10 Movie Scenes That Unexpectedly Confused Audiences
9. Bell's Closing Monologue - No Country For Old Men
No Country for Old Men is anything but your typical crime thriller, with the Coen brothers intentionally subverting what casual audiences will typically expect.
Case in point, the movie doesn't end with the one hero left standing, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), taking down the relentless assassin Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), but instead retiring from the job and appreciating that he doesn't have what it takes to face him.
The unexpected final scene sees Bell detail two dreams he had to his wife, one of losing money given to him by his father, and another where he was riding horses with his father, who went ahead to light a fire in the dark and wait for him.
Bell then says, "And then I woke up," and after a beat the film abruptly cuts go black. The End.
For anyone who hadn't read Cormac McCarthy's novel - from which this closing monologue is faithfully lifted - the final scene is pure confusion.
Beyond being robbed of expected closure, the particulars of Bell's dreams and what they mean aren't necessarily easy to appreciate on a first viewing.
Thematically they're evidently referencing both the fact that Chigurh escaped with the briefcase full of money and that an aged Bell's death awaits him.
But coming at the end of a film that seemed primed to deliver an action-packed climax, it was the last thing many anticipated.