Anton Chigurh
Encyclopedia
Anton Chigurh is the main antagonist of the Cormac McCarthy
novel No Country for Old Men
and the film of the same name
. He is portrayed by Javier Bardem
in the film.
killer". His main weapon of choice is a captive bolt pistol
, which he uses either to kill his victims or to destroy cylinder lock
s on doors. He also wields a sound-suppressed
Remington 11-87
semiautomatic shotgun and pistol (a TEC-9 in the film adaptation). Throughout both the novel and the film, Chigurh uses a coin flip to decide whether to kill prospective victims.
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 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 his coin toss; he kills her when the coin lands against her. After leaving her house, Chigurh gets 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.
UGO.com ranked him in its list of top 11 "silver screen psychos", while Empire.com ranked him 46 in their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters Of All Time.
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road...
novel No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men is a 2005 novel by U.S. author Cormac McCarthy. Set along the United States–Mexico border in 1980, the story concerns an illicit drug deal gone wrong in a remote desert location. The title comes from the poem "Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats...
and the film of the same name
No Country for Old Men (film)
No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American crime thriller directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. The film was adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name...
. He is portrayed by Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem
Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. In 2007 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as sociopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and has also garnered critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los...
in the film.
Background
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 "psychopathicPsychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
killer". His main weapon of choice is a captive bolt pistol
Captive bolt pistol
A captive bolt pistol is a device used for stunning animals prior to slaughter....
, which he uses either to kill his victims or to destroy cylinder lock
Cylinder lock
A cylinder lock is a lock constructed with a cylinder that a locksmith can easily unscrew to facilitate rekeying. The cylinder may contain any of a variety of locking mechanisms, including the pin tumbler lock, the wafer tumbler lock and the disc tumbler lock....
s on doors. He also wields a sound-suppressed
Suppressor
A suppressor, sound suppressor, sound moderator, or silencer, is a device attached to or part of the barrel of a firearm which reduces the amount of noise and flash generated by firing the weapon....
Remington 11-87
Remington 11-87
The Remington 11-87 is a semi-automatic shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms. It is based on the Remington 1100 and was first announced in 1987....
semiautomatic shotgun and pistol (a TEC-9 in the film adaptation). Throughout both the novel and the film, Chigurh uses a coin flip to decide whether to kill prospective victims.
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 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 his coin toss; he kills her when the coin lands against her. After leaving her house, Chigurh gets in a car crash, leaving him badly injured with a compound fracture of his left ulna
Ulna
The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm, the other being the radius. It is prismatic in form and runs parallel to the radius, which is shorter and smaller. In anatomical position The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm, the other being the radius. It is prismatic in form...
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.
Reception
Critics have praised Bardem's portryal of Chigurh, which won him an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for his performance. Chigurh has been added to numerous lists of greatest villains.UGO.com ranked him in its list of top 11 "silver screen psychos", while Empire.com ranked him 46 in their list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters Of All Time.
External links
- Anton Chigurh at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...