- 5 months ago
Even the biggest Tarantino fans might have missed these details in 'Django Unchained.' Discover the fateful double role of one actor, the links to 'Pulp Fiction,' and other secrets from the film.
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00:00Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is just one hell of a movie,
00:04regardless of where you'd personally rank it in the filmmaker's outstanding filmography.
00:09Released back in 2012, the blood-soaked revisionist Western won two Oscars
00:14and remains the director's highest-grossing film to date.
00:18Yet, despite how many times you might have already seen it,
00:21it's a film absolutely packed to the gills,
00:23with sneaky references and subtle nuances you can easily miss
00:27if you're not paying total attention.
00:30And even then, many of them are blink and you'll miss it.
00:33So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture,
00:35and here are 20 things you somehow missed in Django Unchained.
00:40Number 20, James Remar plays Schultz's first kill and the person who kills him.
00:45You may well have noticed that veteran character actor James Remar
00:49plays two supporting roles in the film.
00:52But did you appreciate their fateful significance to Dr. King Schultz?
00:56Near the start of the movie, Remar first appears as Ace Speck,
01:00Django's owner, who soon enough ends up shot in the head and killed by Schultz.
01:05He then reappears later as Butch Pooch, one of Calvin Candy's bodyguards,
01:10who ends up shooting Schultz dead immediately after Schultz kills Candy.
01:14So, to summarize, Remar ends up playing both Schultz's first kill in the movie
01:20and the man who ends up killing him.
01:22As for why Tarantino casts the same actor in both roles,
01:25well, you'd have to ask him.
01:27Number 19, Nash and Coons.
01:29When we briefly see the wanted poster for the Smitty Bacool gang,
01:33the names of two of the gang's members should stand out to fans of Tarantino's filmography,
01:39Gerald Nash and Crazy Craig Coons.
01:42Given Tarantino's fondness for not-so-subtly implying a shared universe between his movies,
01:48we can safely infer that Nash is likely related to Reservoir Dogs' ill-fated kidnapped policeman Marvin Nash.
01:54And as for Coons, well, that one's a little bit easier to remember.
01:58It's Vietnam War veteran Captain Coons from Pulp Fiction,
02:02played so memorably in a small role by Christopher Walken.
02:06While the familial links themselves are vague at best,
02:09given that Tarantino imbues all of his movies with an exacting amount of detail,
02:14there is no way that these name drops were mere coincidence.
02:18Number 18, why there are only five bullets in Jango's revolver.
02:22When Jango kills the Brittle brothers,
02:24he wipes out Roger Lil Raj Brittle by shooting him dead with his own revolver.
02:30Yet you might have noticed that Jango only fires five bullets,
02:33despite the gun being able to hold six.
02:36I mean, being a six-shooter and all.
02:38Well, the reason for this?
02:39Single-action revolvers of the era didn't have a transfer bar,
02:44meaning that the gun's hammer would be resting on one of the chambers,
02:47increasing the risk of an accidental discharge if, say, the gun was dropped or mishandled.
02:52By leaving the chamber the hammer rests on empty, that risk was mitigated,
02:57even if it meant having one less bullet chambered for an engagement.
03:00So there you have it.
03:02Much as Tarantino is hardly a stickler for historical authenticity,
03:05he at least got this detail dead on.
03:08Number 17, Tom Savini's cameo.
03:10Legendary Hollywood makeup artist Tom Savini,
03:13best known for his gory contributions to George A. Romero's classic zombie films,
03:18has a brief cameo in the film as one of Candy's slave trackers,
03:22whose guard dogs, of course, brutally mauls slave D'Artagnan to death.
03:25Savini's character can also be briefly seen later in the movie,
03:30when Django goes back to save Broomhilda.
03:32Savini's involvement was more than mere fan service, though.
03:35He goes way back with Tarantino,
03:38having appeared alongside him in the cult-fave vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn,
03:43which was also written by Tarantino and directed by their mutual pal Robert Rodriguez.
03:48Number 16, Schultz whistles the original Django theme.
