For a hot second there, it looked like Quentin Tarantino's eighth movie, The Hateful Eight , would never see the light of day. After the The Hateful Eight script leaked in 2014 before a single frame had been shot, the writer/director vowed that Eight would never be released — but, fortunately, Tarantino changed his mind and, after assembling an absolutely stellar cast, he made the film as planned. Now, the first full trailer has been released for the film, which is due out this Christmas, and it looks like a wintry blast of tension and bloodshed.
The animated teaser that debuted this spring introduced viewers to the titular eight main characters, with titles like "The Hangman" and "The Sheriff." Now, the trailer has put faces with the names so that audiences can start familiarizing themselves with who exactly these mysterious Hateful Eight are. To be sure, there will be other characters in the film, played by the likes of James Parks (Kill Bill), Zoë Bell (Death Proof), and Channing Tatum in an undisclosed mystery role.
Now, meet the eight stars of this year's bloody Western The Hateful Eight:
1. Major Marquis Warren
Played by: Samuel L. Jackson
Previous Tarantino collaborations: Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained
Character: "The Bounty Hunter," the first character we meet in the trailer while sitting in the middle of a snowy road atop a pile of frozen dead bodies. He hitches a ride in a carriage with...
2. John Ruth
Played by: Kurt Russell
Previous Tarantino collaborations: Death Proof
Character: "The Hangman," a bounty hunter notorious for actually taking the trouble to bring his fugitives alive so that they can be hanged. We meet him while he's transporting...
3. Daisy Domergue
Played by: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Previous Tarantino collaborations: None.
Character: "The Prisoner," her prominent black eye suggesting a violent encounter with John Ruth — although she generally seems pretty cheery for a woman about to be executed. When the carriage gets stuck in a blizzard, Daisy, John, and Marquis are forced to seek shelter inside Minnie's Haberdashery, which is already occupied by...
4. Oswaldo Mobray
Played by: Tim Roth
Previous Tarantino collaborations: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction
Character: "The Little Man," the hangman of Red Rock — which is coincidentally (or not) the town where John Ruth was transporting Daisy for her execution.
5. Joe Gage
Played by: Michael Madsen
Previous Tarantino collaborations: Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill
Character: "The Cow Puncher," which the dictionary tells me is just another word for cowboy or, more specifically, a "hired hand who tends cattle and performs other duties on horseback." So not nearly as dirty as it sounds. Unless it's a euphemism.
6. General Sanford Smithers
Played by: Bruce Dern
Previous Tarantino collaborations: Django Unchained
Character: "The Confederate," a racist old man still hung up on how that old War of Northern Aggression turned out for him.
7. Chris Mannix
Played by: Walton Goggins
Previous Tarantino collaborations: Django Unchained
Character: "The Sheriff," another passenger that John Ruth's carriage picks up on the way to Red Rock. He's a newcomer who, the movie's synopsis takes points out, "claims to be the town's new Sheriff." As John Ruth says in the trailer, "One of them fellas is not what he says he is." Is Mannix the interloper?
8. Bob
Played by: Demián Bichir
Previous Tarantino collaborations: None.
Character: "The Mexican," the man who's looking after the haberdashery while Minnie is away visiting her mother. Or, you know, another great option for Ruth's alleged impostor.
What do you think the odds are of any of these eight unsavory characters making it out of Minnie's Haberdashery alive? Place your bets now! The Hateful Eight premieres on Dec. 25, 2015 and opens wide on Jan. 8, 2016.
Images: The Weinstein Company; JoBlo Movie Trailers/YouTube (8)
