History Film / Grindhouse

** Also {{Robert DeNiro}} plays the Senator in the actual Machete film.

''[[strike: Thunder Bolt]] Death Proof'' - A stuntman plays on his small fame to hit on girls, then kills them with his car. Little did he realize that a few of his second bunch of victims are stuntwomen... and among them is ZoeBell (playing herself), who also doubled for UmaThurman in ''Film/KillBill'' in real life. Boy, is Stuntman Mike in for a world of hurt...

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:DC-2 spreads around the world and no one has any way of finding a cure but a stronghold on the Mexican coast serves as humanity's last foothold]].

*** [[Series/{{Heroes}} But that's disgusting.]]
* ClothingDamage: The female deputy.

* ActorAllusion - Machete is a reprise of the actor's role of the same name in the ''SpyKids'' movies, also produced by Rodriguez. They implied he was a {{Badass}} in that, as much as they could in a kids film.

* CatchPhrase: "It's go-go, not cry-cry"
** "No dead bodies for Da-Da tonight."
** "I never miss."
** "Best in Texas."
** "Two against the world, baby."
** "[[BrainFood I'm gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge."]]
*** [[Series/{{Heroes}} But that's disgusting.]]
** "They just fucked with the wrong Mexican."
* ChekhovsGun: Kim's.
* ChekhovsHobby: Zoe's ability to always land on her feet. The girls talk about it in a joking way, but it saves her life later on.

* ContinuityNod - The sheriff and his deputy who come to the hospital showed up at the wedding chapel massacre in ''{{Kill Bill}}.'' (Both the hospital and the chapel were in Texas.)
* ContractOnTheHitman - ''Machete''.

* MacheteMayhem - '''''MACHETE!!!'''''

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:DC-2 spreads around the world and no one has any way of finding a cure but a stronghold on the Mexican coast serves as humanity's last foothold]].

* {{Homage}}: The action may be all Robert Rodriguez but the horror suspense elements, down to the synthesizer music, is pure JohnCarpenter.

* CombatStilettos - Cherry, on her good leg.

* ContinuityNod - The sheriff and his deputy who come to the hospital in ''Death Proof'' showed up at the wedding chapel massacre in ''{{Kill Bill}}.'' (Both the hospital and the chapel were in Texas.)

* ContinuityNod - The sheriff and his deputy who come to the hospital in ''Death Proof'' showed up at the wedding chapel massacre in ''{{Kill Bill}}.'' (Both the hospital and the chapel were in Texas.)

* NoodleIncident - There was a "missing reel" after the sex scene, cut to the diner on fire. Sheriff Hague had been shot. Dakota and her father, the babysitters, the go-go dancing club owner and some of the dancers somehow made it there.

* RuleOfCool

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverKill: [[spoiler: The Rapist (played by Tarantino)]] in ''Planet Terror'' tries to [[spoiler: have his way with Cherry. He is smashed over the head with a table leg, impaled in the eye by the leg's broken end, has his privates melt off from the infection taking over him, has a syringe launched into his other eye, melts into an inhuman monster, pukes up his guts, then finally is ''shot in the crotch with a grenade launcher''.]] Good god.

* RuleOfCool

* YourMakeupIsRunning: In ''Planet Terror''.

* WordOfDante: The vehicles driven by the undead U.S soldiers are emblazoned with "UNIT 31" so maybe that's the name of their regiment. It hasn't been stated otherwise.

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: The girls in the first half of Death Proof. They drink a ridiculous amount of alcohol, and then spend an hour or more smoking weed, before driving down the road in the middle of the night, wearing no seatbelts and paying more attention to the radio than the road. It's a miracle they didn't die before Mike even got to them.]]
** Granted it was during a zombie epidemic, but [[spoiler: giving your young son a fully loaded gun without even teaching him how to use it seems pretty stupid. And it ends up as well as you would expect.]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Abby in ''Death Proof''. [[spoiler: She disapproves of Kim's gun and complains when they are going to do a stunt. After Stuntman Mike pissed her off enough, she suggested killing him. Later it is actually her who kicks his head in]].

* EverythingIsBetterWithExplosions: The sheriff's car in ''Planet Terror'' even [[MadeOfExplodium explodes spontaneously]] for no reason whatsoever.

