The 1963-1990 Universal Pictures logo is used at the start of the film.
Christoph Waltz’s character, Hans Landa, speaks four languages in the film (German, French, Italian, and English).
Unusually for a big Hollywood production, only about 30% of the film is spoken in English, with both German and French more prevalent (and a little Italian).
German actor Til Schweiger, who plays Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz, had previously refused to play a Nazis during his career. He only agreed to do so for Inglourious Basterds because he got to kill Nazis..while dressed as a Nazis.
It took Quentin Tarantino a decade to finally produce the completed script.
Michael Fassbender was born in Germany before moving to Ireland. Thus his role as Lieutenant Archie Hilcox is relatively close to reality, as Fassbender speaks fluent German but without the familiarity of a regional specific accent or customs, ultimately Hilcox’s downfall.
One of the names carved on The Bear Jew’s (played by Eli Roth) bat is that of Anne Frank.
Lieutenant Aldo Raine, played by Brad Pitt, uses the name “Enzo Gorlomi” when pretending to be an Italian actor near the end of the film. This is the birth name of Italian director Enzo G. Castellari, who directed the 1978’s The Inglorious Bastards.
To prepare for her role, Mélanie Laurent trained as a projectionist in Los Angeles, mainly projecting cartoons and trailers before main features at a working movie theatre.
Despite playing ‘Jew Hunter’ Hans Landa, Christoph Waltz is actually married to a Jewish woman and has a son training to be a rabbi.
The hands choking out Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) belong to director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino knew exactly how he wanted it to look and told Kruger to trust him. The shot only took one take, which was fortunate for Kruger as she almost passed out due to Tarantino’s ‘enthusiasm’.
The scar on Aldo Raine’s neck is never explained. The original script implies the character survived a lynching, although it also explicitly states that the scars are never to be actually explained.
B.J. Novak’s appearance as one of the Basterds meant him having to leave The Office for a brief time. The show explained his absence by claiming his character had gone “Thailand with friends from high school”.
‘Nation’s Pride’, the film shown at the movie theater, was made by Eli Roth (‘The Bear Jew’).
The giant swastika falling down during the fire wasn’t planned, but instead the result of a blaze that was almost out of control. Both Eli Roth and Omar Doom were treated for minor burns during the scene, and the fire marshals claimed that if they had kept filming for another 15 seconds the entire set would have collapsed.
The first Tarantino film to win an Oscar for acting: Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor.
Chapter Three of the film is the only chapter in which nobody dies and no English is spoken.
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