The Hateful Eight is Quentin Tarantino’s homage to various classic American Western movies, and its opening scene is the ultimate tribute to arguably the greatest scene in the history of the genre. The movie kicks off with Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Major Marquis Warren, trying to hitch a ride on a stagecoach that happens to pᴀss his way, but the occupant doesn’t take too kindly to Warren on first seeing him. This scene is a direct homage to the introduction of John Wayne’s character, the Ringo Kid, in the 1939 Western Stagecoach.

Stagecoach was the first John Ford movie in which Wayne played a leading role. More than its place in cinema history, however, the film is loved and admired by Western fans and filmmakers alike. Steven Spielberg still uses it as a reference point for his own movies today, while Orson Welles used Stagecoach as inspiration for Citizen Kane. Wayne’s first scene in the movie, in particular, is held up as possibly its finest moment, as well as the greatest single scene that the Duke ever acted in. It’s unsurprising, then, that The Hateful Eight takes its cue from this scene right from the start.

Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight Opens With A Homage To John Wayne In Stagecoach

The Part Of Samuel L. Jackson’s Character Warren In The Scene Is A Tribute To Wayne’s Ringo Kid

The Hateful Eight begins with a sH๏τ of a stagecoach trundling along through the snow of a Wyoming winter, an image that immediately brings John Ford’s Stagecoach to mind. Suddenly, the coach is halted by a mysterious figure who, as it turns out, is somewhat familiar to its occupants. Samuel L. Jackson’s Warren is armed with a pair of pistols but finds two barrels pointing back in his direction from the stagecoach. Its main occupant instructs him to give up his weapons before he eventually climbs aboard.

This entire scene is lifted straight from Stagecoach, which introduces John Wayne’s Ringo Kid as a steely-eyed traveler with his rifle at the ready, who’s promptly arrested and ushered aboard the тιтular stagecoach once he’s recognized. This nod to Ford’s landmark Western is just one of several classic movie references in The Hateful Eight, but it’s arguably the most important, given the significance of the scene that it’s referencing.

John Wayne’s Entrance In John Ford’s Stagecoach Is The Actor’s Greatest Movie Scene

An Explosive Introduction He Never Matched Across Dozens Of Cinematic Classics

Before Stagecoach, Wayne had already dabbled in Western movies but was far from the major Hollywood star he became. John Ford was the industry insider who originally got Wayne into the movie business, but he’d yet to play a starring role in one of the director’s movies.

All that was about to change, though, as he burst into the picture as a maverick cowboy out to avenge his father, for his best-ever scene in a Western movie. Ford’s legendary zoom sH๏τ refocusing the camera on Wayne’s face, as Ringo spins his rifle around his right hand, lent instant charisma to the young actor who was soon to become the greatest exponent of the American Western on the big screen.

The Duke might have acted in even better movies than Stagecoach later in his career, but he surely never topped this explosive entrance, which effectively started his journey to A-list superstardom. As brilliant an actor as Samuel L. Jackson is, even his homage in The Hateful Eight is little more than an imitation of John Wayne’s first career-defining cinematic moment.