* AccidentalInnuendo: "Wait for the cream."
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Who are the actual protagonists? Are the Basterds the protagonists? Shosanna? Is Landa the VillainProtagonist? Or is Raine the VillainProtagonist? Can any of the characters be considered genuine good guys whom the audience can root for? Are the Basterds (especially Aldo and Hugo, the non-Jewish members) {{Anti Hero}}es, {{Sociopathic Hero}}es, or just [[PsychoForHire sociopaths]]?
** Also, Fredrick Zoller. Is he a DoggedNiceGuy trying to help out his crush, only to get [[spoiler: [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished manipulated and shot over it]]?]] Or is he a creepy, annoying StalkerWithACrush, hounding Shosanna (a woman who repeatedly shows that she has no interest in him), believing that due to his fame, he is entitled to get whatever he wants? [[spoiler: His last scene where he yells at and threatens her after getting fed up with her rejections lends credence to the latter interpretation, but on the other hand, some of his lines seem practically lifted from a cliched romance, and Tarantino has stated that, in any other time, they probably would have ended up together.]] Or is he a [[ShellShockedVeteran traumatized soldier]] trying to get away from his dark past through Shosanna, and watching himself kill repeatedly pushes him over the edge?
** Bridget's motives in aiding the Allies are never stated; they could plausibly be ''anything''. Is she a courageous and committed anti-Nazi? A bored actress who became a spy for the kicks? A pragmatic, female version of Landa who is trying to secure a life for herself in the inevitable Allied victory?
** Does Landa recognize Shosanna in the restaurant, or does he simply treat every conversation as an investigation? Does he initially suspect her and get convinced by her cover story? Or does he in fact confirm her identity and do nothing about it because her cinema is being used for the premiere? If so, is his question he forgot to ask a subtle dig that means he plans to keep an eye on her?
** Was Landa ever a true believer in Nazi ideology and made a deal at the end because he knew the war was a lost cause, or is he simply a psychopath that was born in the right place at the right time and used Nazi ideology as a means to terrorize others?
** Did Hellstrom only figure out that Hicox was an imposter after his revealing drink order - or was he fairly confident he's dealing with a spy all along, and the botched gesture was less of a final clue and more of a distastefully blunt blunder ruining the whole subtle cat and mouse game he was playing with Hicox?
* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: When Landa over-laughs at Bridget's excuse for her broken leg, is he just toying with her, or is he laughing that that's the best excuse she could come up with?
* {{Applicability}}: [[ThoseWackyNazis The Nazis]] are utterly and completely destroyed by Jews in a movie theater. Now, remind us, what did Hollywood do to the legacy of the Nazis?
* AwardSnub:
** Losing Best Original Screenplay UsefulNotes/AcademyAward to ''Film/TheHurtLocker''. It also lost Best Picture, though it wasn't the favorite.
** Other than Creator/ChristophWaltz, many found the best performance in the movie to be that of Creator/MelanieLaurent's Shosanna, who was nominated neither for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress by the Oscars, despite some thinking she would've easily been a top five contender either way.
** Creator/DianeKruger was also nominated for a SAG Award for Supporting Actress that failed to translate to an eventual Oscar nod.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''Oh so much''. If there's one thing you can expect from a Tarantino film (well, [[SignatureStyle you can expect many things out of a Tarantino film]]), it's an awesome soundtrack. [[Music/LetsDance "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"]] by Music/DavidBowie stands out during a truly awesome montage sequence at the beginning of the movie premiere. You can watch Tarantino absolutely nerd out about the soundtrack [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOC9GrVewX0 here]].
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Shosanna's ImagineSpot of Goebbels banging Francesca Mondino doggy-style makes more sense in the script. The narration describes Francesca as both Goebbels' favorite actress ''and'' his mistress. But without any narration, we get introduced to Francesca, then immediately get a ''very'' awkward sex scene, and an equally awkward cut back to the present.
* CatharsisFactor: Admit it; seeing the [[AssholeVictim Nazis get what is coming to them]] from a bunch of Jewish-American soldiers is ''very'' satisfying, and even more so seeing Hitler himself '''not''' being subject to a ForegoneConclusion.
* CrazyIsCool:
** Hugo Stiglitz, the DeviousDaggers-wielding German Nazi-killer.
** Shosanna Dreyfus's audacious act of revenge, especially when donning her blood-red dress and lipstick to the sound of Music/DavidBowie.
