Cameos, classic cars, and a made-up brand of cigarettes…
Before the MCU, there was the Tarantino-verse, a world jam-packed with easter eggs that you
won’t want to miss.
Quentin Tarantino is fond of bringing recurring elements across his filmography, with one
of the most famous examples being fictional brands.
One of the most prominent is Red Apple Cigarettes: introduced in "Pulp Fiction," the fictional
cigarette brand is smoked by several different characters in the 1994 film.
"A pack of red apples."
"Filters?"
"None."
The cigarette brand also makes appearances in "The Hateful Eight" and the Tarantino-helmed
sequence from 1995's anthology film "Four Rooms."
Other notable in-film advertising for Red Apple Cigarettes include a Japanese billboard
glimpsed in "Kill Bill: Volume 1" and an end credits scene from "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood."
One of the big mysteries of "Kill Bill: Volume 1" revolved around the name of Uma Thurman's
vengeful protagonist, referred to in the film and its marketing as "The Bride."
Whenever the character's name was mentioned in "Volume 1", it was audibly censored to
maintain the mystery.
"Hi, honey.
I'm -BLOOP-.
What's your name?"
However, The Bride's full name is revealed in "Volume 1," long before the villainous
Elle Driver announces it in "Volume 2."
You just need to be really focusing on the screen to see it.
After regaining consciousness in an El Paso hospital, The Bride orders a one-way plane
ticket to travel to Okinawa, intending to obtain a katana from retired sword maker Hattori Hanzo.
In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, the printed plane ticket clearly has the name
"Beatrix Kiddo " displayed in the top corner.
Tarantino made his feature-length directorial debut with 1992's "Reservoir Dogs," a relatively
low-budget crime film following a group of thieves in the aftermath of a disastrous jewelry
store heist.
One of the many elements that made the film stand out was Tarantino's decision not to
show the actual robbery.
In a flashback, viewers briefly glimpse the chaotic aftermath, and judging by a mistake
in that sequence, perhaps it's better that most of the film is dialogue inside a nondescript warehouse.
As Mr. Pink recounts how he barely escaped from the police after the botched heist, he
can be seen sprinting down a busy Los Angeles street with the cops in pursuit on foot.
After pushing his way past two pedestrians, the film crew's reflection is visible in a
storefront window in the background, from the camera crew themselves to a boom mic used
to capture the chaotic audio.
A seasoned filmmaker likely would have seen such potential for error and employed some
kind of obfuscation technique — but since Tarantino was a rookie, his mistake survived
the final cut.
In a way, perhaps that exemplifies the hurried thrill of early-'90s indie cinema.
Tarantino has included nods and homages to spaghetti westerns in his work for years,
and leaned into these influences for his own "Django Unchained."
The 2012 film stars Jamie Foxx as the titular freed slave, determined to rescue his wife
Broomhilda from the sadistic plantation owner Calvin Candie.
Posing as a man interested in buying a slave for gladiatorial fights, Django meets with
Candie — who is in competition with a rival slaveowner, played by veteran spaghetti western
actor Franco Nero.
Nero played the original version of the character in the 1966 spaghetti western film "Django."
In a visual reference to Nero's spaghetti western, he wears bright white gloves — a
nod to Nero's iteration of Django having his hands maimed over the course of the 1966 film.
"D-J-A-N-G-O.
The ‘D’ is silent."
"I know."
With "Kill Bill" being told out of chronological order, the first assassin that The Bride takes
her revenge on isn't Vernita Green as shown in the "Vol. 1" opening, but O-Ren Ishii.
In the four years that The Bride was rendered comatose by the cabal of global assassins,
O-Ren seized power as one of the most powerful Yakuza leaders in Japan.
After The Bride cuts through O-Ren's private army at a Tokyo restaurant, the two former
associates engage in their own private duel, with O-Ren correctly predicting how long the
fight will last.
While O-Ren is surprised that The Bride wields a sword forged by the retired Hanzo, she estimates
that the impending duel won't last five minutes.
