'No Country For Old Men' ending explained: What are Ed Tom Bell's dreams about?

No Country For Old Men is a thriller film released in the year 2007. Helmed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the film is based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of the same name. No Country For Old Men's cast ensemble includes Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. The plot follows the story of a Texas welder and Vietnam War veteran in the desert landscape of West Texas in 1980. Read ahead check out the ending of No Country For Old Men. 

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No Country For Old Men ending explained 

Towards the end, Ed Tom Bell sits at his dining table and shares his two dreams he had about his father with his wife Loretta Bell. Explaining the first dream Ed Tom Bell says, "Anyway, first one I don't remember too well but it was about meeting him in town somewhere, he's gonna give me some money. I think I lost it." Describing the second one, he explains, in the dream, he and his father ride on horseback through the night. Ed's father rides ahead of him carrying fire in a horn. In a calm voice, he says,

"It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin'. Never said nothin' goin' by. He just rode on past... and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. 'Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin' on ahead and he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up."

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With this, Ed's dream and the film both ends, leaving the audience with an unclear ending and scratching their heads. The first dream of Ed seems to refer to his past of losing the money. In the second, he refers to letting go of things and accepting his retired sheriff's life and his future.

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No Country For Old Men Trailer 

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