- In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner's vengeful plans for the same.
- In German-occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa. Narrowly escaping with her life, she plots her revenge several years later when German war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a rapid interest in her and arranges an illustrious movie premiere at the theater she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance, the event catches the attention of the "Basterds", a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine. As the relentless executioners advance and the conspiring young girl's plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a fateful evening that will shake the very annals of history.—The Massie Twins
- It's WWII, the battleground, Nazi-occupied France. The Nazis are doing whatever they need to to flush out and exterminate Jews, the most proficient and prolific of the Jew hunters being the sadistic SS Colonel Hans Landa. As such, the American military forms a unit, led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine and comprised of eight Jews, to kill as many Nazis as possible. Raine requests each of his men to bring him the scalp of at least 100 Nazis apiece. He has his own method of ensuring that those Nazis he does allow or need to let go free are scarred for life. In Paris in 1944, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi's chief propaganda master and filmmaker, plans to debut his latest film, "Nation's Pride". The film, based on the victorious military exploits of Private Fredrick Zoller, stars Zoller as himself. Because of his attraction to its pretty proprietress Emmanuelle Mimieux, Zoller convinces Goebbels and the Nazi brass to hold the premiere at Mimieux's cinema. Landa is to act as chief of security for the event. When the Americans get wind of the screening and the fact that most of the Nazi highers-up will be in attendance, Raine's team is tasked with blowing up the cinema during the screening. They are assisted by renowned German actress, Bridget von Hammersmark, who has been working as a spy for the British. They believe luck is on their side when they learn that Hitler himself is scheduled to attend. Beyond being found out, Raine's team face two as of yet unknown issues. The first is Mimieux, who is really Shoshanna Dreyfus, a Jew who saw her family brutally murdered by Landa four years earlier, and who may have her own plans for Landa and the Nazis. The second is Landa, who beyond his up front mission, has another more personal mission for his life post-war unknown to anyone but himself.—Huggo
- 1941, Nazi-occupied France. After witnessing the brutal massacre of her family at the hands of evil SS officer Colonel Hans Landa, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus swears revenge. Three years later, Fredrick Zoller, a feared German sniper and protagonist in a Joseph Goebbels propaganda film, takes a shine to Shosanna, who now operates a cinema in Paris. But with the film's premiere rumoured to catch the attention of Adolf Hitler himself, Lieutenant Aldo Raine's Basterds--a Jewish-American suicide squad ridding France of Nazis--are determined to seize the golden opportunity to crash their party. And soon, the memory of a blood-stained past paired with the prospect of a brighter future will give birth to the ultimate payback. But who shall live, and who shall die in the private screening of death?—Nick Riganas
- Nazi-occupied France, June 1944. Lt. Aldo Raine leads a squad of crack Jewish US Army soldiers, the Bastards, deep behind enemy lines. Their job: killing Germans, as many as possible. Meanwhile Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is about to premier his latest propaganda film at a cinema in Paris. All the high-ranking Nazis will be there, making it a perfect target for the Bastards. Meanwhile, the manageress of the cinema, a Jew whose entire family was wiped out by the Nazis, has similar plans.—grantss
- In 1941, SD Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), nicknamed the "Hebrew Hunter", interrogates French dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite (Denis Menochet) at his house in the countryside. LaPadite has 3 gorgeous daughters Julie (Tina Rodriguez), Charlotte (Lea Seydoux) and Suzanne (Lena Friedrich). Landa is not a violent man, and conducts his investigation with charm, tact and ruthless logic. He promises that LaPadite and his family will be rewarded for cooperation and will not be harassed for the duration of the German occupation of France. He conducts the investigation in English, so that the hiding Hebrews cannot understand him.
To save his family, LaPadite confesses to hiding 5 members of the Hebrew Dreyfus family underneath his floor. Landa orders SS soldiers to shoot through the floorboards and kill the family but allows teenage Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) to escape.
In spring 1944, 1st Special Service Force Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) recruits eight Hebrew-American soldiers for a mission behind enemy lines, telling them they each owe 100 Nazi scalps and will take no prisoners. The black ops commando unit tasked with instilling fear among Nazis in occupied France by killing and scalping them. The group includes Sergeant Donny "The Bear Hebrew" Donowitz, Privates First Class Smithson Utivich and Omar Ulmer, rogue German Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz (who had killed 13 Gestapo officers while he was enlisted in the German army. He was captured, but then rescued by the Basterds), and Austrian-born translator Corporal Wilhelm Wicki.
