Anyone want to claim enough smarts to understand the end of this movie?

I assume you are referring to the scene where Tommy Lee Jones's character is talking about a dream he had of his father while sitting in his kitchen with his wife?

I need to see it again before I would even try. I loved the movie though

That's part of it, yes...I just wonder why they bothered to craft such an intriguing, engaging story just to have it just...end.

Because the film isn't about catching Chigurh. It's about how the world has passed a lawman like Ed Tom by, rendering him obsolete. He can't understand the criminal mind that would do something like Chigurh does. Thus, he is mourning his obsolescence. He is now an old man. He feels like he no longer understands the world, and also no longer feels safe in a place where a man like Chigurh could exist. Hence, the dream about his dad. He's longing for a time when he did feel safe, when his father could provide that safety; where when things didn't make sense, there was someone there to protect him. And thus, there is no country for old men like him.

Best film of the year, bar none.

"And then I woke up." The idea behind the final line of the movie was to convey a feeling of hope.

Best movie of the year hands down. Javier Bardem brings us the most amazing badass in movie history. He's gotta get the Academy Award for his performance. Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones were also both amazing. You'll be missing out if you don't see this movie.

Rather see I am Legend first.

Saw that one yesterday. Excellent movie!

Excellent explanation...but if that was the goal, I think they missed. It doesn't really make sense in the context of this movie and the Chigurh character.

An evil freak like Chigurh was nothing new or unique to the era in which the movie was set (1980). Evil people like him are always in the world (Jack the Ripper for example). What fits that explanation better would be those utterly ruthless drug gangs with machine guns that were emerging then. They're more of a peripheral part of the story here. So if Chigurh was a drug kingpin as opposed to basically a random serial killer, it would be a better fit.

Of course, not much of McCarthy's work makes sense. I read The Road and found it like one of those abstract paintings that some people see as incredibly brilliant while the rest of us think it looks like a five-year-old got loose with mom's oil paints. Who doesn't get it - me or them?

Well, Ed Tom is also not a character that lets what he's really thinking or feeling out into the open, and I think this was his way of explaining to his wife what he was thinking without actually saying it.

Anyway, I originally had the reaction of "Wait, what? That was the end?" So I went out and got the book, which has that last scene almost word for word. When you read it, it begins to make total sense, and upon reflection deepens the movie.