Quentin Tarantino Slams The Man from UNCLE’s Baffling Plot

It’s not uncommon for a film to kick off with a bang, only to lose its way as things roll on. That’s exactly what happened for Quentin Tarantino with a big-budget flick he once had his eye on. While he’s known for wrapping up his own stories with a punch—think the wild endings of Reservoir Dogs or Django Unchained—he’s not shy about calling out others when they drop the ball. And when it comes to recent studio blockbusters, he reckons too many get caught up in flashy effects and forget to finish the story properly.

From Promising Start to Total Confusion

Guy Ritchie’s The Man from UNCLE is a prime example, at least in Tarantino’s book. The film, which didn’t exactly set the box office alight, was meant to launch a new franchise but fizzled out before it could get going. If you’ve seen it, you might remember the opening scenes set in East Berlin, with Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer playing rival spies. But as the story unfolds, it’s easy to lose track of what’s actually happening. There’s a criminal organisation, nuclear weapons, the CIA, the KGB, a missing scientist’s daughter, a Nazi sympathiser’s niece, a mysterious watch, an undercover MI6 agent, an island hideout, a data disc, and more double-crosses than you can poke a stick at. It’s a lot to take in, and most punters would struggle to piece it all together.

Tarantino’s Take: “What the fuck is going on here?”

For a while, Tarantino was along for the ride. But then the plot started to twist itself into knots.

The first half was really funny and terrific,

he admitted.

But in the whole second half, I’m like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, were we supposed to care about the bomb? What the fuck is going on here? I was supposed to pay attention to the stupid story?’

It’s classic Tarantino—never one to mince words, especially when he thinks he could’ve done better. And he nearly did. He once told the Village Voice he’d

flirted with the idea of a Man from UNCLE movie,

but eventually

grew out of the idea.

Ritchie stuck with it, but he wasn’t the only one who fancied a crack. The project had been floating around Hollywood since the early ’90s, with names like Steven Soderbergh, Scott Z Burns, Emily Blunt, and George Clooney all attached at different points.

Not Quite the Spy Thriller Anyone Hoped For

Despite a few bright spots—Hugh Grant, for one, manages to steal every scene he’s in—the film never really comes together as a memorable spy caper. It’s a bit odd that someone as film-mad as Tarantino was caught off guard by how much attention the story demanded. But when a film’s plot is this tangled, even the keenest cinephile can get lost.