It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, Gabriel Byrne, Mili Avital, and Robert Mitchum in his final film performance.

The movie, set in the late 19th century, follows William Blake, a meek accountant on the run after killing a man.

He then discovers that the position has already been filled, and John Dickinson, the ferocious owner of the company, drives Blake from the workplace at gunpoint.

Jobless and without money or prospects, Blake meets Thel Russell, a former prostitute who sells paper flowers.

Company owner Dickinson is Charlie's father and hires three killers — Cole Wilson, Conway Twill, and Johnny "The Kid" Pickett — to bring Blake back "dead or alive".

He was briefly educated before returning home, where his stories of the white man and his culture were laughed off by fellow Native Americans.

Marshals, experiences visions of nature spirits, and grieves over the remains of a dead fawn his pursuers accidentally kill.

Meanwhile, the most ferocious member of the bounty hunter posse, Cole Wilson, has killed his comrades (eating one of them) and continued his hunt alone.

Nobody hurries to take him by the river to a Makah village and persuades the tribe to give him a canoe for Blake's ship burial.

Xebeche, aka Nobody, recites from several Blake poems, including Auguries of Innocence, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and The Everlasting Gospel.

My Name Is Nobody was an Italian Western film from 1973 starring Henry Fonda and Terence Hill, and the clever answer of Ulysses to Polyphemus when asked the same question.

"[10] The film intentionally leaves conversations in the Cree and Blackfoot languages untranslated and without subtitles, for the exclusive understanding of members of those nations, including several in-jokes aimed at Native American viewers.

[12] Desson Howe and Rita Kempley, both writing for The Washington Post, offered largely negative reviews.

[13] Greil Marcus, however, mounted a spirited defense of the film, titling his review "Dead Again: Here are 10 reasons why 'Dead Man' is the best movie of the end of the 20th century.

The site's consensus reads: "While decidedly not for all tastes, Dead Man marks an alluring change of pace for writer-director Jim Jarmusch that demonstrates an assured command of challenging material".

The soundtrack album consists of seven instrumental tracks by Young, with dialog excerpts from the film and Johnny Depp reading the poetry of William Blake interspersed between the music.

Gary Farmer makes a cameo appearance as Nobody in Jarmusch's subsequent film Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, in which he repeats one of his signature lines of dialogue, "Stupid fucking white man!"