No Country for Old Men

ELLIS: ...What you got ain't nothin' new. This country is hard on people. Hard and crazy. Got the devil in it yet folks never seem to hold it to account.

BELL: Most don't.

ELLIS: You're discouraged.

BELL: I'm... discouraged.

ELLIS: You can't stop what's comin. Ain't all waitin' on you.

ELLIS: ...Shot down on his own porch there in Hudspeth County. There was seven or eight of 'em come to the house. Wantin' this and wantin' that. Mac went back in and got his shotgun but they was way ahead of him. Shot him down in his own doorway. Aunt Ella run out and tried to stop the bleedin'. Him tryin to get hold of the shotgun again. They just set there on their horses watchin' him die. Finally one of 'em says somethin' in Injun and they all turned and left out. Well Mac knew the score even if Aunt Ella didn't. Shot through the left lung and that was that. As they say.

BELL: When did he die?

ELLIS: Nineteen zero and nine.

BELL: No, I mean was it right away or in the night or when was it.

ELLIS: Believe it was that night. She buried him the next mornin'. Diggin' in that hard caliche.

BELL: ...I always thought when I got older God would sort of come into my life in some way. He didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I'd have the same opinion about me that he does.

ELLIS: You don't know what he thinks.

BELL: Yes I do.

ELLIS: ...Your granddad never asked me to sign on as deputy. I done that my own self. Loretta says you're quittin'.

BELL: Yes, you've circled round.

ELLIS: How come're you doin that?

BELL: I don't know. I feel overmatched.

BELL: That man that shot you died in prison.

ELLIS: In Angola. Yeah.

BELL: What would you a done if he'd been released?

ELLIS: I don't know. Nothin'. Wouldn't be no point to it.

BELL: I'm kindly surprised to hear you say that.

ELLIS: All the time you spend tryin' to get back what's been took from you there's more goin' out the door. After a while you just try and get a tourniquet on it.

BELL: Want a cup?

ELLIS: 'Predate it.

BELL: How fresh is this coffee?

ELLIS: I generally make a fresh pot ever week even if there's some left over.

BELL: How many a those things you got now?

ELLIS: Cats? Several. Wal. Depends what you mean by got. Some are half-wild, and some are just outlaws.

BELL: How you been, Ellis?

ELLIS: You lookin' at it. I got to say you look older.

BELL: I am older.

ELLIS: Got a letter from your wife. She writes pretty regular, tells me the family news.

BELL: Didn't know there was any.

ELLIS: She just told me you was quittin'. Sit down.

BELL: How'd you know I was here.

ELLIS: Who else'd be in your truck.

BELL: You heard it?

ELLIS: How's that?

BELL: You heard my -- you havin' fun with me?

ELLIS: What give you that idea. I seen one of the cats heard it.

BELL: But -- how'd you know it was mine?

ELLIS: I deduced it. Once you walked in.

BELL: Hard to believe.

ROSCOE: Strolls right back into a crime scene. Who would do such a thing? How do you defend against it?

ROSCOE: None of that explains your man though.

BELL: Uh-huh.

ROSCOE: He is just a goddamn homicidal lunatic, Ed Tom.

BELL: I'm not sure he's a lunatic.

ROSCOE: Well what would you call him.

BELL: I don't know. Sometimes I think he's pretty much a ghost.

ROSCOE: He's real all right.

BELL: Oh yes.

ROSCOE: All that at the Eagle Hotel. It's beyond everything.

BELL: Yes, he has some hard bark on him.

ROSCOE: That don't hardly say it. He shoots the desk clerk one day, and walks right back in the next and shoots a retired army colonel.

BELL: ...I don't know what I do feel like.

ROSCOE: Try "old" on for size.

BELL: Yessir. It may be that. In a nutshell.

BELL: No money in his room there?

ROSCOE: Couple hundred on his person. Those hombres would've taken the stash.

BELL: I suppose. Though they was leavin' in a hurry.