03:51At the start of the scene, where members of the proto-KKK prepare for their raid against Django and Schultz,
03:58we briefly see Schultz sticking a hunk of dynamite inside the novelty tooth on top of his wagon cart.
04:04While doing so, he whistles a tune, and though this might seem totally inconsequential,
04:10it's actually composer Luis Bakalov's theme tune from the original 1966 spaghetti western Django.
04:16This wasn't the first time that Tarantino used a whistle to nod to an iconic piece of film music.
04:22In Kill Bill Vol. 1, he had Elle Driver whistle the title track from Bernard Herrmann's score for Twisted Nerve,
04:28as she tries in vain to kill the bride.
04:31Number 15, Django's first kill and Schultz's last kill mirror each other.
04:36In another curious instance of kills throughout the movie mirroring each other,
04:41there's an intriguing parallel between Django's first kill and Schultz's last kill.
04:46Django's first kill is Big John Brittle, while Schultz's last kill is Calvin Candy.
04:52In both instances, the same gun is used, with the victim being surprised by its concealed nature
04:57before being shot in the heart, all while blood spills onto a white object on their chest,
05:03a piece of paper and a flower, respectively.
05:06And they then take a few seconds to fall down dead.
05:09In the immortal words of George Lucas, it's like poetry, it rhymes.
05:14Number 14, a clansman falls off their horse.
05:17Okay, so here's a really funny one, though considering the dark nature of the scene,
05:21you couldn't be blamed at all for missing it.
05:24When the clansmen ride their horses over the hill towards Django and Schultz,
05:28look closely at the middle of the screen and you might just notice a rider falling off their horse
05:34and getting damn near trampled to death by another.
05:37Now, to be clear, you might need to raise the brightness levels on your TV to spot this one,
05:42considering the low-key lighting involved.
05:44But it absolutely does happen.
05:46It doesn't seem to be a planned part of the scene, but then again,
05:49it totally works, given that the clansmen are riding with crudely made eyesight-limiting hoods, so...
05:55Number 13, it's about a dentist fighting Candy.
05:59Prepare to have your mind blown, and also hate yourself for not realising this earlier.
06:04Django Unchained is about Dr. King Schultz, a dentist-turned-bounty hunter,
06:09facing off against Calvin Candy, a savage slave owner with bad teeth.
06:15So just to be clear, it's a movie about a dentist battling Candy.
06:19Do you get it?
06:19Again, this is one of those glaringly obvious things that hides itself so perfectly in plain sight.
06:25Simple wordplay we fail to fully appreciate because we're so wrapped up in the brilliantly written story and characters.
06:31Or that's what we're gonna tell ourselves anyway.
06:34But if you did manage to catch that one yourself, well done.
06:37I applaud you.
06:38Number 12, Tarantino's second cameo.
06:41For better or worse, everyone remembers Tarantino's late film cameo as a member of the LeQuint Dickie Mining Company.
06:48Atrocious Australian accent and all.
06:50But he also makes another appearance earlier in the movie in decidedly less conspicuous fashion.
06:55When the proto-KKK members are arguing over their poorly made hoods,
06:59one of the Klansmen asks a hood-wearing colleague, Robert, how well he can see out of the hood.
07:05And this character, whose face is never seen, is voiced by none other than Tarantino himself.
07:11Once you know it's him, it's really an easy spot.
07:13Yet the scene is so awash in various voices of masked individuals that it's incredibly easy to miss otherwise.
07:20Number 11, Candy's dinner pretensions.
07:22There are several references made to the Candy family's superficially well-to-do nature.
07:27That beyond all their riches, they're putting up a pretentious facade to give the impression that they belong in high
07:34society.
07:34Case in point, at the start of dinner, we see Schultz pour salt on his steak, but refuse an offer
07:40of gravy.
07:41All while Calvin's sister Lara accepts the gravy.
07:44And so in a vapid attempt to appear classy rather than stereotypically southern,
07:49when Broomhilde brings the jug of gravy over to his steak, Calvin taps it with his knife, shooing her away
07:55and refusing the gravy.
