Did Cliff Booth really do this?

Did Cliff Booth really do this? - Brown Rocky Mountain Beside Body of Water

In the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood they just talk about the rumours of Cliff (Brad Pitt) killing his wife.

Did he really do that?

Nothing can be inferred from his character as he was intolerant (if this is the right word here) to someone who tried to insult him (fighting with Bruce Lee and Clem) but he was a good man too (that’s what the movie is really about).



Best Answer

We don't know.

The movie does not clarify whether Cliff killed his wife or not nor does the script provide any answers.

Tarantino himself will not provide an answer.

We don't see Cliff Booth kill his wife in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and nor do we see her death presented in any other form, which means that we're instead left to draw our own conclusions based upon what else we see and hear in the movie. And in that regard, Tarantino frames the key mentions of the death in a flashback, and the circumstances ostensibly just before it happens as a flashback-within-a-flashback. It's a hazy memory, which is our first indicator that things aren't quite as they seem.

So it's through Cliff's own flashback to those events we hear of it, and then within that he flashes back to the boat, where we see him arguing with his wife, Billie (Rebecca Gayheart), a harpoon gun sitting in his lap. There's no resolution to this moment: although things between the pair are clearly heated, and Billie is taunting him, Tarantino chooses to cut away before any violence (real or not) can take place.

The context of the memory, and the memory-in-a-memory, is important. This isn't a scene where a regretful Cliff is thinking about how he killed his wife, or at least it doesn't seem that way. It's instead him ruminating on how that ill-fated boating trip, where his wife did die in some way, has come to define his entire career, and that makes more sense if he didn't actually do it. We hear the waves at the end, which suggests this was an accident, albeit a suspicious one, and that makes the death of Billie a greater tragedy, but also makes Cliff's own story tragic as well.

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Did Cliff Booth really do this? - Back view of calm young female traveler in elegant summer dress admiring seascape from grassy cliff against cloudy sunset sky in Arraial do Cabo



Was Cliff Booth a real stuntman?

Booth is actually based on two actual Hollywood stuntmen. Both men served in the military, though neither served in WWII. Both have led interesting and well-traveled lives, and one of them actually met Charles Manson.

What did Cliff Booth do to his wife?

An in-depth description of Billie's murder at the hands of her husband comes in chapter 10, titled \u201cMisadventure.\u201d Cliff shot his wife with a shark gun, the spear cutting her in half mid-torso, though he committed the savage act in an unplanned moment of rage.

Is there any truth to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

No. In the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood movie, aging actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) are both fictional characters.

What happened to Cliff in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?

\u201cNot exactly,\u201d Tarantino writes, calling it \u201cmore instinct than a decision,\u201d but the book does confirm that Cliff \u201cgot away with murder.\u201d So all signs point to yes.



Did Cliff Booth Kill his Wife - A Scene Overlooked - Once upon a Time in... Hollywood




Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Mikhail Nilov, Jess Loiterton, NF_Media, Jonathan Borba