As an idiom, the phrase "dead man walking" is most infamous as a call-out once traditional in American prisons; when the wardens would lead a man on Death Row down the hall, declaring "Dead man walking! Dead man walking here!" Dead Man Walking means
Your Days Are Numbered and you and/or the people around you know it. Now that prison wardens no longer use it (least not where they can be noticed), modern use of the term broadened somewhat to other types of doom, even benign "doom" such as loosing a job (which may actually be the original meaning, but so far no one's been able to trace it conclusively).
Does not have anything to do with
The Undead but is often used that way
Just For Pun. Compare
Your Days Are Numbered,
Whodunnit To Me,
Incurable Cough Of Death,
Doomy Dooms Of Doom.
Invoked by
Dead Star Walking. Sometimes used to describe a state in a game that's
Unwinnable By Design.
Examples:
Literature
- Stephen King's The Green Mile has the upstart warden Percey, who tries to carry out the traditional callout as he leads John Coffey to his cell in E block. The protagonist and supervisor tells him to shut up - by the time the story is set the phrase is becoming deprecated so it established Percy's character as a Jerk Ass.
- The title of the book and subsequent film and stage adaptation Dead Man Walking, Based On A True Story of a nun who became the spiritual advisor to a Death Row convict.
- In Kipling's Jungle Book a wolf who loses a challenge is called the Dead Wolf as long as he remains alive, "which is not long as a rule".
Live Action TV
Malcolm Tucker: [Ben enters a party] Oh, here he is. Dead man walking.
- In the third episode of Stargate Atlantis Rodney who was starving, because an Ancient device didn't allow him to feed, abused this phrase and its variants.
- An episode of Torchwood is titled "Dead Man Walking". In which Jack tries to resurect someone with a magic resurrection gauntlet against the warning of his companions. Viewers of the show up to that point will know why this was a bad idea (see The Undead).
New Media
- There's a website with a feature called Dead Bro Walking, that focuses on the Black Dude Dies First trope.
Professional Wrestling
- The Undertaker, in 2002 started using theme music with ominous bells and the phrase "Dead Man Walking". Fans remember it as the year he beat Hulk Hogan.
Video Games
- In Max Payne part two there is a minigame called Dead Man Walking in which you fight infinitely respawning enemies, trying to take as many as you can with you.
Western Animation
