Dead Man

Cold Fever and Dead Man both heavily rely on funeral rituals. Both main characters are slowly headed towards performing one, whether they know it or not. What struck me about William's Blake character is that he never seems to be aware of his slow approach towards death. He does not seem to realize he is mortally wounded, and perhaps if he could get back to civilization, he could survive. At the end of the film, William is still alive during his own funeral, making him an active participate in the ritual similar to Hirata's participation in his parents' burial rites. Both protagonists are in denial about something. For William, he is denial about his mortality, whereas Hirata is in denial about the importance and sacredness of a funeral ritual. Their journeys parallel each other in that regard, as they come closer to realizing what is truly important in their respective lives.

By having Johnny Depp's character named after a famous English poet, it lets the character be detached from his own identity. If people keep telling you that you are someone you are not, it becomes easier to perform actions that you normally wouldn't do. I'm not saying Blake the poet went around killing people on the American frontier, but Blake the accountant wouldn't have done that originally. Blake is essentially starting over in a place where no one knows him. Nobody is the first person to assign him a new identity, a new personality he can take on.
The character of Nobody functions as Blake's sense of freedom, forcing him to forge his own path when he goes on his "vision quest." Blake becomes familiar with the wilderness around him, as opposed to the town of Machine, the literal opposite of nature. Machine is full of depravity and immoral people, whereas the forest helps heal Blake and ease his pain as he slowly approaches death.