ROSCOE: It's all the goddamned money, Ed Tom. The money and the drugs. It's just goddamned beyond everything. What is it mean? What is it leading to?

BELL: Yes.

ROSCOE: If you'd a told me twenty years ago I'd see children walkin' the streets of our Texas towns with green hair and bones in their noses I just flat out wouldn't of believed you.

BELL: Signs and wonders. But I think once you stop hearin' sir and madam the rest is soon to follow.

ROSCOE: It's the tide. It's the dismal tide. It is not the one thing.

BELL: Not the one thing. I used to think I could at least some way put things right. I don't feel that way no more.

ROSCOE: I thought maybe she was with your boy there.

BELL: No ID in her room?

ROSCOE: Not hardly nothin' in her room. And that establishment was no stickler on registration. Well...

BELL: Carla Jean...

CARLA JEAN: No.

BELL: Yes ma'am?

CARLA JEAN: If I tell you where Llewelyn's headed, you promise it'll be just you goes and talks with him -- you and nobody else?

BELL: Yes ma'am, I do.

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn would never ask for help. He never thinks he needs any.

BELL: Carla Jean, I will not harm your man. And he needs help, whether he knows it or not.

BELL: Who's Charlie Walser. Oh! Well, I, uh... True story? I couldn't swear to ever detail but... it's certainly true that it is a story.

CARLA JEAN: Yeah, right. Sheriff, can you give me your word on somethin'?

CARLA JEAN: Why you tellin' me that, Sheriff?

BELL: I don't know. My mind wanders.

CARLA JEAN: Don't know why I did. I told you, I don't know where he is.

BELL: You ain't heard from him?

CARLA JEAN: No I ain't.

BELL: Nothin'?

CARLA JEAN: Not word one.

BELL: Would you tell me if you had?

CARLA JEAN: Well, I don't know. He don't need any trouble from you.

BELL: It's not me he's in trouble with.

CARLA JEAN: Who's he in trouble with then?

BELL: Some pretty bad people.

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn can take care of hisself.

BELL: These people will kill him, Carla Jean. They won't quit.

CARLA JEAN: He won't neither. He never has.

BELL: I wish I could say that was in his favor. But I have to say I don't think it is.

CARLA JEAN: He can take all comers.

WENDELL: Yessir. None of the three had ID on 'em but they're tellin' me all three is Mexicans. Was Mexicans.

BELL: There's a question. Whether they stopped bein'. And when.

WENDELL: Yessir.

BELL: Now, Wendell, did you inquire about the cylinder lock?

WENDELL: Yessir. It was punched out.

BELL: Okay.

WENDELL: You gonna drive out there?

BELL: No, that's the only thing I would've looked for. And it sounds like these boys died of natural causes.

WENDELL: How's that, Sheriff?

BELL: Natural to the line of work they was in.

WENDELL: Yessir.

BELL: My lord, Wendell, it's just all-out war. I don't know any other word for it. Who are these folks? I don't know...

BELL: Yes Noreen you better had. Thank you.

WENDELL: The Rangers and DEA are heading out to the desert this morning. You gonna join 'em?

BELL: I don't know. Any new bodies accumulated out there?

WENDELL: No sir.

BELL: Well then I guess I can skip it. Heavens to Betsy, Wendell, you already put me off my breakfast.

BELL: Wasn't no bullet?

WENDELL: Yessir. Wasn't none.

BELL: Well, Wendell, with all due respect, that don't make a whole lot of sense.

WENDELL: No sir.

BELL: You said entrance wound in the forehead, no exit wound.

WENDELL: Yes sir.

BELL: Are you telling me he shot this boy in the head and then went fishin' around in there with a pocket knife?

WENDELL: Sir, I don't want to picture that.

BELL: Well I don't either!

BELL: What was the bullet?

WENDELL: Wasn't no bullet.

WENDELL: You think this boy Moss has got any notion of the sorts of sons of bitches that are huntin' him?

BELL: I don't know. He ought to...

WENDELL: Sheriff, that's aggravating.

BELL: I'm ahead of you there.

