Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead is a song by Warren Zevon recorded in 1991 for his album Mr. Bad Example. It in turn inspired the title of a 1995 film directed by Gary Fleder and starring, among others, Andy Garcia, Christopher Lloyd and Christopher Walken.

Andy Garcia plays a former mob man who tries to turn straight by starting his own business, which produces taped messages for the terminally ill and dying. His business goes into debt, which later brings him into having to do one last favor for his former boss: scare off his son's ex's current boyfriend. A loose team of former acquaintances is then assembled to do the job, but it turns out their target is smarter than they think.

Tropes used in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead include:
  • Anyone Can Die: Notably all 5 job men, Jimmy included.
  • Bittersweet Ending: All 5 job men die, but The Man With The Plan is now alone with his son dead as well, and still a cripple. Lucinda is now pregnant with Jimmy's child, and leaving the prostitution game. Dagney seems to have moved on, and for some reason the 5 job men are seen hanging out together in the afterlife on a fishing trip.
  • Carnival of Killers: Jimmy The Saint (Andy Garcia), Franchise (William Forsythe), Critical Bill (Treat Williams), Pieces (Christopher Lloyd), and Easy Wind (Bill Nunn).
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Buckwheats, which is killing someone slowly and painfully. This is done to Easy Wind and Franchise.
  • Complete Monster: The Man With The Plan (Christopher Walken).
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Meg's boyfriend. He's able to see right through Pieces and Bill's disguises as cops, ultimately leading to the plot's derailment.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Buckwheats which is being killed by having a gun fired up your ass and dying in excrutiating pain from the wound.
  • I Lied: The Man With The Plan has Franchise killed anyway after promising Jimmy he'd allow him to get out of town with his wife and kids. He explains that as a criminal, his word doesn't mean shit.
  • It Got Worse: The plan to scare off Meg's boyfriend results in him getting killed, along with Meg herself when her unexpected appearance in the van spooks Pieces into accidentally shooting her.
  • Karma Houdini: Arguably The Man With The Plan. He's able to have every job man killed, but as Jimmy explains in his afterlife video, he'll now be alone (Jimmy having just killed his son Bernard) and still crippled.
  • Perpetual Tourist: Referenced. The protagonists will often say "Boat drinks," to remind each other of their ultimate dream: retiring to some tropical paradise to sip cocktails on a yacht. In the end, we see all of the main characters doing exactly that, except they're all dead.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Also Meg's boyfriend. After refusing to cooperate with Pieces and Bill when stating they aren't real cops, Bill pulls him out of the van, and the guy proceeds to verbally assault Bill to the point where he holds a knife to his throat. When Pieces talks him down, the boyfriend badmouths Bill yet again, resulting in his getting stabbed multiple times in the throat.
    • Critical Bill when he decided to gloat to Mr. Shhh after blasting him with a shotgun. Shhh takes the opportunity to shoot him before dying himself.
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