"The Man Comes Around" is the title track from Johnny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around, released in 2002. It was actually written a few years earlier; however, Cash updated it for the album. It is one of the last songs Cash wrote before his death. Both sung and spoken, the song makes numerous Biblical references, especially to the Book of Revelation.
The arrangement of the song is sparse (although not so much as in some of Cash's later compositions, such as 'God's Gonna Cut You Down'); two guitars, piano (played in the bass register), and an electric organ.
Of the album's fifteen tracks, only three were written by Cash, with "The Man Comes Around" the sole song specifically penned for it, and the only song Cash wrote in its entirety.
The song was inspired by a dream Cash had about Queen Elizabeth II in which the queen compared Cash to "a thorn tree in a whirlwind." Haunted by the dream, Cash became curious if the phrase was a biblical reference and eventually found a similar phrase in the Book of Job.
An alternative "early take" of the song appears on the Unearthed box set (2003) and The Legend of Johnny Cash (2005). The "Legend" version omits the spoken word intro and outro.
The song was listed as the 296th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.
In 2003:
The song was used during the opening credits and closing credits of the 2003 film The Hunted.
In 2004:
The song was used during the opening credits of the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.
In 2008:
The song was used during a scene in the 2008 in the movie My Best Friend's Girl
The song was featured prominently in the final scenes of the season one finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The song was featured in the closing scenes of the HBO miniseries Generation Kill
The song was used during the opening and closing credits of the film Linewatch
The song was used in the opening sequence of the Criminal Minds episode "Elephant's Memory" (season 3, episode 16)
The album Sleepytime Tunes Lullaby Renditions of Johnny Cash, credited to The Lullaby Players, features an instrumental cover version done in a lullaby arrangement for children
In 2009:
The song was used on the final episode of BBC's Being Human in the warm up to what is supposed to be a battle between Mitchell and Herrick
The song was used in the opening sequence of the CSI episode "Better Off Dead" (season 10, episode 10)
In 2012:
The song was sampled in English DJ/Producer Doctor P's, song "Flying Spaghetti Monster" as part of his Animal Vegetable Mineral – Part 1 EP
The song was used in the climactic penultimate episode of the first season of the new Dallas series in August 2012
The song was used in the trailer and soundtrack for the 2012 film Killing Them Softly
In 2013:
The first lines of the song were used in the pilot Sleepy Hollow.
In 2014:
The song was used in episode 11 of the first season of The Blacklist
In 2015:
The song was the soundtrack for an ESPN promotional TV spot for SEC football featuring each team's coach.
The song was used in the promo for Bray Wyatt vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania 31.
In 2016:
Parodying its use in the opening sequence of Dawn of the Dead, the song was used in the closing film of the "Patriotism" episode (series 4, episode 3) of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.
The song was used during the opening and closing of SkySports coverage of the United States Grand Prix.
In 2017:
The song played over the end credits of the film Logan.