BELL: ...Now that's aggravating.

WENDELL: Sheriff?

BELL: Probably must be.

WENDELL: So when was he here?

BELL: I don't know. Oh.

WENDELL: ...I believe they've done lit a shuck.

BELL: Believe you're right.

WENDELL: That from the lock?

WENDELL: What about yours?

BELL: I'm hidin' behind you.

WENDELL: We goin' in?

BELL: Gun out and up.

WENDELL: These boys is all swole up. So this was earlier: gettin set to trade. Then, whoa, differences... You know: might not of even been no money.

BELL: That's possible.

WENDELL: But you don't believe it.

BELL: No. Probably I don't.

WENDELL: It's a mess, ain't it Sheriff?

WENDELL: ...How come do you reckon the coyotes ain't been at 'em?

BELL: I don't know...

BELL: ...Somebody unloaded on this thing with a shotgun.

WENDELL: Mm.

BELL: Yes, appears to have been a glitch or two.

WENDELL: What calibers you got there, Sheriff?

BELL: Nine millimeter. Couple of .45 ACP's.

BELL: I know this truck. Belongs to a feller named Moss.

WENDELL: Llewelyn Moss?

BELL: That's the boy.

WENDELL: You figure him for a dope runner?

BELL: ...You ride Winston.

WENDELL: You sure?

BELL: Oh, I'm more than sure. Anything happens to Loretta's horse I can tell you right now you don't wanna be the party that was aboard.

BELL: Well. Old age flattens a man.

WENDELL: Yessir. But then there's this other. He nods up the ridge away from the highway.

BELL: Uh-huh.

BELL: Does that look to you like about a '77 Ford, Wendell?

WENDELL: It could be.

BELL: I'd say it is. Not a doubt in my mind.

WENDELL: The old boy shot by the highway?

BELL: Yessir, his vehicle. Man killed Lamar's deputy, took his car, killed someone on the highway, swapped for his car, and now here it is and he's swapped again for god knows what.

WENDELL: That's very linear Sheriff.

BELL: You wouldn't think a car would burn like that.

WENDELL: Yessir. We should a brought wieners.

BELL: ...What is it that Torbert says? About truth and justice?

MOLLY: We dedicate ourselves daily anew. Something like that.

BELL: I think I'm goin' to commence dedicatin' myself twice daily. It may come to three times before it's over...

BELL: ...Could I get you to call Loretta and tell her I've gone to Odessa? goin' to visit with Carla Jean Moss.

MOLLY: Yes Sheriff.

BELL: I'll call Loretta when I get there. I'd call now but she'll want me to come home and I just might.

MOLLY: You want me to wait til you've quit the building?

BELL: Yes I do. You don't want to lie without what it's absolutely necessary.

BELL: ...This month's checks.

MOLLY: That DEA agent called again. You don't want to talk to him?

BELL: I'm goin' to try and keep from it as much as I can.

MOLLY: He's goin' back out there and he wanted to know if you wanted to go with him.

LORETTA: ...How'd you sleep?

BELL: I don't know. Had dreams.

LORETTA: Well you got time for 'em now. Anything interesting?

BELL: Well they always is to the party concerned.

LORETTA: Ed Tom, I'll be polite.

BELL: Okay. Two of 'em. Both had my father. It's peculiar. I'm older now'n he ever was by twenty years. So in a sense he's the younger man. Anyway, first one I don't remember so well but it was about meetin' him in town somewheres and he give me some money and I think I lost it. The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin' through the mountains of a night.

BELL: Maybe I'll go ridin.

LORETTA: Okay.

BELL: What do you think.

LORETTA: I can't plan your day.

BELL: I mean, would you care to join me.

LORETTA: Lord no. I'm not retired.

LORETTA: ...Be careful.

BELL: I always am.

LORETTA: Don't get hurt.

BELL: I never do.

LORETTA: Don't hurt no one.

BELL: Well. If you say so.

BELL: ...I love you more'n more, ever day.

LORETTA: That's very nice.

