"I'm everyone - and no one. Everywhere - nowhere. Call me... Darkman."
Years before Sam Raimi brought a certain web-head to the screen; he created his own superhero in this 1990 film. It stars Liam Neeson as Peyton Westlake, a scientist who has invented synthetic skin that, at this point, will disintegrate after 99 minutes of exposure to sunlight. His girlfriend, Julie (Frances McDormand), runs afoul of gangster Robert G. Durant and his thugs, who have him nearly killed. Peyton, now horrifically burnt, uses his own invention against the crooks as his new alter-ego, Darkman.Darkman was generally well received by critics and performed well at the box office, grossing almost $49 million worldwide, well above its $16 million budget. This financial success spawned two direct-to-video sequels, Darkman II: The Return of Durant and Darkman III: Die, Darkman, Die (in both of which Darkman is played by Arnold Vosloo), as well as numerous comic books, video games and action figures. Over the years, Darkman has become regarded as a cult film.
Or try to cheat him out of a carnival prize. Or... actually, as noted below, the surgery that keeps his burns from being unbearably painful had the side effect of giving him a lot of these.
Big Bad: Strack, in the first film. Durant and Rooker make up for the sequel films respectably.
Blessed with Suck: The treatment which made him super-humanly strong, agile, and impervious to pain also amplified his emotions to the point that he's in a near-constant state of uncontrollable rage and despair. Also, he apparently has no sense of touch.
It is explained that he received surgery to cut off his sense of touch to block constant pain from the burns covering his body. This in turn caused the brain to amplify his emotional responses to fill in the void left by lack of external stimulus.
Bluff The Impostor: Darkman's cover during one disguise is blown this way.
Disability Superpower: Indirectly invoked — Westlake didn't get his powers from the explosion, but as a side-effect of the doctors' attempts to treat him.
Disney Villain Death: Strack, and also Rooker, the Big Bad of Part 3, to some degree, as he fell to his death from a catwalk during his fight with Darkman... into a giant shredder.
The Dragon: Robert G. Durant, at least for Strack. Durant is basically a hired crime lord to do all of Strack's dirty work.
The fate of Rick in the Novelization and Comic Book Adaptation, after seeing Darkman's face and being interrogated by him. Possibly also his fate in the original story concept, as novelizations tend to be based on such things.
Evil Laugh: Westlake tends to emit a villainous cackle whenever he kills gangsters, threatens to kill gangsters or contemplates killing gangsters. It could be because Raimi originally intended to make an adaption of The Shadow, or it could simply be because Westlake hasn't really managed to hold on to all of his marbles, since his trauma.
This is extended in the second movie by further research and development. Oddly, the time limit is back to 99 minutes in the third movie with no explanation.
Also extended in the first movie simply by keeping the artificial skin covered and out of the light until he absolutely needs to.
Apparently, the third movie was meant to come out before the second or something along those lines, and they just released them in the wrong order.
Better explained that Durant's attack in the first sequel destroyed the work of Darkman's ally, resulting in his being force to use the previous formula of his later masks.
The villains in the sequels are under the assumptions that Darkman doesn't kill. Darkman himself also seems to be under that delusion that he doesn't kill bad-guys, even though he lethally disposes of every villain he comes across.
I Lied: Used by both Durant and Darkman in the first movie.
Not so Different: The first movie makes it pretty clear that the only thing separating Westlake and his nemeses is that he's bumping off "bad" people. The That Man Is Dead speech in the finale underlines the point.
One Episode Wonder: The abandoned TV pilot is one of finest and most accurate examples of superheroics on live-action television.
Psycho Serum: Darkman III's Big Bad creates one out of Darkman's DNA and injects it into his mooks. It gives them all of Darkman's enhanced strength, but also gives them Darkman's bouts of total rage.
And that in itself is a case of Did Not Do the Research; everything "superhuman" about Darkman is a result of extensive surgery to his nervous system. That isn't something that would carry over to DNA samples, at all.
The serum was stated to realign the nervous system, in effect chemically replicating the surgery performed on Westlake.
Required Secondary Powers: Since Darkman is missing roughly 40% of his skin, he pretty much needs a Healing Factor, or he'd keel over from various horrible diseases and the injuries he sustains in battle.
For that matter, he could be wearing synthetic skin under his clothes, where it'd be protected from light and will last longer. He leaves his face and hands uncovered between disguises because the former would have to be exposed to light if he's to be able to see, and the latter would wear through as he handles objects.
Westlake also seems to be the worlds greatest vocal impersonator.
Also a talented ventriloquist as he somehow manages to speak coherently without lips.
Retcon: Durant was killed in the copter crash in the first film. But in the second film, it merely left him comatose. In the final film, a villain named Dr. Bridget Thorne was one of the doctors who treated Westlake's burned body in the first film.
Save the Day, Turn Away: Dr. Westlake won the Pink Elephant, defeated the villains, and saved the girl. But due to his transformation into a hideous berserker of faceless justice, Peyton must abandon his desire of a life with Julie. He must walk the path of the hero alone, in the darkness.
He performs one in each sequel as well, always followed by an heroic monologue.
Suicidal Overconfidence: Played with. Strack actually chooses his ground against Peyton quite well in the first movie, as he has experience in skyscraper construction.
Super Hero: a rare example that is native to the film medium.
Take That: In the Evil Dead comic crossover, the main villain refers to Rooker as not being worth bringing back.
Tragic Hero: Darkman is probably one of the best examples.
Trailers Always Spoil: Not only does it show exactly what is going to happen to the helicopter that chases after Darkman, it also clearly depicts Strack as the Man Behind the Man, which is treated as a twist in the actual film.
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