Biography for
Anton Chigurh (Character)
from No Country for Old Men (2007)

Anton Chigurh is an emotionless, compassionless killing machine. His inability to comprehend human life is matched only by his ability to take it, as he does with ruthless abandon throughout the running of No Country For Old Men. Hired to track down drug money by a group of Americans, he quickly kills those who hired him and begins to search for the money on his own. He carries a cattlegun, which fires a cylinder from a hose which is connected to a tank of compressed air to destroy cylinder locks and dispatch a host of victims. He also carries a silenced assault shotgun. It is said that Anton Chigurh is now one of the most iconic villains of all time.

As for the victims who dont have some sort of reason to be dead behind them, he flips a coin to decide their fate.

Oddly enough, Chigurh is described as having his own set or morals, however twisted they may be. Anton does not kill at random or without purpose. Anton sees himself as a hand of fate; an instrument who exacts what is supposed to happen upon those it is supposed to happen to.

An alternative theory is that Anton Chigurh is really Ed Tom Bell performing the actions he cannot do within the limits as sheriff. He invents the fake personality in order to remove a cynical narcotics cartel from his district, and has to kill everyone that can expose his murderous actions. Chigurh is born when Bell gets himself arrested in another district by a deputy that does not recognize him, and makes sure the deputy calls the sheriff and tells about him before he strangles him. He kills a man and steals his car, and then puts the car on fire. He starts investigating his own actions, making sure the investigation goes nowhere. He uses the new identity to kill the narcotics dealers, but his plan spirals out of control when the hunter Moss grabs the money from the deal. It turns into a cat and mouse hunt where Bell must use any means necessary to conceal his hidden identity.

The moment in the film where this alternative theory is given a nod by the filmmakers is when Ed Tom Bell is outside the hotel room where Moss was killed earlier. He sees Chigurh inside the room in the reflection of the hole through the lock mechanism, and Chigurh sees him as well. But when he enters, Chigurh isn't there - because they are the same person.