07:57Couple this with the fact that Candy, an alleged Francophile, doesn't know the meaning of the word panache,
08:02and his highfalutin facade quickly wears very, very thin.
08:07Number 10, Django learns from Schultz's gunplay at the end.
08:10And one more gunplay-related parallel now.
08:13At the start of the movie, when Schultz frees Django,
08:16note the extremely slick move where Schultz drops his lantern and immediately pulls out a pistol,
08:22allowing him to catch Ace Woody by surprise and blow him the hell away.
08:26Django evidently paid very close attention to this sleight of hand,
08:29as he does the very same thing right at the end of the movie.
08:33As the Candy Clan returns to the mansion following Calvin's funeral,
08:37they find Django lying in wait, holding a candle in hand.
08:41A mere moment later, he drops the candle to the floor and immediately pulls out a gun,
08:45similarly allowing him to get the drop on his numerous adversaries.
08:49Number 9, the original Django has a cameo.
08:52There's no greater tribute to the original Django film than the fact that its star, Franco Nero,
08:57has a cameo appearance.
08:59Nero plays the small part of an Italian slave owner who goes to the bar following the loss of a
09:05Mandingo fight
09:05and briefly crosses paths with Jamie Foxx's Django.
09:09Tellingly, when Django tells him that the D in his name is silent, he retorts with,
09:14I know.
09:15All the same, unless you're a huge fan of spaghetti westerns or familiar with Nero's career,
09:20it's incredibly easy to take this cameo at face value and not appreciate what Tarantino's actually nodding to.
09:25Fun fact, Nero initially suggested to Tarantino that he should play a mysterious horseman
09:31appearing to Django in visions throughout the film,
09:34who at the end would be revealed as Django's father.
09:37An idea which the filmmaker probably quite sensibly vetoed.
09:42Number 8, the red bandana woman is played by Zoe Bell.
09:45Late in the film, when Django guns down a room full of trackers,
09:49we briefly see that one of them is a woman who wears a red bandana over her face,
09:54with Tarantino even lingering on her for a few telling moments.
09:58Given that the lower half of her face isn't visible,
10:01you'd be forgiven for failing to spot that the tiny role was actually played
10:04by Tarantino's regular collaborator Zoe Bell,
10:07who has worked as both a stunt double and an actress across the latter half of his filmography.
10:12As it turns out, the character was originally intended to have a much larger part in the film,
10:18with a backstory and a fight scene,
10:20but it was cut due to time constraints during shooting.
10:23Bell also revealed that her character wore a bandana to conceal the fact that she's missing her entire jaw,
10:29as would have been revealed had Tarantino been given time to shoot the full version of the scene.
10:35Number 7, the meaning behind Mr. Candy.
10:38As Schultz first heads to meet Candy, he's informed that as a Francophile,
10:43Candy prefers to be referred to as Monsieur Candy rather than Mr. Candy.
10:47And for all but one of their interactions, Schultz does indeed address Candy per his preferences.
10:53This single exception comes in their final scene together,
10:56when after the sale of Broomhilde has been completed, Schultz says,
11:00Mr. Candy, normally I would say Auf Wiedersehen.
11:03But since what Auf Wiedersehen actually means is till I see you again,
11:08and since I never wish to see you again, to you sir, I say goodbye.
11:12At this point, any remaining facade of placating Candy has been totally dropped,
11:17extending even to how he addresses him.
11:20Number 6, the poker game uses slaves' severed ears as chips.
11:24Okay, now this one's really gross and you might wish that you never knew it.
11:28Near the end of the movie, moments before Django kills the trackers who are playing poker,
11:32look incredibly closely at the table they're playing on.
11:35And you might just notice that they're not playing with typical chips,
11:39but rather some strange fleshy objects.
11:42As it turns out, they're actually betting with ears.
11:44And Tarantino's script goes further to clarify that they're the ears of black slaves.
11:50And if that's somehow not horrifying enough,
11:52Tarantino adds that those who re-watch the film might even notice
11:56that some of the Candyland slaves are missing ears.
