Richard Linklater Gave Quentin Tarantino And Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse's Most Meta Moment
Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino met in 1992 when both filmmakers exploded onto the scene with their respective films, "El Mariachi" and "Reservoir Dogs." Filmmaker panels don't happen quite as often as they used to at major film festivals, but back then, Rodriguez and Tarantino were on a panel addressing violence in the movies (naturally). That was always a hot button topic and both directors, especially Tarantino, have had to address the graphic content in their films multiple times over the years.
Coming off the success of "Kill Bill" and "Sin City" over a decade later, the idea to do "Grindhouse" was born out of curated movie nights that Tarantino would cull together out of old 35mm prints of drive-in movies and obscure trailers from the 1970's. "Grindhouse" was really a way to craft a passion project out of their love for some of the under seen gems that they revered growing up that, hopefully, wouldn't have the same level of scrutiny as their previous efforts. "It's an exploitation movie, it's a double feature, it almost doesn't count. It's like a throwaway," spouted Rodriguez in a dual interview with Tarantino with Entertainment Weekly about a year before the film's release.
Justifiably thinking they could do no wrong at that point in their careers, QT and Rodriguez set out to recreate the feeling of watching an old, battered print that had been snipped and sliced over and over again after playing all kinds of theaters across the country. Every aging film print has been on a journey, which "Grindhouse" paid homage to by recreating that state of disrepair with fake film breaks and missing reels. One movie and one filmmaker, in particular, gave them the idea for one of the best in-jokes in Rodriguez's segment, "Planet Terror."
Richard Linklater and the case of the missing reel
Timing the gag to perfection in "Planet Terror," a sex scene between Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) and Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) is interrupted when a sign comes up saying "Missing Reel." When the movie starts up again moments later, they're both getting dressed. Quentin Tarantino recalled a 1976 spy thriller that he and Rodriguez were watching one night when the idea for the meta joke started to materialize. Tarantino told EW:
"We were watching this Oliver Reed, Richard Widmark movie called 'The Sell-Out,' and it was missing a reel right in the middle. And I've come to like it that way. I don't even want to know what happens in the missing reel. I like having to figure it out."
It was actually the revered Texas filmmaker Richard Linklater of "Dazed and Confused," the "Before" trilogy, and "Boyhood" fame who cemented the idea to include a missing reel in "Grindhouse." ("It was Rick Linklater's idea that we do the missing reel," to quote QT directly.) The meta gag wound up being the perfect way to both lampoon and celebrate exploitation movies from the drive-in era.
"Planet Terror" wasn't the only spot where the "Missing Reel" sign pops up, though. In Tarantino's original version of "Death Proof," Arlene's (Vanessa Ferlito) lap dance for Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) at the Texas Chili Parlor is cut out of the film, altogether. Rodriguez perfectly summed up the feeling they wanted audiences to have when the "Missing Reel" suddenly popped up. "It's like you went on a 20-minute bathroom break and you come back and all hell's broken loose."