LORETTA: I thought it was a car afire.

BELL: It is a car afire. But Wendell said there was something back country too.

LORETTA: When is the county gonna start payin' a rental on my horse.

BELL: Hyah!

CARLA JEAN: I got it Mama.

MOTHER: I didn't see my Prednizone.

CARLA JEAN: I put it in, Mama.

MOTHER: Well I didn't see it.

CARLA JEAN: Well I put it in. That one. You just set there. I'll get tickets and a cart for the bags.

CARLA JEAN: It ain't even three years we been married.

MOTHER: Three years ago I said them very words. No and Good.

CARLA JEAN: I knowed you was crazy when I saw you settin' there. I knowed exactly what was in store for me.

CHIGURH: Yes. Things fall into place.

CARLA JEAN: ...You got no cause to hurt me.

CHIGURH: No. But I gave my word.

CARLA JEAN: You gave your word?

CHIGURH: To your husband.

CARLA JEAN: That don't make sense. You gave your word to my husband to kill me?

CHIGURH: Your husband had the opportunity to remove you from harm's way. Instead, he used you to try to save himself.

CARLA JEAN: Not like that. Not like you say.

CHIGURH: I don't say anything. Except it was foreseen.

CHIGURH: No.

CARLA JEAN: I ain't got the money.

CHIGURH: No.

CARLA JEAN: What little I had is long gone and they's bill aplenty to pay yet. I buried my mother today. I ain't paid for that neither.

CHIGURH: I wouldn't worry about it.

CARLA JEAN: ...I need to sit down.

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn, I ain't gonna leave you in the lurch.

MOSS: No. This works better. With you gone and I don't have the money, he can't touch me. But I can sure touch him. After I find him I'll come and join you.

CARLA JEAN: Find who? What am I supposed to do with Mother?

MOSS: She'll be all right.

CARLA JEAN: She'll be all right?

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn?

MOSS: Hey.

CARLA JEAN: What should I do?

MOSS: You know what's goin' on?

CARLA JEAN: I don't know, I had the sheriff here from Terrell County --

MOSS: What did you tell him?

CARLA JEAN: What did I know to tell him. You're hurt, ain't you?

MOSS: What makes you say that?

CARLA JEAN: I can hear it in your voice.

CARLA JEAN: You can't afford one?

MOSS: Don't wanna register it. I'll call you in a couple days.

CARLA JEAN: Promise?

MOSS: Yes I do.

CARLA JEAN: I got a bad feelin', Llewelyn.

MOSS: Well I got a good one. So they ought to even out. Quit worrying about everthing.

CARLA JEAN: Mama's gonna raise hell.

MOSS: Uh-huh.

CARLA JEAN: She is just gonna cuss you up'n down.

MOSS: You should be used to that.

CARLA JEAN: I'm used to lots of things, I work at Wal-Mart.

MOSS: Not any more, Carla Jean. You're retired.

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn?

MOSS: Yes ma'am?

CARLA JEAN: You are comin back, ain't ya?

MOSS: I shall return.

CARLA JEAN: Why all the way to Del Rio?

MOSS: I'm gonna borrow a car. From Eldon.

CARLA JEAN: Well thanks for fallin' all over and apologizing.

MOSS: Things happened. I can't take 'em back.

CARLA JEAN: What'm I supposed to tell Mama?

MOSS: Try standin' in the door and hollerin: Mama I'm home.

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn --

MOSS: C'mon, pack your things. Anything you leave you ain't gonna see again.

CARLA JEAN: So... for how long do we have to...

MOSS: Baby, at what point would you quit botherin' to look for your two million dollars?

MOSS: Odessa.

CARLA JEAN: Why would we go to Odessa?

MOSS: Not we, you. Stay with your mother.

CARLA JEAN: Well -- how come?

MOSS: ...If I don't come back tell Mother I love her.

CARLA JEAN: Your mother's dead, Llewelyn.

MOSS: Well then I'll tell her myself.

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn.

MOSS: Yeah.

