Celebrated writer and director Quentin Tarantino has just completed the screenplay for his tenth and final movie, The Movie Critic, and it could tie together his movie universe. The filmmaker's movies all take place in the same universe, and Tarantino has even suggested that some of his movies are fictional films within that universe. It's easy to spot parallels in the films and other things that connect the movies, whether it's the Big Kahuna Burger fast food chain or the Red Apple Cigarettes brand, but the shared universe actually runs much deeper than just some easy-to-spot Easter eggs and familiar last names.
The filmmaker has said for years that his tenth movie will be his last, and now The Movie Critic screenplay is complete, that time has finally come. The Movie Critic features a female protagonist and is set in 1970s Los Angeles, and it has been speculated that the main character is based on Pauline Kael, an influential film critic who gained notoriety in the 70s. Given the director's penchant for using real-life people as his characters, it wouldn't be surprising if the character even was Pauline Kael. And if that's the case, it'd be the perfect way to tie Tarantino's shared universe together.
Quentin Tarantino's Shared Movie Universe Explained
Tarantino's filmography can be split into two groups; there are the movies that fit into the main movie universe, and there are the ones that fit into the movie-within-a-movie universe, and together they make up Tarantino's shared movie universe. The main movie universe includes Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. This universe is where characters based on real-life and fictional characters collide, and as Tarantino himself puts it, "There's the realer than real universe, alright, and all the characters inhabit that one." It also includes the Tarantino-written, Tony Scott-directed True Romance.
The movie-within-a-movie universe is where Tarantino's world gets interesting, and this universe is comprised of the more fantastical Tarantino movies such as From Dusk Till Dawn, the Kill Bill movies, Planet Terror, and Death Proof. They are essentially fictional movies within the main movie universe. Tarantino describes it as, "basically when the characters of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, when they go to the movies, Kill Bill is what they go to see. From Dusk Till Dawn is what they see." A theory suggests that Django Unchained is in the movie-within-a-movie universe and that Rick Dalton plays Calvin Candie, but that hasn't been confirmed by Tarantino.
How The Movie Critic Can Tie Together Tarantino's Shared Universe
Though Tarantino has definitively explained the two universes of his movies and it isn't just a fan theory, he has never properly explained it in any of his movies, but The Movie Critic could seamlessly pull it off. As a general rule of thumb about Tarantino's shared universe is that movies featuring real-life people fit into the main movie universe, it's likely that The Movie Critic will be a part of that group of movies too so long as The Movie Critic's main character really is Pauline Kael. In Tarantino's 10th movie, Kael could review one of the movies in the movie-within-a-movie universe, which would perfectly tie together the whole universe.
Kill Bill is clearly set in the modern day based on the use of cell phones and modern vehicles, so it's unlikely that it'll be mentioned in the 70s-based movie. However, as Planet Terror and Death Proof are influenced by 70s exploitation movies, there's a strong chance that Kael could review those. The movie could even answer whether or not Django Unchained does star Rick Dalton, as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is set in 1969, and The Movie Critic is just a few years later. Kael and Dalton could very easily cross paths, and The Movie Critic might even be a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel.
Why The Movie Critic Sounds Perfect For Tarantino's Final Movie
Not only is The Movie Critic a perfect film for Tarantino to end his career with because it can tie together all of his previous movies, but it combines so many of his influences too. The Movie Critic has a period setting, it's based in Los Angeles, and the subject of the film is a critic Tarantino has greatly admired for decades. 70s movies will also obviously be heavily discussed, a movie era that Tarantino is so knowledgeable about and is even the subject of his non-fiction book, Cinema Speculation. The only thing that missing from the recipe is ultraviolence, which Tarantino will undoubtedly find a way to include.