Line #1 YMMV/Darkman


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Did the carnie running the stand with the pink elephant ''actually'' tell the truth when he said Westlake stepped over the line? If so, while he was still a jerk about it, [[DisproportionateRetribution he probably didn't deserve to have his fingers broken]]. If he did lie and Westlake actually ''did'' win fair and square, while his fate is maybe still disproportionate, he's clearly an AssholeVictim who [[TemptingFate tempted fate]] and [[LaserGuidedKarma asked for some kind of retribution]].
2	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKW4smYxI6A The opening theme]]. Would you expect anything less from Creator/DannyElfman?
3	* CatharsisFactor:
4	** If FanonDiscontinuity applies in connection to the sequel, seeing Darkman [[spoiler:force Durant to crash and blow up in his helicopter]] is a cool, satisfying moment.
5	** Darkman [[spoiler:dropping Strack to his death]] also counts with how he's so confident he'll be alright only for it to totally turn on him moments later.
6	* CompleteMonster: [[ArchEnemy Robert G. Durant]] is a PsychoForHire-turned-crime boss who is [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduced]] having a potential obstacle's entire outfit executed before he tortures the boss by chopping off all his fingers with a cigar cutter. Later, on behalf of Louis Strack Jr., Durant attacks Dr. Peyton Westlake in his lab, setting him on fire, killing his lab assistant and ruining his life by turning him into the titular AntiHero Darkman. Durant thinks nothing of betraying and killing allies--not even when he learns Darkman tricked him--and when he returns in the second film, he shows himself as even nastier than before. He hires crazed scientist Dr. Alfred Hathaway to build a high-powered laser weapon to [[ArmsDealer mass produce to anyone who can afford it]]; has scientist Dr. David Brinkman beaten and murdered in order to steal his lab; and has David's sister Laurie threatened to get to Westlake when he discovers his archrival Darkman's return. Durant also has reporter Jill Randall killed for bringing his activities to light and showing an unflattering picture of him.
7	* FriendlyFandoms: Pretty much all fans of this film are Creator/SamRaimi fans, and there is an overlap when it comes to ''Franchise/EvilDead'', because of the horror elements, and ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'', for being a superhero film. There was even a crossover between ''Darkman'' and ''Evil Dead'' with ''ComicBook/DarkmanVsArmyOfDarkness''.
8	* HilariousInHindsight: A FatBastard who likes to [[FinGore cut people's fingers off]] [[CreepySouvenir and keep them in a cigar box]]? Are we talking about Robert G. Durant or [[VideoGame/DeadByDaylight Kenneth Chase]]?
9	* HoYay: Between Peyton and David in the second film.
10	* IronWoobie: Peyton evolves into this after becoming Darkman.
11	* MagnificentBastard: [[UnscrupulousHero Dr. Peyton Westlake]] is a scientist who makes a breakthrough on his synthetic skin research before being tortured and left to die by the psychopathic hitman [[ArchEnemy Robert G. Durant]]. Treated with an experimental procedure, Peyton becomes a superhuman with super-strength and [[FeelsNoPain immunity to pain]], while struggling with a tug on his sanity. Consumed with vengeance, he takes the mantle "[[TheCowl Darkman]]" and hunts for the men responsible for his injuries, systematically taking out Durant's goons, fueling Durant's paranoia, and succeeding in killing him. When his foe returns from death, Peyton continues his fight against Durant, taking down a weapons deal brokered by him, and ultimately kills him by using a remote control bomb. Using drug kingpin Peter Rooker's funds to improve his skin research, Peyton devotes himself to taking down Rooker after Rooker produces a drug made from Peyton's adrenal gland fluids. Peyton eventually kills his foe and manages to save Rooker's daughter Jenny from being scarred from natural gas by sacrificing his only batch of perfective synthetic skin. Although he [[HeWhoFightsMonsters sees himself as a monster]], Peyton seeks to help the downtrodden and punish evil whatever the cost may be.
12	%%* {{Narm}}:
13	%%** "Take it! Take it! Take the [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] elephant!"
14	%%** "See the Dancing Freak, just five bucks!"
15	%%** [[LargeHam Strack]] is no slouch in this department either.
16	%%*** "HIGH STEEL!"
