Quentin Tarantino’s new movie Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is not only a work of historical fiction mixing real-life figures like Sharon Tate, Charles Manson, Bruce Lee, and Steve McQueen alongside the fictional co-leads played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, it’s also one giant Easter egg to the filmmaker’s many cinematic and pop cultural influences (and even to his other films).With all that in mind, let’s break down the film’s twist ending, its many Easter eggs, and influences.
Needless to say then, be mindful of SPOILERS ahead for the film and for history (?!), starting with …
Ending Explained
Obviously, Sharon Tate and her friends didn’t escape the Manson family in real life. Tate, her three guests, and another friend were all killed. Their killers were caught and incarcerated.
As Tarantino has fashioned a work of historical fiction, he has — as he also did with Inglourious Basterds, where Hitler died before he really did — once again foisted a fantasy “Hollywood ending” onto a historical tragedy.
In doing so, Tarantino gives Sharon Tate the extended life and screen career reality denied her. And thanks to Rick and Cliff’s (and Brandy’s!) killing of the Manson family members, Tarantino also opens the door for Rick to enjoy a more fruitful second phase of his acting career than he’s so far had. It’s a true Hollywood ending for both the real and the fictional characters in Tarantino’s film.
Who Inspired Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth?
Tarantino recently revealed that Brad Pitt’s badass stuntman Cliff Booth is indeed inspired by a particularly dangerous old timey stuntman, who he wouldn’t name but who intimidated even other tough guys and stuntmen back in the day.
Cliff possibly murdering his wife on a boat and getting away with it echoes the rumors that have swirled around actor Robert Wagner and the death of his wife, screen star Natalie Wood, for the last few decades.
The relationship between actor Rick Dalton and his stunt double/best friend Cliff Booth is directly modeled on the friendship between Burt Reynolds and stuntman-turned-director Hal Needham, both of whom are now deceased. Like Rick, Burt Reynolds was a TV western actor who struggled to catch a break in films before becoming a sought-after big screen actor after starring in Deliverance. Reynolds was to have played George Spahn — the real-life elderly owner of the delaptated movie ranch where the Manson family resided — In OUATIH but passed away before shooting his scenes. (He was replaced by Bruce Dern.) Had he lived to film his role, Reynolds’ inclusion would have been a direct nod to his and Needham’s influence on the film.
Like Cliff, Needham, who directed Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit, was a war veteran who became a stuntman and doubled for the star of a hugely popular TV western. In Cliff’s case, it was Bounty Law, starring Rick Dalton as Jake Cahill. Needham doubled for Richard Boone, who played the wandering gun-for-here Paladin on Have Gun, Will Travel.
One other inspiration for Rick might be Clint Eastwood, who found stardom on the small screen as Rowdy Yates on Rawhide before, several years later, finding big screen success thanks to starring in a series of classic spaghetti westerns from director Sergio Leone.
It should also be noted that one of the victims of the Manson family was Hollywood stuntman Donald Shea, which could speak to why Tarantino depicted a scene where stuntman Cliff becomes suspicious of the hippes his old pal George Spahn invited to live on his ranch.
All the Real People in It
Sharon Tate and the other targets of the Manson family — Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, and Wojciech Frykowski — depicted here are obviously all real people, as were Manson himself and his followers Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian, the latter of whom became a cooperating witness at trial but is shown in the movie as fleeing before the crimes begin. (Ditto Dakota Fanning as Manson follower Squeaky Fromme.) Obviously, the fates of all the aforementioned people differ greatly in real life than what transpired in the film.
Unless you’re brand new to the planet Earth, yes, Bruce Lee was a real guy, the greatest martial artist-star of his time (arguably, of all time). Lee is depicted in the film, by Mike Moh, during his time starring as Kato on The Green Hornet. And, yes, he really did train Sharon Tate in karate when she was co-starring in the Dean Martin spy spoof The Wrecking Crew.
Homeland’s Damian Lewis plays Steve McQueen in one scene set at the Playboy Mansion. McQueen, like Rick Dalton, began as the star of a TV western about a bounty hunter — Wanted: Dead or Alive —before he became a movie star and pop culture icon thanks to films like The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt, and The Great Escape, which Rick fantasizes about starring in instead of McQueen at one point.
Timothy Olyphant and the late Luke Perry also play real people in the movie. Yes, Lancer was a real TV series and the actors they play — James Stacey and Wayne Maunder — were real. The last shot we see of Olyphant in the film, driving off on his motorcycle, is also a harbinger of the tragic fate that lay in store for Stacey (he lost two limbs and his girlfriend was killed in a motorcycle accident when they were hit by a drunk driver).
Also real? The TV series The FBI that Rick films a guest spot on as the bad guy of the week.
The Mamas and Papas’ Michelle Phillips and Mama Cass pop up during the Playboy Mansion scene.
With his silver mane and oversized glasses, Al Pacino’s Marvin Schwarzs appears to be patterned after legendary Hollywood talent agent Lew Wasserman.
One of the spaghetti westerns Rick stars In is said to have been directed by Antonio Margheriti, a real-life filmmaker who Tarantino is a fan of … enough so that this isn’t his first mention in a Tarantino movie. Speaking of which …
Nods to Tarantino’s Other Movies
Antonio Margheriti is also the filmmaker whose name is used by Eli Roth’s character in Inglourious Basterds when they sneak into the Nazis’ film premiere.
Rick’s commercial for Red Apple cigarettes during the end credits is also a nod to the cigarette brand that has appeared in other Tarantino films such as Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight.
Tarantino vets Michael Madsen, Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, and Bruce Dern all pop up in small roles here. Another Tarantino vet, Tim Roth, had his role in the film end up on the cutting room floor.
Let us know what you thought of Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood and its ending, Easter eggs, and many references in the comments below!
