Inglourious Basterds/Characters

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The Basterds

"We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty they will know who we are."

A group of soldiers who have set out to scalp Germans as a sort of revenge. Started as eight Jewish-Americans, but were later joined by the German Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz after he murders 13 Gestapo officers and the Basterds break him out of jail.

• Anti-Hero: Type IV
• Batter Up: Donny Donowitz's preferred style of execution.
• Blood Knight
• The Dragon/The Lancer: Donowitz seems to be this for Aldo.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Donny and Omar
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: All the members can classify.
• Knight Templar
• Nineties Anti-Hero
• Pay Evil Unto Evil: Possibly the best example.
• Psychotic Smirk: Donny Donowitz gives this off as he approaches the German Commanding Officer to execute him.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge
• They Who Fight Monsters: Let's see, they hate the Nazis, yet they do several eerily similar actions onto the Nazis that the Nazis do onto Jews and other undesirables, even down to locking them in a room under false pretenses (in a manner of speaking). That fits the trope to a "t".
• What Happened to the Mouse??: Four Basterds disappear, never to be shown on screen again. According to leaked versions of the script, whoever didn't show up before the tavern scene had died.

Lt. Aldo "The Apache" Raine

Played By: Brad Pitt —"You probably heard we ain't in the prisoner-takin' business; we in the killin' Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin'!"

A hilljack from the backwoods of Tennesee. Has a scar about his neck that is never explained. He is the leader of the Basterds.

• Anti-Hero: Type IV or V.
• Anti-Villain: Type III
• Ax Crazy: He does get off on carving swastikas into the heads of German prisoners-of-war.
• Badass Mustache
• Decoy Protagonist
• Mr. Fanservice
• Expy: His speech to the Basterds draws similarities to George Patton.
• Famous Ancestor: Raine mentions he's a direct descendant of well-known mountain man Jim Bridger
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath
• Large Ham
• Laughably Evil: He is QUITE entertaining, probably the main reason why his blatant sociopathy is largely ignored by the fanbase.
• Nineties Anti-Hero
• Noodle Incident: When he tweaks the deal Landa made with the Allied Command, Raine notes it's not the first time he went against orders.
  • How Raine got that scar. He looks like a survivor of a failed hanging, although who hanged him and for what reason is never explained.
• Pay Evil Unto Evil
• Sociopathic Soldier
• Knight Templar
• Southern Fried Lieutenant: Hails from Tennessee, although Raine mentions he's got Native American blood in him.
• Villain Protagonist

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Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz

Played By: Til Schweiger —"Say "auf Wiedersehen" to your Nazi balls."

• Anti-Hero: Type V
• Ax Crazy
• A Day in the Limelight: The only Basterd to get a full flashback sequence divulging their backstory.
• The Big Guy/The Brute
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Out of the 13 Gestapo officers he killed we saw three. One was suffocated by stuffing a fist into his throath and another repeatedly stabbed in the face through a pillow. The third was just strangled with a piano wire.
• Defector From Decadence: Subverted in that the Basterds are nearly as decadent as their targets.
• Knife Nut: He has a SS dagger, with the "Loyalty is my honor" inscription.
• Heel Face Turn: Subverted. It's never fully explained why he decided to kill Gestapo officers, but the Basterds heard about it and offered him his freedom in return for helping them. Naturally, he joined up.
  • The film hints that the Gestapo tortured him for some reason, setting him off on his personal Roaring Rampage of Revenge before capture (and rescue by the Basterds).
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: The greatest example in the movie (on the part of sociopath).
• Serial Killer: Before joining the Basterds.
• The Stoic

"Do I not look calm to you?"

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Sgt. Donny ‘The Bear Jew’ Donowitz

Played By: Eli Roth —"Teddy fuckin' Williams knocks it out of the park! Fenway Park on its feet for Teddy fuckin' Ballgame! He went yardo on that one, out to fuckin' Lansdowne Street!"

• Anti-Hero: Type IV
• Badass
• Batter Up: His weapon of choice
• Berserk Button: While the other Basterds are in on it for the same reason, Donny has an extreme hatred for those that kill Jewish people. Especially those that get rewarded for it. Which is why he questioned Ratchman on his Iron Cross.
• Blood Knight
• Combat Sadomasochist
• Knight Templar
• Large Ham
• Shrouded in Myth: Nazis believe he's a golem conjured by a Rabbi.
• Tranquil Fury: During his appearance when Aldo calls him out to kill Sgt. Ratchman. He is calm when he asks about Rachtman's Iron Cross and doesn't yell or scream when he's beating him to death. It's only after Ratchman dies that he goes ham impersonating Teddy Williams.

Donny: You get the for killing Jews? Ratchman: Bravery.

