Ash Williams
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| Ash Williams | |
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| Ashley J. Williams | |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race | Caucasian |
| Appears in | Evil Dead series |
| Height: | 6'1" |
| Location | Dearborn, Michigan |
| Weapon of Choice: | "Boomstick" (12 Gauge Remington Sawed-Off Shotgun), Chainsaw |
| Family | Cheryl Williams (sister, deceased) |
| Enemies | "Deadites" (demon-possessed living or undead) |
| Portrayed by: | Bruce Campbell (All movies) Ryan Ward (musical adaption) |
Ashley J. "Ash" Williams (Ashly in the original Evil Dead script) is the fictional protagonist in the Evil Dead horror film franchise, played by Bruce Campbell, and created by director Sam Raimi. First appearing in the film The Evil Dead, Ash has become an icon of modern horror and one of the few protagonists of said films to have such noteriety. He is most easily recognized and envisioned in later material based off his final appearance in the second film however, armed with a sawed off shotgun and a chainsaw strapped to the stump on his right arm where his hand once was.
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[edit] Fictional Biography
Ash is in his early 20s and usually lives a "normal" life. He is employed at the superstore, S-Mart (where he works in the housewares department), and has a girlfriend, Linda.
[edit] The Evil Dead
In The Evil Dead, Ash and his girlfriend Linda, sister Cheryl, and friends Scotty and Shelly stay at a log cabin in the woods, where they find the "Naturon Demonto" (renamed or possibly translated to Necronomicon ex Mortis in the sequels), the "Book of the Dead", along with a tape recorder. The tape is a recording of the owner of the cabin, who was translating a passage of the book. By playing the tape, Ash and his friends awake the evil spirits who can now possess the living. Ash's friends and sister are consequently possessed and killed one by one, until he's the last survivor. He finally destroys the Necronomicon by throwing it in the fireplace, and in doing so causes the zombie bodies of Scotty and Cheryl to rapidly decay and 'die', and the evil seems to be driven back. However, the film ends with Ash being overtaken by an evil spirit himself.
[edit] Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn
Evil Dead II continues the story from the previous film after a stunted recap in which we're only introduced to Ash's girlfriend Linda (who still subsequently gets possessed, decapitated and buried) and Ash himself, to the point where the evil spirit attacks Ash. From this point, the film continues the story from where the first film left off. Carried a good distance by the demon, Ash is slammed hard against a tree and falls in the water. From here he becomes a deadite (see Deadite Ash, below) but shortly afterward is released from the spirit by the coming of dawn, only to pass out. Ash regains consciousness moments away from sunset. Deciding to get out of there as fast as he can, he climbs into his car and drives to where the bridge was, only to find it completely destroyed by the evil force. As the sun quickly sets, said force starts climbing up the cliff, and Ash hops into his car, driving away as fast as he can and as a result right into a treestump that sends him flying through the windshield.
With the evil closely behind him, he runs into the cabin and through it trying to hide, and ducks into the trapdoor, waiting until the evil force leaves. After it does, Ash comes out, only to find himself stuck at the cabin with the spirits of the Evil Dead for yet another night. Later, the cabin owner's daughter, Annie and three more people arrive. It is near the end of this movie that Ash gets his infamous chainsaw in place of his right hand. The film ends with Ash being sucked into a vortex and travelling back in time to 1300 AD, where the locals claim, according to their prophecies, that he is "The Man That Falls from the Sky" who will save them from the Deadites (demon-possessed zombies).
[edit] Army of Darkness
The next film continues the story from there (though he receives far less of a warm welcome than the end of the previous film suggests). Ash has to defeat his alter-ego known as "Bad Ash"/"Evil Ash" who is leading the Army of Darkness to steal the Necronomicon. In this movie, Ash constructs a mechanical prosthetic hand out of a gauntlet from a suit of armor, using it throughout the film in place of the chainsaw (though he still carries said saw with him). The movie has two different endings, one where he returns to his own time and defends S-Mart from a possessed woman, and another, the director's cut, where he ends up in a post-apocalyptic future.
[edit] Personality
Ash's personality and state of mind change drastically throughout the franchise. In The Evil Dead and the beginning of Evil Dead II, he is more fearful and inexperienced, but by the end of Army of Darkness, he has grown much braver, and becomes the voice of encouragement and confidence of the castle of Arthur.
Ash's experiences with the Necromonicon have also made him incredibly neurotic, irritable and perhaps even insane. It can be debated that a few of the happenings of the storyline were merely Ash's hallucinations (for example, Ash's reflection in Evil Dead 2) and not the Evil at all.
[edit] Equipment and Abilities
Ash is known for two main weapons: his "boomstick" (a sawed off double-barreled 12 gauge Remington shotgun (although this weapon has changed several times), and the more noticeable chainsaw, which was adapted to replace his right hand, amputated in Evil Dead II after being possessed by a Kandarian spirit. The first thing he does with the chainsaw after attaching it to the remains of his arm is to saw off the barrel of the shotgun.
Bruce Campbell has stated Ash is pretty much incompetent at everything except fighting the Evil Dead[1]. He knows some degree of hand-to-hand combat techniques, and prowess with a variety of weapons in various situations.
His main strength seems to be his ingenuity: he has from the second film on been shown creating such things ranging from his chainsaw bracket and shotgun harness, gunpowder from mainly referencing its elemental makeup in a chemistry book, a fully functional prosthetic hand from a metal gauntlet, and the short-lived "Deathcoaster".