O-Ren is correct in her prediction, but not in the way that she anticipated.
The Bride cuts off the top of her head, killing her after a hard-fought battle.
The length of the sword fight is exactly four minutes and 59 seconds, fulfilling O-Ren's
lethal prophecy.
The most prominent storyline in Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" is one that follows hitmen
Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield through Los Angeles.
While retrieving a briefcase belonging to their employer Marsellus Wallace, Vincent
and Jules get into a gunfight with an unnamed character looking to avenge his friends.
Surprising the two assassins, the character completely unloads a pistol at them — but
every bullet strikes the wall behind Vincent and Jules instead.
In an oversight that made it into the final film, the bullet holes in the wall behind
Vincent and Jules are present before the shooting even begins.
This suggests that the scene of Vincent and Jules talking in front of the bullet-ridden
wall was filmed before much of the following sequence.
The claims from Jules that divine intervention saved him and Vincent from mortal harm is
a bit undercut by the knowledge that the bullet holes were there all along.
The opening title sequence to 1997's "Jackie Brown" sets the tone for Tarantino's adaptation
of Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel "Rum Punch."
From its grainy, color-saturated cinematography and Pam Grier's casting to the 1973 Bobby
Womack song "Across 110th Street," Tarantino pays direct homage to '70s blaxploitation cinema.
The memorable sequence would later be featured in a direct callback by Tarantino in "Once
Upon a Time... in Hollywood."
"Jackie Brown" opens with the titular protagonist moving confidently through a brightly-colored
tiled hallway in LAX before breaking into a run to board flight passengers on time at
the gate.
The same hallway is featured in "Once Upon a Time," when Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth
make their triumphant return to Los Angeles with Rick's new wife Francesca.
In both sequences, the characters exude a sense of cool as they move through the airport,
quietly hinting at their status quo before their respective narratives kick into high gear.
Given how the late actor and martial artist is depicted in "Once Upon a Time," Tarantino
has a complicated stance regarding the legacy of Bruce Lee.
However, Lee received a decidedly more favorable nod in "Kill Bill: Volume 1" with The Bride's
choice in fashion during her stay in Tokyo.
From her cruise through the city on her motorcycle to her memorable sword fight in the House
of Blue Leaves, The Bride wears a black and bright yellow tracksuit and helmet evocative of Lee.
This iconic outfit is a visual homage to the martial arts legend's similar ensemble in
his posthumously released final film "Game of Death" in 1978.
The Bride's iteration of the yellow and black outfit would become one of the more recognizable
images of the character, with her wearing the tracksuit on the "Volume 1" theatrical poster.
How would The Bride fare against Cliff Booth?
Possibly better than Bruce Lee did.
"Once Upon a Time ... In Hollywood" blends real-life figures and true events in the 1960s
entertainment scene with fictional characters and twists on established history, all in
service to Tarantino's love letter to 1969 Los Angeles.
A prime example of the blur between actual history and Tarantino's imagination occurs
when Rick Dalton takes an extended sojourn in Italy to star in European films.
Among the filmmakers that Rick works with while in Europe is a real director, one amusingly
name-dropped in Tarantino's 2009 film "Inglourious Basterds."
While infiltrating a Nazi film premiere in Paris, Allied soldier Donny Donowitz uses
the alias Antonio Margheriti while posing as an Italian director at the event.
Antonio Margheriti is an actual Italian filmmaker who directed feature films from 1960 to 1989.
He is also credited in "Once Upon a Time...
In Hollywood" for casting Rick in the fictional movie "Operazione Dyn-o-mite."
"Margheritiiiiiiiiii."
"Once Upon a Time...
In Hollywood" is a lavish, painstakingly faithful recreation of Los Angeles in 1969, drawing
from Tarantino's own memories of the city.
One of the most prominent elements he includes in the film are the classic cars that Cliff
Booth drives around L.A., one belonging to himself and the other to his best friend and
boss, Rick Dalton.
In obtaining these throwback automobiles, Tarantino revisited some of the cars he had
memorably used in his past projects.
