There’s been a fun theory bouncing around the internet for a while which surmises that all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies are part of a single continuity. The theory states that all of the characters that the writer has created inhabit the same world, or at least did throughout time. Now the writer and director has been directly asked about the theory and he’s confirmed that it’s true. Mostly.
Quentin Tarantino was in Australia doing promotional work for The Hateful Eight alongside two of the film’s stars Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell. On the television show The Project, he was asked about the "Tarantino Cinematic Universe" and confirmed that most of his films do take place in the same world; the only exception being the movies that are too over the top, even for Tarantino’s hyperrealistic style. Those films are still part of the universe, however, as actual movies.
There is actually two separate universes. There is the realer than real universe, alright, and all the characters inhabit that one. But then there’s this movie universe. So From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill, they all take place in this special movie universe. So when all the characters of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies, Kill Bill is what they go to see. From Dusk Till Dawn is what they see.
Quentin Tarantino has often dropped the occasional hint that some of his movies were connected. We know that Michael Madsen’s character from Reservoir Dogs and John Travolta’s character in Pulp Fiction are actually brothers. Tarantino has also said that The Hateful Eight actually started out as a sequel to Django Unchained so, while there’s no direct connection between the two movies anymore, it’s not exactly a stretch to believe they still take place on the same timeline.
Of course, now the question for obsessive compulsive movie geeks (of which we know a few) will be: which movies fall into each side of the universe? It makes sense that From Dusk Till Dawn is still a "movie" as it has, you know, vampires, and the rest of Tarantino world does not appear to contain the supernatural. Why does Kill Bill get relegated to the movie world? Is the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique too outrageous for the "realer than real" world? How do you draw the line between hyperrealism and just completely fantastic?
Are there any other films that should be part of the internal "movie universe" or is everything else that Quentin Tarantino’s done part of his "real world?" We're going to assume Death Proof was just an actual Grindhouse movie, as opposed to the homage that we all see it as. Sound off in the comments below.
