Quentin Tarantino Explains What Happened to Rick Dalton After 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'
While the end of Once Upon a a Time in Hollywood is pretty satisfying for both Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) fans, it doesn’t give much insight as to what might have happened to them after the fact. Leave it to director Quentin Tarantino to not only answer that question, but also keep it true to the era.
In an interview on The Margaret Cho Podcast, Tarantino says that Rick’s next big move after meeting Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) isn’t quite as glamorous as viewers had dreamed of for the failing movie star. While his fans might have hoped for a comeback for DiCaprio’s washed up Western actor, the director predicts that Dalton likely followed a similar path to other Western actors of the era.
What could have easily have happened—even if he had a little bit more success in the 1970s than maybe I give him credit for—what I could really see happening, because it happened to a lot of these guys, is that by the late 1970s, early 1980s, a lot of these macho ’50s and ’60s television leading men they showed up on TV shows again but as the older cop who’s the boss of the younger cop that sends them out on the missions.
Tough break for Rick, but considering that he was getting outplayed by a 10-year-old with more professionalism in her braids than he had in his whole body, this isn’t much of a surprise. I like to believe that in the fictional universe of Once Upon a Time, Rick’s future roles were somewhere below the prestige of a high ranking officer in M.A.S.H. and above the ridiculousness of Boss Hogg in Dukes of Hazzard. After narrowly avoiding a Manson murder, you take what job you can get.
As for Cliff, Tarantino didn’t square up the stunt man’s future. Even though it seemed the two would go their separate ways, after getting stitched up, Cliff is probably still out there, ripped to shreds and old as hell, fixing Rick’s roof and avoiding getting caught for killing his wife.
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