The sci-fi movie Quentin Tarantino referred to as “the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads”
There aren’t many filmmakers who project as much confidence as Quentin Tarantino, which is completely understandable and perfectly fair when he’s one of the most distinct, influential, and popular auteurs of the modern era.
Independent cinema in the United States scrambled to reconstruct itself in his image after Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction blazed a new trail, while he’s entered that select band of filmmakers who don’t need anything more than their name to convince paying customers that a trip to the local cinema to catch their latest feature is something that needs to be done on opening night.
It’ll be a sore one for the medium whenever he completes his tenth and final movie and then allegedly vanishes into the directorial ether forevermore, but it stands to reason that whatever that film ends up being is going to be a monumental success, and not just because three of his last four features have sailed past $300million at the global box office.
The two-time Academy Award winner is the sort of person who’ll openly laugh in the face of potential competition, and that’s exactly what he did two decades ago, even when that competition was arguably the single most hotly-anticipated sequel since Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and the follow-up to a game-changing original Tarantino actively adored.
He remembers “a real electricity in the air” before he saw The Matrix for the first time, which he described as “a profound experience.” Unfortunately for him, the lingering shadow of the second instalment was looming over his own upcoming work, with Tarantino explaining to Vulture how catching the sequel made him even more confident he had nothing to worry about.
“The last time that I felt competitive was when I was doing Kill Bill and my competition was The Matrix Reloaded. That was the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” he said. Tarantino “saw Matrix Reloaded at the Chinese Theatre the day it opened,” and after he left his first thought was the complete opposite of concern; “I was worried about that? Ho-ly shit.”
It’s not really the most obvious – or even logical, time-wise – comparison to make considering The Matrix Reloaded opened in May 2003 and went on to hoover up $742million at the box office, whereas Kill Bill: Volume 1 would premiere in October and earn a respectable $181million. Not only is there a five-month gap between the two, but other than the martial arts connections they don’t have a whole lot in common, either.
The exact same thing would happen again when The Matrix Revolutions and Kill Bill: Volume 2 arrived within five months of each other six months further down the line, but by that point Tarantino was presumably sure he had absolutely nothing to be concerned about.
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