The Best Quentin Tarantino Movie Never Made Was Cut From His Magnum Opus
by Kieran Fisher · /FilmWelcome to The Best Movies Never Made, a weekly look at the most fascinating, strange, and tantalizing films that came within striking distance of reality, but never actually made it in front of cameras — and maybe should have.
Quentin Tarantino always has ideas for movies rummaging around in his brain. If you've followed his interviews throughout the years, you'll have noticed that he's teased lots of projects that never got made. These range from his proposed "Star Trek" film to a "Pulp Fiction" spin-off, but those examples barely scratch the surface. On paper, many of these unrealized ideas sound incredible, which brings us to "Killer Crow."
"Killer Crow" began life as a subplot in Tarantino's magnum opus "Inglourious Basterds," which remains the most ambitious film in his entire catalog. However, Tarantino cut the storyline after his World War II epic morphed into a movie from its originally intended form of a miniseries. Still, the director claims he penned enough material to turn "Killer Crow" into a standalone vehicle, and it looked to be in the cards for a minute.
In 2012, Tarantino hinted that he was thinking about making "Killer Crow" sometime after "Django Unchained," and he even shared some enticing details about what fans could expect from it. Ultimately, the project never came to fruition, forcing us to spend the rest of our lives wondering what could have been. With that in mind, let's discuss why "Killer Crow" is one of the most exciting Tarantino projects we'll never get to see.
Killer Crow would have followed angry soldiers on the warpath
"Inglourious Basterds" follows Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and the titular American soldiers as they wage war against the Nazis in Europe. They're the good guys, but they're quite unhinged, as evidenced by their love of scalping Nazis and using their skulls to play baseball. "Killer Crow," meanwhile, would have followed soldiers who have beef with the U.S. military and are out for payback. Here's what Quentin Tarantino told The Root about the unmade project:
"[It] followed a bunch of Black troops, and they had been f***ed over by the American military and kind of go apes**t. They basically — the way Lt. Aldo Raine and the Basterds are having an 'Apache resistance' — [the] Black troops go on an Apache warpath and kill a bunch of white soldiers and white officers on a military base and are just making a warpath to Switzerland."
A story of this ilk would be undoubtedly bonkers under the supervision of Tarantino. But his description also makes "Killer Crow" sound like a nuanced war flick that explores conflict from a fresh angle. "Inglourious Basterds" has patriotic, crowd-pleasing elements, but "Killer Crow" seemed intent to unleash some justified violence against the U.S. military.
After all, society wasn't exactly kind to Black Americans in the 1940s, as racial segregation laws were still enforced across the United States and bled into military life. Black people fought against fascism while contending with discrimination at home. Meanwhile, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study — a government-endorsed experiment carried out on Black men to monitor of the effects of untreated syphilis — lasted from the '30s until the '70s. In short, Tarantino would have had plenty of real-world material to draw from while creating this righteous, vengeance-fueled fantasy.
Killer Crow was imagined as part of a trilogy
"Killer Crow" was supposed to conclude Quentin Tarantino's revisionist history trilogy following "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained." Based on the information he shared about the plot, the unmade film sounds similar from a thematic standpoint, as those flicks are wish-fulfillment fantasies that condemn fascism and racism.
Furthermore, the association with "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained" gives us an idea of what "Killer Crow" would have been like tonally. Those films are sprawling, violent, suspenseful, and often funny thrill rides that embrace the tropes of pulpy exploitation fare. However, Tarantino's auteur style adds a level of scope and ambition that we associate with blockbusters and prestige cinema.
"Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained" are essentially elevated grindhouse films — a style Tarantino has mastered throughout the years. The plot of "Killer Crow" makes it sound like it could have been the most extreme grindhouse flick of the bunch, albeit one that retains the previous films' moral fury. As good as it sounds, though, it's entirely possible that Tarantino lost interest in this particular project as his career progressed.
Why Killer Crow is unlikely to get made
Quentin Tarantino says his next film will be his last, and he doesn't appear to be in any rush to make it. As of this writing, the acclaimed filmmaker has yet to settle on an idea he wants to pursue after scrapping "The Movie Critic" as his final feature. (Or if he has, the public doesn't know about it yet.) Is it possible that he'll dust off "Killer Crow" and make our dreams come true? Never say never. But it doesn't appear that he's so much as mentioned this project since 2012, so don't bet money on it being his career swan song.
For his final flick, Tarantino seems adamant about making something he's proud of, ensuring he goes out on a high note as a director. His silence on "Killer Crow" after all these years suggests it isn't a story he's overly passionate about, especially as a farewell project. Tarantino has mentioned being interested in making a horror movie as his 10th and final feature, as well as a spaghetti Western comedy or, possibly, "Kill Bill 3."
It's also worth considering that "Django Unchained" scratched Tarantino's itch to make a revenge fantasy that addressed America's gruesome history. He also touched on similar themes in his next film, "The Hateful Eight," so it's possible he's said everything he wants to say about racism in the United States.
Plus, let's not forget that he completed his revisionist history trilogy with "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," which takes aim at the Manson Family's crimes and explores other corners of American history. This phase of Tarantino's career seems to be over, but not pursuing "Killer Crow" still feels like a missed opportunity.
Killer Crow is Quentin Tarantino's biggest missed opportunity
While "Killer Crow" was originally part of "Inglourious Basterds," Quentin Tarantino's description makes it sound like a totally different movie. The plot summary implies a straight-up men-on-a-mission film in the style of "The Dirty Dozen" or "Where Eagles Dare," which would be different from "Inglourious Basterds." The story of Aldo Raine and his men echoes these films, but it was just one of many subplots in QT's World War II epic, with the others being more rooted in the espionage, revenge thriller, and suspense drama genres.
There's an argument to be made that "Killer Crow" doesn't need to exist following "Django Unchained" — a film that blasts America's racist past quite effectively. However, Tarantino's 2012 Western is about slavery in the 1880s, while "Killer Crow" is set during World War II, long after slavery was abolished. I trust that "Killer Crow" would have been just as thrilling, original, and potent as his other revisionist actioners, while underlining the idea that racism is not some old-timey concern, but the original sin on which the country was founded, and we're still feeling the effects of it today.
The military aspect also makes it a fascinating "what if," as there aren't many movies about the Black battalions in World War II. Every once in a while, we get a gem like Spike Lee's excellent "Miracle at St. Anna," but they are few and far between. A war film that acknowledges the efforts of Black soldiers while unleashing great vengeance and furious anger sounds entertaining and historically relevant. Sadly, we can only speculate about "Killer Crow." Tarantino teased enough details to get us excited, but only he knows if it's worth making.