No Country for Old Men

5

Carla Jean and her mother are seen in a rear-view mirror in a moving cab, with their eyes in a weathered face shifting back and forth between road and mirror. The mother's voice is heard three years ago, and Wider shows Carla Jean and her mother in the back of the moving cab.

Carla Jean and her mother have been married for three years, and Carla Jean is going to El Paso, Texas to get cancer treatment. The cab is stopped outside the depot, and Carla Jean and her mother, and the driver are struggling over bags. Carla Jean puts her Prednizone in the trunk, and the driver gets tickets and a cart for the bags. Carla Jean's mother, who doesn't see her Prednizone, tells Carla Jean to set there and get tickets and a cart for the bags.

As Carla Jean goes to the station a man emerges from a car pulled up behind. He is a well-dressed Mexican of early middle age.

The mother is in West Texas and needs help with her bags. She is taking a bus to El Paso, where she is discombobulated by her son-in-law. The mother is wearing a suit and is going to El Paso, where she is staying.

Carla Jean is at a phone booth and receives a call from Sheriff Bell. He tells her a true story about Charlie Walser, which Carla agrees is a true story. He then asks her to give him her word on something.

We intercut Sheriff Bell's office on a day of celebration. Bell promises Carla Jean that he will talk to Llewelyn alone and not with anyone else. Carla Jean believes that Llewelyn needs help, even if he doesn't know it. Bell assures Carla Jean that he will not harm her man and that Llewelyn needs help.

A driving point-of-view approaching Chigurh, who leans against his Ramcharger, it's hood up, stopped on the shoulder on the opposite side of the road. The Reverse shows a man in an El Camino. Chickens in stacked cages squawk and flutter in the bed. The man slows and rolls his window down to lean out. "What's the problem there, neighbor?"

The man has pulled his vehicle over nose-to-nose with Chigurh's. He is rummaging in the car behind the seat. His voice comes out muffled. Alpine emerges with jumper cables and hands one pair of leads to Chigurh, who is born and bred in the area.

Chigurh is looking for an airport or airstrip to fly to the territories. He takes off his hat and draws a sleeve across his brow, thinking there are airstrips. He turns with his pair of leads to clamp them onto his battery. He turns back around to face Chigurh, still holding his pair of leads. Chigurh is looking at him blandly and asks if he can get the chicken crates out of the bed. The man stares at Chigurh, asking what he is talking about.

Quarters are fed in. Wider as Chigurh unholsters the wand at a self-service car wash. He sprays the spatter-pattern rust-colored stain off the roof of the cab of the El Camino. Water drums as he sprays chicken feathers out of the bed.

Moss is turning the key in his room door, a new vinyl gun bag slung over his shoulder. At the cut, the roar of a plane climbing overhead recedes. Out of it, a voice. Moss looks: "Hey Mr. Sporting Goods." A woman sunbathes at the central court swimming pool. A lot of hard light. "Hey yourself." The woman is pretty in a roadhouse-veteran sort of way. Her voice carries a flat echo, slapping off the surface of the pool. "You a sport?" Moss slings the bag into the room onto the bed and then turns and leans against a veranda post. "That's me." "I got beers in my room." Moss holds up his left hand to show the ring. "Waitin' for my wife."

The woman is looking for a man who will tell her he is married. She likes the man, but he is looking for something else. The woman is looking for beer, which the man will bring out. The woman laughs before the plane overwhelms it. The man knows what beer leads to, and the woman laughs before the plane overwhelms it.

Bell is driving. As he drives he refers to one side of the road, a commercial strip, looking for something. We hear the fading roar of a large airplane. The tock-tock of distant gunfire brings him look around. A beat. Another tock. The chatter of machine-gun fire. Another single shot. Sheriff Bell stamps the accelerator and hits his siren.