The Tarantino Universe: How Every Movie is Connected
Establishing himself as one of cinema’s most important indie filmmakers with the one-two punch of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino has been using unique Easter eggs, like the fictional Red Apple cigarette brand, as a connecting motif in almost all of his films. In fact, only one of Tarantino’s movies don’t seem to have a direct connection to the others—the criminally underrated Jackie Brown, which instead is a part of the Elmore Leonard universe of films.
As reported by Esquire, Tarantino has referred to two shared universes in his films. This is the “Realer Than Real” timeline where most of his movies are set and the fictional, in-universe “Movie Universe” of shared continuity. Here is how all Quentin Tarantino movies (including upcoming films that he wrote like The Adventures of Cliff Booth) are connected through the “RTR” and “MU” timelines and what they bring to the shared Tarantino universe.
Quentin Tarantino’s debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, established the RTR shared universe in ways that would only become apparent with time. A tight and tense thriller that’s perfect for fans of dramatic performances, Reservoir Dogs lays the groundwork for the universe by introducing characters like Vic Vega, aka Mr. Blonde.
Vic’s brother is Vincent Vega, one of the primary characters of Tarantino’s subsequent film, Pulp Fiction. This connection was supposed to be more pronounced in a potential film focusing on the pair, but this concept never made it past development and remains one of Tarantino’s most intriguing unfinished products. The film also slyly mentions a woman named Alabama as an associate of Mr. White, who would go on to be one of the main characters in True Romance.
Perhaps Tarantino’s most iconic film, Pulp Fiction’s idiosyncratic script, tight direction, and strong cast make for one of the best crime dramas in cinematic history. It also serves as a major connection point between several of Tarantino’s films in the RTR universe.
Uma Thurman’s Mia mentions auditioning for an action TV show that seems to follow the same general archetypes as Kill Bill, serving as the first hint that Kill Bill doesn’t take place in the same universe as the “RTR” films. Minor Pulp Fiction characters, like Jimmie Dimmick and Captain Koon, are suggested to be related to characters from Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained. There’s also a longstanding theory that Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase contains the diamonds from Reservoir Dogs, although the purposefully ambiguous nature of the contents leaves that open to debate even two decades later.
Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino’s take on the World War II epic, with one of his best ever scripts and a killer cast that elevate their war film archetypes into something truly special. Inglourious Basterds is largely removed from the RTR universe, although some theories (such as from Cracked’s After Hours series) suggest that the Basterds’ influence on real historical events explains the more violence-obsessed culture of this timeline.
Notably, Inglourious Basterds has two direct family connections to other Tarantino films. Archie Hicox is a British agent serving behind enemy lines. He’s a far more heroic character than his ancestor, English Pete Hicox, a notorious criminal who appears in The Hateful Eight. Donny, otherwise known as “the Bear Jew,” is the most fearsome of the Basterds, and his son, Lee Donowitz, goes on to become a movie producer who appears in True Romance.
The Western revenge epic starring Jamie Foxx, Django Unchained is perhaps Tarantino’s most plainly entertaining film, with all-time great performances by Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and an almost unrecognizable Leonardo DiCaprio.
Technically, the earliest film in the RTR universe, many of the characters are long dead by the events of the other movies. However, Captain Koons from Pulp Fiction’s ancestor is Crazy Craig Koons, a part of the Smitty Bacall Gang that Django helps Schultz hunt down. A similar connection is also implied with Maynard, a minor villain in Django Unchained who shares a surname with one of the villainous pawnshop owners from Pulp Fiction. Notably, both Maynards are ultimately killed by the people they tried to brutalize.
Tarantino’s bleakest film, The Hateful Eight, is a tightly-written character study that works almost more as a play than a film. It initially doesn’t seem to have many connections to the rest of the RTR universe besides the Hicox connection to Inglorious Basterds and the consistent presence of Red Apple as a tobacco brand across the films. However, The Hateful Eight almost had one of the most concrete connections of any Tarantino film.
The movie focuses on Major Marquis Warren, a Black bounty hunter operating in the post-Civil War era. Tarantino originally conceived of the film as a direct sequel to Django Unchained, which would have been titled Django in White Hell. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, Tarantino eventually realized the story wasn’t right for Django, so he adjusted the protagonist and created Warren.
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is one of Quentin Tarantino’s most grounded films, bolstered by a charming lead performance and a surprisingly deft balance of unexpected comedy, dramatic turns, and tension-filled twists. There aren’t any of the notable family connections seen in previous Tarantino movies here. Instead, the connections have been theorized to involve how history is reflected by the events of the RTR universe.
Rick Dalton’s The 14 Fists of McClusky is suggested to be the in-universe dramatization of Inglourious Basterds. It’s likely that Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood’s upcoming David Fincher-directed sequel, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, will introduce more fallout of how the altered history of the RTR universe impacts culture.
True Romance is a grisly love story with a script by Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. An early showcase of Tarantino’s skills as a writer, the jovial cast and Scott’s trademark slick direction make True Romance a delightfully fun crime thriller take on a meet-cute romance.
Tarantino sold the script for True Romance partly to fund his directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. This suggests that the clearest connection between these two films is actually the very first connection that would eventually expand to become the RTR universe. While Mr. White mentions Alabama in Reservoir Dogs, she appears as one half of True Romance’s central relationship, this time getting herself and her new lover, Clarence Worley, involved in a chase with the mafia.
Directed by Oliver Stone, the purposefully polarizing and provocative Natural Born Killers is one of Quentin Tarantino's bluntest (and darkest) films ever. The movie contains two direct connections to Reservoir Dogs through character surnames.
One of them is Jack Scagnetti, a vile police officer from Natural Born Killers who shares his last name with Mr. Blonde's parole officer, Seymour Scagnetti. There's also a TV report in Natural Killers that recounts the death of Officer Gerald Nash at the hands of the Knoxes. Two other members of the Nash family appear in other Tarantino films: Marvin Nash is the police officer who is tortured by Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, while their implied ancestor, Gerald Nash, was a member of the Smitty Bacall Gang in Django Unchained.
While many of Tarantino’s movies take place in the RTR universe, some of them occur in a fictional, in-universe world, like Kill Bill. The “Movie Universe” refers to the Tarantino films that technically also exist in the RTR universe, entertaining the characters of other Tarantino films. This explains the more outlandish elements of the MU films, such as the stylish action and wild twists of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2.
The Viper Assassination Squad are referenced in Pulp Fiction, with Uma Thurman’s Mia seemingly up for a role that would go on to feel very similar to her character of the Bride. Sheriff Earl McGraw and his son Edgar both appear in Kill Bill, highlighting how they quietly became fixtures of the MU films.
Fans have confidently speculated about the links between Kill Bill Vol. 2 and various Tarantino movies. Most notably, the chapter "The lonely grave of Paula Schulz" shows Beatrix Kiddo getting buried in Schulz' grave, where we also see the dates "1823 - 1898" engraved on her tombstone. Many fans believe this to be the wife of Dr. Schulz (Christoph Waltz) in Django Unchained, which takes place in 1858.
The movie also connects to From Dusk Till Dawn and Death Proof through the recurring character, Ranger Earl McGraw, as well as featuring Tarantino's brands Red Apple Cigarettes and Big Kahuna Burger—which appears in the trailer of Michael Madsen’s character, Budd.
