ok, let me start off by posting this quote from another forum:
"
Apparently what folks are debating is that the second set of chicks was Mike’s first time out as a killer, because if you pay attention he doesn’t actually keep to killing them - he actually gets out of his car, says that was fun, and lets them go, only to get screwed by it…They also say he didn’t die when he got his ass kicked, either. They kicked his ass, but good, cracked his skull, but he lived, learned his lesson, and improved his trade to go on becoming a much harder, more pissed-off effective killer in the first half (as you can clearly tell his disposition is way darker in the first half than in the seocnd half, where he was having fun and just “messing around”, as he pleaded with the girls)
I have to be honest, at first I just figured it a straight forward movie, but what got me thinking in the first place was Mike’s character - it was just OFF in the second half and raised alot of ??? about his character. Yeah, some killers can get pussified, if they are inexperienced and do not develop that cold desensitization to fear and violence, but considering Mike’s cool, hardened disposition in the first half (guy put himself in a car crash and broke bones in his body!), he just seemed WAY too menacing and seasoned to just peter out like that in the second half. The guy just started RUNNING AWAY crying. He didn’t pull any of his tricks or anything, like he did in the first half which made no sense…Hence the debate that he was in fact a rookie in the second half.
Then QT’s little quirks messing with the order lit a lightbulb…and then there’s this little piece of evidence:
In the original script, the first scene was written to end “17 months later” and then cut to the second scene, but oddly enough (or actually as expected) QT took that subtitle out of the final film, thereby lending the viewer with another one of his chronological mishaps…which ultimately renders the film to go EITHER WAY in terms of story (depending on who is watching it- male or female).
I think that’s brilliant - it’s a woman’s empowerment movie ONE WAY, and in QT’s REVERSE WAY it’s actually a SECRETIVE male empowerment film, all the same…That was WAY cool. Truly speaks of the time’s socio-political climate on gender."
thoughts?
I guess you interpret too much into it. it’s a meant-to-be-campy exploitation flick, you don’t find plot twists and flashbacks in movies made for cheaps and produced for low-income areas etc…
i think he just shot a straight forward slasher flick…
Death Proof is in chronological order. The first story is just another time killing spree for Mike. The 2nd story is the first time his victims fought back.
Death Proof however does take place before Planet Terror.
Death Proof and Planet Terror have nothing to do with each other. The McGraws existing in both films is more like a universes-jumping gimmick than a cross-reference
[quote=“The Seb”]
Death Proof and Planet Terror have nothing to do with each other. The McGraws existing in both films is more like a universes-jumping gimmick than a cross-reference
[/quote]
You’re kidding, right? In Planet Terror, when Dakota’s girlfriend’s car breaksdown, you can hear on the radio the DJ saying that they’re about to play the song in memory of Jungle Julia, from Death Proof.
So Jungle Julia is mentioned by name in Planet Terror, and if she’s already dead, Planet Terror takes place after, obviously, since it also has the end of the world.
Also, in Death Proof, you can see the crazy baby sitter twins outside going into the bar. It’s them.
Also, Earl McGraw might live in both universes but what about his daughter Dakota? She was in Death Proof, in between the first and the second story. Remember when Earl McGraw is with his son, Son #1 and they talk to Dakota about Stuntman Mike’s condition? And she’s pissed at her father for some reason. Dakota was also in the same hospital room that Stuntman Mike is in.
Also, after his crash, Stuntman Mike was in the same hospital that a good portion of Planet Terror took place in. Both movies definitely take place in the same world, even if some of the same actors play different characters.
Death Proof takes place before Planet Terror. At least the first part of Death Proof takes place before Planet Terror. The 2nd part which takes place in Tennessee might take place after the bulk of Planet Terror but not before that final sequence where Rose is riding a horse and the whole world has been infected.
or the McGraws are the ne Wolves (as Tarantino mentioned in my interview) and the rest is just a funny play with the audience.
but it shows how Death Proof and Planet Terror are connected, the McGraws, the Crazy Babysitter Twins, Jungle Julia’s mention over the radio in PT. I mean of course there will be references since Planet Terror and the first part of Death Proof both take place in Austin. What do you mean the McGraws are Wolves?
