Great dialogue: No Country for Old Men (2007)

Chigurh stands at the counter across from the elderly proprietor. He
holds up a bag of cashews.

Chigurh
How much?

Proprietor
Sixty-nine cent.

Chigurh
This. And the gas.

Proprietor
Y'all getting any rain up your way?

Chigurh
What way would that be?

Proprietor
I seen you was from Dallas.

Chigurh tears open the bag of cashews and pours a few into his hand.

Chigurh
What business is it of yours where I'm
from, friendo?

Proprietor
I didn't mean nothin by it.

Chigurh
Didn't mean nothin.

Proprietor
I was just passin the time.

Chigurh
I guess that passes for manners in your
cracker view of things.

A beat.

Proprietor
Well sir I apologize. If you don't wanna
accept that I don't know what else I can
do for you.

Chigurh stands chewing cashews, staring while the old man works the
register and puts change on the counter.

...Will there be somethin else?

Chigurh
I don't know. Will there?

Beat.

The proprietor turns and coughs. Chigurh stares.

Proprietor
Is somethin wrong?

Chigurh
With what?

Proprietor
With anything?

Chigurh
Is that what you're asking me? Is there
something wrong with anything?

The proprietor looks at him, uncomfortable, looks away.

Proprietor
Will there be anything else?

Chigurh
You already asked me that.

Proprietor
Well... I need to see about closin.

Chigurh
See about closing.

Proprietor
Yessir.

Chigurh
What time do you close?

Proprietor
Now. We close now.

Chigurh
Now is not a time. What time do you
close.

Proprietor
Generally around dark. At dark.

Chigurh stares, slowly chewing.

Chigurh
You don't know what you're talking
about, do you?

Proprietor
Sir?

Chigurh
I said you don't know what you're
talking about.

Chigurh chews.

...What time do you go to bed.

Proprietor
Sir?

Chigurh
You're a bit deaf, aren't you? I said
what time do you go to bed.

Proprietor
Well...

A pause.

...I'd say around nine-thirty. Somewhere
around nine-thirty.

Chigurh
I could come back then.

Proprietor
Why would you be comin back? We'll be
closed.

Chigurh
You said that.

He continues to stare, chewing.

Proprietor
Well... I need to close now -

Chigurh
You live in that house behind the store?

Proprietor
Yes I do.

Chigurh
You've lived here all your life?

A beat.

Proprietor
This was my wife's father's place. Originally.

Chigurh
You married into it.

Proprietor
We lived on Temple Texas for many years.
Raised a family there. In Temple. We
come out here about four years ago.

Chigurh
You married into it.

Proprietor
...If that's the way you wanna put it.

Chigurh
I don't have some way to put it. That's
the way it is.

He finishes the cashews and wads the packet and sets in on the counter
where it begins to slowly unkink. The proprietor's eyes have tracked
the packet. Chigurh's eyes stay on the proprietor.

...What's the lost you've ever lost on
a coin toss?

Proprietor
Sir?

Chigurh
The most. You ever lost. On a coin toss.

Proprietor
I don't know. I couldn't say.

Chigurh is digging in his pocket. A quarter: he tosses it. He slaps it
onto his forearm but keeps it covered.

Chigurh
Call it.

Proprietor
Call it?

Chigurh
Yes.

Proprietor
For what?

Chigurh
Just call it.

Proprietor
Well - we need to know what it is we're
callin for here.

Chigurh
You need to call it. I can't call it
for you. It wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't
even be right.

Proprietor
I didn't put nothin up.

Chigurh
Yes you did. You been putting it up your
whole life. You just didn't know it. You
know what date is on this coin?

Proprietor
No.

Chigurh
Nineteen fifty-eight. It's been traveling
twenty-eight years to get here. And
now it's here. And it's either heads or
tails, and you have to say. Call it.

A long beat.

Proprietor
Look... I got to know what I stand to
win.

Chigurh
Everything.

Proprietor
How's that?

Chigurh
You stand to win everything. Call it.

Proprietor
All right. Heads then.

Chigurh takes his hand away from the coin and turns his arm to look at
it.

Chigurh
Well done.

He hands it across.

...Don't put it in your pocket.

Proprietor
Sir?

Chigurh
Don't put it in your pocket. It's your
lucky quarter.

Proprietor
...Where you want me to put it?

Chigurh
Anywhere not in your pocket. Or it'll
get mixed in with the others and become
just a coin. Which it is.

He turns and goes.

The proprietor watches him.