Dead man's hand in popular culture "dead man's hand" after he has been shot in the back. In "Along Came a Spider" (2001), aces and eights is the winning hand that gave ownership of a Turkish hand-made shotgun to the father of Agent Flannigan. It later provides a clue about her involvement in the kidnapping plot. A Dead Man's Hand is featured in the first part of the Coen Brothers anthology "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", the titular character replaces a player in a poker game, and the other players insist he play the retired player's hand. Buster, upon seeing the hand, prefers not to play
Dead Man "Jim Jarmusch is trying to get at something here, and I don't have a clue what it is". Desson Howe and Rita Kempley, both writing for the "Washington Post", offered largely negative appraisals. 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." Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum dubbed the film an acid western, calling it "as exciting and as important as any new American movie I've seen in the 90s" and went on to write a book