Anton Chigurh

Anton Chigurh is the main antagonist of No Country For Old Men. He is described as a ruthless hitman who was one of the pioneers of the unstoppable killing machine genre.

He is portrayed by Javier Bardem.

No Country For Old Men
Chigurh is a hitman who has no remorse or compassion for other human beings. He is described by one character in the novel as a "psychopathic killer". His main weapon of choice is a captive bolt pistol, which he uses to either kill his victims or to destroy cylinder locks on doors. He also wields a suppressed semi-automatic shotgun and pistol (a TEC-9 in the film adaptation). In 1980, he is hired to retrieve a bag of money from a drug deal that went wrong, but discovers that a hunter named Llewelyn Moss has taken it already and has left town. Chigurh tracks Moss down to a motel using a receiver that connects to a transponder hidden in the satchel of money. However, Moss unintentionally tricks Chigurh into believing he was in the room next to his when he hides the money in the ventilation system. That room was being occupied by a group of Mexican gangsters who were set to ambush Moss. Chigurh brutally murders the Mexicans (one of them begged Chigurh not to kill him, only for him to shoot him anyway) and searches for the money, but it is nowhere to be found.

Chigurh finds out about a bounty hunter named Carson Wells who, like Chigurh, has been hired to retrieve the bag of money. Chigurh kills Wells after Wells tries to make a deal with Moss. Chigurh ruthlessly tracks Moss down until Moss is eventually killed by Mexican gangsters at another motel. Once again Moss hid the money in the vents, which was unseen by the Mexicans at the time of their ambush of Moss. However after his experience with Moss before, Chigurh knows where the money will be. He arrives at the scene of the crime after the police have left, retrieves the money from the vent and returns it to his employers.

Near the end, Chigurh pays a visit to Moss' grieving widow and debates whether or not to kill her, relying on a coin toss. After leaving her house, Chigurh is involved in a car crash, leaving him badly injured with a compound fracture of his left ulna and walking with a limp. He then offers money to a teenager on a bicycle to give him his T-shirt. He and the teenager create a sling for his injured arm and Chigurh leaves the scene before the ambulance arrives.