History Film / TheHatefulEight

** The first African American commissioned officer was [[https://www.army.mil/blackamericans/profiles/flipper.html Henry Ossian Flipper]] in 1877 with a rank of second lieutenant. Warren's rank of major is therefore an anachronism, and he certainly would not have held that rank during the civil war. It is possible he held the rank of sergeant major though.

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted with Daisy Domergue. She enters the film already looking beat up, and only becomes moreso. By the end of the film, [[spoiler: she's been shot in multiple places, had blood from multiple people splattered all over her, gotten bits of brain in her hair, gruesomely hanged, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking splashed with stew]]]].

** [[spoiler:Chris possibly undergoes this in regard to General Smithers after the latter is killed. Instead of shooting Warren then and there, he debates offscreen with the others whether or not it counted as self-defense.]]

** Mannix is a former Confederate war criminal who claims to be the new sheriff of Red Rock. While Ruth dislikes him and wants to leave him behind, Mannix manages to weasel his way onto the stagecoach by detailing the legal consequences Ruth would face for willfully leaving someone to freeze to death in a blizzard, showing that he's smarter then he looks.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler:The main plot is motivated by Daisy's brother, Jody, who rounds up a group of four men and takes over the lodge before John, Chris, and Warren arrive so he can rescue her. The first thing he does upon revealing himself to the group is say how much he missed her. In addition, Jody's group appear to be TrueCompanions, as Joe and Oswaldo hug Bob and wish him "good luck" before he goes out to meet John Ruth, Daisy, Warren, and Mannix.]]

** John Ruth threatens to knock out Daisy's front teeth in Chapter One when she objects to Warren travelling in the stage coach with them. He actually does just that later in the film [[spoiler:before he dies]].

* RapeAsDrama: A male-on-male rape scene which ends with the victim being killed by the rapist, [[spoiler:Warren]], is a major plot driver. [[spoiler:The scene is narrated and also seen in flashback -- although it may be fictional -- and prompts General Smithers to try and kill Warren, who then kills Smithers in self-defense.]]

* SceneryPorn: The first few minutes and some other parts throughout show extensive shots of the snow covered landscape in which the film takes place, filmed in "glorious 70mm".

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: The film lands moderately to the cynical side of the scale, but not as far as you'd think going by the premise. [[spoiler: EverybodyDies, including the innocent bystanders. Six of the ten (non-posthumous) characters were murderers in on the conspiracy to free the bounty. The remaining four consisted of one TokenGoodTeammate and three fairly dark anti-heroes (the closest thing the movie has to a "hero" in the end is an unapologetic white supremacist and former Confederate bushwhacker). Basically every character was a violent, selfish criminal. ''But'', in the end, it is two of those same selfish criminals who change for the better, putting aside their differences to avenge the innocents killed by the villains and honor the man who saved their lives. In the process, they bring Jody's gang to justice and save future travelers from the fate of Minnie and her workers. Even the final shot of the movie, featuring the two "heroes" painfully bleeding to death alone in a cabin full of corpses, manages to have a tinge of optimism at the end via the (fake) Lincoln letter.]]

* ActorSharedBackground: Six-Horse Judy is from UsefulNotes/{{Auckland}}, UsefulNotes/NewZealand, just like the actress who plays her (Creator/ZoeBell).

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Verges on EvilVersusEvil. Tarantino calls the movie's characters "a bunch of nefarious guys in a room, all telling backstories that may or may not be true". The closest thing to a "Good Guy", by Tarantino's standards, is O.B., as he's the only one among the group who lacks any racist or ruthless tendencies. He's just the unlucky individual in the room. [[spoiler:Ultimately, it ends up as two war criminals who are at least willing to put the past behind them to enforce the law versus a gang of psychopathic murderers.]]

* EverybodyDidIt: [[spoiler:Everyone who got to the haberdashery before Mannix, Ruth, and Warren was either directly involved with the effort to free Daisy or an accomplice of theirs. Additionally, the main conspirators also turn out to have slaughtered Minnie and all her employees and family.]]
* EvilIsHammy: The film is a WorldOfHam populated by dark anti-heroes at best and vicious, deeply bigoted villains at worst, so this trope is a given, but Daisy Domergue is quite possibly the hammiest of them all.

* TheReveal: Most of the characters get one, although the biggest is when [[spoiler:we find out that Daisy's brother, Jody, is hiding underneath the floorboards of the lodge, and reveals himself by shooting Warren through the floor. Also, the reason why her bounty is so high is because Daisy is a member of her brother's notorious gang.]]

* SarcasticConfession: [[spoiler:Early on, when questioned by John, Daisy mockingly admits that someone in the cabin is in cahoots with her, but does it in a way that's somewhere between trolling and IKnowYouKnowIKnow. However, this trope is exaggerated because, as it turns out, she's not in league with ''one'' of the lodgers. She's in league with [[EverybodyDidIt three of the four]], and the fourth has agreed to not interfere.]]
* ScareChord: There is a really aggressive violin-like piece on the soundtrack that plays when things are about to get serious.

* SnowedIn: Except for the two first chapters in the mountains with the carriage and the occasional trip to the outhouse and the barn [[spoiler:and a quick reveal of a basement, a flashback to the mountains, and a man being executed out back]], the majority of the movie plays out inside Minnie's Haberdashery lodge during a blizzard.
* SnowMeansDeath: The cast gets SnowedIn and it's implied [[spoiler:all of them die eventually]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/{{The Thing|1982}}''. The story is about characters isolated in the snow, with heavy shared themes of paranoia and a bleak tone. Both feature Creator/KurtRussell as the lead and a soundtrack by Music/EnnioMorricone. Three songs from ''The Thing''[='s=] soundtrack even show up in ''The Hateful Eight'' (two unused in the film but featured on the soundtrack, and one used when they find the site of the UFO). [[spoiler:Both films also end with the two main characters, one black and one white, calmly waiting to die.]]
** Also to Tarantino's first film, ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. Both films are a mystery about unsavory characters trapped in a building.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: As it turns out, it's what happened to [[spoiler:General Smithers' son, shortly before he was executed by Marquis (who is also the rapist), [[UnreliableExpositor if his monologue to Smithers wasn't made up to bait the General into attempting to shoot him]]]]. If it is true, his [[spoiler:eventual death by having his testicles shot off and the resulting blood loss]] is definitely KarmicDeath.

* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Averted. [[spoiler:Warren's rape of Smithers' son, [[UnreliableExpositor if it actually happened]], is portrayed as an appropriately hideous crossing of the MoralEventHorizon.]]

* NWordPrivileges: Quentin Tarantino once again demonstrates his apparent love of the word; there's 59 uses of it, or nearly one every three minutes, and that's with the several minutes the movie chews up in dialogue-free cinematography. Justified in-universe as the film is set just after the Civil War. Ruth chastises Daisy for using it the first time, saying "[[HypocriticalHumor darkies don't like it]]".

* IShallTauntYou: Warren tells Smithers a horrific story about [[spoiler:how he killed his son so that Smithers will try and shoot Warren, and thus Warren can kill him in self-defense]].

* TheMole: One of the other characters is secretly an accomplice of Daisy's, or so Warren believes. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that Oswald, Joe, and Bob are all masquerading as innocent travelers to rescue Daisy, with Smithers assisting them.]]

* PostVictoryCollapse: Mannix faints from blood loss after [[spoiler:triumphantly deciding to kill Daisy, who is handcuffed to a corpse much heavier than her, and spare Warren. Unfortunately, this is before he has actually killed Daisy, and she still has some tricks left. Thankfully, he regains consciousness JustInTime.]]

* SarcasticConfession: [[spoiler:Early on, when questioned by John, Daisy mockingly admits that someone in the cabin is in cahoots with her, but does it in a way that's somewhere between trolling and IKnowYouKnowIKnow. However, this trope is ZigZagged because, as it turns out, she's not in league with ''one'' of the lodgers. She's in league with three of the four, and the fourth has agreed to not interfere.]]

** Warren and Mannix being on the stagecoach, and General Smithers being at the lodge. [[spoiler:While Warren killing Smithers provided a useful distraction to poison the coffee, he and Mannix are the only ones left alive at the end of the movie -- and even then, not for long.]]

* SnowMeansDeath: Just look at the poster.

* UndyingLoyalty: [[spoiler:After Jody is killed, all his gang members are willing to give themselves up so that Mannix can collect their bounties in exchange for letting Daisy go.]]

* WeirdWest: It's not at all fantastical or sci-fi, but ''The Hateful Eight'' is still a batshit crazy horror Western. It is the WildWest meets ''Film/{{The Thing|1982}}'', after all.

** For [[Film/ReservoirDogs the second time in a Tarantino film]], Creator/TimRoth [[spoiler:spends an extended time bleeding out from a gunshot wound to the belly.]]

* InsultToRocks: It turns out Warren had a good reason to believe [[spoiler:that Bob's story wasn't true. Minnie used to [[DeliberateValuesDissonance proudly display a sign]] saying "no dogs or Mexicans" over the bar. She took it down two years ago [[CrossesTheLineTwice to accommodate dogs.]]]]

* EveryoneDiesEnding: [[spoiler: The closing of the movie sees Warren and Mannix slowly and resignedly succumbing to their injuries with every other character including the minor ones from the flashback sequences being dead.]]

* GenreThrowback: To the epic period films which defined the later years of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, such as ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]'' and ''Film/{{Khartoum}}.'' With this territory comes the three-hour running time, the ensemble cast, an overture, an intermission, a magnificent orchestral score, the highly-publicized use of 70mm film, and the RoadshowTheatricalRelease preceding the wide release.

* CassandraTruth: Chris Mannix twice warns [[spoiler:General Smithers that Warren is just trying to rile him up enough to go for a gun so Warren can kill him. Smithers doesn't listen, he grabs the gun, and Warren kills him]].

* ContrivedCoincidence: All these characters ''just happen'' to meet on the road and/or wind up in the same lodge moments before a blizzard hits. [[spoiler:Although it's not quite that bad, since five of the eight are there for related reasons -- three are trying to save one from another one. Warren, Mannix, and Smithers being there as well is still mighty coincidental.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jody's gang is killed to a man and Daisy is hanged, sparing future travelers from the fate of Minnie and her employees, but everyone else is either dead or (in the case of Warren and Mannix) close to dying, and what's worse is that the movie ends before we find out for sure what happens to the latter.]]

* CallBack: O.B. (James Parks) uses the line, "Well, smoke..." (smoke being a jocular term for an African-American). In ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', a member of the [=LeQuint=] Dickey mining company (played by Michael Parks) uses this same line when addressing Django. In both instances, they address a black bounty hunter, and are said by son and father, respectively.

** Six-Horse Judy is from UsefulNotes/{{Auckland}}, UsefulNotes/NewZealand, just like the actress who plays her (Creator/ZoeBell).

* AmbiguousEnding: By the end of the film, [[spoiler:both Mannix and Warren are likely too wounded to survive long enough to be found after the blizzard, but their deaths are never confirmed on screen, nor is it ever revealed if there actually were fifteen extra gang members waiting in Red Rock or if they were one last desperate ploy by Daisy to dodge the noose.]]

* BatmanGambit: The reason Warren tells Smithers his story. [[spoiler:It allows him to fairly (more or less) claim self-defense when he kills Smithers, because Smithers was clearly reaching for the gun.]]