* CreepyAwesome: Hans Landa is a terrifyingly competent figure whose famous deduction skills rightfully horrify those around him.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: {{Lampshaded}} in a subtle, creepy way: there is a scene where Germans are watching a Nazi propaganda movie about a German sniper who killed massive numbers of Allied troops while behind enemy lines. They are laughing and enjoying themselves watching people from our side get slaughtered, while you're laughing and enjoying yourself watching people from their side get slaughtered. However, some audiences even laughed and hooted while the Allies were being slaughtered. Laughter, she is an infectious drug, is she not? And the funniest part is that both reactions were probably predicted and intended.
* DracoInLeatherPants: The more psychotic Basterds like Sgt. Donny Donowitz and Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz tend to have their more [[SociopathicHero negative traits]] glossed over because [[AssholeVictim their victims are Nazis]]. This is at least somewhat understandable -- most are ''Jewish'' Americans lashing out against the literal Nazis, after all. Then, you get the people using the Basterds' brutality to justify the Nazi villains like Col. Hans Landa and his men. Yes, ''really''.
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Lt. Archie Hicox. He only gets about 15 minutes of screen-time, but Creator/MichaelFassbender makes every second count.
** Shosanna, she ''is'' one of the first-billed characters, but has far less screen-time than many of the others in the film, and yet still gets credit for having the most thorough character arc of the story and a very powerful performance.
** Donny, Hugo, and Bridget also make plenty of lists of the film's top 10 characters for a mixture of charming performances and awesome moments.
* EvilIsCool: Hans Landa. Despite being a Nazi officer, his intelligence, smooth and confident demeanor, and polyglot ability serve to make him one of the (if not ''the'') most memorable characters in the movie.
* FanficFuel: The Basterds have spent years killing their way across Europe in TerrorHero style, and given how only a small, small fraction of their exploits are shown onscreen (with several group members getting little screentime or combat scenes), imagining their early adventures can be pretty cool.
* FanPreferredCutContent: There are some cut moments from the script that fans feel would have fit really well in the finished movie.
** Donny having all of his neighbors sign the names of their loved ones who died or vanished in UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust on his baseball bat is a scene that could have added a lot to his character.
** Utivich serving as the chauffeur for the team infiltrating the cinema (despite not being able to drive) is viewed as something which could have fleshed out his character and cleared up the confusion behind how he's present in the final act, but several other team members aren't.
* GeniusBonus:
** Shosanna tells Frederick to go to Vichy if he wants a French girlfriend. Vichy was the location of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France Nazi collaborationist French government]] during German occupation.
** Hicox tries to cover for his strange accent by claiming that he was born in the shadow of Piz Palu. The mountain is located on the border of Switzerland and Italy, so people from this region would have a different accent than someone from Germany. And Swiss-German is practically a different language.
** After catching the Basterds pretending to be Italians, Landa pours Aldo and Utivich glasses of Chianti, an Italian wine.
** When Zoller praises the "mountain movies" starring actress Leni Riefenstahl, Shosanna makes a derogatory comment against her. Riefenstahl also directed a number of Nazi propaganda films, most infamously ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill''.
** Bridget Von Hammersmark is wearing a name card in the game that says 'UsefulNotes/MataHari'. Of course, everyone knows that Mata Hari was a glamorous entertainer who led a double life as a wartime spy. However, contrary to the popular legend, Mata Hari was not a particularly competent spy and didn't contribute much to the war effort. [[spoiler: {{Foreshadowing}} that Bridget will ultimately meet a similar fate.]]
** Aldo greets Landa in Italian with "buongiorno." Even if his accent weren't awful, he's also using the wrong word. It means "good morning." A native Italian speaker would use the greeting "buonasera" in the evening.
* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct:
** Creator/EliRoth earned lots of praise for his small but memorable role as Donnie the Bear Jew. Turns out being directed by Creator/QuentinTarantino brings out the best in everyone.
** Creator/DianeKruger was mostly reduced to doing roles that catered to her beauty such as ''{{Film/Troy}}'' and ''Film/NationalTreasure'' before this movie. Here, she shows off plenty of charisma and comic timing as Bridget von Hammersmark, proving that she had more to offer as an actress.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** In Landa's conversation with Shosanna, he tosses some casual racism her way about her black lover Marcel. Creator/ChristophWaltz's next Quentin Tarantino film ''Film/DjangoUnchained'' has him as one of the few non-racists in the cast, and he spends the majority of the film helping a black man.