* MarketBasedTitle - "Death Proof" was apparently released as "Thunder Bolt" in some markets, as suggested by the title card that appears for a split second before the "correct" title is superimposed.
* MeaningfulName - "Why's he called ''Stuntman Mike''?" "'Cause he's a stuntman."

* MsFanservice - Pretty much every female character.

* NoExportForYou - The theatrical cut of ''Grindhouse'' wasn't released on home video in the US until more than 3 years later.

* OneSceneWonder - A few, such as [[{{Moe}} Marcy]], and later [[MemeticMolester Jasper]] in ''Death Proof''.
** And [[spoiler: NicolasCage]] as--[[OverusedRunningGag oh, forget it]].
* PaintingTheFourthWall - The films go to great lengths to give that authentic 1970s grindhouse feel, such as fake trailers, grainy footage, missing reels, jumping scenes, burned film, terrible synthesized music, an ad for a Tex-Mex restaurant which is supposedly next door to the theater you are watching the movie in, etc.
** In one scene of ''Planet Terror'', a large crane is clearly visible. Rodriguez considered removing it by computer, but then decided that leaving it visible would be much more grindhouse.

* RealTrailerFakeMovie: Several of them!
* RecklessGunUsage: In ''PlanetTerror'', Dr. Dakota Block gives a gun to her child, when she leaves him alone in a car. [[spoiler: He shoots himself in the face ([[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally]] or [[DrivenToSuicide not]]) within a few seconds of her leaving the car.]]
* RecordNeedleScratch: Used during Thanksgiving to introduce the pilgrim killer during the parade.
* RecurringCharacter: Dakota Block appears in both films, as does her father, Sheriff Earl [=McGraw=], who has appeared in various other films by Tarantino and Rodriguez.
* ReCut: The two features were released separately overseas and on [=DVD=], and both are longer, restoring the "missing reel" that ''Death Proof'' had in the U.S. theatrical cut - the missing reel for ''Planet Terror'' covers up a major plot point, and as such, was never filmed. As of yet, the full double-feature has only been been released on cable and on a Japanese-only LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition.
** "On Cable" meaning "Only on movie channels"; on MTV, where the "Missing Reels" were, they simply cut to a commercial.
* RefugeInAudacity: Ehrm, come on, you expected this to be a less gory and less perverted filled with sexual references [[spoiler: including mutating penis]]? It's an exploitation movie, you know. Most of these were '''that''' cheesy back in 70s-80s, you know.
* {{Retraux}}
* RocketJump: Cherry does this in ''Planet Terror'' with her grenade launcher leg. One of the only non-videogame characters to perform this move.
* RuleThirtyFour: Yes, there is fanmade ''Werewolf Women of the SS'' material.
* RunningGag: Several, most notably the missing reels.
* SassyBlackWoman: Tarantino said that he wrote Kim essentially as a [[DistaffCounterpart female version]] of SamuelLJackson.

* ShapedLikeItself: "Why's he called ''Stuntman Mike''?" "'Cause he's a stuntman."
* ShoutOut: George Romero makeup artist Tom Savini's death in ''Planet Terror'' is very similar to another character's death in Romero's ''Day of the Dead''.
** ''Death Proof'' makes a lot of references that have already been made in other Tarantino films. Kim's car has the same pattern as the Bride's jumpsuit in ''KillBill 1'', but before that, it was Bruce Lee's jumpsuit. Abernathy's ringtone is the "Twisted Nerve" whistle used in ''KillBill'', but Bernard Hermann original wrote it for something else. The only honest-to-God self-reference is when Mike mentions Big Kahuna burgers, a running gag in Tarantino's films.
*** Also, there are Red Apple cigarettes in ''Planet Terror''.
** There's a shout out in "Planet Terror" to "Death Proof": a DJ on the radio dedicates a song to [[spoiler: Jungle Julia, in honor of her death]]
** If you watch closely, Dakota in ''Planet Terror'' has a small notepad listing stuff to do. The last thing in that list? ''KillBill''. Her husband is Dr. ''William'' Block...
* SlasherMovies: Parodied in ''Thanksgiving''.
** And, possibly, will be played half-straight when it will be a separate movie.
** HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday
* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror
* SoftSpokenSadist: Stuntman Mike.
* StockScream: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio The Wilhelm Scream]] is heard in Death Proof after Stuntman Mike runs over the first car.
* StupidJetpackHitler[=/=]{{Ghostapo}}: we repeat: ''Werewolf Women of the SS''
** And the Nazis even bring [[spoiler:FuManchu's YellowPeril!]]
* TemptingFate: In ''Death Proof'', driving in the middle of the night, drunk, high out of their minds, blasting loud music, and sticking their legs out of the windows, they were practically begging for an accident.
* ThemeMusicPowerUp: Subverted in ''Planet Terror'': [[spoiler: The groups' only way of escape is via a helicopter on the other side of a military base filled with zombified soldiers. Abby (Naveen Andrews, aka Sayid from ''{{Lost}}'') sternly says "Follow me!"; the music starts pumping, you think you're in for the CrowningMomentOfAwesome... and as soon as he peers around the corner, his head gets blown to pieces.]]

