Inglourious Basterds/Trivia

• Actor Allusion:
  • This isn't the first movie where Brad Pitt fights in a basement.
  • Eli Roth performs some of the more gruesome killings in the film. Coincidence? And this isn't the first time he's played a "bear"--in Death Proof, his character was named "Dov," which means "bear" in Hebrew.
  • Brad Pitt also played a character that collected German scalps in the 1994 film Legends of the Fall.
• The Danza: Omar Doom as Pfc. Omar Ulmer.
• Deleted Scene: Cloris Leachman and Maggie Cheung ended up being cut from the film.
• Fake Brit: Michael Fassbender who plays Lt. Archie Hicox, the Quintessential British Gentleman, lives in London but is in fact half-Irish, half-German. Mike Myers (Canadian) plays another quintessential Brit, General Fenech. And finally, Rod Taylor, who plays Prime Minister Winston Churchill, is Australian. Tarantino talked Rod Taylor out of retirement to play Churchill, even though Taylor suggested Albert Finney (who had played Churchill to great acclaim in The Gathering Storm (2002)).
• Fake Nationality: Christian Berkel, who plays a French bartender, is actually German.
• Fatal Method Acting: A near miss. During the climactic scene, the fire raging through the cinema was completely real. Unfortunately, it began to get out of hand, and the two actors in the scene were only wearing a jelly to protect their skin; the rest of the crew had fire suits. Ten seconds after Quentin Tarantino called 'cut' and everyone rushed off, the platform the actors had been standing on collapsed. The heat was so intense (2000 degrees Fahrenheit) one of them passed out afterwards.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: So many to pick from!
  • Hey, it's Ryan the temp killing Nazis...
  • Alongside Neal Schweiber!
  • The scene with the English general. Wait, why is Austin Powers talking?
  • Rod Taylor is Winston Churchill.
  • Rusty Ryan has a crap surprisingly accurate Appalachian accent.
  • Hey, it's the chick from National Treasure!
  • The Bear Jew...is the king of horror Gorn himself!
  • When did Alexander Kerner switch from communism to Nazism?
  • Wait a second- Inspector? Where have you left Rex?!
  • Reverend Harmony leads the American soldiers in Stolz der Nation.
  • Not something a non-German would care about, but the rather small soldier in the tavern? Volker Michalowski, kind of famous German comedian with a (stealth) cameo.
  • Hey it's suicidal Paul and Gunther from 'Love In Thoughts'. As Nazis. But is Gunther still gay?
  • Rock Fertig-Aus went back in time in order to kill some Nazis.
  • Good to see that Azazeal is still as suave as ever.
  • It would appear that a certain renegade-Nazi-explosive-expert was relegated to the profession of bartending... or maybe he's Prof. Dr. Ernst-Günter Schenck in a different timeline...
  • It should come as no surprise that Magneto likes drinking scotch and killing Nazis.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: The Narrator is Samuel L. Jackson and the Basterds' Commanding Officer is Harvey Keitel. Both are Tarantino regulars. In the Japanese dub we have Spike Spiegel as Aldo, Rangiku Matsumoto from Bleach as Shosanna and Hidan from Naruto as Hicox.
• Playing Against Type: Sam Levine is better known for his nerdy Nice Guy roles in series like Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.
• Promoted Fanboy: Mike Myers was reportedly a Tarantino fan, which got him his cameo in Chapter 4 "Operation Kino".
• Similarly Named Works: The "Inglourious Basterds" misspelling was likely to avoid a lawsuit by the copyright holders of the 1978 film "The Inglorious Bastards", which was also a World War II film. Though it might also be a reflection on Raine's illiteracy.
• Star-Making Role: This is the film that introduced Christoph Waltz to American audiences.
• Throw It In: The giant swastika falling down in the final scene is real, it was a mistake that happened on the set.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Adam Sandler, Simon Pegg and Leonardo DiCaprio were considered for the respective parts of Donny Donowitz, Archie Hicox and Hans Landa. The role of Hicox was originally written with Tarantino favorite Tim Roth in mind.
  • Also, at one point Ennio Morricone was on board to compose the score but backed out due to his belief that he would be unable to work efficiently in the amount of time given.
  • In the screenplay of Inglourious Basterds, the first part of the film set in Paris was intended to have been filmed in black and white, using entirely natural lighting, in reference to the French New Wave. This was probably cut by Executive Meddling, on the grounds that most of the audience wouldn't get the reference, and came here to see an action movie, get back to the killin' already!