*** Similarly, Fur Elise shows up in both movies. In ''Inglourious Basterds'', it is used non-diegetically in the opening scene to herald Landa's arrival. In ''Django Unchained'', it is used diegetically in Waltz's character Schultz's penultimate scene and completely unnerves him.
** German actor Creator/AugustDiehl played Gestapo Major Dieter Hellstrom in this movie. He [[PlayingAgainstType then went on to play]] two real-life figures detested by the Nazis: Karl Marx in ''The Young Karl Marx'' and a conscientious objector, Franz Jägerstätter, in ''Film/AHiddenLife''.
** Landa's brief interaction with [=LaPadite=]'s daughters becomes this after ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' in 2015, where [[Creator/ChristophWaltz Blofeld]] mentions at one point to [[Creator/LeaSeydoux Madeleine Swann]] that he visited her house to see her father one time.
* HoYay: When Hitler congratulates Goebbels on ''Nation's Pride'', he addresses him as "my dear." Goebbels is so overcome with emotion at hearing this that he begins to weep.
* IronWoobie: Shosanna had her entire family slaughtered right in front of her, literally running for her life for who knows how many miles, and now lives in fear that she could be discovered. But she keeps a cool head and low profile, and her only display of this angst is a brief sob when she's finally free from Landa's interrogation. She also immediately comes up with a plan to get her revenge after this conversation.
* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler:The movie is an alternate history where Hitler, Goebbels, and loads of Nazis perish as Shosanna burns her cinema down with them inside it.]]
* LoveToHate: Hans Landa. He's an absolutely ruthless cold-blooded Nazi, but Creator/ChristophWaltz's amazing performance makes him so enjoyable to watch, even as he's doing horrible things.
* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: We all know that Hitler died in his bunker in Berlin in 1945, and most of the Nazi brass was put on trial for war crimes or committed suicide, so it's a ForegoneConclusion that the theater plot is [[DoomedByCanon doomed to fail just to maintain the historical record]]. [[spoiler:Except it's not.]]
* MagnificentBastard:
** Aldo "The Apache" Raine is the head of the Basterds. A ruthless, charismatic soldier who intends on tearing down the Nazis, Aldo leads his men behind enemy lines, performing daring raids to kill German soldiers while spreading fear throughout the Nazi ranks, including UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself. Aldo formulates Operation Kino to eliminate the entire Nazi high command, and when he bargains with Hans Landa to let the operation continue, Aldo promptly denies Landa the satisfaction of victory by carving a swastika into his forehead, reasoning he's "been chewed out before" while retaining his sense of charm and composure to the end.
** Shosanna Dreyfuss is a Jewish girl who loses her family to the Nazis. When approached on using her theater in Paris as the site of a premiere for Joseph Goebbels' major new film, Shosanna and her lover Marcel opt to lock the Nazis inside the theater and burn it down. Shosanna proceeds to enact her plan near-flawlessly, recording a message to all the Nazi leaders to see on screen that their fates are her vengeance and the vengeance of the Jewish people, ending up with the complete elimination of the Nazi leaders assured even before the Basterds get involved.
* MemeticBadass: [[http://bearjewfacts.tumblr.com/ The Bear Jew himself]]: [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=287 BONK!]] In universe, the Germans think he's a mythical Jewish Golem, and Hitler orders that he not be referred to as the Bear Jew.
* MemeticMutation:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ft7kkXO98c "WE'RE GOIN' TO BE DROPPED INTO FRANCE DRESSED AS CIVILIANS. WE'RE GOIN' BE DOIN' ONE THANG AND ONE THANG ONLY, KILLIN' NAT-ZEES."]]
** The Basterds, together with Franchise/IndianaJones and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, have become mascots for those who celebrated when a masked man punched self-proclaimed white supremacist Richard Spencer in the face on live television.
** SOUND GOOD?!
** NEIN, NEIN, NEIN! Which leads to a counterpart memetic joke: "What is Hitler's phone number?" (999...)
** That's a BINGO!
** Everything Brad Pitt says in "Eye-talian".
** ''"I must say, damn good stuff sir."''
** [[https://twitter.com/Calybium/status/1170016925713358849 A screenshot of Landa in full Nazi regalia protesting his arrest]] is commonly used as an anti-alt-right reaction pic, commonly captioned: "[[ImplausibleDeniability Oh so everyone you don't like is automatically a Nazi]]" (which isn't what Landa says in the film.)
* MemeticTroll: Landa's habit of toying with his prey has not gone unnoticed, particularly his barely hidden razzing of "the Italians".
