While in prison, Cady learns all he can about law as he nurtures his hatred of Bowden, made especially intense when his wife divorces him and takes their child.

Cady tracks the family to its summer home in the titular North Carolina beach town of Cape Fear and nearly kills them all.

(De Niro's portrayal takes influences both from Mitchum's Cady and his equally iconic villain Harry Powel from The Night of the Hunter.)

The remake also sheds some light on Cady's background, revealing he grew up in a rural Pentecostal family who handled snakes and drank strychnine to achieve religious ecstasy.

In the novel by John D. MacDonald, Sam Bowden testified against Max Cady back in World War II, since he witnessed the latter raping a fourteen-year-old girl when he was stationed in Australia.

Cady's background differs from the films in that he hails from West Virginia and has three brothers, all of whom were criminals (with one killed during a prison riot).