A war sequence lets us see Rick in a register different from the television Western. Its spectacular excess establishes a professional precedent and leaves an object ready to reappear beyond that shoot.
An invented title within a plausible career
The 14 Fists of McCluskey, known in English as The 14 Fists of McCluskey, is a fictional film in Rick Dalton’s career. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood shows a fragment that is enough to recognise a war adventure with Allied soldiers and Nazi officers. There is no complete historical feature to which a detailed synopsis can be assigned from those images.
The title and tone evoke a commando film that turns war into a spectacular mission. The gathering of enemies in a confined space makes for fast, concentrated action. The sequence does not aim to reconstruct a military campaign with documentary precision. It works as an example of genre entertainment in which the protagonist’s energy and the clarity of the enemy organise the audience’s response.
For Rick Dalton, that credit shows that his career was not limited to a single series. He has occupied a cinema screen and has a past he can present to an agent. The film lets us see him, rather than relying solely on his memories. The image helps us understand why he finds it hard to accept that others see him as an actor whose best days are behind him.
His relationship with Bounty Law is one of broadening his professional repertoire. The TV Western hero and the fighter in a war adventure belong to different genres, but both make use of a presence of toughness and resolve. Rick can change uniform without completely abandoning the kind of authority that made him famous. That continuity makes the transition between jobs plausible.
The flamethrower as spectacle and lesson
The most recognisable element of the fragment is the flamethrower. The action turns the weapon into the visual centre of an overblown resolution. The image is immediate and aggressive: fire occupies the space and removes any expectation of a balanced confrontation. Within the fictional film, that excess is presented as the triumph of a combatant over a clearly identified enemy.
The narrative also shows the reverse side of the shoot through the actor’s unease about the heat from the device. That shift in perspective separates the heroic character from the person who has to play him. Rick may appear unruffled in the finished result and express concern during preparation. The distance creates humour and reminds us that the bravery of an image does not equal the physical comfort of the person making it.
It would be unwise to turn that passage into a technical explanation of the real-world use of a flamethrower. The sequence offers a dramatised reaction and a narrative effect, not handling instructions. Its interest lies in establishing that Rick has had professional contact with that object and that he keeps it as part of his past. The story thus prepares a recognisable connection between film work and domestic life.
When the weapon reappears on the final night, the viewer already has that background. The solution is extraordinary, but it does not come from a completely unknown object. The film has already provided the necessary information for the excess to retain internal logic. The memory of the shoot also changes the tone: a show-business tool leaves its original frame and enters Rick’s fictional reality.
A parallel with Inglourious Basterds, without confirmed continuity
The destruction of Nazis by fire makes it possible to draw a formal comparison with Inglourious Basterds. Both films use violence as a cinematic fantasy of punishment. That thematic kinship does not prove that The 14 Fists of McCluskey belongs to the same story or that Rick plays a character identifiable with that work. The comparison should remain on the level of devices.
The difference between narrative levels also matters. Here we are watching a film within another film and we know the actor taking part in it. The fragment can be assessed as part of his career, as entertainment for another character and as preparation for a later action. That multiplicity of functions sets it apart from a scene that takes place directly in the main world of the story.
The audience can enjoy the war-film nod without knowing every possible source. The film provides enough cues: uniforms, enemies, infiltration and an explosive resolution. There is no need to assign each shot to a specific homage in order to understand the effect. Attributing specific references without documentation would reduce a genre evocation to a list of supposed copies.
The fragment grants Rick a victory that belongs to the past and to professional fiction. That victory does not guarantee him work in 1969, but it keeps visible a facet of his appeal as a leading man. The scene shows why someone might hire him and why he still wants to headline films. His career contains effective images, even if the industry does not automatically turn them into new opportunities.
The 14 Fists of McCluskey ends up being a small piece with wide-ranging consequences. It adds depth to Rick’s history, introduces humour about the making of heroism and prepares a material return. Its importance does not depend on imagining a complete film that we never see, but on observing how a brief fragment changes what we know about the actor and what we can accept when his life becomes as excessive as the cinema he starred in.
Back to the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood guide.