History Film / Deadman

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Mr. Dickinson, the boss of Machine. He seems to carry a shotgun around with him at all times and even uses it to threaten the three baddest bounty hunters in the west into taking his assignment. This was Robert Mitchum's final role.

* BladeOfGrassCut

* TerribleTrio / QuirkyMinibossSquad: The three hunters.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:William Blake, Nobody, almost everyone they encounter on their journey, Thel, Charlie Dickinson, and the three bounty hunters all die, leaving only Mr. Dickinson and a few very minor characters alive at the end.]]

* NiceHat: Blake wears a John Bull Top Hat for much of the film. At one point, Nobody puts it on and makes fake talking motions with his mouth, as if in imitation of a white man. The Makah villagers also have some very impressive headgear.

''Dead Man'' is an acid/existential {{Western}} written and directed by Creator/JimJarmusch, released in 1995. The protagonist, played by Creator/JohnnyDepp, is an out-of-work accountant from Cleveland named William Blake, though the name is purely coincidental. He goes to a frontier town on the promise of a job, but once there finds the position already taken. He gets briefly mixed up in a love triangle, kills the son of the most powerful man in town in self-defense and is forced to run for his life with a bullet in his chest.

While trying to evade the bounty hunters and marshals who are after him he meets Nobody, a solitary and erudite Native American who- upon hearing his name- believes him to be the wandering spirit of the English poet.

* CreepyMonotone: Creator/CrispinGlover rambles through a strange philosophical rant with little inflection.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Thel, disposed of after a few minutes of screen time to kickstart the plot.]]

* NiceHat: Blake wears a John Bull Top Hat for much of the film. At one point, Nobody puts it on and makes fake talking motions with his mouth, as if in imitation of a white man. The Makah villagers also have some very impressive (and authentic) headgear.

* NiceHat: Blake wears a John Bull Top Hat for much of the film. At one point, Nobody puts it on and makes fake talking motions with his mouth, as if in imitation of a white man.

* NiceHat: Blake wears a bowler for much of the film. At one point, Nobody puts it on and makes fake talking motions with his mouth, as if in imitation of a white man.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: The Pinkerton detectives.

!!Contains examples of:

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Crispin Glover's trainman, who warns William Blake that he's [[WelcomeToHell "on the train to Hell"]], and given what Blake finds there, it's [[MindScrew hard to say]] that he's definitively wrong.

* CreepyMonotone: Creator/CrispinGlover rambles through a strange philosophical rant with little inflection.* CultureClash:

Not to be confused with the Creator/DCComics character of the [[ComicBook/{{Deadman}} same name]], and ''not'' to be confused with [[Manga/DeadmanWonderland that one really]] {{Gorn}}y {{anime}} about an amusement park prison.

* CultureClash:

* CreepyMonotone: Creator/CrispinGlover rambles through a strange philosophical rant with little inflection.

* CultureClash: The status of tobacco. The white characters view it as a vice, while Nobody comes from a culture that views it as a sacrament. When Nobody asks, "Do you have any tobacco?", he's essentially asking, "Will you pray with me?" while the white characters read it as "Can I bum a smoke?"
* CreepyMonotone: Creator/CrispinGlover (who else?) speaks this way.

* DerailedFairyTale: See page listing.
* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:Cole shoots Johnny dead for telling him "Fuck you", and later kills and eats Conway just because Conway annoyed him by trying to ake idle conversation with him by asking what race his family was.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}
-->'''Trainman:''' I wouldn't trust no words written down on no piece of paper, especially from no [[MeaningfulName Dickinson]] out in the town of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Machine]]... you're just as likely to find your own grave! (shots ring out)
* EverythingTryingToKillYou

* ImAHumanitarian: Cole Wilson.

* MadOracle: The train fireman.

* PopStarComposer: Music/NeilYoung provides a soundtrack that's entirely improvised on electric guitar.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Thel, disposed of after a few minutes of screen time.]]

-->'''Wilson:''' Looks like a goddam religious icon.

* WomenInRefrigerators: [[spoiler:Thel, disposed of after a few minutes of screen time.]]

* RiverOfInsanity: The whole trip is a journey into the madness of the American soul. Blake must be put [[LongBusTrip on a boat]] to cleanse him and prepare him for the journey [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence to the afterlife]] as the surroundings get weirder and darker and more dangerous the further he goes into the wilderness. And then to top it off, there's the opening railroad journey, piloted by Crispin Glover:

* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Nobody fits this trope.]]

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Not to be confused with the Creator/DCComics character of the [[ComicBook/{{Deadman}} same name]], and ''not'' to be confused with [[DeadmanWonderland that one really]] {{Gorn}}y {{anime}} about an amusement park prison.

<<|{{Film}}|>>

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Mr. Dickinson, the boss of Machine. He seems to carry a shotgun around with him at all times, and even uses it to threaten the three baddest bounty hunters in the west into taking his assignment. This was Robert Mitchum's final role.

* CatchPhrase: Nobody's is, "Stupid fucking white man!" He even [[ActorAllusion gets to say it]] in [[Creator/JimJarmusch Jarmusch]]'s next film ''Film/GhostDogTheWayOfTheSamurai''.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Thel is an ex-hooker turned paper flower maker, and takes Blake in when he has nowhere to go. It turns out to be a bad idea for both of them.

* MagicRealism: Blake's trip to the ocean is basicaly a spiritual journey into the afterlife taking place in the real world. Even before Blake gets shot, the film presents a dream-like, otherworldy level of reality.
* MeaningfulName: William Blake, Dickinson, Nobody, etc.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The town of Machine is just as soulless of an industrial town as you'd imagine.

* PopStarComposer: NeilYoung provides a soundtrack that's entirely improvised on electric guitar.

* ArcWords: "Have you got any tobacco?"