* ThisIsASentenceBitch: Virtually all of Kim's dialogue in ''Death Proof''.
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: The girls in the first half of Death Proof. They drink a ridiculous amount of alcohol, and then spend an hour or more smoking weed, before driving down the road in the middle of the night, wearing no seatbelts and paying more attention to the radio than the road. It's a miracle they didn't die before Mike even got to them.]]
** Granted it was during a zombie epidemic, but [[spoiler: giving your young son a fully loaded gun without even teaching him how to use it seems pretty stupid. And it ends up as well as you would expect.]]
* TrunkShot: A Tarantino trademark, played with: it's a shot of Kim and Zoe from under the hood.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In ''Death Proof'', Lee is left behind with Jasper, the redneck who owns the Dodge. We never find out what happened to her, or what happened when the girls returned the ruined car.

* WordOfDante: The vehicles driven by the undead U.S soldiers are emblazoned with "UNIT 31" so maybe that's the name of their regiment. It hasn't been stated otherwise.

* DeathBySex: Inverted. The first girls, in spite of acting all wild, are actually pretty uptight about sex (especially Arlene/Butterfly), and they die. The second group, on the other hand, are very open about their sex lives, and they not only survive, they kill the bad guy!
* DecoyProtagonist: More like [[spoiler: an entire decoy cast!]]

!!Death Proof
* BadassDriver: Stuntman Mike sees himself as this, until Kim comes along.
* ButtMonkey: Poor Lee, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Being the [[TheDitz ditz]] of the group, she's always the target of some jokes, even being scared by Zoë, when she said the latter was from Australia.
* BrainlessBeauty: Lee Montgomery.
* CameraSniper: Stuntman Mike watching the second group girls from his car. They walk in slow motion as Stuntman Mike adjusts the camera focus to follow them.
* CarFu: A ''large'' chunk (roughly the last six minutes of the movie).
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Abby in ''Death Proof''. [[spoiler: She disapproves of Kim's gun and complains when they are going to do a stunt. After Stuntman Mike pissed her off enough, she suggested killing him. Later it is actually her who kicks his head in]].
* CurbStompBattle - The end; KurtRussell gets knocked around by ZoeBell, RosarioDawson, and TracieThoms, until Zoe roundhouses him on his ass, and Rosario ax-kicks his head in.

!!Planet Terror
* AdrenalineMakeover - Dakota
* AfterTheEnd: The epilogue.
* AttemptedRape
* BiTheWay: Dakota Block, who is married to a male doctor, but has a lesbian lover on the side and has a crush on Cherry Darling.
* BondOneLiner
* BoomHeadshot: Poor, poor Abby.
** Muldoon says he delivered one to OsamaBinLaden, along with a shot to the chest. Back in 2007, it was kinda funny; in 2011, it's ''really'' funny because that's how bin Laden really died.
* BuryYourGays: Tammi is Dakota's lesbian lover on the sly, and ends up getting eaten by zombies.
* TheCastShowOff: MarleyShelton has hyper-flexible wrists. This came in [[IncrediblyLamePun ''real'' handy.]]
* ClusterFBomb: Cherry unleashes a choice one at El Wray
* CombatStilettos - Cherry, on her good leg.
* ContinuityNod - The sheriff and his deputy who come to the hospital in ''Death Proof'' showed up at the wedding chapel massacre in ''{{Kill Bill}}.'' (Both the hospital and the chapel were in Texas.)

