Darkman
Darkman is a 1990 American superhero horror film directed and co-written by Sam Raimi. The film stars Liam Neeson as scientist Peyton Westlake, who is brutally attacked, disfigured, and left for dead by ruthless mobster Robert Durant, after his girlfriend, attorney Julie Hastings, runs afoul of corrupt developer Louis Strack Jr.. An experimental treatment gives Westlake super-human strength and resilience, with the unintended side-effect of rendering him mentally unstable and borderline psychotic. Consumed with vengeance, Westlake continues his research with the new goal of hunting down those who disfigured him.
After Raimi's initial desire to adapt The Shadow was turned down by Universal Studios, Raimi instead chose to create an original superhero based on a short story he wrote that paid homage to Universal's horror films of the 1930s. It was produced by Robert Tapert, and was written by Raimi, his brother Ivan, Chuck Pfarrer, and brothers Daniel and Joshua Goldin. Artist Tony Gardner designed and created the elaborate makeup effects required to turn Neeson into Darkman.
Neeson's first action film in the main role, Darkman received generally positive reviews by critics and was commercially successful, grossing $48 million, above its $14 million budget. This financial success spawned two direct-to-video sequels – The Return of Durant and Die Darkman Die – as well as adaptations including novels, comic books, and video games.
Plot
is a scientist developing a prototype for a new "synthetic skin" to help burn victims, but he cannot overcome a flaw that causes the skin to disintegrate after 99 minutes. His girlfriend Julie Hastings discovers an incriminating document called the "Belisarius Memorandum" which proves that her boss, real estate developer Louis Strack Jr., has been bribing members of the zoning commission. When she confronts Strack, he confesses to the bribery because it aided in his plans for designing a new city and creating countless jobs. He warns her that the document could be sought after by high-ranking criminals for its value.Westlake realizes that the synthetic skin is photosensitive and light causes the material to break down. However, vicious crime-boss Robert G. Durant and his armed thugs invade Westlake's lab searching for the "Belisarius Memorandum", which Julie had left behind. Westlake is tortured, while his lab-assistant Yakitito is murdered. Durant rigs the lab to explode and escapes with the document; Westlake is horrifyingly disfigured by the blast and thrown from the building.
As a John Doe, he is brought to a hospital and subjected to an experimental nerve procedure to eliminate the pain from his burns. However, as a side effect, his emotions are amplified, triggering an adrenal overload that gives him enhanced strength. Westlake awakens from a coma, escapes from the hospital, and discovers his plight. Realizing that Julie believes he's dead, he re-establishes his lab in an abandoned building, hoping to perfect his synthetic skin to fix his scarred face and body.
Overcome with anger at his circumstances, Westlake decides to seek revenge against Durant and his thugs. He finds and tortures Durant's associate Rick for information before murdering him. Westlake begins using his synthetic skin to create masks of Durant's associates while developing a talent for impressionism. He poses as the various criminals, creating distrust amongst one-another that leads them to killing one of their own, Pauly.
Westlake recreates his own face as a mask and goes to Julie. He convinces her that he was in a coma and keeps his disfigurement from her, making up excuses to leave before the synthetic skin breaks down. However, during a date at a carnival with Julie, he loses his temper and assaults a worker before fleeing. Julie follows him to the abandoned building and realizes that his face was only a mask. After tearfully confessing that she still loves him, she leaves.
While talking to Strack, Julie reveals that Westlake is still alive. She then discovers the "Belisarius Memorandum" on his desk and realizes he was in-league with Durant the entire time. When Julie leaves, Strack tells Durant to deal with her and Westlake. Durant kidnaps Julie and has his cohorts storm Westlake's new laboratory. Westlake takes them out, blowing up his own lab to murder the final thug. Durant flees in a helicopter with Westlake dangling from an attached cable. Westlake attaches the cable to a semi-trailer, which pulls the helicopter into an explosive collision, seemingly killing Durant.
