Dante Hicks
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Image:Dante.gif Dante Hicks is a fictional character in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse, played by Brian O'Halloran. He was introduced in Clerks.
He is an employee at the Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey.
Dante in Clerks.
In Clerks., Dante is in his early 20s and lives with his parents. He feels that because he runs the store, he is independent and in control of his life, yet is a big push-over who apparently often agrees to work when he doesn't have to (hence his catch phrase, "I'm not even supposed to be here today!")
He generally finds a workaround when there is a problem at the store; stuck window shutters, for example, prompt him to create a sign, made with a bedsheet and shoe polish, that reads "I Assure You We're Open," and he steals copies of the local newspaper from a nearby box after finding none were delivered to the store.
He frequently gets into debates ranging from philosophy to Star Wars with Randal, who works at the adjacent RST Video. Dante is based loosely on the poet Dante (the movie itself is loosely based on the first section of The Divine Comedy, Inferno.)
In addition to the unfortunate events of a day at the Quick Stop, the film also deals with Dante's problematic romantic relationships. He has difficulty dealing with his girlfriend Veronica's extensive history of performing fellatio (on 36 different men, not including him) — even though she seems to genuinely care for him, going so far as to bring him lasagna at work. At the same time, Dante is infatuated with ex-girlfriend Caitlin Bree and seems intent on rekindling that relationship. In the end, Dante ends up with neither woman; Veronica ditches him after learning that Dante never got over Caitlin, and Caitlin is hospitalized after accidentally having sex in a dark bathroom with a corpse, whom she had believed to be Dante.
Toward the end of the film, Dante laments his lot in life, only to be left speechless when Randal explodes at him, accusing him of wasting his life. Template:Endspoiler
Subsequent appearances
Dante also appears in the three Clerks comic books Smith has written: Clerks: The Comic Book, Clerks: Holiday Special and Clerks: The Lost Scene, as well as a comic strip, "On the Perils of Cinema", that appeared in the November 1999 issue of Talk magazine. He makes very brief appearances in Smith's other comic book serials, Chasing Dogma and Bluntman and Chronic as well as Walt Flanagan's Dog.
He has a cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in which he loses his temper with Jay and Silent Bob and banishes them from the Quick Stop, where he still works.
He also appears in the 2002 short film The Flying Car, in which he's asked by Randal what he would sacrifice for marketing rights to the titular technology.
Dante features in Clerks: The Lost Scene, a short animated in the style of the TV series, which, like the comic book of the same name, depicts the events at Julie Dwyer's wake that were cut from the film.
Dante and Randal will be the subjects of the 2006 film Clerks II, set approximately 10 years later than the first film, with Dante in his early 30s and still bitterly working the same job.
Trivia
- In an alternate ending to Clerks., Dante is shot and killed by an armed robber after Randal leaves, cementing the fact that he was "not supposed to be here today."
- Dante's goatee changes throughout Clerks. Kevin Smith had asked Brian O'Halloran to shave it off; once he saw O'Halloran without it, Smith asked him to grow it back.
- Subsequent Askewniverse films feature characters named Hicks who are played by O'Halloran; all are said to be cousins of Dante, including Gil Hicks, a university scholar who appeared in Mallrats on the T.V. show "Truth or date", Grant Hicks, A news reporter seen in Dogma, and possibly an unamed show-biz producer in Chasing Amy, though not named he is played by Brian, so it may be assumed he is another Hicks cousin (though he is credited on Brian's IMDB.com list as Jim Hicks).