Second Pinch Point: At a Mexican hospital, Llewelyn is confronted by a much more cordial hired hitman named Carson. This isn’t so much a shift from reaction to action as it is an intensification of the stakes and the action for both characters. They have a shootout through the closed door and then out on the street-where both are wounded before Llewelyn again escapes. Midpoint: At another hotel, Llewelyn discovers the homing beacon and realizes Chigurh has once again tracked him. This is both an emphasis of the antagonist’s presence and a presentation of new clues about the conflict, since this is the first time Llewelyn has personally encountered those in pursuit of him. Llewellyn is able to take the money and escape. Chigurh kills several Mexicans, thinking they were the ones who took the money. Llewelyn has hidden the briefcase in the air ducts and moved to another room. He exits his Normal World and enters the “adventure world” of the conflict, where he is pursued by the psychotic hitman Anton Chigurh.įirst Pinch Point: Chigurh uses the homing beacon in the money briefcase to track Llewelyn to his hotel. Knowing his VIN will be traced, he packs up, sends his wife to her mother, and goes on the run.

There are no obstacles yet in his way, but as soon as he takes the money, he is involved inextricably in what is happening.įirst Plot Point: After going back to the shootout area to give water to a dying man, Llewelyn is chased and shot at by returning drug runners. This is where Llewelyn first brushes the main conflict. He tracks the “last man standing,” only to find him dead beside a briefcase of $2 million. Inciting Event: Llewelyn encounters the shootout area-strewn with dead bodies-in the Texas desert where a drug deal went bad.

No country for old men novel