17	%%*** "Look...look about you. It's all mine...because I built it! I BUILT IT ALL!!!"
18	* NarmCharm: Creator/SamRaimi's always had a talent for cultivating this, and any {{Narm}}-y scene can be laugh-out-loud funny and still not lose much, if any, of their dramatic impact.
19	* NightmareFuel:
20	** Peyton's mutilation, along with his hellish {{Disney Acid Sequence}}s that illustrate his SanitySlippage.
21	** The carnival scene, due to its CreepyCircusMusic and jarring, almost JumpScare-y cuts to extreme close ups on creepy clown statues and a Laffing Sal while Peyton is reaching his RageBreakingPoint.
22	** Darkman/Peyton himself is this. Yes, he's the main hero, but he's extremely vicious and shows some sadistic tendencies. Not to mention how he looks under the bandages...
23	* OlderThanTheyThink: Starting with this movie Creator/LiamNeeson had been playing brutal anti-heroes before he was known for his action role status in movies like ''{{Film/Taken}}''.
24	* OneSceneWonder: Creator/JennyAgutter (filming simultaneously with her role in ''Film/ChildsPlay2'' for Creator/{{Universal}} too) as the doctor in charge of healing Westlake's irreparable burns.
25	* SpecialEffectFailure:
26	** The film contains several very poorly-executed green screen and matte painting effects.
27	** When Ricky is lifted up through the manhole, a lot of shots use what's quite obviously a barely-mobile stunt dummy.
28	* SpiritualLicensee: To some hardcore WWII comics fans, this film and the sequels would be the closest thing to a film adaptation of the DC war hero [[ComicBook/UnknownSoldier the Unknown Soldier]], except the action would shift from the Second World War to TheNineties and TheHero was a generic crime fighter rather then a U.S. military soldier.
29	* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/{{RoboCop\|1987}}''. ''Darkman'' also features a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corporate]] VisionaryVillain BigBad whose [[TheDragon Dragon]] is a ruthless criminal with a QuirkyMinibossSquad at his service, and a protagonist who is brutally left for dead by them and seeks revenge after his body is subjected to non-consensual experiments that turn him into a superhero at the bittersweet cost of having to abandon his former life.
30	* TearJerker:
31	** ''They took my hands!''
32	** When [[spoiler:Darkman says goodbye to Julie, before disappearing into the crowd]].
33	* TheWoobie:
34	** Darkman. Peyton Westlake was an aspiring man of science working on a synthetic skin that can help those with scarred body parts, who gets his life ruined for being in the wrong place at the wrong time by the hands of a deranged criminal gang that sadistically mutilate and leave him to die in an explosion, ending up scarred on the inside and out into a MoodSwinger AntiHero.
35	** Julie. She [[ItsAllMyFault partially feels responsible]] for Peyton's demise due to her leaving the Belisarius Memorandum in his lab (even though in the end none of this would've happened if Strack wasn't a soulless businessman who resorts to murder to get what he wants) and in the ending despite her UndyingLoyalty to Peyton claiming that she still loves him and can make it work, he insist that he's far off into the HeWhoFightsMonsters deep end and disappears into the crowd.
36
37	----
38	!!Randall Boyll's Novels
39	* CompleteMonster:
40	** [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Louis Strack Jr.]] is the conscienceless CEO of Strack Industries and is ultimately the man behind Dr. Peyton Westlake's mutilation and transformation into Darkman. Strack is the one paying [[PsychoForHire Robert G. Durant]] to torture and slaughter his way through anyone who refuses to acquiesce to his corporate takeover of the city, from the mob outfit in the opening to Peyton and his innocent assistant. Strack has no compunction using Peyton's LoveInterest as a hostage after having dated her himself; in the same scene, he reveals he [[TilMurderDoUsPart arranged for his first wife to die in a plane crash]]. In a storyline excised from the film, Strack resolves his differences with his own father by [[{{Patricide}} paying Durant to murder him]].
