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50 free No Country for Old Men trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Call it, friendo. This No Country for Old Men trivia quiz covers the Coen brothers' 2007 Best Picture winner from the drug deal in the desert to Sheriff Bell's dream about his father: Llewelyn Moss and the $2 million, Anton Chigurh's captive bolt pistol and coin tosses, the transponder in the case, the motel shootout in Eagle Pass, Carson Wells, Carla Jean's refusal to call it, and the ending that sent audiences out arguing. The making-of questions cover Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel and the Yeats poem behind the title, how Heath Ledger passed and Josh Brolin got in with a Grindhouse audition tape, Mark Strong on standby for Bardem, the haircut, Roger Deakins, Carter Burwell's near-silent score, the smoke from There Will Be Blood next door in Marfa, the eight Oscar nominations and four wins, and Bardem becoming the first Spanish actor to win. Easy questions for anyone who has seen it, harder ones for the people who have read the book too. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the film, the novel, the character and the people who made it, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed No Country for Old Men?
Joel and Ethan Coen
They also wrote, produced and edited it, the editing under their usual alias Roderick Jaynes.
Q 02Whose 2005 novel is the film based on?
Cormac McCarthy
It was the second McCarthy adaptation after All the Pretty Horses; he chuckled at a screening, which Ethan took as approval.
Q 03Who plays the hitman Anton Chigurh?
Javier Bardem
Mark Strong was on standby when Bardem's schedule looked like a problem.
Q 04In which year is the film set?
1980
The West Texas desert of Terrell County is the setting; much of it was shot in New Mexico.
Q 05How much cash is in the briefcase Llewelyn Moss finds?
$2 million
He is hunting pronghorn when he stumbles on the dead men from a drug deal gone wrong.
Q 06What is Moss hunting when he finds the money?
Pronghorn
His guilt about the dying man begging for water sends him back that night, which is how the cartel spots him.
Q 07What unusual weapon does Chigurh use to kill a driver and blow out door locks?
A captive bolt pistol
It is a livestock-slaughter tool; the sound was actually made with a pneumatic nail gun.
Q 08How does the gas station owner survive his encounter with Chigurh?
He correctly calls a coin toss
The camera creeps in so slowly during the scene that viewers do not notice it moving.
Q 09How does Chigurh track Moss to the motel in Del Rio?
A transponder hidden in the money case
Moss hides the case in the air duct and rents the adjoining room to reach it.
Q 10In which border town does the Moss-Chigurh gunfight spill into the streets?
Eagle Pass
Both are badly wounded and a truck driver is killed; Moss then crosses into Mexico.
Q 11Where does Moss hide the briefcase after fleeing to Mexico?
Along the Rio Grande
Carson Wells finds it but leaves it, and dies before he can use the knowledge.
Q 12Who plays the bounty hunter Carson Wells?
Woody Harrelson
Chigurh shoots him as the phone rings, then answers it to threaten Moss.
Q 13Who accidentally reveals Moss's El Paso location to the Mexicans following them?
Carla Jean's mother
Bell arrives to find Moss already dead, and Carla Jean weeps when he removes his hat.
Q 21How did Ethan Coen describe the brothers' method for adapting the novel?
One typed while the other held the book open flat
They cut a teenage runaway and much of Bell's backstory, but called it compression, not invention.
Q 22What was the film's budget?
$25 million
At least half was spent in New Mexico, where Las Vegas doubled for Eagle Pass and Del Rio.
Q 23Which film shooting nearby in Marfa cost the Coens a day of filming with its smoke?
There Will Be Blood
Q 14How does Carla Jean respond when Chigurh offers her a coin toss?
She refuses to call it
She tells him only he is responsible for her fate; in the novel she does call it.
Q 15What happens to Chigurh as he drives away from Carla Jean's house?
A car crashes into him and breaks his arm
He buys a boy's shirt for a sling and limps off, still free.
Q 16In the second dream Bell tells his wife about, what is his father doing?
Riding past him carrying fire in a horn
The first dream is about losing money his father gave him; then he wakes up and the film ends.
Q 17Which poet's line gives the film and novel their title?
W. B. Yeats
It is the opening of "Sailing to Byzantium".
Q 18Which actor turned down the role of Llewelyn Moss to spend time with his newborn daughter?
Heath Ledger
Garret Dillahunt auditioned five times and was given the deputy Wendell instead.
Q 19Which two directors helped Josh Brolin shoot his audition tape while making Grindhouse?
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez
Brolin was not the Coens' first choice; his agent eventually got him a meeting.
Q 20Which producer bought the rights to the novel and brought it to the Coens?
Scott Rudin
The brothers had been trying to adapt James Dickey's To the White Sea at the time.
The two Miramax-Paramount films went on to face each other at the Oscars.
Q 24Who was the cinematographer, on his ninth collaboration with the Coens?
Roger Deakins
He was nominated for the Oscar but lost, one of the film's four losses out of eight nominations.
Q 25Roughly how many minutes of music does the film contain?
16
Carter Burwell used Buddhist singing bowls, and several of those minutes are in the end credits.
Q 26What was used to create the sound of Chigurh's bolt gun?
A pneumatic nail gun
Sound editor Skip Lievsay called the film's near-silence "quite a remarkable experiment".
Q 27How many Academy Awards did the film win, from eight nominations?
4
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.
Q 28What national milestone did the Best Supporting Actor win for Chigurh represent?
No Spaniard had won an acting Oscar before
He thanked the Coens for putting "one of the most horrible hair cuts in history" on his head.
Q 29What distinction did the film hold among Westerns at the Academy Awards as of 2025?
It is the most recent Western to take the top prize
The others to win Best Picture were Cimarron, Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven.
Q 30At which festival did the film premiere in May 2007?
Cannes
It screened in competition; the Coens had won the Palme d'Or there for Barton Fink in 1991.