CARLA JEAN: What're you doin', baby?

MOSS: Goin' out.

CARLA JEAN: Goin' where?

MOSS: Somethin' I forgot to do. I'll be back.

CARLA JEAN: What're you goin' to do?

CARLA JEAN: What'd you give for that thing?

MOSS: You don't need to know everthing, Carla Jean.

CARLA JEAN: I need to know that.

MOSS: You keep running that mouth I'm gonna take you in the back and screw you.

CARLA JEAN: Big talk.

MOSS: Just keep it up.

CARLA JEAN: Fine. I don't wanna know. I don't even wanna know where you been all day.

MOSS: That'll work.

CARLA JEAN: Did you buy that gun?

MOSS: No. I found it.

CARLA JEAN: Llewelyn!

MOSS: What? Quit hollerin'.

CARLA JEAN: ...Where'd you get the pistol?

MOSS: At the gettin' place.

CARLA JEAN: What's in the satchel?

MOSS: It's full a money.

CARLA JEAN: That'll be the day.

WELLS: Do you have any idea how goddamn crazy you are?

CHIGURH: You mean the nature of this conversation?

WELLS: I mean the nature of you.

WELLS: You don't know to a certainty. Twenty minutes it could be here.

CHIGURH: I do know to a certainty. And you know what's going to happen now. You should admit your situation. There would be more dignity in it.

WELLS: You go to hell.

WELLS: We don't have to do this. I'm a daytrader. I could just go home.

CHIGURH: Why would I let you do that?

WELLS: I know where the money is.

CHIGURH: If you knew, you would have it with you.

WELLS: I need dark. To get it. I know where it is.

CHIGURH: I know something better.

WELLS: What's that.

CHIGURH: I know where it's going to be.

WELLS: And where is that.

CHIGURH: It will be brought to me and placed at my feet.

WOMAN: Hello?

CHIGURH: Is Llewelyn there?

WOMAN: Llewelyn?! No he ain't.

CHIGURH: You expect him?

CHIGURH: Where does he work?

WOMAN: Did you not hear me? We can't give out no information.

WOMAN: Yessir?

CHIGURH: I'm looking for Llewelyn Moss.

WOMAN: Did you go up to his trailer?

CHIGURH: Yes I did.

WOMAN: Well I'd say he's at work. Do you want to leave a message?

CHIGURH: Where does he work?

WOMAN: I can't say.

CHIGURH: Where does he work?

WOMAN: Sir I ain't at liberty to give out no information about our residents.

CHIGURH: What airport would you use.

MAN: Huh? Airport or airstrip?

CHIGURH: Airport.

MAN: Well -- where ya goin'?

CHIGURH: I don't know.

MAN: Just lightin' out for the territories, huh. Brother, I been there... Well...

MAN: Yeah, that'll suck some power. Over time.

CHIGURH: You from around here?

CHIGURH: How'd you find it?

MAN: No me mate.

CHIGURH: ...You getting anything on this?

MAN: Not a bleep.

CHIGURH: All right...

CHIGURH: ...Where's the transponder?

MAN: In the truck. I'll get it.

MAN: Mm-hm.

CHIGURH: Screwgie.

MAN: Huh? What is...

CHIGURH: I need you to step out of the car, sir.

MAN: What's this about?

CHIGURH: Step out of the car please, sir.

CHIGURH: You know how this is going to turn out, don't you?

MOSS: No. Do you?

CHIGURH: Yes, I do. I think you do too. So this is what I'll offer. You bring me the money and I'll let her go. Otherwise she's accountable. The same as you. That's the best deal you're going to get. I won't tell you you can save yourself because you can't.

MOSS: Yeah I'm goin' to bring you somethin' all right. I've decided to make you a special project of mine. You ain't goin' to have to look for me at all.

CHIGURH: ...I know where you are.

MOSS: Yeah? Where am I?

CHIGURH: You're in the hospital across the river. But that's not where I'm going. Do you know where I'm going?

MOSS: Yeah. I know where you're going.

