Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
Encyclopedia
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead is a 1995 crime film
directed by Gary Fleder
from a screenplay written by Scott Rosenberg
. The film features an ensemble cast
that includes Andy García
, Christopher Lloyd
, Steve Buscemi
, Christopher Walken
, Fairuza Balk
, and Gabrielle Anwar
.
The film's title comes from a Warren Zevon
song of the same name, recorded on his 1991 album Mr. Bad Example
, which he allowed under the condition that the song be played during the end credits. The lead character's name, "Jimmy the Saint," comes from the Bruce Springsteen
song "Lost in the Flood" from the album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
It is cited as one of the several Pulp Fiction
's clones.
The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard
section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival
.
) is a dapper ex-gangster living in Denver. Once known as "the bitch's bastard" in Denver's crime scene, Jimmy has left the criminal world, attempting to "go straight" with his business "Afterlife Advice", where dying people videotape messages for loved ones. Jimmy's business isn't doing well and he is in debt to a local loan shark known as "New Orleans Sal." What Jimmy doesn't know is that his former boss, the local crime lord known as "The Man With the Plan" (Christopher Walken
) has bought up his debt in order to command a favor from him.
In exchange for forgiving Jimmy's debt, The Man With The Plan wants Jimmy to lead a crew on one last job. The Man With The Plan was rendered a quadriplegic
some years ago in the wake of a failed attempt on his life. Left bitter and immobilized, The Man With The Plan is interested in helping his son, Bernard, a burgeoning pedophile
who is still in love with an ex-girlfriend. The Man With The Plan believes that Bernard will be able to resume a relationship with this woman once her new boyfriend is out of the picture, and wants Jimmy to lead a crew in scaring off the man. They are to beat him up so that he dumps Bernard's ex. Initially reluctant, Jimmy takes the job when The Man With The Plan bribes and threatens him.
Jimmy puts together a team made up of several old acquaintances from his criminal days, many of whom have also tried to leave the criminal life, with generally less than satisfying results. This team includes Franchise (William Forsythe
), a grizzled biker, Easy Wind (Bill Nunn
), an easy-going African American
, and Pieces (Christopher Lloyd
), a projectionist who has an unidentified disease which causes his digits to fall off. The last member of the team is Critical Bill (Treat Williams
), who works in a mortuary where he uses corpses as punching bags in order to "keep my powder dry."
The plan is to have Pieces and Critical Bill pose as Denver police officers. They will pull their target over on the highway and, under the pretext of some sort of traffic violation, take him to a waiting trailer where Jimmy and Franchise will administer a beating. The plan begins to go wrong when their target turns out to be more observant and spirited than anticipated. He immediately becomes suspicious of Pieces and Bill's identity as police officers and begins to ridicule them. This enrages Critical Bill, who pulls out a knife and stabs the man in the throat. At this point, the commotion rouses Bernard's ex-girlfriend, who had been sleeping in the back of the target's van. She comes out and screams when she sees her boyfriend's dead body. Startled, Pieces shoots her dead with a handgun.
The group realizes that they are in a terrible spot. What was supposed to have been a simple beating has ended up with them having two dead bodies on their hands, one of them someone looked on fondly by The Man With The Plan. They dispose of the bodies and Jimmy goes to see their employer. The Man With The Plan is furious at the outcome of their botched mission. He informs Jimmy that out of consideration for their past relationship he will allow him to live. However, the other members of the team have been sentenced to "buckwheats", in the slang of the film assassination in a particularly gruesome and painful manner (an example is given in which the person is shot up the anus
).
