Tom Petty gazes at Kim Basinger's corpse.
"Mary Jane's Last Dance" is a 1993 song written by Tom Petty and performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for their Greatest Hits Album. It rose to No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Petty's first Billboard Top 20 hit of the 1990s. It also topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for two weeks. Its music video can be viewed here
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Tropes:
- Dies Wide Open: The very last shot of the video has Kim Basinger managing to resurface from the ocean water with her eyes open.
- Distaff Counterpart: You would be blameless if you immediately thought that the basic concept of a corpse being manipulated and escorted reminded you of Weekend at Bernie's.
- The Drifter:"Well she moved down here, age of eighteen,
She blew the boys away, was more than they'd seen
I was introduced and we both started grooving.
She said, I dig you baby but I've got to keep moving
on, keep moving on." - Drop Dead Gorgeous: The famous music video for Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance" features Kim Basinger's corpse receiving quite a lot of Male Gaze before Petty's character takes it on an actual date.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Kim Basinger wears what appears to be a Western style dress with a long sleeved, square neckline, lace bodice, and a ruffled floor-length skirt.
- Gothic Horror: The video's thought-provoking, quasi-Gothic style is reminiscent of the works of Tim Burton. The video however, was actually directed by Keir McFarlane.
- Hero's Classic Car: Tom Petty drives either a 1955 Cadillac or a 1955 Chevrolet (either a Bel Air or Two-Ten).
- I Love the Dead: The music video has similarities with the Charles Bukowski short story "The Copulating Mermaid of Venice", which is about two drunks who steal a corpse out of the back of a hearse as a prank only to discover that it's a beautiful naked woman.
- Lipstick-and-Load Montage: Tom Petty applies a shade of "Carmen" or "Gabrielle" brand of red lipstick on Kim Basinger while at the dinner table.
- Mummies at the Dinner Table: The music video tells the story of a mortician who takes home the corpse of a young woman (played by Kim Basinger), and has a relatively lovely romantic evening with her. The song's chorus features the line, "Last dance with Mary Jane."
- Music Video Overshadowing: Song — a bittersweet number about the end of childhood, the one that got away, or maybe just pot. Music video — A mortician has a romantic dinner with the corpse of Kim Basinger.
- Not Staying for Breakfast:"It was too cold to cry when I woke up alone
I hit the last number, I walked to the road." - Old, Dark House: The house that Tom Petty takes Kim Basinger to is a Victorian style house. It has a strong Maurice Noble or Chuck Jones style to it, from the tapered bottom and monochrome lighting.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: The image of Kim Basinger sinking into the water towards the end of the video may be a tad reminiscent to Ophelia's death scene in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
- Wight in a Wedding Dress: The image of the dead woman wearing a wedding dress in a room full of wax candles is loosely based on a passage from the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations.
- Zipping Up the Bodybag: When Tom Petty first unzips the body bag in the morgue, Kim Basinger appears to be wearing a holographic/iridescent shade of lipstick, a violet or blue based one. Meanwhile, the eye-shadow that she sports is an all over the lid color; a slight wash of a brown-y taupe.
