Man of darkness

Dr. Peyton Westlake is developing a new type of synthetic skin to help people who have suffered severe burns, but cannot overcome the deficiency that causes the skin to quickly decompose after 99 minutes. His girlfriend, lawyer Julie Hastings, discovers a document proving that developer Louis Strak Jr. bribed members of the zoning commission. When she runs into Strak, he confesses, showing Julie that he plans to create a new city, creating a significant number of new jobs. He warns Julie that the mafia Robert Durant also wants to get this document. So Julie tacitly leaves him at Westlake's lab.

In the lab, Westlake and his assistant, Yakato, test their skin in the dark. Synthetic skin lasts over 100 minutes; Westlake realizes that the skin is photosensitive, and is trying to solve this problem. At this time, Durant and his people show up and demand to give a document that Westlake knows nothing about. They search for a document, kill Yakatato and beat Westlake, burn his hands with fire and dip his face in acid. After finding the document, they arrange an explosion in the laboratory; Julie sees it. The blast throws the terribly burned Westlake through the roof into the river. As an unidentified person , he is taken to the hospital and subjected to radical treatment, including cutting the spinothalamic path , from which Westlake no longer feels physical pain. It also gives him increased strength and resistance to injury, but also destabilizes his mental abilities.

Considered dead, Westlake rebuilds his laboratory in a destroyed building and begins a long digitization process to create a cast of his original face. Westlake uses extra time to get revenge on Durant and his people; he kills the minion Durant Rick, forcing him to reveal the identities of accomplices. When his facial mask is complete, Westlake is Julie and convinces her that he was in a coma, not dead. He mentions that he knows about meeting Julia with Strak after his alleged death; she replies that Strak only comforted her. Holding back his disgust, Westlake asks if she will accept him, regardless of his appearance.

Westlake sows strife and confusion among Durant's minions. At a date in an amusement park with Julie, an altercation with the owner of one of the attractions forces Westlake to get angry, revealing to Julie that something is wrong with him. He runs away when his face begins to melt, and she follows him, finding a discarded, half-decayed mask; She calls Peyton and says that she still loves him. Julie tells Strak that he can no longer see him, and then he finds a stolen memorandum, from which it follows that Stark worked with Durant all the time. She informs him that Westlake is still alive, but Strak tells her that as long as he has a memorandum, no charges can be brought. When Julie leaves, Durant appears, who is ordered to capture Julia and kill Westlake.

Durant intercepts Julia, kidnapping her before attacking Westlake's lair. Two of his men enter the lab to find and kill Westlake, but he outwitted them, eventually both die. Durant runs in a helicopter, and Westlake manages to hang on the cable, which he clings to the truck traveling under them. The truck leaves the tunnel and the helicopter which failed to unhook from it and Durant crashes. Under the guise of Durant, Westlake meets Strak and Julie the prisoner on the top of an unfinished building. However, Stark exposes Westlake, tearing off Durant's mask from him and showing Julie his burned face, they are fighting; Westlake eventually triumphs. Strak perishes, and Westlake is about to leave. Julie tries to convince Westlake that he can still return to his old life, but he says that he, too, has changed inside, and cannot expose anyone to his new, vicious nature. He runs away from Julia when they get out of the elevator, pulls on the mask and hides in a crowd of pedestrians. When Julia unsuccessfully searches for him, Westlake in the mask of actor Bruce Campbell leaves away, behind the scenes his voice says: “I am everything and nobody, everywhere and nowhere. now my name is ... Man of Darkness. "

• Liam Neeson - Peyton Westlake / Man of Darkness
• Frances McDormand - Julie Hastings
• Larry Drake - Robert Durant
• Colin Friels - Louis Strak Jr.
• Nelson Mashita - Yakitito
• Jesse Lawrence Ferguson - Eddie Black
• Rafael H. Robledo - Rudi Guzman
• Dan Hicks - Skip
• Ted Raimi - Rick (credited: Theodore Raimi)
• Dan Bell - Smiley
• Nicholas Worth - Paulie
• Aaron Lustig - Martin Katz
• Arsenio Trinidad - Hung Fat

• Man of Darkness on the Internet Movie Database
• Man of Darkness (English) on the site allmovie
• "Man of Darkness" (eng.) On the site Rotten Tomatoes
• The darkman database