His exit in The Thing, The Hateful Eight definitely feels like a spiritual sequel. It finds a disparate group of characters isolated in a snowbound locale, where paranoia and mistrust gradually engulf them; the casting of Kurt Russell in a major role can't have been a coincidence on director Quentin Tarantino's part, nor the fact Ennio Morricone's score features unused cues from his own music for The Thing.
While Django Unchained titled Django In White Hell. Tarantino later dropped the title character from the story when he realized he was entirely too heroic to belong with such nefarious characters.
The Hateful Eight cast Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue, an outlaw whose captor John Ruth (Russell) seeks shelter in the Minnie's Haberdashery lodge during a blizzard, alongside other unsavory figures. Daisy is a member of her brother Jody's (Channing Tatum) gang, with Chapter Three revealing he's been hiding in the basement the entire time, while Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), English Pete (Tim Roth) and Marco (Demián Bichir) are his men planning to spring Daisy. Jody makes himself known by shooting Major Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) in the crotch, and after the wounded Major later forces Jody to come out of the basement, he shoots him in the head.
Channing Tatum's Hateful Eight death is both shocking and kind of hilarious since his dispatching is so abrupt. In the original screenplay, however, Warren's revenge was more sadistic. In one draft, Jody shot Warren in the spine and after he and Chris Mannix - played by Walton Goggins - force Jody to come up, Warren shoots him in the stomach. This causes Jody to drop to the basement floor, and a graphic description of the damage the bullet did to his stomach makes it clear he can't get up again.
The furious Daisy screams that the rats in the basement will make short work of her brother Jody, with Warren confirming that's the general plan. The Hateful Eight's ending then plays out close to the movie, though Jody's moans from the basement can occasionally be heard. While it's not depicted onscreen, Jody being attacked by rats and begging for help is also heard. While Jody's bleak fate in the screenplay would have underlined the story's nihilistic edge further, his swift exit in the final movie feels neater from a story perspective.
