wonderfu from the standpoint of acting. Everyone in it is great; not a weak characterization anywhere. But, there really is no ending. The movie just stops, leaving all the major issues unresolved--with no explanation for what happens to the major characters.

The movie should get a lot of Academy Award nominations, but the ending left a bad taste in my mouth. It's just a slice of life, with no way of knowing where the story line will go from here. Actually, it leaves open the possibility of a sequel.

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Here's a discussion with a differing viewpoint:

http://www.erratamag.com/archives/2007/12/discussion_no_c.html

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The major theme is GREED and its consequences (there are no clean getaways) and fighting with our conscience.

There are two layers to this movie, the real part and the conscience part:

Real Layer/Story: Moss finds some money beside dead Mexican drug dealers. He goes back to bring a dying Mexican some water but other Mexicans spot him (see his face/car) but lose him. However, they now know who he is via his rego plates – they go to his trailer park but he is not there so they track his wife around via the phone number of her mother (there is no tracking device (see below)). They find out where he is staying via his mother in law (helping her with her bags). When they do eventually find him they kill him in the hotel but do not find the money. Bell finds the money at the crime scene by checking the vents but he turns it in to the authorities (not shown but implied – see below). Carla Moss kills herself in grief after her husband’s funeral. Bell retires because he cannot make sense of all the greed and evil in the world (a good man like Moss dies because of it), he cannot seem to stop it (“There are no laws left”). In the dream he and his father try to bring ‘light to the darkness’ but in the end he ‘wakes up’ to reality.

Conscience Layer (see below for more explanation): Moss does not meet Anton for awhile into the movie. He initially has a cleanish conscience (i.e. going back to give the dying Mexican water). When Moss decides to run from the Mexicans instead of just leaving the money in his trailer for them to find and leave him alone, Anton (greed) focuses his attention on Moss and begins tracking him. There is no tracking device. The tracking device in Anton’s possession symbolizes Anton (greed) getting closer and closer from Moss’ sub-conscience to Moss’ conscience. Moss begins to understand that his wife will be in danger , he sees/realizes Anton/his greed, finding the phone list (which is actually the Mexicans finding the list in reality). He then discovers the tracking device at which point he meets Anton (greed) in his conscience. The next scenes are him fighting with greed in his conscience. He wounds greed (Anton) but does not kill him. Since greed is wounded you then see him talking to Carson Wells (his reasoning conscience) who says he might be able to help him and his wife if he just hands over the money (give up his greed). The hotel room across the street is Moss’ mind. There Anton (greed) kills Wells (his reasoning conscience). We then see Moss having a direct argument with his greed (Anton) and Anton says that it is Moss’ fault that his wife will now die – it was his choice (in his sub-conscious he thinks that the Mexicans will find her). Moss is then killed by the Mexicans but they do not find the money. Bell is not possessed by greed (you see him mirrored by Anton(greed) in the tv). Bell goes into the hotel room where greed (Anton) is potentially ‘waiting’ as the $2 million has not been found. He goes in there and sees the vent, he knows there is $2 million in there but he knows he won’t take it (the heads on the coin symbolizes he made the right choice) so he does not see greed (Anton) – presumably he turns the money in. Carla kills herself (meeting Anton (death/greed) was her husband’s fault). With his work done Anton finds some new ‘victims’ for greed when spots the kids on the bikes. He is wounded by the car crash so greed is wounded but then as he heals himself they begin fighting over the $100 bill (which in reality they probably found on the street – the cycle of greed begins again). Bell retires because he cannot make sense of the greed and death (we know he does not know greed), him and his father tried to shed light in the evil of the world but he ‘wakes up’ to reality that it will always be there (You can’t stop what’s coming).

Who is Anton?:
Anton is the greed part of our conscience. He is a ghost. He is not real. “Can you see me?” We have a choice to succome to greed (coin toss). He wears black/dark clothes.
Movie Poster Titles:
“You can’t stop what’s coming” (Anton). He survives the car accident and bullets but you can wound/slow him down.
“There are no laws left” (greed/Anton can’t be controlled by laws/by Bell it is up to the person).
“There are no clean Getaways” (greed/Anton eventually wins – greed has dire consequences)

Who is Carson Wells and what is the Business Office?
Carson Wells is the good/reasoning conscience of Moss. The meeting in the office is the reasoning part of Moss’ mind (the high rise office symbolizes his mind – the top of the building). The man behind the desk is Moss’ sub-conscience saying that he wants his good conscience (Wells) to stop his bad conscience (Anton). Wells (good conscience) names a date, 28th November last year, when he last met Anton (bad conscience) – possibly this was a time that Moss had conflict in his conscious before. Wells says he knows Anton “every which way”.
Moss talks to Carla on the phone and could end everything but instead insists on keeping the money. He says he has to find ‘him’ and she says “Find who?” She asks about the safety of her mother and Moss says she’ll be alright (he knows the Mexicans will find his Mother in Law). At this point Anton (greed) bursts into the office (Moss’ mind) and kills Moss’ reasoning part of his mind. The other character, accounting, is just another part of Moss’ mind probably accounting for his money. Moss knows in his mind that the Mexicans will find his wife (Anton says the Mexicans were given a tracking device).

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if this is true, then what does the sheriff in the beginning have to do with greed? And why does the old man in the car get killed?

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