CHIGURH: All right.

MOSS: You know she won't be there.

CHIGURH: It doesn't make any difference where she is.

MOSS: So what're you goin' up there for.

CHIGURH: ...You need to talk to me.

MOSS: I don't need to talk to you.

CHIGURH: I think that you do. Do you know where I'm going?

MOSS: Why would I care where you're going.

CHIGURH: Do you know where I'm going?

MOSS: Who is this.

CHIGURH: You know who it is.

CHIGURH: ...For instance. I used birshot. So as not to blow the window.

MAN AT CHAIR: I see.

CHIGURH: He gave Acosta's people a receiver.

MAN AT CHAIR: He feels... he felt... the more people looking...

CHIGURH: That's foolish. You pick the one right tool.

MAN AT CHAIR: ...Me?

CHIGURH: Yes.

MAN AT CHAIR: Nobody. Accounting.

CHIGURH: ...Don't put it in your pocket.

PROPRIETOR: Sir?

CHIGURH: Don't put it in your pocket. It's your lucky quarter.

PROPRIETOR: ...Where you want me to put it?

CHIGURH: Anywhere not in your pocket. Or it'll get mixed in with the others and become just a coin. Which it is.

PROPRIETOR: Look... I got to know what I stand to win.

CHIGURH: Everything.

PROPRIETOR: How's that?

CHIGURH: You stand to win everything. Call it.

PROPRIETOR: All right. Heads then.

CHIGURH: Call it.

PROPRIETOR: Call it?

CHIGURH: Yes.

PROPRIETOR: For what?

CHIGURH: Just call it.

PROPRIETOR: Well -- we need to know what it is we're callin' for here.

CHIGURH: You need to call it. I can't call it for you. It wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't even be right.

PROPRIETOR: I didn't put nothin' up.

CHIGURH: Yes you did. You been putting it up your whole life. You just didn't know it. You know what date is on this coin?

PROPRIETOR: No.

CHIGURH: Nineteen fifty-eight. It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it's here. And it's either heads or tails, and you have to say. Call it.

CHIGURH: ...What's the most you've ever lost on a coin toss?

PROPRIETOR: Sir?

CHIGURH: The most. You ever lost. On a coin toss.

PROPRIETOR: I don't know. I couldn't say.

PROPRIETOR: This was my wife's father's place. Originally.

CHIGURH: You married into it.

PROPRIETOR: We lived in Temple Texas for many years. Raised a family there. In Temple. We come out here about four years ago.

CHIGURH: You married into it.

PROPRIETOR: ...If that's the way you wanna put it.

CHIGURH: I don't have some way to put it. That's the way it is.

PROPRIETOR: Well... I need to close now --

CHIGURH: You live in that house behind the store?

PROPRIETOR: Yes I do.

CHIGURH: You've lived here all your life?

PROPRIETOR: ...I'd say around nine-thirty. Somewhere around nine-thirty.

CHIGURH: I could come back then.

PROPRIETOR: Why would you be comin' back? We'll be closed.

CHIGURH: You said that.

CHIGURH: ...What time do you go to bed.

PROPRIETOR: Sir?

CHIGURH: You're a bit deaf, aren't you? I said what time do you go to bed.

PROPRIETOR: Well...

CHIGURH: You don't know what you're talking about, do you?

PROPRIETOR: Sir?

CHIGURH: I said you don't know what you're talking about.

PROPRIETOR: Will there be anything else?

CHIGURH: You already asked me that.

PROPRIETOR: Well... I need to see about closin'.

CHIGURH: See about closing.

PROPRIETOR: Yessir.

CHIGURH: What time do you close?

PROPRIETOR: Now. We close now.

CHIGURH: Now is not a time. What time do you close.

PROPRIETOR: Generally around dark. At dark.

PROPRIETOR: Is somethin' wrong?

CHIGURH: With what?

PROPRIETOR: With anything?

CHIGURH: Is that what you're asking me? Is there something wrong with anything?

PROPRIETOR: ...Will there be somethin' else?

