The bag was too big to fit in the vent – Didn’t Moss have it on him when talking to the “beer girl” at the pool?

Anyway, they would have been in a rush to leave – but it seems equally plausible tjhat they nabbe dthe bag and ran as Chigurh finding it later.

So…I think it IS still very unclear who got the money.

During his conversation just prior to him going back to the El Paso motel, Bell and the local sheriff, Roscoe Giddins, finish their coffee shop conversation discussing Chigurh going back to the Eagle Hotel to kill Carson Wells the day after he killed the desk clerk.

The last thing Roscoe says to Bell is: “Strolls right back into a crime scene. Who would do such a thing? How do you defend against it?”

As Bell is sitting and thinking in his cruiser, I think he makes the decision to go back to the El Paso motel believing Chigurh will be there.

This is Bell’s heroic moment or his moment of him acting upon his principles. Think back to this foreshadowing narration:

“I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job – not to be glorious. But I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet some-thing I don’t understand.”

The entire movie Bell has been trying to “understand” Chigurh or understand what he is up against and at this point I think he thinks he is ready to confront him, to “push his chips forward” so to speak.

If Bell didn’t think Chigurh would be at the El Paso motel, why would Bell cut the engine of his cruiser in the parking lot of the motel and why would Bell close his door very quietly with both hands.

In going back to the motel, Bell is unceremoniously killed. In fact, it is so unceremonious that it is not even shown (just like Carla Jean and Llewelyn).

The more I think about that fact, the more I like the movie, because in every other film, the antagonist is killed in some final, drawn-out battle. And in a lot of instances, when the viewer thinks the antagonist is dead, he suddenly appears again, only to be “killed again.”

The Coen brothers not only buck conventional movie-making, but completely throw it on its head by having Bell killed by Chigurh but not even letting the audience know Bell has been killed; making the audience figure it out on their own. The Coen brothers are basically saying that death sometimes makes no sense and it happens in the blink of an eye.

For example, have you ever watched movie where the bad guy has the good guy in his grasp or his sights, but something miraculous happens allowing the good guy to escape and then kill the bad guy? And, do you ever think how stupid and insulting that is and why didn’t the bad guy just shoot the good guy without saying anything and without some drawn-out dramatic dialogue?

That is why I love NCFOM. It shows that death sometimes makes no sense and it happens just like that (snap of the fingers).

Now, back to the question of whether or not Bell is killed by Chigurh in the motel. Think of how an intangible object or thing like a “bed” or “bedroom” is portrayed throughout the movie along with the action of “sitting.”

Bell is in the main room of the motel (dark), he then filps the light on in the bathroom (light), and when he goes back into the main room (dark), what does he do? He sits “heavily” on the bed. Him sitting heavily on the bed means that HE IS DEAD!!!

Where is Carla Jean when she dies? She goes into her bedroom and says after a brief conversation with Chigurh, “I need to sit down.” How does Chigurh respond, he nods at the bed and Carla Jean sits down (though not on the bed).

Where does Carson Wells die. Chigurh makes Wells go back to his hotel room. Both are sitting in chairs in his bedroom when Chigurh shoots Wells. Chigurh thens puts his feet on the bed to answer the phone.

And then there is the story Bell tells his deputy about the couple in California who were “renting rooms” to elderly couples and then killing them. Again, death and bedrooms.

One of the three Mexicans is killed while lying in bed and all three are killed in a motel room.

Earlier in the movie, Bell stops a flatbed truck and has a conversation about the tie-downs coming loose. What is in the “bed” of the pick-up? Dead bodies. When Bell asks about the man why he didn’t use the van instead, the movie is making a point about beds and being dead. Otherwise, what is the point of that scene?

Then, think of probably the the most memorable scene of the movie where Chigurh is having a conversation with the gas station proprietor. Out of nowhere, Chigurh asks the proprietor “What time do you go to bed?” Caught off guard, the proprietor answers “9:30″ and Chigurh says “I could come back then” meaning that that is when the proprietor is going to die. Instead Chigurh utilitizes the coin-flip.

Think also of the scene where Bell goes to see his uncle Ellis. Their conversation at the beginning of that scene is as follows:

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.

This is a strange conversation. I too think Ellis is dead and he just knows Bell is coming to visit without resorting to any sensory perception that Bell is on his way.

Then this:

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.

Boom!!! That last part, the family news is that Bell has quit (retired), in other owords Bell has died, and then Ellis immediately tells him to “sit down.” Being retired is “being dead” in the movie. Llewelyn is a “retired” welder, Carla Jean is “retied” from Wal-Mart, and Carson Wells is a “retired” Army colonel. The entire movie is leading up to Bell’s retirement.

The last conversation between Bell and his wife goes like this:

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.

I do not believe Sugar is in the motel room, there’s just no where to hide! And Sugar would NEVER hide anyway, he killed the cop at the start without hesitation or without offering him a coin toss. There’s no way he would sit down with him and offer him the coin toss, you’re starting to make things up in your head now. If it happened it would have been included, we aren’t that psychic. He couldn’t have ran out when he was in the bathroom as you would have heard him and where would he have been hiding to run out quickly? Have you ever stayed in a bare bone motel room like that?

There’s also no way the cop got the money or died. He never got the money as it’s not his character to steal, he is the honest old school type it’s clearly shown, and also he is the narrator and narrators never intervene with actions within a movie and effect anything. He also didn’t die as the movie is keen to show each distinct character or force. Good, Bad, Neutral. Each would have a different ending, not 2 dead. It would be fair to say good dies (mainly because of his greedy choices (money taking at start and money over wife at end, or because of his compassion- if he had turned evil and not gone back to give water he would have lived), bad lives (but is shaken in his beliefs when hit by car) and neutral gives up and realizes the eternal fight between good and evil is not for mortals to interfere with.

Don’t know who got the money, pretty sure it’s Sugar or there would be no point to the $100 note (remember when making a film, everything you put in front of the camera is for a reason, not just to take up minutes). It’s not the point anyway.

So that leaves the hotel room was either all in his head, facing his fear, or he was next door. Both have actual meaning to he story unlike the other ideas. The 1st means he realized he was too scared to face modern crime and hung up his guns and realized he was the title of the film, the 2nd is the fate door number 1 or number 2. But since the TITLE of the movie is no country for old men, I guess it was meant to be Number 1.