Of today’s great Hollywood filmmakers, none have such a clear and easily recognizable style as Quentin Tarantino. His many stylistic flair comes clearly from the fact that he is first and foremost a lover of cinema. His films are full of Easter eggs and tributes to classic films. Some of his movies, like Once upon a time in Hollywoodare quite a lot love letter to filmmaking.
However, the most important part of any Tarantino film has to be the intricate web of connections it weaves with the director’s entire filmography – a series of intricate connections that come together to create a shared Quentin Tarantino Cinematic Universe. Fans have speculated for years that Tarantino’s film universe was a thing – and the filmmaker himself confirmed this long-standing theory in 2017, in an interview with news.com:
“There’s a more than real universe, okay, and all the characters inhabit that universe. But then there’s this movie universe. And so From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill, they all take place in this particular movie universe. So basically when the characters from Reservoir Dogs of Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies, Kill Bill is what they see, From Dusk Till Dawn is what they see.”
It seems that Tarantino’s films inhabit not one, but two cinematic universes, each living in the other. Here are some facts about Quentin Tarantino’s shared cinematic universe.
8/8 The Big Kahuna Burger
The Big Kahuna Burger Takes Up Much of the Iconic Samuel L. Jackson Monologue Pulp Fiction, which culminates in the recitation of Ezekiel 25:17. It is one of the most iconic movie monologues of all time and an unforgettable introduction to the fictional citizen brand within the Tarantinverse. Big Kahuna Burgers have been present in Tarantino’s films from the start, including: Reservoir Dogs and From sunset to sunrise.
7/8 Red Apple Cigarettes
Tarantino didn’t just invent a fake burger brand in his movies – his movie characters also like to smoke a fictional brand of cigarettes called Red Apple Cigarettes. Tarantino uses several fictional brands in his films because of his despicable hatred for product placement. Given the ubiquity of cigarette smoking scenes in his movies, Red Apples have been popping up a lot in the Tarantinverse. Some notable ones include the Red Apples billboard ad in Kill Bill Vol. 1and in Once upon a time in Hollywood where Rick Dalton appears in a video ad for the brand.
6/8 The Vega Brothers
Another regular feature in Tarantino’s films are the surnames that appear in various films. If you’ve ever seen them yourself, chances are the two characters were canonically related. The best example of this can be seen in Tarantino’s first two films. Both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction contain characters with the surname Vega – in the first case it is the sadistic Mr. Blonde, whose real name turns out to be Vic Vega. In the latter, it is John Travolta’s character, Vincent Vega. The two characters are siblings in the Tarantino movie universe, and Tarantino even had a Pulp Fiction prequel to the two brothers set in Amsterdam, where they argue over a woman. Unfortunately, the film was never made.
5/8 Kill Bill like a movie in the Tarantinverse
Tarantino is not a director known for subtlety. He places his many references and Easter eggs in the open air. But it’s the way he puts these references right in your face that appeals to fans. The best example of this in Tarantino’s films was 13 years in the making – a great Easter egg for Kill Bill all the way back in Pulp Fiction.
During conversation with Vincent in Pulp FictionUma Thurman’s character, Mia Wallace, talks about how she starred in an action show pilot led by women. Her description of the various action heroines perfectly matches the female characters in Kill Bill: Vol 1. It looks like the pilot actually turned into a movie in the “special movie universe” in the Tarantinverse.
4/8 The Koons
Perhaps no other film in Tarantino’s filmography is adorned with so many brilliant moments as Pulp Fiction. The film also features a cameo from Christopher Walken, in one of Tarantino’s most underrated movie conversations. Walken appears in the film as Captain Koons, who hands over a family heirloom to a young Butch Coolidge who was in his possession.
The name Koons appears again in Django unleashedas one of the criminals hunted by the bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz – Crazy Craig Koons. The criminal Koons is the great-great grandfather of Kapitein Koons from Pulp Fiction.
3/8 A nurse named Bonnie
Tarantino’s characters also often refer to the same names in movies — off-screen characters whose backstories seem to align enough that they could be the same person. One of these characters who seems as far ahead as Reservoir Dogs is the nurse Bonnie. Chris Penn’s character Eddie first refers to her as a nurse who can help care for an injured character. In Pulp FictionTarantino himself appears as the character Jimmie, talking about his wife Bonnie, who is also a nurse. There is another nurse with the same name referenced in the movie True love.
2/8 The Donowitzs
The Tarantinverse also links a father-son relationship to two films. 2009’s unglorious bastards starring Eli Roth as the baseball bat-loving soldier Donny Donowitz, also known as the Bear Jew. Years before we saw his assassinations of Hitler, Tarantino introduced us to his son in the 1993 film True love. Lee Donowitz stars in the second half of the film and is a successful film producer with a penchant for drug trafficking.
1/8 A girl named Alabama
Real Romance female lead Alabama Whitman is also mentioned in Reservoir Dogs by Mr White. He talks about a former partner named Alabama, but mentions that they haven’t worked together in a while.