* DeliberatelyCuteChild - Played by Robert Rodriguez' son, Rebel. Sadly, [[spoiler: InfantImmortality is averted.]]
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: The entire first half of ''Death Proof'' makes you ask when something, ''anything'' is actually going to happen.

* EverythingIsBetterWithExplosions: The sheriff's car in ''Planet Terror'' even [[MadeOfExplodium explodes spontaneously]] for no reason whatsoever.
** [[BadassTransplant Also, the entire end of the film when it comes to a new leg replacement.]]

* ExplosionPropulsion
* EyeScream
* FingerDamage - Poor, poor Dakota Block.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing - When Pam realizes that Stuntman Mike isn't actually going to give her a ride home, there's a super close up of her eyes. One second before Stuntman Mike hits the gas and speeds off... With Pam locked in the passenger side.
* FoodPorn - Come on, admit it. If you didn't get a craving for nachos after watching the nacho scene in ''Death Proof'', you're '''lying'''.
* FootFocus - Plenty of it in ''Death Proof'', as usual in Tarantino films. It's even {{lampshaded}}.
* FourEyesZeroSoul - Dr. William Block. And keep in mind, [[spoiler: that was ''before'' he was turned into a zombie.]] You gotta admit, those specs look good though.

* GirlsBehindBars
* GirlOnGirlIsHot - "Goddamnit, girls. If you're gonna do that, do it on stage!"
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Stuntman Mike has a large scar running down his face. He's something of a bastard.
** He also sarcastically claims he CutHimselfShaving.

* GroinAttack: Abby seems fond of them. The rapists testicles actually melt off.
* HalfwayPlotSwitch: Halfway through ''Death Proof'', the movie is filmed with a very different style, [[spoiler: with very different characters]], in a very different place. It was almost like watching a sequel in the middle of the first movie!
** Reading an interview with Tarantino reveals that this is actually exactly what's supposed to be going on.
** A bit of TruthInTelevision - the shoestring nature of the B-movie industry meant a lot of half-finished productions. These might be finished by an entirely different crew, or by just editing in footage from another unrelated half-finished production.

* HotAmazon - ZoeBell, for starters.
* InfantImmortality - Averted, in one of the film's only genuinely horrific scenes.
** RobertRodriguez said he used his own kid, [[AwesomeMcCoolName Rebel]], as Tony because he didn't want to 'kill' anyone else's kid.'
*** He also made a less-violent cut of the film where Tony survives the movie for Rebel to watch.
* IronicEcho - "I'm gonna eat your brain and gain your knowledge."
** Virtually everything said in the first half of Planet Terror gets repeated as a badass one liner later on.
*** In a different way, "I never miss". First, it's the speaker bragging about his skill with firearms, later it's [[spoiler: [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy letting his love interest know that she's pregnant by him.]]]]
*** Or tragic.
---> "What did I tell you, Tony? [[spoiler: Don't point the gun at yourself.]] Didn't I tell you that?"
* JabbaTableManners - Watching Stuntman Mike noisily and messily slurping down his plate of nachos in his ''introduction'' is enough to tell you that this guy is going to be a creep.
** Oh, c'mon, it's nachos. How do ''you'' eat them?

* KickTheMoralityPet: Okay, Dakota doesn't ''literally'' [[spoiler: kill her son, but she ''does'' give him a loaded gun]].

* LegCannon: Cherry Darling had her leg eaten by zombies, and replaced it with an M-4 assault rifle, which she used to kick much ass. And then later, she had that replaced with a full-on ''[[GatlingGood minigun]]''.
* LesYay - "I'm Cherry." "You sure are." Also, the relationship between Kim and Zoe is vaguely LesYay: "...and after a shower, you put moisturizer on my butt!" We don't get to see that scene... Also, her response when Kim mentions rubbing her feet is a bit...enthusiastic.
* LostInTransmission - The audience sees "MISSING REEL." During the missing reel in ''Planet Terror'', it's implied, we'd have gotten to see Rose [=McGowan=] totally naked, plus the entire plot surrounding Ray's mysterious origins would have been explained.
** And when the film comes back, ''[[IncendiaryExponent everything's on fire]]'', and we'll never know why. Possibly the best [[strike:jump]] cut in movie history.
** There's a Meta-Gag in there as well. An presumed urban legend (re-told in the novel ''FightClub'') is that older movies would have their nude scenes cut shorter and shorter as projectionists removed a few choice frames for their collection.
* LoudGulp - In ''Death Proof'', Lee actually says "Gulp" when she realizes her friends have left her with mister Redneck Rapist.

