The scene where Chigurh returns to take revenge on his employers for hiring someone else, mystifies me a little. When he shoots the guy at the desk the nervous account asks 'Are you going to shoot me?'..Chigurh replies 'That depends..do you see me?'..what does Chigurh mean by this?
shareI take it the very simple way. What sugar is saying is when the police show up and ask the accountant did you see him sugar is asking what he will say.
shareIf the managerial type could have gotten his gat out of his desk faster he would've summarily dismissed Sugar set the building on fire then have some no salt Margaritas.
shareDo you look into the face of death and live to tell the tale? If you "See" Anton, chances are, you are at the end of your rope. Maybe he gave him a Coin Toss....
The other way I view it is similar but flip flopped. If you DO SEE him, is that a sign that he'll let you live? In the sense that he would've killed him when he busted the door in, rather than what transpired.
I'm torn. Some days I see that smile, or smirk, whatever you'd like to call it and say he's definitely a dead man. One thing I know for certain is that it has nothing to do with the Cops. Anton never gives a *beep* about any Law Enforcement. He does as he pleases. So it's not an ultimatum. "Are you going to tell the Cops you see me?"... That's NOT what he meant. Can you escape fate? Cheat death? These are just a couple questions at play in the scene and the rest of the film
Some might say it means he's telling the guy to hush and not squeal, and he'll be spared. I don't think this is the case. It ends abruptly and kinda creepy in tone. But aside from that, if the guy answers honestly, he's going to have to say 'yes' because he's looking right at him. So Anton saying 'That depends, do you see me' is pretty much saying yes.
shareHe ain’t seen nothing, lol. Incredible scene.
shareI think he means that when the police come, for him not to say who exactly it was who killed the guy at the desk. At the end, he even says to the boys, when the cops come "you didn't see me, I was already gone".
shareYea um the sugar guy says that to the boys so they know that he won't choose their fate. But with everyone else he's making their fate & a choice to decide it.
shareIt would be uncharacteristic for Chigurh to let him live. He was a Terminator in his other murder scenes, never leaving a eyewitness.
Having a bit of an existential moment, having convinced himself that he is a agent of death/fate, asks the accountant if he sees him, the account doesn't really have to answer.
I don't think there is really a correct answer for this question, or the question of does the accountant live...which is in part why the movie is so great.
I wouldn't say it's uncharacteristic. It's inconclusive as to whether he kills him or not but based on the fact the man isn't really an inconvenience to Chigurh, I would say he at least has a chance of living. The other innocents who weren't an inconvenience to him or weren't standing in the way of his objectives were given the fate of a coin toss first i.e. the shopkeeper and Moss's wife. All the others were killed because they were a hindrance in some way. I know you could say he was an eye witness to a murder but I don't think Chigurh particularly cares about that. After all he could have just blown him away at the same time, when instead he starts speaking to him and asking if he sees him, which already makes you think he might spare him.
shareI think it's simple. As long as the accountant doesn't say anything to the police about Chigurh's description, he lives. So the scene would go. "That depends, do you see me?" "No, I didn't see anything". The guy lives. There is nothing to imply that the guy is killed. In all of the other killings, we either see the kill or see Chigurh's reaction after the kill to show that he did a kill. There is nothing after this scene. Which implies that the accountant is spared.
shareI agree with this because Chigurh proved that police can't keep him in custody based on how vicious he killed the deputy in the beginning. So, in agreement with others on this thread, Anton doesn't give a baker's fuck about the police. I, too, believe the accountant was spared probably thankful for every day after that. Kind of like the guy that would become a vetranarian in Fight Club...
shareI get the feeling that the accountant was left alive also. But playing around with the alternative for a moment . . .
Carson Wells asks Llewelyn, somewhat incredulously, "you seen him (Anton) and you lived?" [paraphrased quote]
This definitely implies that anyone who sees Anton, at least while he is at work, is a goner. Remember the women attendant who wouldn't give him information? The look on Anton's face implied he was about to whack her, except that he heard someone in the other room and apparently thought the risk of being seen wasn't worth the effort. So tying this all together, Anton won't take unnecessary risks and would have killed the accountant. The question was asked, but only as a taunt.
But Anton was a weird guy, in addition to being a psychotic killer, so maybe the accountant wasn't worthy of his attention, in "that way." So I'm guessing Anton let him live -- after the accountant answered "no, I don't see you and I didn't see anything that happened here."
He may have whacked the woman had someone else not been in the other room but he was trying to obtain information from her about Moss's whereabouts and she was stubbornly refusing, just like he was trying obtain vehicles from others he killed and they likely wouldn't have let him. If he wants something from you, the chances are you'll die. He didn't want anything from that one guy in the building, other than possibly his cooperation that he wouldn't tell authorities anything.
shareI think he wanted to kill the trailer park manager because she got an attitude with him. As Carson Wells said, "he has principles". The accountant was submissive and of no use to Chigurh, so he was spared. But that trailer woman was talking back to him and putting him down.
shareI don't think it would have ended well for her had she politely refused to be honest. The fact is he kept on trying to get the information out of her and he has no qualms about leaving a trail of death for the police to find. Though the fact there was someone else there meant it wasn't worth the hassle for him on that occasion.
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