Key Takeaways

• Tarantino's films fall into two mini-universes: Realer than Real and Movie Movie, linking characters and stories.
• The TCU operates uniquely, with connected films weaving a larger story that spans across different time periods.
• From Django Unchained to Kill Bill to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino creates an interconnected cinematic universe.

Quentin Tarantino is perhaps the most critically acclaimed director of our generation. His films tend to be standalone features filled with violence and adult content. They're box office smashes that only properties like Marvel could rival. While, at first glance, Tarantino's movies don't have much in common with the summery popcorn hits of the MCU or even the Star Wars Universe, there is one way they are similar: They're all part of a cinematic universe of interconnected films that weave together a larger story.

There are two separate mini-universes that Tarantino's films fall into, called Realer than Real and Movie Movie.

The TCU, or the Tarantino Cinematic Universe, is an official thing. It’s something Tarantino talked about in the past. His films have connections that bind them together. At the same time, the TCU operates differently than most cinematic worlds. For instance, there are two separate mini-universes that Tarantino’s films fall into, called Realer than Real and Movie Movie.

Here is how Tarantino describes Realer than Real and Movie Movie: "There's the Realer than Real Universe, alright, and all the characters inhabit that one. But then there's this Movie universe. . . From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill, they all take place in this special Movie universe. So, 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."

Tarantino recently scrapped a film that sounds like it would've explored this concept much more. The Movie Critic, was slated to be Tarantino's 10th and final film, until it was unceremoniously scrapped before filming was slated to start later this year. The film was supposed to center around a film critic in the late 1970s of Tarantino's Realer than Real universe that would've interacted with characters from previous Tarantino movies, including Brad Pitt's character Cliff Booth from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The Hollywood Reporter even shared a rumor that Tom Cruise was in talks to appear in the film.

We’ve broken down the best TCU viewing order, with films from the Realer than Real Universe and Movie Movie Universe. Tarantino has either written, produced, or directed all these movies. (Our order leaves out Jackie Brown because it’s the only film he based on prior source material.)

WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW.

The Realer than Real Universe

The Realer than Real Universe is essentially Taratino's re-telling of US history. The movies in this universe feature stories with alternate histories, if you will. For instance, the character of Django starts a slave rebellion in the film Django, but he does so a full two years before the Civil War even starts. In Inglourious Basterds, Hitler is murdered in 1944 instead of committing suicide a year later.

And, in Once Upon a time… in Hollywood, the Manson murderers show up at character Rick Dalton's house rather than Sharon Tate's. This all leads to the present day -- a more comfortable time with violence -- with films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.

Django Unchained

Django escapes slavery and sets out to find his wife

Django Unchained is about Django, naturally, who is played by Jamie Foxx. In the film, we see Django freed from slavery by the bounty hunter King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), and the two begin to work together before they agree to head to Candyland, a plantation in South Carolina owned by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candy. Here, the duo hope to free Django's still-enslaved wife.

Placing a hero like Django at this point in US history would've allowed and perhaps inspired Samuel L Jackson's character in The Hateful Eight (which is set 20 years later) to enter the career of bounty hunting.

The Hateful Eight

A group of strangers attempts to ride out a blizzard together

Sometime during the aftermath of the Civil War, John "The Hangman" Ruth, who is played by Kurt Russell, is forced into a stagecoach stopover by a blizzard. He's with his latest catch, the outlaw Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). While there, the pair is joined by a group of six strangers, including former Union officer Marquis Warren turned bounty hunter (Samuel L. Jackson) and Confederate militiamen turned sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), and no one is sure who can be trusted.

There are a few subtle connections hidden in The Hateful Eight that link to other Tarantino films. The most overt is Tim Roth's English Pete Hicox. He is related to Michael Fassbender's character, Archie Hicox, in Inglourious Basterds.

Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino's alternate ending for World War II