The group comes to terms with their own impending deaths as they are stalked
by a mild-mannered, yet deadly hitman known as Mr. Shhh (Steve Buscemi
). Pieces accepts his fate, to which Shhh provides a quick death. Easy Wind goes into hiding with a gang lord named Baby Sinister (Glenn Plummer
), but is given up after Shhh infiltrates and kills most of Sinister's entourage. Franchise attempts to flee with his family but is killed. Shhh finally locates a shut in Critical Bill, but is ambushed in Bill's home and the two kill each other. In the wake of Mr. Shhh's death the contract falls to a trio of Mexican brothers, who attempt to track down Jimmy. In his last days, Jimmy says goodbye to a woman Dagney (Gabrielle Anwar
), he had fallen in love with. Knowing that he will most likely be killed, he murders Bernard for all the misery he indirectly brought upon the group. He also has sex with Lucinda (Fairuza Balk
), a prostitute with whom he has long been acquainted, in order to fulfill her wish of having a baby. As he narrates in an Afterlife Advice video that he leaves as a farewell message for his unborn child, Jimmy realized that the only way he could exact revenge on The Man With The Plan is through his son. The trio of killers catch up to Jimmy but he takes his death with grace.
The man who had been narrating Jimmy's tale notes that while he died he still beat The Man With The Plan as he took away his only legacy; as such the crime boss never made another criminal act as he was completely broken. In the end, Jimmy and his dead friends are shown on a boat in the ocean, happily having "boat drinks".
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
directed by Gary Fleder
Gary Fleder
Gary Fleder is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His most recently completed film, The Express, is based on the true story of football player Ernie Davis, and was released by Universal Pictures in October 2008....
from a screenplay written by Scott Rosenberg
Scott Rosenberg
Scott Rosenberg is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer.- Biography :Born in Needham, Massachusetts in 1963, Rosenberg received a Bachelor's Degree from Boston University. He earned his MFA from UCLA...
. The film features an ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
that includes Andy García
Andy García
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez , professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman...
, Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
, Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
, Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Alejandra Balk is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz...
, and Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar is an English actress. She is known for her role as Margaret Tudor on The Tudors, for dancing the tango with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and for her current role as Fiona Glenanne on USA's Burn Notice.- Early life :...
.
The film's title comes from a Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
song of the same name, recorded on his 1991 album Mr. Bad Example
Mr. Bad Example
Mr. Bad Example is an album by American singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, released in 1991. .-Track listing:All tracks composed by Warren Zevon, except where indicated.#"Finishing Touches" – 4:05#"Suzie Lightning" – 4:04...
, which he allowed under the condition that the song be played during the end credits. The lead character's name, "Jimmy the Saint," comes from the Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
song "Lost in the Flood" from the album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is the first studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1973. It only sold about 25,000 copies in the first year of its release, but had significant critical impact...
It is cited as one of the several Pulp Fiction
Pulp fiction
Pulp fiction may refer to:* pulp magazines, short stories presented in a magazine format, printed on cheaply made wood-pulp paper* Pulp Fiction, a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino...
's clones.
The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival
1995 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Jeanne Moreau *Gianni Amelio *Jean-Claude Brialy *Nadine Gordimer *Gaston Kabore *Michele-Ray Gavras *Emilio Garcia Riera *Philippe Rousselot *John Waters...
.
Plot
Jimmy "The Saint" Tosnia (Andy GarcíaAndy García
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez , professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman...
) is a dapper ex-gangster living in Denver. Once known as "the bitch's bastard" in Denver's crime scene, Jimmy has left the criminal world, attempting to "go straight" with his business "Afterlife Advice", where dying people videotape messages for loved ones. Jimmy's business isn't doing well and he is in debt to a local loan shark known as "New Orleans Sal." What Jimmy doesn't know is that his former boss, the local crime lord known as "The Man With the Plan" (Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
) has bought up his debt in order to command a favor from him.
