10 Greatest Unspoken Movie Plot Points
2. Aldo Raine Survived A Lynching Years Earlier - Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is one hell of a densely-packed movie, full of well-drawn characters and whip-smart dialogue, such that nobody could be blamed for failing to pick up on every morsel of subtext throughout.
Case in point, while you may have noticed the prominent scar on Lt. Aldo Raine's (Brad Pitt) neck, did you give it much thought beyond a tough guy like Aldo getting into some brutal scuffles over the years? A bar fight gone awry, perhaps?
Though some fans have speculated that Raine had his throat near-fatally slashed, Tarantino's original script actually provides us with a basically concrete answer:
"Lt. Aldo has one defining physical characteristic, a ROPE BURN around his neck. As if once upon a time, he survived a LYNCHING. The scar will never once be mentioned."
It's further been suggested that Raine may have been lynched for racist reasons, given that he says in the film that he's a descendant of the mountain man Jim Bridger and has "a little Injun" in him.
Whatever the reason, it's clear that Raine very nearly lost his life in a lynching years before heading to war, hardening his resolve for the fight ahead.