Impersonating Durant, Westlake meets up with Strack and a captive Julie at the top of an unfinished building. Strack sees through Westlake's ruse and pulls his mask off, revealing his disfigured face to Julie. A brawl breaks out, and though injured, Westlake gains the upper hand and drops Strack to his death. Julie tries to convince Westlake that he can return to his old life, but he refuses, changed by his quest for revenge and new vicious nature. He slips away from Julie, pulling on a mask and running into a crowd of pedestrians. As Julie searches for him, a disguised Westlake watches her for a moment before walking away. In his mind, he declares himself to be "Darkman".
Cast
- Liam Neeson as Dr. Peyton Westlake / Darkman, a brilliant scientist working to develop synthetic skin. After being burned alive and left for dead, Westlake adopts the identity of Darkman to seek revenge on those who disfigured him.
- *Bruce Campbell portrays a disguised Darkman in the final scene of the film. Campbell additionally provided ADR for Darkman and other characters in post-production.
- Frances McDormand as Julie Hastings, an attorney and Westlake's love interest.
- Colin Friels as Louis Strack Jr., a corrupt and haughty billionaire developer set on completing an ambitious construction project by any means possible.
- Larry Drake as Robert G. Durant, a ruthless and sadistic mob boss who works under the payroll of Strack.
Additionally, Raimi's brother Ivan and director John Landis have cameos as hospital staff, with Jenny Agutter as the doctor treating Westlake's burns. Other appearances include Joel and Ethan Coen as the driver and passenger in an Oldsmobile, Professor Toru Tanaka and Nathan Jung as Hung Fat's Chinese Warriors, William Dear as the limo driver and Julius Harris as the gravedigger. Bridget Hoffman appears as the voice of Westlake's computer system.
Production
Development and origins
Sam Raimi had long desired to make a movie about pulp hero The Shadow, but Universal Pictures would not give him the rights to the character. Raimi then decided to create his own superhero, with the idea for "Darkman" developing from a short story he had written about a man who could change his face to become other people. As the short story evolved into a 40-page treatment, the focus expanded to become about a man who had lost his own face, exploring how he would use a newfound face-changing ability to battle criminals as well as how relationships from before his disfigurement would be affected. The story drew elements from other works the scarred face and doomed love of The Phantom of the Opera, the tragedy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and pulp figures like The Shadow. Comparison was also drawn to Batman, with Darkman described as "a non-superpowered man who is a hideous thing who fights crime." Raimi was also inspired by the Universal horror films of the 1930s and 40s because "they made me fear the hideous nature of the hero and at the same time drew me to him. I went back to that idea of the man who is noble and turns into a monster." Despite the grotesque appearance of the title character, Raimi did not consider Darkman to be a horror story: "it's more a tragedy than anything else. Sure, he looks terrible, he looks hideous but really, what the movie turns out to be is the story of a man trying to recapture his lost love."In 1987, Raimi submitted the treatment to Universal Pictures; the film was greenlit with a budget in the range of $8–12 million.
Pre-production
Writing
The process of developing the treatment into a screenplay was difficult. The Coen brothers helped Raimi with the initial structure of the script, though they never contributed a full draft. Raimi initially hired ex-Navy SEAL Chuck Pfarrer based on his work on Navy SEALs. Pfarrer's first draft was followed up by drafts cowritten by Raimi and his brother Ivan; Ivan, a doctor, was able to add authenticity to medical aspects and scientific elements of the story.As Raimi and producing partner Robert Tapert progressed through various drafts, they realized they had a potential franchise on their hands. Universal brought in screenwriting brothers Daniel and Joshua Goldin to work on the script's fifth draft. According to Daniel, they were presented with various drafts and "lots of little story documents. There was just material everywhere; drafts seemed to go in many directions." Goldin focused on "pulling together a way of making the story work," with the brothers adding new lines of dialogue, new characters and bits of action. The Raimi brothers followed up with additional drafts, with the twelfth total draft becoming the shooting script that satisfied the studio.
Durant's finger collection developed over the Pfarrer and Raimi brothers' drafts. The director wanted a specific trademark for the character – one that hinted at a military background. Tapert later recalled Pfarrer was especially skilled at writing the script's villains.