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Pfc. Omar Ulmer

Played By: Omar Doom

• Ascended Extra
• The Danza
• Hidden Depths: He's the only one of the trio who satisfies Landa's ear for Italian.

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Pfc. Smithson ‘Little Man’ Utvich

Played By: BJ Novak —"The Germans' nickname for me is "the Little Man"?"

• Embarrassing Nickname: Little Man

The Nazis

The German High Command (Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goring, and Martin Boorman)

• Adolf Hitler: Naturally. And this time, he gets his, messily shot to death.
• Big Bad: Hitler, who else?
• Death by Irony
• Doomed by Canon: Completely averted.
• Large Ham: Hitler, Hitler, Hitler, and oh yeah, Hitler.
  • Incoming Ham: "NEIN, NEIN, NEIN!"
• Villains By Default

Col. Hans ‘The Jew Hunter’ Landa

Played By: Christoph Waltz —"I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing."

A Nazi colonel who is a damn good detective (in his words). Very good at rooting out Jewish families in hiding. This is how he makes the acquaintance of Shoshanna Dreyfus, whose family's death he is responsible for.

• Affably Evil/Faux Affably Evil
• Awesome By Analysis: He is essentially a Nazi Sherlock Holmes, and may actually see himself as such (he insists that he's a "detective", and a damn good one; and he even has a gavel).
• Breakout Character
• Colonel Badass
• Cunning Linguist: One of the character's most well-known traits is his quadri-linguality.
• Fate Worse Than Death - lets just say that despite promise of becoming a complete American citizen and hailed as a hero, he couldn't eliminate his ties to the Nazis afterwards thanks to the surviving members of the Basterds deciding to do one of their usual methods with surviving Nazis. Though he can probably get plastic surgery with all those goodies he extorted.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Mark of Shame: Becomes the unfortunate recipient of Aldo's masterpiece.
• The Sociopath
• Soft-Spoken Sadist
• Too Clever by Half: His scheme doesn't go the way he envisions it; also, while he is responsible for the death of the German and Nazi High leadership, it's less because he sold them out to the Basterds, and more due to sparing a young Jewish girl (For the Evulz, mind; he'd just killed her entire family, and he spared her just because it amused him to do so) and not recognising her as a vengeful adult.
• Wicked Cultured: He embodies this trope.

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Frederick Zoller

Played By: Daniel Bruhl

• Dogged Nice Guy: Up to a point. Your Mileage May Vary; Soshanna would definitely disagree.
• Elite Mook
• Mauve Shirt
• Mook Lieutenant
• Punch Clock Villain: He confesses to Shosanna that he does not want to watch his film, because he does not feel proud of killing so many men.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain
• Taking You with Me

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Major Dieter Hellstrom

Played By: August Diehl

• Big Bad Wannabe
• Mook Lieutenant
• Jerkass

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Adolf Hitler

Played By: Martin Wuttke

• Adolf Hitler
• Big Bad
• Large Ham

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Joseph Goebbels

Played By: Sylvester Groth

• Fan Disservice: Thanks for the Goebbels sex scene, Quentin.

The Allies

Lt. Archie Hicox

Played By: Michael Fassbender

• Face Death with Dignity
• Only Sane Man
• Token Good Teammate
• Quintessential British Gentleman

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Bridget von Hammersmark

Played By: Diane Kruger

A beautiful German actress who is secretly working for the Allies.

• Anti-Hero: Type IV
• Femme Fatale
• Reverse Mole
• Shoot the Dog
• Smug Snake: A rare 'heroic' version.

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General Ed Fenech

Played By: Mike Myers

• One-Scene Wonder

Le Gamaar Theater

Shoshanna Dreyfus

Played By: Melanie Laurent

A French Jew whose entire family was murdered by Hans Landa's men. She eventually owns a cinema.

• Anti-Hero(Type IV or V): Crafting a horrific punishment for an entire theater full of high-ranking Nazis. It certainly helps that she's the only survivor of a family of Jewish dairy farmers who were massacred by Landa - Landa leaving her alive because he figured she couldn't possibly pose a threat to the Nazis in the future.
• Broken Bird
• The Chessmaster
• Lady in Red
• Matzo Fever
• Power Blonde
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge
• Sole Survivor
• The Stoic
  • Not So Stoic: After her encounter with Landa

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Marcel

Played By: Jacky Ido

He is Shoshanna's boyfriend as well as the film projectionist at her cinema.

• Anti-Hero: Type III
• Heroic Sacrifice: Maybe. Unlike the people in the theater, he had a possible escape route (hey, he had to get in through the back part of the theater somewhere).
• Satellite Character: We never get to learn anything about him, other than that he's Shosanna's boyfriend and a very good projectionist.
• Where Da White Woman At