John Doe

John Doe
Continuity:	Nightmare on Elm Street
Notability:	Supporting character
Type:	Victim
Gender:	Male
Race:	Human
Location:	1427 Elm Street, Springwood, Ohio
Associations:	Recovery House Youth Shelter
Status:	Deceased
Died:	1991
First:	Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Actor:	Shon Greenblatt

John Doe is a fictional murder victim and a supporting character featured in the Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise. Played by actor Shon Greenblatt, he appeared in the 1991 feature film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Biography

Known only as "John Doe", this young man was a resident of Elm Street in Springwood, Ohio in the early 1990s. He suffered from amnesia and had no recollection of who he was, or of his life in Springwood. John suffered from intense nightmares wherein he was haunted by the dream entity known as Freddy Krueger. Krueger used John in order to expand his influence beyond Springwood. John eventually got it into his head that he was the son of Freddy Krueger, but later learned that this was not actually true.

John left Springwood and made his way to Central City, Ohio, where he became a ward of the Recovery House Youth Shelter, under the care of Maggie Burroughs. Maggie believed that returning him to Springwood might help to trigger his memories.

Maggie drove him back, along with several other residents of the Recovery House Youth Shelter, including Carlos, Spencer, and Tracy Swan. All four of them were plagued by Freddy Krueger in their dreams, and Carlos and Spencer were both killed.

Freddy no longer needed John as he now had what he was searching for - his true child - Maggie Burroughs. When John had outlived his usefulness, he had him dream about falling out of an airplane and landing onto a bed of spikes, which killed John in the real world.

Notes & Trivia

John isn't nearly as nuts as he looks right here.

• The character of John Doe was created by director Rachel Talalay and screenplay writer Michael De Luca based on concepts developed by Wes Craven.

• John Doe's actual name and origin is never revealed throughout the course of the film.

• John is originally presented in the film as the main point-of-view character that the audience is introduced to. However, his character is killed off at about the midway point of the film, shifting the POV from him to Maggie Burroughs. This is slightly reminiscent of the role that Tina Gray played in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. Viewers were led to believe that she was going to be the main character, but was killed off fairly early in the film.

• John Doe lived at 1427 Elm Street, which was across the street from 1428 Elm Street, which was the former home of Nancy Thompson. Geographically, this would have placed him as a next door neighbor to Nancy's boyfriend, Glen Lantz, though the house numbering does not make a lot of sense as Glen lived at 1419 Elm Street.

• John Doe is the fifth of five murder victims of Freddy Krueger in the entirety of the film. He is the third of three murder victims in the 1991 timeline. He is the fourth of four human victims in the film, including flashbacks, the first of which was actually a hamster. The fate of Freddy's stepfather, Edward Underwood, is not being included in these totals as the character was not shown being killed on-screen.

• It is stated that John Doe is the last of the Elm Street children, which is a matter of slight mis-interpretation. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Nancy addresses a group of mentally unbalanced teens and says "You're the last of the Elm Street children". Of that group, Kristen Parker was the last one to die, which effectively makes her the last of the Elm Street children. However, a difference could be cited in that Parker was likely the last child of the group of parents responsible for Freddy's death, whereas John Doe was literally the last existing child who lived on Elm Street by the timeline of 1991. As John's identity is never revealed, it is unknown whether his parents had anything to do with the lynch mob that killed Freddy.

See also

A Nightmare on Elm Street A Nightmare on Elm Street pages A Nightmare on Elm Street films A Nightmare on Elm Street images A Nightmare on Elm Street comics

A Nightmare on Elm Street novels A Nightmare on Elm Street items A Nightmare on Elm Street locations A Nightmare on Elm Street characters A Nightmare on Elm Street miscellaneous

External Links

• John Doe at the A Nightmare on Elm Street Wiki