CHIGURH: I don't know. Will there?

CHIGURH: What business is it of yours where I'm from, friendo?

PROPRIETOR: I didn't mean nothin' by it.

CHIGURH: Didn't mean nothin'.

PROPRIETOR: I was just passin' the time.

CHIGURH: I guess that passes for manners in your cracker view of things.

CHIGURH: How much?

PROPRIETOR: Sixty-nine cent.

CHIGURH: This. And the gas.

PROPRIETOR: Y'all getting any rain up your way?

CHIGURH: What way would that be?

PROPRIETOR: I seen you was from Dallas.

MOSS: Good. I need everything else.

CLERK: Okay.

MOSS: You get a lot of people come in here with no clothes on?

CLERK: No sir, it's unusual.

CLERK: I'm waitin' to hear your description of that.

MOSS: There's somebody lookin' for me. Not police. Just call me if anyone else checks in tonight.

MOSS: One room, one night.

CLERK: That's twenty-six dollars.

MOSS: You on all night?

CLERK: Yessir, be here til ten tomorrow morning.

CLERK: Tent poles.

MOSS: Uh-huh.

CLERK: You already have the tent?

MOSS: Somethin' like that.

CLERK: Well you give me the model number of the tent I can order you the poles.

MOSS: Never mind. I want a tent.

CLERK: What kind of tent?

MOSS: The kind with the most poles.

CLERK: Well I guess that'd be our ten-foot backyard Per-Gola. You can stand up in it. Well, some people could stand up in it. Six foot clearance at the ridge. You might just could.

MOSS: Let me have that one. Where's the nearest hardware store?

CLERK: Twelve gauge. You need shells? Moss looks the gun over.

MOSS: Uh-huh. Double ought.

CLERK: They'll give you a wallop.

MOSS: ...Keep going. Don't stop.

DRIVER: I don't want to get in some kind of a jackpot here, buddy.

MOSS: It's all right.

DRIVER: Why don't I set you down here and we won't argue about it.

MOSS: I want you to take me to another motel.

DRIVER: Let's just call it square.

MOSS: Don't stop. Just ride me up past the rooms.

DRIVER: What room?

MOSS: Just drive me around. I want to see if someone's here.

MAN: ...An attempt at humor, I suppose.

WELLS: I'm sorry.

MAN: Goodbye, Mr. Wells.

WELLS: ...I'm wondering...

MAN: Yes?

WELLS: Can I get my parking ticket validated?

MAN: He killed three men in a motel in Del Rio yesterday. And two others at that colossal goatfuck out in the desert.

WELLS: Okay. We can stop that.

MAN: You seem pretty sure of yourself. You've led something of a charmed life haven't you Mr. Wells?

WELLS: Yessir.

MAN: If your expenses run higher I hope you'll trust us for it.

WELLS: Okay.

MAN: How well do you know Chigurh.

WELLS: Well enough.

MAN: That's not an answer.

WELLS: What do you want to know?

MAN: I'd just like to know your opinion of him. In general. Just how dangerous is he?

MAN: We got a loose cannon here. And we're out a bunch of money, and the other party is out his product.

WELLS: Yessir. I understand that.

WELLS: Yessir, that's correct. I know 'em when I see 'em.

MAN: When did you last see him.

WELLS: November the 28th, last year.

MAN: You seem pretty sure of the date. Did I ask you to sit?

WELLS: No sir but you struck me as a man who wouldn't want to waste a chair. I remember dates. Names. Numbers. I saw him on November 28th.

MOSS: Waitin' for my wife.

WOMAN: Oh. That's who you keep lookin' out the window for?

MOSS: Half.

WOMAN: What else then?

MOSS: Lookin' for what's comin'.

WOMAN: Yeah but no one ever sees that. I like a man that'll tell you he's married.

MOSS: Then you'll like me.

WOMAN: I do like you.

MOSS: That's me.

WOMAN: I got beers in my room.

MOSS: What about one forty-two.

WOMAN: You can have the one next to yours if you want. One twenty. It ain't took.

