I just finished the director's cut and the last we see of him he's on top of the submerging sub and saying "oh *beep* We never find out if he survives or not. Did I miss something?
Anton Chigurh is dead and Spider-Man 3 is superior in every way to Funny Games.
Both he and Christopher Lee are in the final scene when the camera pans up and away over the ruins of the Douglas house but you have to look hard to find them. There were photos taken of Slim Pickens and Christopher Lee in tattered clothing wrestling with each other in front of the house because they featured in the official movie magazine. When i saw the original theatrical version however back in around 89-90 i assumed they had both drowned as well (Christopher Lee's character anyway) until the film's trivia started to circulate on the internet and so on.
There was a scene shot for the end of the film, in which Slim Pickens's Hollis Wood character caught Christopher Lee's Nazi officer. A still from this scene appeared in the September 1990 issue of Starlog magazine. Lee said: At the end of 1941, I'm the first Nazi captured in the US by Slim Pickens.
Ignoring all deleted scenes, Hollis Wood was mostly out of the submarine hatch already, so I'd expect he would simply float and drift back toward the coast.
Similarly, I fancied that Christopher Lee's character may have hit his head or something on the way down and suffered some kind of death, which we were spared (it's a PG or a 15 rated film) via the insinuation of his passing when his hat is flung over the side.
I figured he got away...but then again, one has to wonder if anyone will believe his story about being captured by Japanese who were looking for Hollywood, and then forced him to crap out a compass that he swallowed.
In a way, one also has to wonder about the Polar Bear Club girl in the beginning, if she told anyone, or if anyone believed her.
When I was little, every time I watched the movie I would worry about him when he says where's the damn beach? It wasn't until years later in the special edition documentary they point him and Christopher lee out at the very end in the yard fighting. Yes! he DID make it!
I don't think the ultimate fate of any character in this film is terribly important. Did the Polar Bear Club swimmer survive? What happens to Kelso? What does it matter?