The Precision Horror/Suspense/Comedy of the Coffee Scene

SPOILERS

I think sometimes you have to "go deep" in a movie to see why a good writer-director IS a good writer-director (even if some folks think he isn't.)

The coffee scene in The Hateful Eight.

Its QT's "ode to Hitchcock" in most ways, and something of his own horrific imaginings in others -- with a nod to "Alien/The Thing" and "Carrie" mixed in.

Hitchcock used to talk about suspense being "giving the audience information the characters don't have":

There's a bomb under the table.

There's a psycho killer behind the door at the top of the stairs.

Suspense is automatic.

In The Hateful Eight the information is:

The coffee has been poisoned.

And now we watch and wait in suspense to see: who is going to drink it?

Well, it turns out to be two people(and that's important):

Kurt Russell's John Ruth, the bounty hunter.

And "OB," the stagecoach driver, by default, the only person in The Hateful Eight's "main cast" who ISN'T hateful. He's a pretty nice guy. (In addition to OB's death being a plot point about the poisoned coffee -- see below -- eliminating OB now leaves the rest of the movie up to the "hatefuls" exclusively.)

...and one more person pours himself a cup and PREPARES to drink: Sheriff Chris Mannix(Walton Goggins), the bigoted Southerner.

The stage is set. QT puts some sort of "funny," almost tuba-like patter music on the soundtrack to count down to the poison taking effect.

Now, Daisy Domergue(Jennifer Jason Leigh) knows that John Ruth has drunk the poison, so she smiles, taps her fingers on the table(in tune with the tuba) and waits. But then-- John Ruth clamps the handcuffs connecting her to Ruth BACK ON(he'd taken them off to let her eat) and now Daisy panics:

Daisy: No no no no NO.
John Ruth: Oh yes yes yes YES.

So now Daisy knows she's going to be attached to John Ruth when the poison takes effect and ..she's got to be ready for anything.

Suspense builds. The tuba tune keeps things a little funny. Sheriff Mannix lifts the coffee to his mouth to drink and....

NOW, everything explodes.

A gout of blood explodes from John's mouth.

A gout of blood explodes from OB's mouth -- thus John Ruth realizes: the coffee is poisoned. Its not just that he is PERSONALLY ill. Only these two men have drunk the coffee. He calls out to Mannix in warning: "The COFFEE." Mannix lowers the cup and drops it in time, but spills some on his clothes, wiping the poison on his clothes with his hand.

Daisy can't help herself. She smiles at John Ruth and says: "When you get to hell, John -- tell 'em Daisy sent ya."

But her triumph is short lived. Now John Ruth pounces on her, intent on strangling her before he dies.

QT now cuts between the blood vomiting of Ruth and OB, and the struggle of Daisy to survive before John Ruth dies. But he is struggling for his gun.

Daisy gets the gun. And John Ruth -- though dying of the poison -- looks resigned: she's going to shoot him , in addition. But not before he vomits one last gout of blood all over Daisy's face(giving her the "Carrie at the prom" effect.)

And then Ruth dies, and OB dies. And Daisy is chained to a dead man. But she has a gun in her hand. And now -- having not been present in the scene until now -- Sam Jackson's Major Warren re-enters the scene to put a gun to Daisy's head and make her drop her gun.

Its a great scene, precise in the filming to the nth degree, and it sets up so many things that will follow:

Jackson's realization that John Ruth WAS nuts to bring a live prisoner to this place.

Jackson's realization that one or more of the other people in the room is a bad guy.

Jackson's recruitment of Goggins as his "assistant" no matter how much their North/South/White/Black conflicts are there: Goggins was going to drink the poison. He's not in league (aka "in caHOOTS") with the bad guys.

John Ruth saved Goggins life by warning him about the coffee("The last thing he did," Jackson notes to Goggins.)

Daisy Domergue can't be trusted by Goggins as an ally, says Jackson "because she would have let you drink that coffee."

Daisy Domergue has killed "the only person in this room who cared that you stay alive" says Warren (that would be John Ruth.)

Daisy Domergue can no longer "move fast" because she is chained to a big dead man (and how she frees herself will be a later, comic-gruesome payoff.)

Because of her complicity in these deaths(and others)...Daisy deserves to die.

..and the third act of the tale is now "good to go" as Warren "investigates" -- "who poisoned the coffee" and we get the "flashback solution" to earlier that day. And there is suspense: if Major Warren solves the crime, can he avoid getting killed by the bad guys?

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I say this is great screenwriting, great filmmaking, and great entertainment(however gruesome, but that's what being an adult is all about.")