Prediction: The Hateful Eight boosts Quentin Tarantino’s stock even higher when it comes out. Take a look at the trailer. The visuals jump out immediately. Snowy landscapes. The period costumes. Lots of fur. It should definitely be seen in 70mm if the movie matches the trailer. Tarantino feels the same way since he’s initally releasing the movie on 70mm only. That’ll be Christmas Day 2015, son. Deck the halls with Samuel Jackson’s utterances of “motherfucker”.
Then, you have the cast. Tarantino always gets an awesome collection of people together. Mainstay Samuel L. Jackson checks in. The ensemble also includes Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern. The plot doesn’t disappoint either:
In THE HATEFUL EIGHT, set six or eight or 12 years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix (Goggins), a southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new Sheriff. Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces. Bob (Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray (Roth), the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage (Madsen), and Confederate General Sanford Smithers (Dern). As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, our eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all…
See Leigh’s expression halfway through the trailer when Russell introduces her to the group inside Minnie’s Haberdashery. In another scene, Russell predicts “One of them fellas is not what he says he is.” This makes the movie sound like Clue set in the Wild West.
Will there be a Samuel L. Jackson monologue? One can only dream.