Inglourious Basterds

Second
 Third
Brad Pitt
Christoph Waltz
Michael Fassbender
Eli Roth
Diane Kruger
Daniel Brühl
 Fifth

**Inglourious Basterds** is a 2009 American war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership, one planned by a young French Jewish cinema proprietor, and the other by a team of Jewish-American soldiers led by First Lieutenant Aldo Raine.

## Plot

In 1941, SS colonel Hans Landa, the "Jew Hunter", interrogates French dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite as to the whereabouts of the last unaccounted-for Jewish family in the neighborhood. Under threat of continued harassment from the Germans, LaPadite reveals that the Dreyfus family is hidden under the floor. Landa orders SS soldiers to shoot through the floorboards and kill the family. All are killed except Shosanna, who escapes and flees through the field. Landa watches her go, deciding not to shoot her at the last second.

In the spring of 1944, 1st Special Service Force Lieutenant Aldo Raine recruits Jewish-American soldiers to the Basterds, who spread fear among the German soldiers by brutally killing them behind enemy lines. The Basterds also recruit Staff Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz, a German soldier who murdered thirteen Gestapo officers. Adolf Hitler interviews a Nazi soldier, Private Butz, who relates how his squad was ambushed and his sergeant beaten to death with a baseball bat by Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz, the "Bear Jew". Raine carved a swastika into Butz's forehead with a knife so he can never escape his Nazi identity.

In June 1944, Shosanna Dreyfus runs a cinema in Paris under an alias. She meets Fredrick Zoller, a German sniper who has killed 250 soldiers in a single battle; Zoller is to star in a Nazi propaganda film, Stolz der Nation (Nation's Pride). Infatuated with Shosanna, Zoller convinces Joseph Goebbels to hold the premiere at her cinema. Shosanna plots with her projectionist and lover, Marcel, to burn down the cinema and kill the top Nazi leaders at the premiere. Meanwhile, the British recruit Lieutenant Archie Hicox, a film critic specializing in German cinema, plans a similar operation. Hicox will rendezvous with a double agent, German film star Bridget von Hammersmark, and the Basterds to plant explosives at the premiere.

Hicox, along with Hugo Stiglitz and Wilhelm Wicki from the Basterds, meets von Hammersmark at a tavern, where German Staff Sergeant Wilhelm is celebrating his son's birth. Major Dieter Hellstrom, a Gestapo officer, notices Hicox's odd German accent and becomes suspicious. Hicox convinces Hellstrom that he is from the German mountains, but gives himself away by ordering glasses with the incorrect hand gesture. After a Mexican standoff, the Basterds open fire and everyone but Wilhelm and a wounded von Hammersmark is killed. Raine arrives at the tavern and negotiates with Wilhelm for von Hammersmark's release, only for von Hammersmark to shoot Wilhelm when he lowers his guard. Landa investigates the scene and finds evidence that von Hammersmark was there, including a lost shoe.

Raine learns from von Hammersmark, after forcefully interrogating her, that Hitler will attend the premiere and decides to continue the mission. Two of the Basterds, Donowitz and Ulmer, join him in posing as Italians, hoping that their limited Italian will fool Germans unfamiliar with the language. Landa, who speaks fluent Italian, converses briefly with the Basterds before sending Donowitz and Ulmer to their seats. He takes von Hammersmark aside to a private room, replaces her shoe with the one from the tavern, and strangles her to death. He orders the capture of Raine and another of his men, Utivich, but instead of raising the alarm, has Raine contact his superior with the OSS. Landa cuts a deal, allowing the mission to proceed in exchange for immunity and rewards.

During the screening, Zoller slips away to the projection room to see Shosanna, who rejects him. After he gets angry and slams the door open, she shoots him, but he fatally shoots her as well before dying. As Zoller's film reaches the climax, spliced-in footage of Shosanna tells the audience that they are about to be killed by a Jew. Marcel, having locked the cinema, ignites a pile of flammable nitrate film behind the screen as Shosanna's image laughs. Ulmer and Donowitz break into the box containing Hitler and the other top Nazis, killing them, then fire their submachine guns into the crowd until the bombs go off, killing everyone present including Ulmer and Donowitz.

Landa and his radio operator drive Raine and Utivich into Allied territory, where they surrender. Raine shoots the radio operator and carves a swastika into Landa's forehead.

## Cast

* Brad Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo "The Apache" Raine
* Christoph Waltz as SD Standartenführer Hans Landa
* Michael Fassbender as Lieutenant Archie Hicox
* Eli Roth Sergeant Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz
* Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark
* Daniel Brühl as Private First Class Fredrick Zoller
* Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna Dreyfus/Emmanuelle Mimieux