Reports Django Unchained and Zorro, apparently based on his own comic book. This was meant to be his tenth and supposedly last film, but due to the $500 million it would cost to produce, it has been dismissed. A big fan of the spaghetti western, Tarantino has gone further than adopting a significant flavor from the genre and has gone as far to make two proper westerns in the last decade.
These are The Hateful Eight, Far West-based films soaked in the classic Tarantino humorous, violent, and historic style. These two films introduced viewers to clever and ruthless bounty hunters, despicable villains, and reckless heroes.
Chris Mannix: The Hateful Eight (2015)
Coming from a Confederate family, Chris Mannix seems arrogant and obtuse, but certainly not as evil as his background depicts him to be. When he is met by the stagecoach in which two bounty hunters and an infamous captive journey, he claims to be traveling to a near town to fulfill his new sheriff duty.
Although his real colors and whether he is lying or not aren’t clear through the problematic gathering at the cabin, he ultimately decides to the less hateful side in the last standoff of the quarrel and dies with some honor to his name.
Stephen: Django Unchained (2012)
Loyal servant and friend to Calvin Candie, house slave Stephen is a resentful senior slave that turned his back on his people, mistreating and torturing other slaves and despising Django since the first step he made on Candyland.
Stephen’s poisonous wit served Candie a great deal, as he is the one that maintains discipline and terror among the slaves. When his virulent skepticism about the guests finally discovers the true plans of Django and Dr. King, he triggers a chain of events that ends with hell breaking loose in the already wicked Mississippi plantation.
John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth: The Hateful Eight (2015)
A familiar face in the western genre, Kurt Russell played "The Hangman," a ruthless bounty hunter that took his executioner role seriously, committing to bring to the law all his catches alive so they could be taken care of accordingly.
"No one said the job's supposed to be easy,” answered Ruth when asked why he followed such a strict and severe code. His desire to watch the criminals hang and to give the hangman an opportunity to also make a living eventually cost him the ultimate price, as one of the strangers in the cabin plays him a fatal trick. He's ultimately Tarantino’s western representation of “live by the sword, die by the sword.”
Dr. King Schultz: Django Unchained (2012)
After playing one of the most despicable villains of history in Inglourious Basterds, Christoph Waltz, once again, worked with Tarantino to interpret a dentist-masked bounty hunter. His charisma and moral principles make him a rare figure in 1858 Texas, as racial injustice disgusts him and he travels along with freed slave, Django, through the ruthless and racist lands of the Southwest.
A persuasive speaker, sharpshooter, and keen dresser, Dr. King goes out of his way to help Django save his wife from slavery, and in the deed, he encounters his moral antithesis, Calvin Candie. When his conscience is confronted, he chooses to maintain his honor and goes out with a bang.
Daisy Domergue: The Hateful Eight (2015)
Portrayed by Jennifer Jason Leigh, Daisy Domergue begins his path through the violent meeting as a captive to “The Hangman” Ruth due to her outlaw status as a Mexican gang member. The whole trouble which ultimately ends everyone’s lives originated from her brother’s plot to free her from her hanging destiny.
All throughout the journey, her custodian beats her due to her troublesome and wicked nature, but she eventually sings him farewell before he drinks a poisoned coffee: "...and you'll be dead behind me, John, when I get to Mexico..." The most hateful of all Hateful Eight characters in the bizarre reunion plays her dirty tricks to escape her destiny, but eventually, Mannix and Warren come first in the final agonizing standoff and fulfill The Hangman’s purpose.
Calvin J. Candie: Django Unchained (2012)
In his first work in a Tarantino movie, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Calvin Candie, the pompous and obviously racist owner of a plantation who has a side business in "Mandingo" fights, a brutal sport which he assembles with slave fighters to the spectacle of morbid onlookers.
A lover of French culture, who insists on being called "monsieur" while not knowing a single word of French, the main antagonist of Django Unchained thrives through his empire built from the suffering of his slaves and the cruelty with which he and his right-hand man, Stephen, control the business. When Candie’s tyranny is met by two unconventional guests, Tarantino’s good, bad, and ugly come face to face in a tense dispute that concludes in a violent and explosive finale.
Major Marquis Warren: The Hateful Eight (2015)
Played by Samuel L. Jackson, one of Tarantino’s favorite performers, Marquis Warren was a fierce soldier that fought against the Southern Confederacy before becoming a bounty hunter. Unlike fellow worker, John Ruth, he spared himself some trouble and used to deliver his bounties dead.
The first and last character to appear in a movie with theoretically no protagonist, Marquis Warren ventures through the suspicious and tense affair that occurs in the cabin where the eight strangers take shelter, revealing his cold-blooded and experienced ability to impose his will on the harsh reality of 1877 Southwest.
Django: Django Unchained (2012)
When Jamie Foxx’s Django is liberated from a slave convoy that had taken him apart from his wife Broomhilda, he decides to embrace the responsibilities that his liberator Dr. King offers him along with his freedom, and he begins his journey as a bounty hunter, unleashing his skills as an excellent marksman and earning the name of "Fastest Gun in the South."
Also a methodical performer, he disregards offenses and enjoys the perks of his job through his mission to free his wife, which begins when his companion Dr. King is inspired by the connection between Django and Broomhilda’s story to a German folk tale. His stoicism and bravery ultimately take him victoriously through the mission, a true Tarantino-styled cowboy that makes him the most memorable of all his western filmography.