The team is dropped into France ahead of D-Day dressed as civilians to carry out their mission. Raine asks his team to be cruel to the Nazis and spread terror in German military ranks with their barbaric actions.
The "Basterds" become so feared, that even Adolf Hitler (Martin Wuttke) hears of them. Hitler personally interviews a soldier, Butz (Sonke Mohring). Butz relates how his squad was ambushed and his sergeant (Richard Sammel) beaten to death with a baseball bat by Staff Sergeant Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), when the sergeant refused to divulge information about the location of another German patrol nearby. Butz survived by providing the information, but Raine carved a swastika into his forehead with a knife. Raine leaves this mark on all surviving German soldiers as a way to make their Nazi affiliations clear even after the war.
In June 1944, Shosanna runs a cinema in Paris as "Emmanuelle Mimieux". She meets Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), a German sniper whose exploits are to be celebrated in a Nazi propaganda film, Stolz Der Nation (Nation's Pride), starring as himself. Private Fredrick Zoller was a Wehrmacht marksman who became a war hero after killing at least 250 enemies in three days.
Attracted to Shosanna, Zoller convinces Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) to hold the premiere at her cinema. Landa, as the premiere's head of security, interrogates Shosanna but does not reveal if he recognizes her. Shosanna seizes the opportunity, secretly resolving to burn down her cinema with her African American projectionist and lover, Marcel (Jacky Ido) and killing the top Nazi leaders at the premiere, with her collection of highly flammable nitrate films.
Meanwhile, film critic of German cinema, Lieutenant Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) is recruited for "Operation Kino" by British General Ed Fenech (Mike Myers) and Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Rod Taylor). Hicox will rendezvous with their agent, German film star Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) and the Basterds, and infiltrate and plant explosives at the premiere.
Hicox and Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), a convicted German sergeant freed by and joining the Basterds after killing several of his superiors, meet Von Hammersmark at a tavern where Staff Sergeant Wilhelm (Alexander Fehling) celebrates the birth of his baby son.
Sturmbannfuhrer (SS rank equivalent to major) Dieter Hellstrom (August Diehl) notices Hicox's odd accent. Hicox gives himself away, signaling three drinks by not holding up his fingers correctly as a German would do. In the ensuing firefight, everyone except Wilhelm and Von Hammersmark is killed. While Raine negotiates with Wilhelm, the actress shoots the sergeant.
Raine tortures Von Hammersmark, believing she set his men up, but she convinces him of her loyalty to the Allies and reveals that Hitler will be attending the premiere. Though his German-speaking men and Hicox are dead, he decides to go ahead anyway. She proposes that Raine, Donowitz and Ulmer attend the premiere posing as Italian filmmakers, remarking that Germans do not recognize Italian accents. He, Donny, and Omar (Omar Doom) pose as Von Hammersmark's Italian escort and cameramen. Landa investigates the tavern and finds Von Hammersmark's shoe and a napkin with her signature.
The Basterds infiltrate the premiere with timed explosives. Landa, who is fluent in Italian, readily sees through their cover and confronts Von Hammersmark with her missing shoe before choking her to death. He has Raine arrested along with Utivich (BJ Novak), whom he has also detected, but leaves Ulmer and Donowitz in the theater. Recognizing the opportunity of his situation, Landa offers to let the attack proceed if Raine's OSS commanders will guarantee his safety after the war. Raine contacts his commanders and Landa negotiates a generous deal for himself and his radio operator.
During the screening, Zoller slips away to the projection booth and berates Shosanna for rejecting his advances, leading them to shoot each other dead. As Nation's Pride reaches its climax, Shosanna's face appears on the screen telling the Nazi audience that they are about to be killed by a Hebrew. Having locked the auditorium, Marcel ignites a pile of film behind the screen with his cigarette, setting the theater ablaze. Ulmer and Donowitz break into the opera box, gunning down Hitler and Goebbels and firing into the crowd until their explosives kill everyone inside the cinema, including themselves. Donowitz spends his last seconds unloading his sub-machine gun into Hitler's face.
Landa and his radio operator drive Raine and Utivich into Allied territory, where they surrender to Raine. Raine casually shoots the radio operator, infuriating Landa for breaking the terms of the deal, but Raine shrugs off his outrage. Utivich and Raine admit that they would make the same deal given the choice, then carve a swastika into Landa's forehead that Raine dubs his "masterpiece."
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