![]() (A flamethrower, some curb-stomping, and a lot of blood is involved.) ![]() ![]() In the end, they overcome and kill the trio of Manson acolytes. Rick, Cliff, and the dog all get into the act, as well as Rick’s wife, an Italian actress (Lorenza Izzo), who’s been sleeping in the bedroom. What ensues is an epic fight, as the film explodes into graphic violence, much of which is played for comedic effect. But they carry on their mission: Sadie heads around to the back of the house, where Rick is floating in the pool, and Tex and Katie enter through the front door, where Cliff is hanging out. While Tex, Sadie, and Katie start sneaking toward the house, Flowerchild returns to the car and, when she loses her nerve, presumably because she doesn’t want to commit murder, drives it away, stranding the other three there. It’s late both he and Rick are high and drunk. So the group decides to head back to Rick’s house. Sadie says that since TV had taught them all to kill, it’s only fitting that they go back and kill the guy from TV. In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, they suddenly realize that the guy who was just yelling at them was Rick Dalton, former star of the TV Western Bounty Law, which they’d all seen on TV. (If you find that reasoning confusing, well, you’re not alone.) (The house Tate and Polanski were renting had formerly been the home of Terry Melcher, a record producer whom Manson partly blamed for his failure to make it as a recording artist.) But their goal was always to murder some “political piggies” - wealthy, comfortable people, essentially - and make it look like the murder had been committed by members of the Black Panthers to spark a race war and apocalypse that Manson called “ Helter Skelter,” named after lines from the Beatles’ White Album. The quartet had been headed to the house next door to Rick’s, on Charlie’s orders. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino’s fun, haunting homage to the summer of ’69 But Rick, who’s had just about enough of these damn hippies, comes tearing out of the house, swearing a blue streak and ordering them to leave. Shortly after Cliff leaves to walk the dog, the four young people pull up and park their car. Four members of the Manson Family - Tex, Sadie, Flowerchild, and Katie (played by Austin Butler, Mikey Madison, Maya Hawke, and Madisen Beaty) - do end up on Cielo Drive, where Rick and Cliff are on a bender in Rick’s house, next door to Tate and Polanski’s. In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the events go down differently. And while fictional characters Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) bump into a lot of people who really existed along the way - the famed Bruce Lee (Mike Moh), for instance, or Catherine Share (Lena Dunham), nicknamed “Gypsy,” the ringleader of the Manson girls - the story is still their own, made-up tale.īut for the most part, the history happening around them tracks with actual history, until the end of the film: the night of August 8, 1969, when four followers of Charles Manson, at his behest, drove to a house on Cielo Drive with the intent to commit murder. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood isn’t a true story. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood rewrites history So here’s what happens at the end of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, what really happened the night Sharon Tate died, and what Tarantino might be up to. Like it or hate it (and I’m personally mixed on how effective I think it is), the twist ending of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - which changes history with respect to the Manson story and the Tate murders - is very much in keeping with Tarantino’s style. Never say never when it comes to Tarantino, a director who notoriously enjoys messing with history in his films. The story of the Manson Family and the Tate murders (as well as the LaBianca murders the following night) has been told and retold in documentaries, memoirs, novels, docudramas, and fully fictionalized versions in the 50 years since they happened. After all, Tarantino had announced months earlier that the film would center on the notorious murderer and cult leader Charles Manson and his “family,” and in particular, the murder of actress Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie.Īnd that’s just history - well-known, well-trodden history. If you haven’t seen the film yet and do not wish to be spoiled, read the spoiler-free review instead.īefore Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s Cannes premiere, director Quentin Tarantino made waves (and ruffled a few feathers) by asking the audience not to reveal what happens at the end of the upcoming film. Note: This article contains major spoilers for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and in particular the end of the film.
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