The Deathcoaster is seen in the latter parts of Army of Darkness, made from the remains of his car and powered by a steam engine. The main feature of it is a massive rotating blade on the front of it, akin to an angled upright lawnmower blade. The Deathcoaster was destroyed during the film's final battle. At the end of the film he takes what is left of it with him, though it hasn't been seen or used in any later material. The Deathcoaster was not referred to as such in the film; the name appears in scripts and publicity material.
[edit] Variant Incarnations
[edit] Bad Ash/Evil Ash
Ash's dark side manifests itself as a separate entity first in Evil Dead II, where he hallucinates his reflection tormenting him over dismembering 'their' girlfriend with a chainsaw, and then proceeds to try and choke him (only for Ash to realize he was choking himself). This side of him later splits off his body in a drawn out painful event in Army of Darkness (unlike the original, having both hands intact), becoming 'Bad Ash' and getting first blown away at point blank range by Ash's shotgun, then cut to pieces, and finally buried (though even in this state he still 'lived'). When Ash blunders and accidentally awakens the Army of the Dead, Bad Ash re-emerges from the grave quickly piecing himself together as the decayed 'Evil Ash' and takes command of the undead troops, even corrupting Ash's then-love interest Sheila into a deadite-like hag. He battles the original Ash as he makes a bee-line for the Necronomicon, and gets lit ablaze by a torch, only to re-emerge as 'Skeleton Evil Ash', a much more agile and dangerous version that could breathe flames. As Henry the Red's troops arrive to assist in the battle against the undead and break their ranks, Evil Ash has his right hand holding the Necronomicon chopped off by Ash, and is then catapulted into the sky riding a lit sack of gunpowder to be blown to pieces.
He returns in Evil Dead: Hail to the King after Ash's possessed hand releases the evil force once more into the world by playing Knowby's tape recording, emerging from the mirror in the cabin (a la his first appearance), tossing Ash aside and taking off. Unlike before, Evil Ash is closer in appearance to a zombified version of Ash, and has the ability to launch fireballs and shapeshift. Ultimately he was destroyed once more by the original. Beyond this, Evil Ash has appeared in comic spin-offs, appearing more akin to his decayed Army of Darkness version.
[edit] Deadite Ash
'Deadite Ash' is another story, though. In Evil Dead: Regeneration this version is referred to as 'Evil Ash' (and Sam calls him 'Bad Ash' in the game). Deadite Ash is Ash himself possessed by a Kandarian demon and turned into a monstrous version of himself with greatly increased strength and brutality. In Evil Dead II, sunlight and the memory of Linda seems to drive the demon out (or possibly just 'back') and reverts him to normal. In Regeneration, Deadite Ash actually is shown to be a complete berserker, attacking anything in his path (namely the deadites) and with Ash having some degree of control, later on, over his actions, though the effects are short-term. Enemies in the last area of the game speak of how Ash is 'already one of them', possibly a reference to this. The shotgun and chainsaw are augmented during this period also, the gun notably firing bolts of energy.
[edit] Life Outside the Trilogy
Since Army of Darkness, Ash has been featured in numerous video games and comic books, wherein he continues slaying demons and spouting out his memorable one-liners. Most recently, he is featured in the comic Army of Darkness versus Re-Animator, wherein he is confined to a mental hospital and is forced to go up against the demented Doctor Herbert West. He recently fought Dracula and is currently in a crossover comic with Darkman. In 2005, there was talk of Ash appearing in a sequel to Freddy Vs. Jason; however, Sam Raimi eventually decided against it. Though tempted, Raimi thought it would be unfair to the other director to dictate rules for what Ash could and could not do, which would be required as Raimi has plans for Ash in the future. As of late 2006, a new crop of rumors had begun to circulate about a team-up of Freddy, Jason and Ash, but Raimi, New Line and Campbell have yet to make any comment. Campbell said of the original rumors that if he were to sign up, "[Ash] would have to win, or I wouldn't do it."[2]
Marvel Comics has announced a crossover between Evil Dead and their Marvel Zombies universe, a zombified version of the Marvel Comics universe. This five-issue miniseries is to premiere in 2007 and is entitled Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness. [3]
[edit] Comic Book Transformations
Zombie Ash
On an alternate cover of Army of Darkness #13 The Death of Ashley J. Williams, a zombified version of Ash is seen. This cover was drawn by Marvel Zombies artist Sean Phillips and it's possibly a What-if of what he would look like. However this won't be entirely clear until the release of Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness. It is important to note that this is a different form of Ash, infected by the "Super Virus" that attacks the Marvel superheroes turning them into zombies, and not the results of demonic possession like Deadite Ash.
[edit] See also
- My Name is Bruce, an upcoming movie starring Bruce Campbell, as himself, being mistaken for his character Ash.
- Duke Nukem, a video game and character inspired by Ash (and who is often heard quoting lines from the Evil Dead films).
- List of characters and locations from the Evil Dead series
[edit] References
- ^ Audio commentary for Evil Dead II, Bruce Campbell: "As dumb as Ash is, he's actually a capable guy with dealing with monsters"
- ^ Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash has a Sperm Problem?
- ^ ASH MEETS THE MARVEL ZOMBIES IN MARVEL ZOMBIES vs. ARMY OF DARKNESS
[edit] External links
Films: The Evil Dead • Evil Dead II • Army of Darkness
Unofficial films: La Casa 3 • La Casa 4 • La Casa 5
Video games: The Evil Dead • Evil Dead: Hail to the King • Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick • Evil Dead: Regeneration
Comic books: Army of Darkness: Ashes to Ashes • Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop Dead
Other topics: Ash Williams • List of characters and locations from the Evil Dead series • Within the Woods • Bruce Campbell • Robert Tapert • Evil Dead: The Musical