* MisaimedFandom: Sadly, the Nazi characters tend to get the DracoInLeatherPants treatment to an overwhelming degree, and this slides into real-life Nazi apologetics uncomfortably often. Hans Landa in particular receives this because he's a case of EvilIsCool.
* {{Narm}}: [[spoiler:The film of Shosanna [[EvilLaugh laughing sadically]] projected during the theatre burning comes as this to people who realised that Shosanna must have sat in front of a camera and forcibly laughed for several minutes.]]
* NarmCharm: Raine's Southern accent is delightfully cartoonish, yet [[AluminumChristmasTrees is actually fairly accurate]] to a thick, rural East Tennessean accent. For more of Pitt biting down deep on a southern accent, check out ''Film/{{Kalifornia}}''.
* NauseaFuel: [[spoiler: The death of Bridget von Hammersmark]], specifically the shot of her face as it happens. [[spoiler: Creator/DianeKruger]] was really being strangled at the time.
* OneSceneWonder: Creator/MikeMyers as Ed Fenech, Denis Menochet as Perrier [=LaPadite=], Rachtman, Hellstrom, and UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill.
* OvershadowedByControversy: The film was obliquely affected by the controversy of Creator/UmaThurman being forced into a dangerous car crash in ''Film/KillBill'', which drew increased scrutiny to the already infamous scene where Tarantino's own hands are the ones strangling Bridget. Creator/DianeKruger was quick to deny any wrongdoing, saying that Tarantino told her exactly what he had planned (a maximum of two takes where he would genuinely choke her for several seconds), only went ahead with it after she agreed, and stuck to his word.
* ParodyDisplacement: The film is more famous than its namesake, ''Film/TheIngloriousBastards''.
* PeripheryDemographic: One thing Creator/QuentinTarantino and Creator/EliRoth didn't expect is the movie having such a large popularity among the yaoi fans, though they both announced their immense approval of the fan fiction upon discovering it.
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/LeaSeydoux had a bit role as one of [=LaPadite=]'s daughters before her rise in fame.
** Creator/MichaelFassbender would become far better known once ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' catapulted him to the A-list.
** Creator/DanielBruhl will of course be better known to Marvel fans as [[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar Helmut Zemo]].
* ShipsThatPassInTheNight: Donny/Utivich, one of the fandom's most popular ships, even though they exchange no dialogue. It's still possible because we only see a little of the Basterds, and they probably had a lot more contact with each other than what is actually shown (a good reason to hold out for a prequel).
* SignatureScene: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0dAqhxfvlg The much-lauded opening sequence]], considered by many to be among the best scenes in Tarantino's filmography, which [[VillainOpeningScene introduces us to our villain]] in a tense, chilling, and very memorable manner.
* {{Squick}}:
** The scalping and mutilations performed by the Basterds, sometimes given very close and detailed attention.
** The prospect of dying [[spoiler:[[ShareTheMalePain by a bullet barrage to the crotch]].]]
** Pressing someone to reveal information by [[spoiler:sticking your finger into a bullet wound.]]
** Goebbels having sex. [[BrainBleach Please pass the bleach.]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
** The deaths of [[spoiler:Omar]], [[spoiler:Donny]], and [[spoiler:Shosanna]] can raise some stink, with the first two being somewhat avoidable and cliched, and the last being a bit too abrupt for such a strong character.
** In a non-death sense, about half of the Basterds never get that much to do, and outright disappear in the last third of the film.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** It would be really interesting to see [[spoiler:[[AlternateHistory what the world would've looked like if Hitler died in 1944]]]], but sadly the film ends [[spoiler:shortly after his assassination. WordOfGod claims that many movies in the Tarantinoverse (such as ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' and ''Film/PulpFiction'') take place in a world where [=WW2=] ended as shown in ''Inglourious Basterds'' and caused people to become more violent and pop culture-obsessed as a result, but it's hard to say how seriously this should be taken.]]
** Not once in the film do Shosanna and Marcel get to interact with the Basterds.
* ToughActToFollow:
** Since its 2009 release, few of Quentin Tarantino's other films have come close to following this one's near universal praise. ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', ''Film/TheHatefulEight'', and ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' were all more divisive, although still liked overall.
** Shosanna as well is considered one of Tarantino's best female protagonists, and is among the favorites out of the heroines he's created (alongside ''Film/KillBill'' and ''Film/JackieBrown'', and that's saying something). ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', ''Film/TheHatefulEight'', and ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' would receive criticism for their female protagonists not living up to those heights. Daisy in particular was frequently compared to Shosanna as a missed opportunity.
----