In exchange for forgiving Jimmy's debt, The Man With The Plan wants Jimmy to lead a crew on one last job. The Man With The Plan was rendered a quadriplegic
Quadriplegia
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is paralysis caused by illness or injury to a human that results in the partial or total loss of use of all their limbs and torso; paraplegia is similar but does not affect the arms...
some years ago in the wake of a failed attempt on his life. Left bitter and immobilized, The Man With The Plan is interested in helping his son, Bernard, a burgeoning pedophile
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
who is still in love with an ex-girlfriend. The Man With The Plan believes that Bernard will be able to resume a relationship with this woman once her new boyfriend is out of the picture, and wants Jimmy to lead a crew in scaring off the man. They are to beat him up so that he dumps Bernard's ex. Initially reluctant, Jimmy takes the job when The Man With The Plan bribes and threatens him.
Jimmy puts together a team made up of several old acquaintances from his criminal days, many of whom have also tried to leave the criminal life, with generally less than satisfying results. This team includes Franchise (William Forsythe
William Forsythe (actor)
William Forsythe is an American actor, known for playing "tough guy" roles. He is also a writer, and has several short stories that are set to be published.-Early life:...
), a grizzled biker, Easy Wind (Bill Nunn
Bill Nunn
-Early life:Nunn was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of William G. Nunn, Jr., a well-known journalist and editor at the Pittsburgh Courier, as well as an NFL scout. Nunn's paternal grandfather was the first African American football player at George Westinghouse High School.Nunn was a...
), an easy-going African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
, and Pieces (Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
), a projectionist who has an unidentified disease which causes his digits to fall off. The last member of the team is Critical Bill (Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
), who works in a mortuary where he uses corpses as punching bags in order to "keep my powder dry."
The plan is to have Pieces and Critical Bill pose as Denver police officers. They will pull their target over on the highway and, under the pretext of some sort of traffic violation, take him to a waiting trailer where Jimmy and Franchise will administer a beating. The plan begins to go wrong when their target turns out to be more observant and spirited than anticipated. He immediately becomes suspicious of Pieces and Bill's identity as police officers and begins to ridicule them. This enrages Critical Bill, who pulls out a knife and stabs the man in the throat. At this point, the commotion rouses Bernard's ex-girlfriend, who had been sleeping in the back of the target's van. She comes out and screams when she sees her boyfriend's dead body. Startled, Pieces shoots her dead with a handgun.
The group realizes that they are in a terrible spot. What was supposed to have been a simple beating has ended up with them having two dead bodies on their hands, one of them someone looked on fondly by The Man With The Plan. They dispose of the bodies and Jimmy goes to see their employer. The Man With The Plan is furious at the outcome of their botched mission. He informs Jimmy that out of consideration for their past relationship he will allow him to live. However, the other members of the team have been sentenced to "buckwheats", in the slang of the film assassination in a particularly gruesome and painful manner (an example is given in which the person is shot up the anus
Anus
The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest,...
).
The group comes to terms with their own impending deaths as they are stalked
Stalking
Stalking is a term commonly used to refer to unwanted and obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person and/or monitoring them via the internet...
by a mild-mannered, yet deadly hitman known as Mr. Shhh (Steve Buscemi
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
). Pieces accepts his fate, to which Shhh provides a quick death. Easy Wind goes into hiding with a gang lord named Baby Sinister (Glenn Plummer
Glenn Plummer
Glenn E. Plummer is an American film and television actor.Plummer was born in Richmond, California. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, primarily in supporting roles or small bit parts, such as High Top in Colors. His prominent roles came in the films Menace II Society, Speed,...
), but is given up after Shhh infiltrates and kills most of Sinister's entourage. Franchise attempts to flee with his family but is killed. Shhh finally locates a shut in Critical Bill, but is ambushed in Bill's home and the two kill each other. In the wake of Mr. Shhh's death the contract falls to a trio of Mexican brothers, who attempt to track down Jimmy. In his last days, Jimmy says goodbye to a woman Dagney (Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar
Gabrielle Anwar is an English actress. She is known for her role as Margaret Tudor on The Tudors, for dancing the tango with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and for her current role as Fiona Glenanne on USA's Burn Notice.- Early life :...