12:00Good God.
12:00Number 5, Django learns from being blinded by blood.
12:04It's always satisfying from a film continuity perspective
12:07to see characters learn from prior mistakes,
12:10even if only in incredibly subtle fashion.
12:12And that's absolutely true of Django and his close-range shooting technique.
12:17After Schultz's death, Django pulls his gun and shoots Butch Pooch dead,
12:21at which point the massive squib of blood squirts in his eyes,
12:25blinding him enough that he misses his next shot at another of Candy's goons.
12:29Django clearly takes note of his mistake, though,
12:32as later, when he convinces the slaver escorts to free him and hand him a gun,
12:37he closes his eyes before opening fire on the two men in front of him,
12:42ensuring the blood splatter doesn't blind him.
12:44This then allows him to make a bullseye shot at the third escort's dynamite pouch,
12:49exploding him instantly.
12:51Now that is character development.
12:53Number 4, Amber and Russ Tamblyn's cameos.
12:57Here's a cute duo of cameos that were missed by all but the most eagle-eyed of viewers.
13:02Early in the film, as Django and Schultz enter the town of Daughtry,
13:05they're eyeballed by the locals,
13:07including a young woman looking from a window up high
13:10and an older gentleman on the ground.
13:13These background artists are, in fact,
13:15actress Amber Tamblyn and her father Russ,
13:18the latter having famously starred in the classic 1965 western Son of a Gunfighter.
13:23As for how the pair made it into the movie?
13:26Well, according to Amber herself,
13:28Tarantino is a good friend and invited her to do a cameo,
13:31at which point she suggested it would be great if she and her father
13:34played a father-daughter pair in the movie.
13:37And so, in a nod to her father's western past,
13:40the duo are credited as
13:42son of a gunfighter and daughter of a son of a gunfighter, respectively.
13:47Number 3, Django kneecaps Steven for faking his limp.
13:50At the very end of the movie, rather than directly kill Calvin's head house slave,
13:55Steven, Django shoots him in the kneecaps
13:57and leaves him helpless to escape as he blows the mansion up.
14:01It's a fitting end for Steven, given that, moments earlier,
14:04he threw his cane aside, implying that he had been faking,
14:08or in the very least wildly exaggerating, the extent of his limp.
14:12For Django to seriously injure a man who had been falsifying his condition,
14:16moments before leaving him to die no less,
14:18was the ultimate insult for the last villain standing.
14:22Or, as the case ultimately was, not standing.
14:25Number 2, Django steals Candy's clothes at the end.
14:28Now, this one should be incredibly obvious,
14:30and yet it's bafflingly easy to miss amid the chaos of that incredible final scene.
14:35When Django returns to the Candy mansion to mop up the rest of his family and followers,
14:40he's actually wearing the very same burgundy suit
14:42that Candy was wearing the first time he met Django.
14:46Django having presumably raided his closet to put it on.
14:49To hammer the point home, Django even says to Steven,
14:53how'd you like my new duds?
14:54You know, before now, I didn't know that burgundy was my colour.
14:57And yet, it's almost embarrassingly easy to miss this fact,
15:01as silly as it might seem in retrospect.
15:03Right down to the cigarette extender,
15:05he's delivering the final blow to Candy by destroying his home while wearing his own goods.
15:11Number 1, there's a post-credits scene.
15:13And finally, you probably don't associate Tarantino much with post-credits scenes,
15:18given that the guy's movies largely speak for themselves,
15:21without any last-minute sequel baiting or teases of future attractions.
15:26But Django Unchained does in fact feature an incredibly brief post-credits stinger.
15:30Returning to the scene where Django killed the slavers working for the LaQuint's Dickey Mining Company,
15:35Django's fellow Mandingo fighters are simply shown looking on at the carnage,
15:40as one of them asks of Django,
15:42who was that?
15:43Trust Tarantino of all filmmakers to reward those who stuck around to the end
15:48with a totally perfunctory and yet absolutely hilarious final morsel.
15:53Let's go.
15:53Let's go.
15:53Let's go.