All of Quentin Tarantino’s movies are confirmed to exist in the same universe, divided into two levels, but the Tarantinoverse also connects to that of his friend and fellow filmmaker, Robert Rodríguez – and here’s how. Quentin Tarantino has become one of the most popular and respected filmmakers in the industry but also one of the most controversial due to the amount of violence in his movies and the topics they address. Still, Tarantino has a solid fan base, who continue to analyze every one of his movies and find connections between them and the movies of other filmmakers close to him, as is Robert Rodriguez.
Tarantino’s career as a filmmaker began with the crime movie Reservoir Dogs in 1992, and while it was well-received by critics and viewers, his big break arrived in 1994 with another crime movie: Pulp Fiction. Tarantino has made a total of eight movies (as both Kill Bill movies count as one) and written a couple more that were not directed by him, such as True Romance and From Dusk till Dawn. The latter was directed by Robert Rodríguez, a close friend of Tarantino who also cast the director in one of the main roles (that of Richie Gecko), and with time, their movies have ended up having some interesting connections between them.
Tarantino has confirmed that all his movies live in the same universe and this one is divided into two levels. The first one is the “realer than real” universe, where Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and True Romance (directed by Tony Scott but written by Tarantino) live, and the second level is the “movie-in-a-movie” universe, which are the movies that the characters from the first level would watch, as are both Kill Bill movies and Death Proof. The characters from the real world can’t appear in the movie one and vice versa, but those in the latter can appear in other movies from their level. Now, it’s in this division where a link between the Tarantinoverse and Robert Rodríguez’s universe is, as From Dusk till Dawn and Planet Terror count as part of Tarantino’s “movie-in-a-movie” universe.
Another connection between these universes is one character who is allowed to jump between the two levels of the Tarantino universe: Earl McGraw, played by Michael Parks. Earl is a Texas ranger who appears in From Dusk till Dawn, Kill Bill, Planet Terror, and Death Proof. Earl was killed in From Dusk till Dawn by the Gecko brothers, but that wasn’t enough to stop him as he returned years later, and this can be explained by these movies being part of the “movie-in-a-movie” level (though some consider Death Proof as part of the real world). Others considered the appearance of Big Kahuna burgers in various Tarantino and Rodríguez movies as another link between these two universes, while others have gone as far as to come up with theories of certain characters living double lives, such as Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), who some suggest moved far away from the US to start a new life as Romero, a scientist introduced in Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams.
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodríguez are not only close friends but also collaborators, with one serving as writer, producer, or actor for the other and so on, and of course, let’s not forget their Grindhouse project, through which they brought Death Proof and Planet Terror. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that their movie universes are subtly connected, and it’s to be seen if their future projects will also be linked somehow.