The Hateful Eight: All 8 Characters, Ranked By Hatefulness

The whole point of Quentin Tarantino’s rough, bloody, revisionist western The Hateful Eight is that there are no good guys in the titular ensemble, only bad guys. Tarantino initially developed the story as a sequel to Django Unchained in literary form, but realized Django didn’t fit into the premise because he’s a clear-cut hero with a good heart.

Every character in The Hateful Eight is a villain of sorts. But morality is a wide spectrum, so some of those bad guys are worse than others, whether that is because of their actions, their motivations, or both.

8 Señor Bob

Played hilariously by Demián Bichir, Señor Bob is easily the nicest, most laid-back member of the octet. He often complains, but he’s friendly enough. After the big plot twist, Bob’s real name is revealed to be Marco “the Mexican.”

Even after it’s revealed that half of the eight belong to a deadly gang and they slaughtered everybody at the haberdashery before the others showed up, it’s clear that Bob is still the most chilled-out of the bunch.

7 Major Marquis Warren

Since The Hateful Eight is an ensemble piece, there’s technically no star. But if there is a star, it’s Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren, who the audience follows from the very beginning. He eventually becomes the Poirot of the group who blows the whole case wide open.

It’s unclear if the ominous flashback showing how he exacted revenge against Smithers’ son was accurate or something Warren made up to goad the general into drawing his pistol. Either way, his desire to exact revenge against Smithers is justified by the atrocities the Confederate general committed during the Civil War.

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6 Oswaldo Mobray

Tim Roth played major roles in Tarantino’s first two movies – Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs and Pumpkin in Pulp Fiction – but then he sat out the next five (or six, if Kill Bill counts as two) before finally reuniting with the iconic writer-director for The Hateful Eight. Although he introduces himself as Oswaldo Mobray, Red Rock’s resident hangman, he turns out to be “English” Pete Hicox, a notorious gunslinger and ancestor of Michael Fassbender’s Inglourious Basterds character.

Mobray presents himself with a posh, articulate accent, but he’s revealed to have a Cockney accent (very similar to Roth’s Pulp Fiction accent) after the cat is out of the bag. He’s great at presenting himself as a friendly, unthreatening figure, but he turns out to be one of the most cold-blooded members of the Domingre Gang in the blood-soaked flashback.

5 Chris Mannix

John Ruth’s stagecoach picks up its second unexpected passenger when the driver spots Chris Mannix, played by Walton Goggins, running through the snow in a panic. Chris might be lying about being the new Sheriff of Red Rock, but he’s far from evil.

He idolizes the Confederate general in the room, but ultimately sides with Major Warren when the Domingre Gang’s cards are on the table.

4 Joe Gage

Michael Madsen’s Joe Gage is introduced as a cowboy who’s heading home to spend the holidays with his mother. In the haberdashery, while the other seven are at each other’s throats, Gage sits in the corner, quietly working on his memoirs.

All of the gang members demonstrate their cold-bloodedness during the massacre flashback, but Joe Gage (whose real name is revealed to be Grouch Douglass) follows a limping survivor out of the haberdashery to an outhouse, where he shoots them dead on the toilet like the Schofield Kid in Unforgiven.

3 John “The Hangman” Ruth

While Major Warren brings in his bounties dead, reasoning that the lower fee awarded to dead bounties will do just fine, Kurt Russell’s John “the Hangman” Ruth is famous for bringing in his bounties alive. According to Warren himself, who recognizes Ruth from his reputation, “When ‘The Hangman’ catches you… you hang!”

It’s nice of Ruth to think of the hangman and their need to make a living – and he clearly has a strong sense of justice – but it’s still a very morbid way to generate income.

2 General Sanford “Sandy” Smithers

General Sanford “Sandy” Smithers may look pretty harmless, since he spends the whole movie on an armchair wrapped up in a blanket, but he’s pure evil on the inside with a history of violence and discrimination.

Tarantino characterizes Smithers as a racist ex-Confederate like Major Jackson from Sergio Corbucci’s Django. Bruce Dern later reteamed with the director to play the much more likable George Spahn in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

1 Daisy Domergue

Although the movie doesn’t really get into the specific atrocities she’s committed, it’s made clear early on that John Ruth’s prisoner Daisy Domergue is the most reprehensible and evil of the bunch by a wide margin. The character, played by an Oscar-nominated Jennifer Jason Leigh, was inspired by Susan Atkins of the Manson Family.

Ruth is bringing her in to be hanged because she’s a remorseless serial killer whose face can be seen on countless wanted posters. She and her brother co-run one of the deadliest gangs on the frontier.

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