**Spoilers ahead. Please do not read if you have not seen “The Hateful Eight.” Come back and read this after you’ve seen the movie, please.**
Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” (read our review) is almost upon us and that means more of the movie is beginning to surface, including the full soundtrack and other intriguing details.
When I first saw the wintry western in 70mm I noticed two references to the Tarantino universe. One was pretty straightforward and not very spoiler-y at all: the characters that smoke all pull drags on Red Apple, the brand of cigarettes that are popular in Tarantino’s films. You won’t find them in “Reservoir Dogs” or “Django Unchained,” but a video tribute below shows that they appear pretty much everywhere else.
The second connection is much, much more of a spoiler only because to fully explain it, you have to reveal mysterious elements of the plot. But I’ll tread lightly, and also, Tim Roth already partially spilled the beans, so it seems like it’s okay to pull back the curtain entirely and stay spoiler-free to greater details.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Roth explained the link between his Oswaldo Mobray and another Tarantino film. "He’s connected to one of the characters. I won’t say which one. He’s the great, great grandfather of one of the characters in ‘Inglourious Basterds,’" Roth said.
Want to know who? And sorry, HuffPo, your guess is wrong. Mobray is the great, great grandfather of British Lieutenant Archibald "Archie" Hicox (played by Michael Fassbender). There’s a bit more to the connection, but I can’t really reveal it without major spoilers I’d rather not get into.
But if you’re dying to know and can’t wait for the movie, The Weinstein Company released the entire “The Hateful Eight” screenplay on their For Your Consideration site and you can read it in its entirety for free (see page 153 for the exact detail if you want, it should be pretty obvious).
Are there further connections to the Tarantino-universe in the film? It’s possible, and if you discover more, share them in the comments section below. “The Hateful Eight” 70mm roadshow begins December 25th and the movie opens wide in regular release on January 1st.
