Inglorious Basterds is an upcoming ensemble war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Despite it being a war film, the movie will be a "spaghetti-western but with World War II iconography". In addition to spaghetti-westerns, the film also pays homage to the WWII "macaroni-combat" sub-genre (itself influenced by spaghetti-westerns) as well as films by Jean-Luc Godard.
The title (and partial premise) of the upcoming film is inspired by Italian director Enzo Castellari's 1978 movie Quel Maledetto Treno Blindato (literally translated as That damned armored train and released as Inglorious Bastards in the USA).
The original plot was set in Europe during World War II, a group of American soldiers are in the process of being shipped off to military prison for a variety of infractions, ranging from desertion to murder. While they're being transported, a German air attack hits the convoy, killing most of the MPs and enabling five of the prisoners to escape.
The group decides their best bet is to head to neutral Switzerland, where they can avoid the fighting and prison. As they make their way to what they think will be freedom, they end up volunteering for a commando mission to steal the new prototype gyroscope for the Nazi V2 with help of the French Underground. Somehow the team must sneak onto the most heavily guarded train in German territory, steal the Nazis' most precious military hardware, and bring it back to the Allies without getting arrested again by their own side.
Tarantino's version follows Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) who witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.
Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad eventually joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.