History Film / Darkman

* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Subverted. Strack ''tries'' to save himself by invoking this trope. Guess how [[AntiHero Darkman]] responds.

* NotEnoughToBury: This exchange during Payton's funeral:

* FightingWithChucks: One of Eddie Black's goons is twirling nunchucks as he advances on Durant's men to disarm them. A pair of nunchucks is also added to the pile of weapons taken from Durant's men.

* BadassBookworm: Originally a milquetoast personality, Peyton undergoes surgeries that remove the volume control knob from his emotions, turning him into a loud, violent rageaholic whose heart is as big as his temper and just as sensitive. He still possesses the know-how from his days as a scientist, though.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Darkman got his revenge on the criminals who ruined his life, but he is now a creature of the night who can never return to the normal world.]]

* BluffTheImpostor: Strack makes a reference to Durant's children, and Durant asserts that they look up to him. Strack then reveals that Durant doesn't actually have any kids and exposes him is Darkman in disguise.

* CaptainErsatz: Darkman is one of Literature/TheSpider, Radio/TheShadow and Franchise/{{Batman}}.

* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Subverted; Strack ''tries'' to save himself by invoking this trope. Guess how [[AntiHero Darkman]] responds.

** [[Film/{{Walkabout}} Jenny Agutter]] as the nurse that stabs Darkman while he's in therapy.

* MatchCut: One of the more brilliant: Julie watching the explosion slowly match cuts to her at Peyton's funeral.

* OrangeBlueContrast: The film's poster has it, as shown at the top of the page. Made before it became common in movie posters.

** Another one occurs when Peyton dons Durant's disguise and frames him for a robbery. He [[BreakingTheFourthWall stares directly into a security camera]], and then we seamlessly cut to Durant in the exact same pose and vicinity but in front of his doorstep, as he's being confronted by the police.

* PunctuatedPounding: Darkman shouts "You have been a bad boy," at Smiley and punctuates each word with a punch.

* MatchCut: One of the more brilliant: Julie watching the explosion match cuts to her at Peyton's funeral.

* AmbiguouslyGay: It's implied that Durant and Ricky are a gay couple. Durant attends a fancy soiree with Ricky and offers to fetch him a cocktail, which Ricky warmly accepts. Ricky sports a [[BlingBlingBang gold and gem-encrusted gun]] that might be a gift from Durant. After killing Yakihito, Ricky seems shocked, implying that it's not something he's done before. Afterward, Durant grabs him and tells him he's proud of him. After Ricky goes missing, Skip says Durant is looking for him and "likes" him. All of this suggests that Durant has taken Ricky under his wing as a lover, or at least a protege. It would also explain why Durant readily accepts the idea that Ricky is running away with Pauly. Durant is said to be married, but he also has no children.

** Julie's hands would have been ripped off if she'd gotten handcuffs stuck stuck after falling a dozen stories.

* DamselInDistress: Julie gets kidnapped in the second act turning point, leaving her to be rescued by

** He performs one in each sequel as well, always followed by an heroic monologue.

* BluffTheImpostor: Darkman's cover during one disguise is blown this way.

** Creator/TheCoenBrothers are seen driving Raimi's [[OncePerEpisode '73 Oldsmobile]] that Darkman yells "Watch out!" to as he's hanging from Durant's 'chopper.

* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Strack]]. The comic adaptation even makes it gorier with some impalement.
* DoubleTake: The hooker saw Darkman-disguised-as-Pauly, she looks back at the real Pauly's dead body, and back at Darkman, and she starts screaming.
* TheDragon: Durant is basically a hired crime lord to do all of Strack's dirty work. But with Strack's death, Durant is once again his own boss.

* DutchAngle: Used when Darkman is about to flip out on the carney to demonstrate his simmering rage.
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Darkman's hideout-slash-lab that appears on the DirectToVideo films, built on an abandoned part of the subway and including a [[CoolTrain computer-assisted mini-train for him to drive]]. The one he has in the actual movie is just a shoddy abandoned factory littered with cats.

* EvilLaugh: Most of the villains just love being evil. They'll crack huge grins and guffaw as they're firing guns, shooting rivets, or torturing scientists.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Amusingly subverted: Stack confronts Julie in his office about her stumbling on his evil scheme...and explains that she doesn't actually have enough information to justify him killing her, prompting this response:
-->"Well, if you're not going to kill me, I have things to do..."

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Darkman wants to be the one to kill Durant. And he did, [[DeathIsCheap more than once]].
-->”Keep back! Keep back! He’s MINE!”

