Movies - TV
Filming Inglourious Basterds' Fiery Climax Was A Scary Experience For Quentin Tarantino
By MICHAEL BOYLE
Director Quentin Tarantino was less interested in being factually correct when making his World War II film, “Inglourious Basterds”; instead, he focused on telling a tale of revenge that culminates with Shosanna’s (Mélanie Laurent) retribution. The film’s climax sees the theater filled with trapped Nazis begin to catch fire in what Tarantino described as a scary experience.
The director explained, “Well as the filmmaking was concerned there was the excitement and scariness of doing the climax, because I don’t do storyboards or any of that stuff. We just had to commit to doing it and piece it together.” Many of Tarantino’s characters die gruesome deaths, but the director revealed that he doesn’t like fire sequences, saying that they are “kind of boring.”
The fear isn’t the fire itself; it’s the realization the exits are barred and that those inside are trapped in the theater. As Tarantino put it: “My whole thing was like, ‘Look, here’s what we’re trying to do. An audience in a movie theater is going to be watching an audience in a movie theater in a fire. [laughs] This should be as traumatic as it should be to watch a plane-crash movie on an airplane.’”