), he had fallen in love with. Knowing that he will most likely be killed, he murders Bernard for all the misery he indirectly brought upon the group. He also has sex with Lucinda (Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Alejandra Balk is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz...
), a prostitute with whom he has long been acquainted, in order to fulfill her wish of having a baby. As he narrates in an Afterlife Advice video that he leaves as a farewell message for his unborn child, Jimmy realized that the only way he could exact revenge on The Man With The Plan is through his son. The trio of killers catch up to Jimmy but he takes his death with grace.
The man who had been narrating Jimmy's tale notes that while he died he still beat The Man With The Plan as he took away his only legacy; as such the crime boss never made another criminal act as he was completely broken. In the end, Jimmy and his dead friends are shown on a boat in the ocean, happily having "boat drinks".
Cast
- Andy GarciaAndy GarcíaAndrés Arturo García Menéndez , professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman...
- Jimmy 'The Saint' Tosnia - Christopher LloydChristopher LloydChristopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
- Pieces - William ForsytheWilliam Forsythe (actor)William Forsythe is an American actor, known for playing "tough guy" roles. He is also a writer, and has several short stories that are set to be published.-Early life:...
- Franchise - Bill NunnBill Nunn-Early life:Nunn was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of William G. Nunn, Jr., a well-known journalist and editor at the Pittsburgh Courier, as well as an NFL scout. Nunn's paternal grandfather was the first African American football player at George Westinghouse High School.Nunn was a...
- Easy Wind - Treat WilliamsTreat WilliamsRichard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
- Critical Bill - Jack WardenJack WardenJack Warden was an American character actor.-Early life:Warden was born John Warden Lebzelter in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Laura M. and John Warden Lebzelter, who was an engineer and technician. He was of Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry...
- Joe Heff - Steve BuscemiSteve BuscemiSteven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
- Mister Shhh - Fairuza BalkFairuza BalkFairuza Alejandra Balk is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz...
- Lucinda - Gabrielle AnwarGabrielle AnwarGabrielle Anwar is an English actress. She is known for her role as Margaret Tudor on The Tudors, for dancing the tango with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman and for her current role as Fiona Glenanne on USA's Burn Notice.- Early life :...
- Dagney - Christopher WalkenChristopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
- The Man With The Plan - Bill CobbsBill CobbsWilbert "Bill" Cobbs is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.-Life and career:...
- Malt - Marshall BellMarshall BellArchibald Marshall Bell is an American actor. He has appeared in many character roles in movies and television. His best-known movies are probably A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge , Stand by Me , Twins and Total Recall .-Early life:He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he lived until...
- Lt. Atwater - Glenn PlummerGlenn PlummerGlenn E. Plummer is an American film and television actor.Plummer was born in Richmond, California. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, primarily in supporting roles or small bit parts, such as High Top in Colors. His prominent roles came in the films Menace II Society, Speed,...
- Baby Sinister - Don Stark - Gus
- Willie GarsonWillie GarsonWillie Garson is an American character actor. He has appeared in over 50 movies, usually playing minor roles...
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- Don CheadleDon CheadleDonald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. is an American film actor and producer. Cheadle rose to prominence in the late 1990s and the early 2000s for his supporting roles in the Steven Soderbergh-directed films Out of Sight, Traffic, and Ocean's Eleven...
- Rooster - Tiny Lister - House
- Wiley HarkerWiley HarkerJames "Wiley" Harker , was an american character actor who portrayed Crane Tolliver in the soap opera General Hospital in 1983. He also played Justice Harold Webb in First Monday in October .-External links:*...
- Boris Carlotti - Bill BolenderBill BolenderBill Bolender is an American actor and artist.He has appeared in many popular films including RoboCop 2, JFK, Reality Bites, The Shawshank Redemption, Nixon and Dante's Peak....
- Stevie's Dad - Bill ErwinBill ErwinWilliam Lindsey "Bill" Erwin was an American film, stage and television actor with over 250 television and film credits...
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