** Dr. Thorne in the third movie states that he does have rapid healing, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology somehow as a result of the operation that killed his sense of touch]].
*** Alternatively, one could presume a [[FridgeBrilliance scientist working on revolutionary treatments for burn victims might have a trick to prevent infection.]]
*** 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 world's greatest vocal impersonator.
*** Also a talented ventriloquist as he somehow manages to speak coherently without lips.

* ScreamingWoman: A hooker screams as Pauly fell on top of a car in front of her. She screams again when she saw Darkman disguise as Paula sitting at a bench behind her.

* WholePlotReference: To ''Film/RoboCop1987'', even down to the locations.

** Durant as well.

%%* BecomingTheMask: Inverted.

%%** Used by both Durant and Darkman.

* LovesOnlyGold: Strack in the novelization. In a subplot ultimately removed from the film and existing only in this book, Strack is obsessed with investing in South African krugerrands. When his father disagrees, insisting the Stracks are in construction and real estate, not gold, Strack [[SelfMadeOrphan has him killed]]. Near the end of the book, Strack takes the "Love" part of the trope to a literal level when he has a literal mountain of gold krugerrand coins piled onto his bed and [[{{Squick}} has sex with it]].

* PetRat: Durant is one.

* PunctuatedPounding: Darkman beating the snot out of Smiley (replace each hyphen with a punch in the face):
-->"You-have-been-a-bad-boy"

* RetCon:
** Durant is shown to be killed in a copter crash. But in the second film, it merely left him comatose.
** In the third film, a character named Dr. Bridget Thorne is introduced and is stated to be one of the doctors who treated Westlake's burned body.

** The spinothalamic tract is stated to transmit pain and vibration. It actually transmits pain and temperature.
*** Also, this tract only conveys such sensory information from the neck down. Peyton should still be in considerable agony from his burned ''face'', which transmits its sensations to the brain via the trigeminal nerves. And we know those couldn't have been cut as well, because he can still open and close his mouth.

* AsYouKnow: Various speeches throughout the franchise. The most apparent is the speech given to the medical students about Peyton's condition, explaining the procedure that was done to him to eliminate his capacity to feel pain and the side-effects (inhuman strength, turning the patient into an emotionally unbalanced berserker) that ensue.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: For a SmugSnake in a suit, Strack actually puts up a pretty good fight against the superhuman Darkman in the finale. Justified in that Strack used to work construction and thus is familiar with maneuvering around skyscrapers, hence why he chose one as the place to lure Darkman to for their confrontation.

* BattleaxeNurse: A doctor stabs Darkman in the thigh while he's in therapy just to prove a point to the guided tour she's directing.

* BlingBlingBang: Durant's henchman (and possible lover) Rick carries a .25 automatic that is silvered with filigree work all over it.

%%* BuryYourGays: All of them, twice.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Averted since Durant knows Westlake well enough that he assumed he finished him off.

** [[spoiler:Creator/BruceCampbell]] as the final mask Westlake puts on at the end of the movie.

* CarCushion: Where Pauly ends up.

* DrJerk: The surgeon who performed the operation on Peyton. While she did save his life, it's evident she did it more ForScience than out of altruism, and sees him as more of an experiment than a person. She even callously jokes to her orderlies that she doesn't think he has much of a chance for rehabilitation or survival.

-->'''Durant:''' Now, let's consider my points one by one. ''(snips off a finger)'' One: [[TranquilFury I try not to let my anger get the better of me]]. ''(snips off a finger)'' Two: [[AtLeastIAdmitIt I don't always succeed]]. ''(snips off a finger)'' Three: [[FauxAffablyEvil I've got seven more points]].
* EvilLaugh: Darkman 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 adaptation of Radio/TheShadow, or it could simply be because Westlake hasn't really managed to [[AxCrazy hold on to all of his marbles]], since his trauma.

* ExpandedUniverse: There are two [[SoOkayItsAverage decent]] sequels, a very nice {{Novelization}}, which started a short-lived series by the same author, a somewhat lame ComicBookAdaptation, a really great ComicBook miniseries by Creator/KurtBusiek, a television pilot, a [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames crappy]] video game, and a comic book crossover with ''Franchise/EvilDead'', also co-written by Busiek.