Actually, check out the top of page 77 in the DP script. Looks like the second story takes places 14 months later, in “Lebanon, Tennessee.” I could see why that information was taken out of the movie but the script shows us what Quentin was thinking.
It’s an interesting theory…
I dont think it has anything to do with it being out of order. He just happened to pick on the wrong set of girls in the second half and got fucked up bad. He leaves Texas after the first killing and goes to Tennesee to do some more.
But yes, Death Proof DOES take place before PT, they dedicate a song to the late Jungle Julia in PT. So actually Grindhouse itself is out of order. 
[quote=“The Seb”]
Death Proof and Planet Terror have nothing to do with each other. The McGraws existing in both films is more like a universes-jumping gimmick than a cross-reference
[/quote]
Quentin said something like when he would go see a double feature they would always something in common or be connected in someway for an example Foxy Brown And Coffy, I think thats what RR and QT were doing with grindhouse.
I would be more willing to entertain the thought of “Death Proof” being non-linear if Stuntman Mike’s face didn’t CAVE IN when Abernathy jabbed her high heel into his already unconscious face in the last shot. Sorry, but if your face caves in, you look different. He looked the same throughout the whole film.
If he survived that beating, he probably REALLY looked fucked up. That scar was a beauty mark compared to having his head kicked in.
Someone said on the Grindhouse forum that the kick at the end was how he got his scar. The ending was his first time trying to kill thats why he fucked big time, he wasnt professional like he was when he killed the first time.
[quote=“me”]
Someone said on the Grindhouse forum that the kick at the end was how he got his scar. The ending was his first time trying to kill thats why he fucked big time, he wasnt professional like he was when he killed the first time.
[/quote]
He had his scar in the 2nd part though. They had a close up of his face when he was taking their pictures and you could see it.
Unfortunately, DP is in chronological order.
RIP Stuntman Mike.lol.
It is interesting. I thought it was odd how he changed so much when shot, but drove head first into another car, he did seem darker and crueler in the first part, I mean he can take pain.
One other thing is his car. Is it the same as the first one but without the skull? The first seemed more like the more completed version fo the two.
Otherwise though, there isn’t any actual thing in the movie to signify this, and the script seems to drive it home.
And yeah, despite what QT says, the films do seem connected, not only are they in the same movie but there are direct referances to each of the films in the other, and El Ray smokes those apple cigs…
On the same note though, it would then have to take place before from Dusk Til Dawn… But their tech seems more advanced, like her PDA thing… what are they called I know, but can’t think of it… Anyway yeah… So that throws it off, and it also would mean Planet Terror is in the same Universe and with it ended, no Tarantino movie in that universe could take place afterward, so that creates a problem as well… So avoiding all links with previous films, it still seems retty definate that they are in the same universe, otherwise having Dakota in it would make no real sense…
there’s never going to be absolute continuity, especially with McGraw being shot dead in FDTD but there are still relationships that can be gleaned from it. Death Proof may take place in QT’s universe but PT doesn’t have to, even though both of them take place in the same world. And besides his idea of two universes was just an idea he explained a few years ago, that doesn’t mean that he will always adhere to it. He even admitted that Jackie Brown took place in Elmore Leonard’s world, despite it’s connections to Quentin’s.
Both films take place in the same area, but are in diff movie universes, which is weird. QT said that Death Proof takes place in the Pulp Fiction Universe while PT takes place in the Movie Movie Universe.
I think the first half of the film is meant to be a slasher film and the second half is the Southern Fried car chase film. So thats why they look a little different/diff tone.
Mikes second car, The Dodge Charger is just without the skull (probably so he doesnt draw attention to himself). It still has the Rubber Duck ornament.
The Red Apple cigarettes and other brands (Big Kahuna Burger) can show up in both universes.
They both take place before FDTD, since Earl McGraw dies in that. Some stuff you just have to ignore and go with it.
[quote=“PopeyePete”]
Both films take place in the same area, but are in diff movie universes, which is weird. QT said that Death Proof takes place in the Pulp Fiction Universe while PT takes place in the Movie Movie Universe.
[/quote]
Did Quentin actually say PT took place in the movie universe? I only heard him talk about DP. The Earl McGraw continuity can be ignored, in my opinion, otherwise every move he’s in, it’s only gonna push FDTD forward in time. DP takes place now. Does that mean FDTD takes place no earlier?