Rick is chauffeured around the city in his yellow 1966 Cadillac Coupe de Ville by Cliff
after receiving a DUI prior to the events of the film.
That car was previously driven by Mr. Blonde in 1992's "Reservoir Dogs."
The actual car is owned by Michael Madsen, who personally lent it to the production.
Cliff himself, meanwhile, drives a blue 1968 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia — the same make
and model previously driven by The Bride in "Kill Bill: Volume 2."
Much like Alfred Hitchcock and other directors before him, Tarantino has made it a point
to cameo in many of his movies.
It's a fun tidbit for Tarantino fans to look out for, and one where he might have a slight
advantage over other filmmakers.
After all, Tarantino considered himself an actor for many years, and has starred in films
like "From Dusk Till Dawn" and "Destiny Turns on the Radio."
Appearing as Mr. Brown in "Reservoir Dogs," Tarantino delivered the film's opening riff
on Madonna, and was quickly dispatched.
In "Pulp Fiction," the filmmaker played coffee-loving Jimmie, who was willing to help with a body
disposal as long as it went down before his wife Bonnie got home.
Tarantino briefly popped up as the bar owner in "Death Proof," and "Django Unchained" brought
along what might have been the most sizable role he gave himself: an explosives obsessed...
Australian?
One overlooked role is in the closing segment of "Four Rooms," in which he lays out the
terms of a bloody wager inspired by an old "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode.
More subtle Tarantino cameos include a voice on an answering machine in "Jackie Brown,"
a dead Nazi in "Inglourious Basterds," and narration for "The Hateful Eight."
Did he have a cameo in "Hollywood"?
Supposedly, that's him screaming "cut" at the end of the Dalton commercial.
"And cut."
"Alright, this cigarette tastes like f---ing s---."
And in "Kill Bill," some think he was one of the Crazy 88.
Though it isn't explicitly stated within the films themselves, Tarantino has created familial
links between some of the figures in his filmography.
Mr. Blonde's real name in "Reservoir Dogs" is revealed to be Vic Vega, whom Tarantino
has claimed to be the brother of Vincent Vega from "Pulp Fiction."
In various interviews over the years, Tarantino has alluded to the fact that he once had an
idea for a "Vega Brothers" movie that would bring Michael Madsen and John Travolta’s
characters together — but like many Tarantino ideas, it never came to fruition.
Tarantino's penchant to weave hidden family histories would later continue with his historical films.
In "Basterds," Michael Fassbender's British intelligence officer Archie Hicox is related
to duplicitous outlaw English Pete Hicox in "Hateful Eight."
As for recurring names in Tarantino's initial films, it's no secret that he wrote his earliest
scripts during overlapping periods, some with the expectation they might not get made.
It's unsurprising, then, that Jimmie in "Pulp Fiction" and Mr. White in "Reservoir Dogs"
share the surname "Dimmick," and Tom Sizemore's "Natural Born Killers” detective and Blonde's
parole officer in "Reservoir Dogs" are both Scagnetti.
What may have started as unintended script shorthand, it seems, has become a Tarantino trademark.
One of Tarantino's favorite collaborators in recent years has been Kurt Russell, who
appeared prominently in "The Hateful Eight" and "Once Upon a Time...
In Hollywood."
The two first got together for "Death Proof", with Russell playing against type as a serial
killer named Stuntman Mike who preys on young women, using his own modified car as a murder weapon.
Death Proof" contains several references to Russell's own long-running career, all while
subverting audience expectations about his tendency to play heroic roles.
When Stuntman Mike introduces himself, he reveals that he previously worked long ago
as a stuntman on the television series "The Virginian."
As a child actor, one of Russell's earliest roles was on an episode of "The Virginian,"
with the reference being a nod to Russell's acting origins.
A more subtle reference to Russell's career in "Death Proof" is his character Jack Burton's
white tank top from "Big Trouble in Little China," hung up on the wall of the Austin
dive bar where he stalks his prey.