Ash Williams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ashley J. "Ash" Williams is the main character in the Evil Dead horror film franchise, played by Bruce Campbell.
Ash is known for his two favorite weapons: his "boomstick" (a sawed off cobalt blue steel, hairline trigger, walnut stock, double-barreled 12 gauge Remington shotgun - though this weapon has changed several times), which he advertises is on sale at "S-Mart", 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).
Bruce Campbell has said Ash is pretty much incompetent at everything except fighting the Evil Dead. In the game Evil Dead: Regeneration, his name is mispelled "Ashly".
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[edit] Character bio
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.
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 "Naturom 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 are consequently possessed and killed until he's the last survivor. However, the film ends with Ash being overtaken by an evil spirit himself.
The sequel Evil Dead II, starts with a short retcon/recap of the first Evil Dead film where Ash arrives at the cabin with his girlfriend Linda (in this reshooting, Ash's other friends were left out of the story) and later, Linda is killed by Ash after she becomes possessed by a Deadite spirit. Eventually, Ash is also overtaken by an evil spirit. From this point, the film continues the story from where the first film left off. Ash is released from the spirit by the coming of dawn, only to pass out. Ash regains consciousness moments away from sunset to find himself stuck at the cabin with the spirits of the Evil Dead for yet another night. Later, the cabin's owner's daughter and three more people arrive. It is near the end of this movie that Ash gets his infamous chainsaw in place of his hand. The movie 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).
The next film, Army of Darkness, continues the story from there. Ash has to defeat his alter-ego known as "Bad 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. The movie has two different endings, one where he returns to his time and another, the director's cut, where he ends up in a post-apocalyptic future.
[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, and an upcoming battle with Dracula and possibly another 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."
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. [1]
[edit] See also
- My Name is Bruce, an upcoming movie starring Bruce Campbell, as himself, being mistaken for his character Ash.
[edit] External links
| Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series |
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| Films: The Evil Dead | Evil Dead II | Army of Darkness |
| 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 | Within the Woods | Bruce Campbell | Robert Tapert |
