Written by William Townsend
If you’re at all plugged into pop culture, or even the cultural Zeitgeist of America as a whole at the least—you, like I, became aware of a recent crossover between two pop culture juggernauts: Quentin Tarantino and Fortnite.
For those without a high amount of knowledge, Fortnite is a battle royale style video game (think PG Hunger Games—for those without foresight, please forgive the comparison) wherein by default, players are grouped into squads of varying numbers and dropped from a big blue school bus (deemed the “Battle Bus” in-game) and are meant to elude an ever-approaching, fatal storm (think Steven King’s The Mist) as well as survive encounters with other players attempting to accomplish the same goal. As a free-to-play game, this has led to a generally high player base composed of people on the younger side, and as such, is deemed a “kids’ game” by most. At a glance, this might sound like an arbitrary cash-grab, but following Tarantino’s recent announcement of his favorite movies of the 21st century, and that list including Kinji Fukusaku’s Battle Royale (2003), I wonder whether it’s closer to the stars aligning with our wallets than anything else.
Now, of course, I can acknowledge some of the ridiculous aspects of the scenario: putting the eponymous Pussy Wagon in the game, only to censor it, the inclusion of Beatrix Kiddo “The Bride” as a playable character (referred to as “skins” in-game)—with her signature Hattori Hanzo sword, no less—in a game wherein virtually no aspect of her legendary showdown with O-Ren Ishii’s “Crazy 88” can be replicated, or even the fact that “The Bride” can now be made to do the “Dougie”; a more pretentious man might call it “cinematic sacrilege”.
Now the positive: a whole new generation of people—through an interactive medium, no less—may be receiving an informal introduction to the “World of Tarantino”, as it were. For those in doubt, look no further than Vic & Vincent Vega (who appear in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1994) and Pulp Fiction (1995), respectively), or the Inglorious Basterd that is Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, and his grandson, Lee, who makes a third-act appearance in Tony Scott’s 1995 drama True Romance—a film adapted from Tarantino’s first sold script. It only makes sense that characters from this sprawling, yet carefully built, universe make their way to a new one.
Even Tarantino’s 1997 outing in Jackie Brown, an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel—Rum Punch—is slathered in Tarantino’s signature style so much that most people would never know that it was an adaptation, if not for the opening and closing titles (the former of which showcases an incredible use of Bobby Womack’s Across 110th Street).
This is all to say that if the inclusion—silly as it may be—of this character in Fortnite leads to more people watching movies from an arguably legendary director, I’ve gotta say have at it.
Lastly, we of course can’t forget that in this partnership, fans of both cultural icons will be getting a big win in the form of a long-forgotten deleted scene that never made it into either volume of Kill Bill during its’ initial production run, released for the first time in-game ahead of the 2025 release of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. Non-gamers need not worry though—participating theaters will include the deleted scene—titled “Yuki’s Revenge”—for moviegoers to enjoy as well; you can read here for more details, enjoy the Fortnite crossover event from November 27th, and see Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair In theaters on December 5th—I know I’ll be there.
Unpaid Bill 
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