Among the major Hollywood filmmakers of today, none have as distinct and easily recognizable a style as Quentin Tarantino. His many stylistic flairs clearly spring from the fact that he is first and foremost a fan of cinema. His films are full of Easter eggs and homages to classic movies. Some of his films, such as Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, are pretty much a love letter to filmmaking.
The most important part of any Tarantino movie, however, has to be the intricate web of connections it weaves to the director’s entire filmography — a series of intricate links that come together to create a Shared Quentin Tarantino Cinematic Universe. Fans have speculated for years that the Tarantino cinematic universe was a thing — and the filmmaker himself confirmed this long-standing theory in 2017, in an interview with News.com:
It seems Tarantino’s movies inhabit not one, but two cinematic universes, each living within the other. Here are some facts about the shared Quentin Tarantino cinematic universe.
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8 The Big Kahuna Burger
A Band Apart
The Big Kahuna Burger takes up a big chunk of the iconic Samuel L. Jackson monologue in Pulp Fiction, which culminates with the recitation of Ezekiel 25:17. It is one of the most iconic film monologues of all time, and an unforgettable introduction to the fictional burger brand within the Tarantinoverse. Big Kahuna Burgers have been present in Tarantino’s movies from the very beginning, including Reservoir Dogs and From Dusk Till Dawn.
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7 Red Apple Cigarettes
Miramax
Tarantino didn’t just invent a fake burger brand in his movies — his film characters also love smoking a fictional brand of cigarettes called Red Apple Cigarettes. Tarantino features various fictional brands in his films because of his abject hatred for product placement. Given the ubiquity of cigarette-smoking scenes in his films, Red Apples have made many an appearance in the Tarantinoverse. Some notable ones include the Red Apples billboard ad in Kill Bill Vol. 1, and in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood where Rick Dalton appears in a video ad for the brand.
6 The Vega Brothers
Miramax Films
Another regular fixture in Tarantino’s films are the last names that are found across different movies. If you’ve ever spotted them yourself, chances are that the two characters were canonically related. The best example of this can be seen in the first two films directed by Tarantino. Both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction feature characters with the last name of Vega — in the former, it’s the sadistic Mr. Blonde, whose real name is revealed to be Vic Vega. In the latter, it’s John Travolta’s character, Vincent Vega. The two characters are siblings within Tarantino’s film universe, and Tarantino even envisioned a Pulp Fiction prequel for the two brothers set in Amsterdam, where they have a falling out over a woman. Unfortunately, the film never got made.
5 Kill Bill as a Movie Within the Tarantinoverse
Tarantino isn’t a director known for subtlety. He places his many references and Easter eggs out in the open. But it’s the way in which he puts these references right in your face that appeals to fans. The most beautiful example of this within Tarantino’s movies was 13 years in the making — setting up an amazing Easter egg for Kill Bill all the way back in Pulp Fiction.
During conversation with Vincent in Pulp Fiction, Uma 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 up with the women characters in Kill Bill: Vol 1. It seems the pilot actually got turned into a movie in the “special movie universe” within the Tarantinoverse.
4 The Koons
Perhaps no other film in Tarantino’s filmography is decked up with as many brilliant moments as Pulp Fiction. The movie also features a cameo by Christopher Walken, in one of the most underrated Tarantino movie converstations. Walken appears in the movie as Captain Koons, delivering a family heirloom to a young Butch Coolidge that was in his possession.
The name Koons appears one more time in Django Unchained, as one of the criminals hunted down by the bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz — Crazy Craig Koons. The criminal Koons is the great-great-grandfather of Captain Koons from Pulp Fiction.
3 A Nurse Named Bonnie
Tarantino’s characters also tend to reference the same names across movies — off-screen characters whose backstories appear to line up enough that they could be the same person. One of these characters who appears as far ahead as Reservoir Dogs is the nurse Bonnie. Chris Penn’s character Eddie references her for the very first time as a nurse who can help care for a wounded character. In Pulp Fiction, Tarantino himself appears as the character Jimmie, talking about his wife named Bonnie, who is also a nurse. There is yet another nurse with the same name referenced in the movie True Romance.
2 The Donowitzs
The Tarantinoverse also links up a father-son relationship across two movies. 2009’s Inglourious Basterds features Eli Roth as the baseball bat-loving soldier Donny Donowitz, otherwise known as the Bear Jew. Years before we watched his Hitler-killing exploits, Tarantino introduced us to his son in the 1993 film True Romance. Lee Donowitz is a major part in the second half of the film, and a successful film producer with a penchant for drug dealing.
1 A Girl Named Alabama
True Romance’s woman lead Alabama Whitman is also referenced in Reservoir Dogs by Mr. White. He talks about a former partner named Alabama, but mentions that they haven’t worked together in some time.
