Tarantino Expanded Universe

[Jrzag42]

Yesterday I got the idea for a hypothetical Tarantino marathon... with a twist.
Take every Tarantino-directed film, place them chronologically. Then add films written by Tarantino. Then add all of the films that reference those, and every film that Tarantino has claimed is related.
This is the Tarantino Expanded Universe. I'm currently attempting to chronicle every plausible entry in this universe. Further posts may explain why certain films are included. I welcome any suggestions and corrections.


17XX -

• Executioners From Shaolin
• Abbot of Shaolin
• Clan of the White Lotus

1858 -

• Django Unchained

1870 -

• The Hateful Eight

1913 -

• From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter

1944 -

• Inglorious Basterds

1969 -

• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

1971 -

• Shaft

1972 -

• Shaft's Big Score

1973 -

• Shaft in Africa

1992 -

• Reservoir Dogs
• El Mariachi

1993 -

• True Romance

1994 -

• Pulp Fiction
• Natural Born Killers

1995 -

• Desperado
• Four Rooms

1996 -

• From Dusk Till Dawn
• Curdled

1999 -

• From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money

2000 -

• Shaft (2000)

2003 -

• Kill Bill
• Once Upon a Time In Mexico

2007 -

• Death Proof
• Planet Terror

2014 -

• Shaft (2019)

I'm on the fence about including the Grindhouse spinoffs:
-Hobo With a Shotgun
-Machete
-Machete Kills
-Thanksgiving

If I include Machete, then by assotion that would add:
-Spy Kids
-Spy Kids 2: Island Of Lost Dreams
-Spy Kids 3D: Game Over
-Spy Kids 4: All The Time In The World
-I think there's a Spy Kids 5 but I don't care enough to check

I'm currently disregarding TV shows:
-El Mariachi
-From Dusk Till Dawn
-ER
-Shaft (although this series did get released as TV movies so I'm on the fence)

Ambiguous cameos confuse matters:
-Django (1966)
-A Million Ways To Die In The West

If AMWTDITW is included, then that adds:
-Back To The Future
-Back To The Future Part II
-Back To The Future Part III

 

[Jrzag42]

As some may know, Tarantino has confirmed that his films occupy two separate universe. There's the "Realer Than Real" universe, and then there's the "Movie" universe. Most fall under the Real universe, that's the main universe. The Movie universe refers to in-universe movies that the Real characters would watch. If Jules were to go to the movies, he might watch Kill Bill. I actually think that each Movie movie should take place in its own pocket universe, because they don't tend to be consistent with eachother.
So calling this the Tarantino Expanded Universe is a bit of a misnomer, it's more of a multiverse. I listed the films as if they occupied a single timeline, but logically they should be separate. So here are the timelines separated:

Reveal message: REAL TIMELINE

-Django Unchained
-Hateful Eight
-Inglorious Basterds
-Once Upon a Time In Hollywood
-Shaft
-Shaft's Big Score
-Shaft In Africa
-Reservoir Dogs
-True Romance
-Pulp Fiction
-Shaft (2000)
-Shaft (2019)

Reveal message: MOVIE TIMELINE

-From Dusk Till Dawn 3
-From Dusk Till Dawn
-Curdled
-From Dusk Till Dawn 2
-Kill Bill
-Planet Terror

Reveal message: AMBIGUOUS TIMELINE

-Executioners From Shaolin
-Abbot Of Shaolin
-Clan Of The White Lotus
-El Mariachi
-Natural Born Killers
-Desperado
-Four Rooms
-Once Upon a Time in Mexico
-Death Proof

Note that Jackie Brown is absent. Jackie Brown is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. It belongs to the Elmore Leonard cinematic universe rather than any established Tarantino universe. It's a rabbit hole that I don't feel like exploring at the moment.

 

[matrixgrindhouse]

Of the Pai Mei "trilogy," I've only seen Executioners from Shaolin. While it does provide the origin story for the character and explains one of his most eccentric techniques (not the heart one), it wouldn't really fit into any sort of continuity with Kill Bill without some mental gymnastics.

 

[Jrzag42]

Of the Pai Mei "trilogy," I've only seen Executioners from Shaolin. While it does provide the origin story for the character and explains one of his most eccentric techniques (not the heart one), it wouldn't really fit into any sort of continuity with Kill Bill without some mental gymnastics.

I personally imagine that they are movies within the Kill Bill univese (that would mean a movie inside of a movie inside of a movie, I'm so sorry) based on the legends of Kill Bill's Pai Mei. I think pairing these alongside Bill's story about Pai Mei give an idea of what to expect when we finally meet him for real, whether or not it's all accurate. Okay, so maybe I'm taking the mental gymnastics route.

It's all arbitrary I suppose. Should the inclusion of Bruce Lee in OUATIH mean that I should include every film about Bruce Lee? Obviously not, so why should it apply to Pai Mei? (not the exact same scenerio, but still)
Pai Mei is part of the reason I wanted to do this. When I first found out that he was a pre-existing character, it blew my mind. I've heard of edits that have included footage from these over Bill's story. I think it's cool having the extra context, but maybe it should just count as a meta reference rather than a valid entry on the list. I think that having them all at the beginning of the list makes it easy to just ignore them for now. I have yet to watch them for myself, but when I inevitably do I will reasses their inclusion.