We’ve broken down the best Quentin Tarantino Cinematic Universe movie viewing order, films that Tarantino has written, produced, or directed.
Why you can trust Pocket-lint (Pocket-lint) – Quentin Tarantino is perhaps the most critically acclaimed director of our generation. His films tend to be standalone features filled with violence and adult content. They’re box office smashes that only properties like Marvel could rival. While, at first glance, Tarantino’s films don’t have much in common with the summery popcorn hits of the MCU or even the Star Wars Universe, there is one way they are similar: Tarantino’s films are all part of a cinematic universe of interconnected films that weave together a larger story. Called the TCU, the Tarantino Cinematic Universe is an official thing. It’s something Tarantino talked about in the past. His films have connections that bind them together. At the same time, the TCU operates differently than most cinematic worlds. For instance, there are two separate mini universes that Tarantino’s films fall into, called Realer than Real and Movie Movie. Here is how Tarantino describes Realer than Real and Movie Movie: “There’s the Realer than Real Universe, alright, and all the characters inhabit that one. But then there’s this Movie universe… From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill, they all take place in this special Movie universe. So, basically, when 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.” Tarantino Cinematic Universe: The best viewing order We’ve broken down the best TCU movie viewing order (a spoiler-free version is at the bottom). It includes films in Realer than Real Universe and Movie Universe. These are films that Tarantino has either written, produced, or directed. This viewing order leaves out Jackie Brown, however, because it’s the only film Tarantino based on prior source material, so it doesn’t fit into the TCU. For the true Tarantino fans out there, we’ve included a second spoiler-free list at the bottom of this guide that includes every Tarantino project, in release date order. There’s even a third list for all the films that Tarantino directed. TCU: Best viewing orders Best TCU order (spoilers) Best TCU order (spoiler-free) TCU movies in order of release (spoiler-free) Tarantino-directed films (spoiler-free) The Realer than Real Universe explained WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW. The Realer than Real Universe is essentially Taratino’s re-telling of US history. The films in this universe feature stories with alternate histories, if you will. For instance, the character of Django starts a slave rebellion in the film Django, but he does so a full two years before the Civil War even starts. In Inglorious Basterds, Hitler is murdered in 1944 instead of committing suicide a year later. And, in Once Upon a time… in Hollywood, the Manson murderers show up at the character of Rick Dalton’s house rather than Sharon Tate’s. This all leads to the present day – a time more comfortable with violence – with films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Django Unchained Django Unchained (2012) Django Unchained is about Django, naturally, who is played by Jamie Foxx. In the film, we see Django freed from slavery by the bounty hunter King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), and the two begin to work together before they agree to head to Candyland, a plantation in South Carolina owned by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candy. Here, the duo hopes to free Django’s still-enslaved wife. Placing a hero like Django at this point in US history would’ve allowed and perhaps inspired Samuel L Jackson’s character in The Hateful Eight (which is set 20 years later) to enter the career of bounty hunting. squirrel_widget_177696 The Hateful Eight The Hateful Eight (2015) Sometime during the aftermath of the Civil War, John “The Hangman” Ruth, who is played by Kurt Russell, is forced into a stagecoach stopover by a blizzard. He’s with his latest catch, the outlaw Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). While there, the pair is joined by a group of six strangers, including former Union officer Marquis Warren turned bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and Confederate militiamen turned sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), and no one is sure who can be trusted. There are a few subtle connections hidden in The Hateful Eight that link to other Tarantino films. The most overt is Tim Roth’s English Pete Hicox. He is related to Michael Fassbender’s character, Archie Hicox, in Inglourious Basterds. squirrel_widget_177697 Inglourious Basterds Inglourious Basterds (2009) A group of Jewish soldiers infiltrate Nazi-occupied France during World War II and soon learn of an upcoming movie premiere that will have the entire Nazi leadership, including Hitler, in attendance. This film sets off an alternate timeline in human history, as it shows Hitler and every other higher-up Nazi murdered in a movie theatre. This ultimately gives cinemas a type of holy reverence in the TCU, but it also leads to the American public becoming comfortable with the extreme violence and gore in films, a theme in the TCU’s Movie Universe.