MOSS: No, one forty-two.

WOMAN: That's got two double beds.

MOSS: Could I get another room.

WOMAN: You want to change rooms?

MOSS: No, I want to keep my room, and get another one.

WOMAN: Another additional.

MOSS: Uh-huh.You got a map of the rooms?

WOMAN: ...You pick the option with the applicable rate.

MOSS: I'm just one person. Don't matter the size of the bed.

WOMAN: You tell me the option.

MOSS: The what?

WOMAN: The option.

WELLS: ...I'm across the river. At the Hotel Eagle. Carson Wells. Call me when you've had enough. I can even let you keep a little of the money.

MOSS: If I was cuttin' deals, why wouldn't I go deal with this guy Chigurh?

WELLS: No no. No. You don't understand. You can't make a deal with him. Even if you gave him the money he'd still kill you. He's a peculiar man. You could even say that he has principles. Principles that transcend money or drugs or anything like that. He's not like you. He's not even like me.

MOSS: He don't talk as much as you, I give him points for that.

WELLS: ...You didn't take the product, did you?

MOSS: What product.

WELLS: The heroin. You don't have it.

MOSS: No I don't have it.

WELLS: No. You don't.

MOSS: Maybe he should be worried. About me.

WELLS: He isn't. You're not cut out for this. You're just a guy that happened to find those vehicles.

MOSS: Why would he go to Odessa?

WELLS: To kill your wife.

WELLS: Look. You need to give me the money. I've got no other reason to protect you.

MOSS: Too late. I spent it -- about a million and a half on whores and whiskey and the rest of it I just sort of blew it in.

WELLS: ...What do you do?

MOSS: I'm retired.

WELLS: What did you do?

MOSS: I'm a welder.

WELLS: Acetylene? Mig? Tig?

MOSS: Any of it. If it can be welded I can weld it.

WELLS: Cast iron?

MOSS: Yes.

WELLS: I don't mean braze.

MOSS: I didn't say braze.

WELLS: Pot metal?

MOSS: What did I say?

WELLS: Were you in Nam?

MOSS: Yeah. I was in Nam.

WELLS: So was I.

MOSS: So what does that make me? Your buddy?

WELLS: ...But that won't last.

MOSS: What is he supposed to be, the ultimate bad-ass?

WELLS: I don't think that's how I would describe him.

MOSS: How would you describe him?

WELLS: I guess I'd say... that he doesn't have a sense of humor. His name is Chigurh.

MOSS: Sugar?

WELLS: Chigurh. Anton Chigurh. You know how he found you?

MOSS: I know how he found me.

WELLS: It's called a transponder.

MOSS: I know what it is. He won't find me again.

WELLS: Not that way.

MOSS: Not any way.

WELLS: Took me about three hours.

MOSS: I been immobile.

WELLS: No. You don't understand.

WELLS: ...Don't worry. I'm not the man that's after you.

MOSS: I know, I've seen him. Sort of.

OFFICIAL: Who do you think gets through this gate into the United States of America?

MOSS: I don't know. American citizens.

OFFICIAL: Some American citizens. Who do you think decides?

MOSS: You do, I reckon.

OFFICIAL: That is correct. And how do I decide?

MOSS: I don't know.

OFFICIAL: I ask questions. If I get sensible answers then they get to go to America. If I don't get sensible answers they don't. Is there anything about that that you don't understand?

MOSS: No sir.

OFFICIAL: Then I ask you again how you come to be out here with no clothes.

MOSS: I got an overcoat on.

OFFICIAL: Are you jackin' with me?

MOSS: No sir.

OFFICIAL: Don't jack with me.

MOSS: Yes sir.

OFFICIAL: Are you in the service?

MOSS: No sir. I'm a veteran.

OFFICIAL: Nam?

MOSS: Yes sir. Two tours.

OFFICIAL: What outfit.

MOSS: Twelfth Infantry Batallion. August seventh nineteen and sixty-six to July second nineteen and sixty-eight.