The coin toss scene in No Country for Old Men lasts about four minutes. Nothing happens. A man buys gas and the cashier makes small talk. And yet it might be the most terrifying scene in any Coen Brothers film.

What makes it work is that Chigurh is genuinely offended. The cashier said “I didn’t put nothin’ up” — he means he didn’t bet anything, he has no stake — and Chigurh treats this as a moral failing. How dare you go through life without putting anything up. The coin has been traveling 22 years to get here, and you want to treat it like nothing.

Bardem’s performance is all in the stillness. He barely moves. His eyes do everything. The cashier — played brilliantly by Gene Jones — slowly realizes he’s in danger without understanding why. He answered a question he didn’t know was a question.

The Coens strip out the score entirely. No music. Just the hum of fluorescent lights and Chigurh’s flat delivery. It’s a masterclass in building tension from nothing.

I think about this scene every time someone tells me dialogue scenes can’t be suspenseful. Everything is a dialogue scene if the stakes are high enough.