* MadeOfPlasticine - ''Everyone'' in ''Planet Terror'', human and zombie alike.

* AdrenalineMakeover - Dakota

* AfterTheEnd: The ''Planet Terror'' epilogue.
* AnyoneCanDie - Just about everyone apart from two major characters die in Planet Terror.
* AttemptedRape - Disgustingly done in ''Planet Terror''.

* BadassDriver: Stuntman Mike sees himself as this, until Kim comes along.

* BiTheWay: Dakota Block, who is married to a male doctor, but has a lesbian lover on the side and has a crush on Cherry Darling.
* BondOneLiner
* BoomHeadshot: Poor, poor Abby.
** Bruce Willis' character in ''Planet Terror'' says he delivered one to OsamaBinLaden, along with a shot to the chest. Back in 2007, it was kinda funny; in 2011, it's ''really'' funny because that's how bin Laden really died.
* BuryYourGays: Tammi in ''Planet Terror'' is Dakota's lesbian lover on the sly, and ends up getting eaten by zombies.
* ButtMonkey: Poor Lee, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Being the [[TheDitz ditz]] of the group, she's always the target of some jokes, even being scared by Zoë, when she said the latter was from Australia.
* BrainlessBeauty: Lee Montgomery.

* CameraSniper: In ''Death Proof'', there's a scene of Stuntman Mike watching the second group girls from his car. They walk in slow motion as Stuntman Mike adjusts the camera focus to follow them.

* CarFu: A ''large'' chunk of ''Death Proof'' (roughly the last six minutes of the movie).
* TheCastShowOff: MarleyShelton has hyper-flexible wrists. This came in [[IncrediblyLamePun ''real'' handy.]]

* ChekhovsGun: Kim's gun in ''Death Proof''.

* ClusterFBomb: Cherry unleashes a choice one at El Wray
* CombatStilettos - Cherry, on her good leg.
* ContinuityNod - The sheriff and his deputy who come to the hospital in ''Death Proof'' showed up at the wedding chapel massacre in ''{{Kill Bill}}.'' (Both the hospital and the chapel were in Texas.)

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Abby in ''Death Proof''. [[spoiler: She disapproves of Kim's gun and complains when they are going to do a stunt. After Stuntman Mike pissed her off enough, she suggested killing him. Later it is actually her who kicks his head in]].
* CurbStompBattle - The end of ''Death Proof''; KurtRussell gets knocked around by ZoeBell, RosarioDawson, and TracieThoms, until Zoe roundhouses him on his ass, and Rosario ax-kicks his head in.

* DeathBySex: Inverted in ''Death Proof''. The first girls, in spite of acting all wild, are actually pretty uptight about sex (especially Arlene/Butterfly), and they die. The second group, on the other hand, are very open about their sex lives, and they not only survive, they kill the bad guy!
* DecoyProtagonist: In ''Death Proof'' it's more like [[spoiler: an entire decoy cast!]]

* EverythingsCuterWithKittens: To remind viewers that these films are X-rated.

* FourEyesZeroSoul - Dr. William Block. And keep in mind, [[spoiler: that was ''before'' he was turned into a zombie.]] You gotta admit, those specs look good though.

* WomanInWhite: Cherry in the ending.

* EverythingIsCuterWithKittens: To remind viewers that these films are X-rated.

* EvilLaugh: [[spoiler: NicolasCage as... FuManchu!]]
-->[[spoiler: This is my Mecca! Hahahaha!]]

* AfterTheEnd: The ''Planet Terror'' epilogue.

* MaleGaze

* AfterTheEnd: The ''Planet Terror'' epilogue.

*** In a different way, "I never miss". First, it's the speaker bragging about his skill with firearms, later it's [[spoiler: letting his love interest know that she's pregnant by him.]]

* NoodleIncident - "Sorry, I didn't know you were ''(melodramatic tone)''....''El Wray''". In that same scene, how the entire building caught fire.

* StupidJetpackHitler: we repeat: ''Werewolf Women of the SS''