41	** [[AxCrazy Sam Rogers, aka Smiley]], is a far cry from his film counterpart. Smiley, [[TeensAreMonsters as a teenager]], killed [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals many neighborhood animals]] and [[SiblingMurder his baby sister Sarah]], often digging a hole in the ground and sticking the victim's head in, watching them suffocate with a sick grin. Smiley would eventually join the ranks of Robert G. Durant, engaging in violence for the hell of it. He contributes to the torture of Peyton Westlake, a doctor perfecting synthetic skin, and helps set up Westlake's lab to explode. Unaware of Westlake's survival as the MasterOfDisguise vigilante Darkman, Durant's gang is symmetrically taken out. Smiley assaults Darkman's warehouse laboratory with Durant; kills his cohort Rudy Guzman, thinking it was Westlake; and is beaten and left to die with Peyton's laboratory rigged to explode. More than eager to follow Durant's orders, Smiley's penchant for violence, his willingness to shoot anything that moves, fulfills his own sick, twisted pleasures.
42	* NauseaFuel: At the end of ''The Price of Fear'', the novel's secondary villain, Alfred Lowell, sets Julie on fire in front of Darkman. Darkman responds by ramming his hand through Alfred's throat and out the back of his neck before pulling his arm back out, ripping Alfred's flopping head off, and bearhugging his body while aiming his neck at Julie so that all of the blood that gets violently squeezed out of the headless corpse will drench and extinguish her in a scene that is simultaneously both disgusting and ridiculously OTT.
43
44	!!Comics
45	* CompleteMonster:
46	** 1990 comic, written by Ralph Macchio (not [[Creator/RalphMacchio that one]]): [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Louis Strack Jr.]] is the conscienceless CEO of Strack Industries and is ultimately the man behind Dr. Peyton Westlake's mutilation and transformation into Darkman. Strack is the one paying [[PsychoForHire Robert G. Durant]] to torture and slaughter his way through anyone who refuses to acquiesce to his corporate takeover of the city, from the mob outfit in the opening to Peyton and his innocent assistant. Strack has no compunction using Peyton's LoveInterest as a hostage after having dated her himself; in the same scene, he reveals he [[TilMurderDoUsPart arranged for his first wife to die in a plane crash]]. In a storyline excised from the film, Strack resolves his differences with his own father by [[{{Patricide}} paying Durant to murder him]].
47	** 1993 comic, written by Creator/KurtBusiek:
48	*** [[AristocratsAreEvil Sanford Lowell]] is the [[DirtyCop police commissioner]] and the former chairman of the Metropolitan Club. In actuality, Sanford is revealed to be a SerialKiller known as Matthew Hopkins, aka "The Witchfinder", who [[KillThePoor preys on the homeless]] and has them burned at the stake, or kidnaps them so he can torture them in his [[TortureCellar personal chamber]]. Having done so to an innocent woman known as Grey Bess, Sanford later drugs Darkman and torments him within his torture chamber.
49	*** [[TheStarscream Claude Bellasarious]] is a member of the Metropolitan Club before betraying Sanford Lowell and having him [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]]. Becoming the [[KlingonPromotion new head of the Club]], Claude has a MadScientist resurrect the infamous [[PsychoForHire Robert G. Durant]] with the intent of having him kill Darkman to secure his power. Once Claude learns Darkman has survived his battle with Durant, Claude orders Durant to destroy a village of homeless people in order to find and finish Darkman, resulting with Durant and his men planning to leave no survivors.
50	*** [[ArchEnemy Robert G. Durant]] comes [[ResurrectedMurderer back from the dead]] as a cyborg after his first demise in the first movie. Durant reveals himself to the Metropolitan Club members and fellow criminals, ripping a man's arms off for making fun of his new body while openly stating his new hobby of collecting people's arms. Durant later kidnaps Darkman's LoveInterest and plans to tear her to shreds while [[ForcedToWatch he makes Darkman watch]] purely to hurt him. After breaking Darkman's ribs, he and his men raid a small village of homeless people to find and kill Darkman, ordering his goons to [[LeaveNoSurvivors leave no one alive]] and burn the place to the ground.
51
52	!!Video Game
53	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Bad controls, bad graphics, bad mechanics (the quality of the pictures you take affects how long the masks you make last, rather than how well they fool people), silly levels (a ''circus'' level), and AWinnerIsYou ending. At least the soundtrack was [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic amazing.]]

Context YMMV / Darkman