** Durant has sliced off a ''lot'' of fingers. And keeps them from rotting and decaying.
** Also, Peyton vs. {{jerkass}} carnie. Ouch.
** During Peyton's mutilation, we get to actually see the skin stripped from his fingers when he's forced onto the electrodes by Durant's men.
* {{Gayngster}}: [[AmbiguouslyGay Possibly]]. There's a hint in the deli scene that Durant may have a thing for Rick, plus he has no kids and some of the fingers in his collection belonged to women.

* HairTriggerTemper:
** The side effect of the surgeries Darkman undergoes to allow him to do anything without feeling crippling amounts of pain.
** Durant has one too, once he loses his shit though. As shown when he was framed by Darkman.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice:
** Implied to be the fate of the {{Mook|s}} who falls down the building in the film's climax. The movie made a [[JustForPun point]] of setting up those rebars at the bottom.
** Also the fate of Strack in the comic adaptation, with pretty gory results.

* LighterAndSofter:
** The sequels, to a degree. Also the movie's ComicBookAdaptation.
** Although the comic actually showed Strack [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice getting impaled on the rebars]] after Darkman drops him.

* TakeThat: In the ''Franchise/EvilDead'' comic crossover, the main villain refers to Strack as not being worth bringing back.

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: A non-villainous example. One of the random citizens Julie mistaken for Peyton looks back at her. He may or may not truly be Peyton. His narration at the end (which is the page-top quote) makes it even more ambiguous.

* VillainHasAPoint: The monologue during the ending confrontation has Stracks giving a HannibalLecture defending his reputation as a VisionaryVillain, and it seems to hold up. A critical viewer might realize that even though he tried to brutally kill Westlake and essentially fights gang wars, he's also done a *lot* to benefit his surroundings - and, megalomania aside, is much more civilized than Peyton/Darkman, who thrives on a personal, bestial kind of revenge.
-->'''Strack:''' [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Who's the real monster here?]] I destroy, [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans to build something better]]! Whereas you? [[RevengeBeforeReason You're a man who destroys for revenge!]]

* WrongGenreSavvy: Strack is a bit too quick to assume Westlake is TheCape and therefore can't kill him. Not in ''this'' superhero movie, smartass...

* FacialHorror: Peyton's ''severely'' burnt face. Only the upper right part of his face survived, he has no lips thus fully revealing his teeth and part of his skull.

A decade before Creator/SamRaimi brought a certain [[Film/SpiderManTrilogy web-head to the big screen]], he created his own superhero in this 1990 film. It stars Creator/LiamNeeson as Peyton Westlake, a scientist who has invented synthetic skin that, at its current stage of development, will disintegrate after 99 minutes of exposure to sunlight. His girlfriend, Julie (Creator/FrancesMcDormand), runs afoul of gangster Robert G. Durant (Larry Drake) and his thugs, who have him nearly killed. Peyton, now horrifically burned, uses his own invention against the crooks as his new alter-ego, Darkman.

* KickTheDog: Peyton and Julie both get several swift ones. Peyton is obvious, but consider that Julie thought she'd lost the love of her life, and was finally piecing her emotional self back together...[[spoiler:and then her rebound guy turns out to be an emotionless psychopath, her former lover turns out to be insane and heavily injured, and at the end, dumps her because he's become a monster.]] Oh, and all of this got started because of an accounting discrepancy she was looking into as part of her day job. ''Ouch.''

* NotSoDifferent: The movie makes it pretty clear that the only thing separating Westlake and his nemeses is that he's bumping off "bad" people. The ThatManIsDead speech in the finale underlines the point.

* ArtifactTitle: The "Dark" part of "Darkman" doesn't really apply to anything throughout the first movie. At first the viewer is meant to believe that it refers to the fact that the cells used in the synthetic skins are at their most stable in the dark, but Peyton only ever uses his disguises in the daytime, limiting himself to his 99 minute time limit. The only time he operates in the dark is at the end.

* ArtifactTitle: The "Dark" part of "Darkman" doesn't really apply to anything throughout the first movie. At first the view is meant to believe that it refers to the fact that the cells used in the synthetic skins are at their most stable in the dark, but Peyton only ever uses his disguises in the daytime, limiting himself to his 99 minute time limit. The only time he operates in the dark is at the end.

* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Darkman's hideout-slash-lab that appears on the DirectToVideo films, built on an abandoned part of the subway and including a [[CoolTrain computer-assisted mini-train for him to drive]].

* ScreamingWoman: A hooker screams as Pauly fell to his death on a car in front of her. She screams again when she saw Pauly (Darkman in disguise) sitting at a bench behind her.