Quentin Tarantino’s 10 best villains
Inconsistency is an inescapable part of filmmaking, but when it comes to Quentin Tarantino, at least one unforgettable character is about as close to an on-screen guarantee as it gets.
The two-time Academy Award winner has become synonymous with richly crafted dialogue being delivered at a languid pace that furthers the story while indulging his fondness for a monologue, with every single one of his nine features to date boasting at least one iconic creation.
Of course, several of his movies have spawned multiple fixtures of pop culture, ranging from straightforward heroes to outright villains, via the many figures that have populated his screenplays that operate in the grey area in between.
It’s hard to craft a truly detestable villain when the combination of writing and performance makes them so memorable it’s all too easy to forget their litany of sins, but the following ten antagonists nonetheless rank as the finest Tarantino has ever scripted, despite doing some truly despicable things.
Quentin Tarantino’s 10 best villains:
10. Marsellus Wallace (Pulp Fiction, 1994)
Marsellus Wallace looms large over Pulp Fiction from the very beginning, with Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield and John Travolta’s Vincent Vega talking about their boss in hushed, almost reverential tones as they discuss rumours he’d thrown somebody out of a window for giving his wife a foot massage.
Given the way his presence informs the opening act of the labyrinthine crime thriller, the character needed to be done justice and live up to that fearsome reputation when he finally showed up in the flesh. Through the hulking, sonorous frame of Ving Rhames, it’s entirely believable that this is a guy who can run a criminal empire and strike fear into the hearts of his enemies.
Even when he gets run over by a car, imprisoned, and then tortured under highly unfortunate circumstances, his subsequent retaliation once more underlines that this is a man not to be trifled with. Rhames brims with fury and unrestrained rage, restoring Wallace to his initial status as a force of nature.
9. Daisy Domergue (The Hateful Eight, 2015)
Tarantino initially met with Jennifer Lawrence about playing the erstwhile villain and overall criminal mastermind of The Hateful Eight, but it’s difficult to imagine anyone other than Jennifer Jason Leigh embodying the role, even though she’s almost 30 years older than Lawrence.
Established as a dangerous fugitive right off the bat, Leigh brings ferociousness and almost animalistic tendencies to the early section of the narrative, with her presence alone more than enough to raise tensions among the titular octet holed up in an attempt to wait out a blizzard.
Gradually revealing herself to be intelligently cunning and a master of manipulation, her machinations almost pay off and facilitate her escape as the sole survivor, but The Hateful Eight had one last twist up its sleeve to snatch her from within touching distance of glory and plunge her into the jaws of defeat.
8. Ordell Robbie (Jackie Brown, 1997)
Arms dealers in crime thrillers can regularly be one-note caricatures, but the most unsettling thing about Samuel L. Jackson’s Ordell Robbie is that he’s so charming it almost makes him likeable, despite his profession and unscrupulous nature.
Of course, that was the point, and comes with the territory when you cast an actor as charismatic as Jackson in the role. And yet, there’s always a quiet air of menace lingering in the background whenever Robbie is on-screen, especially when he doesn’t bat an eyelid or break a sweat when getting his hands dirty.
A garishly-dressed snake oil salesman who happens to trade in the business of illicit firearms, Robbie’s disconcerting duality is brought to vivid life by Jackson, who fully understood and completely embraced how to play both sides of the part.
7. Calvin Candie (Django Unchained, 2012)
Leonardo DiCaprio very rarely indulges in out-and-out villainy, although Django Unchained offered a startling reminder that it’s something he should consider doing a great deal more often.
Calvin Candie’s ruthless streak and manipulative ways are pitted in direct opposition to his naivety, privilege, and constant desire to prove himself as an altogether worldlier man than he really is. Broadly evil without chewing on the scenery, it wouldn’t be too difficult to imagine Calvin slipping into the realms of caricature with a lesser performer on board.
In DiCaprio’s hands, though, the detestable plantation owner is one of those villains the audience can’t wait to see get their comeuppance in the end, with his carefully manufactured mask of sophistication regularly slipping to reveal his sadistic side.
6. Drexl Spivey (True Romance, 1993)
Tony Scott may have directed True Romance, but the words coming out of Drexl Spivey’s mouth are unmistakably those of a Tarantino screenplay, brought to life with the relish and zeal to be expected from just one of many immersive and fully committed Gary Oldman performances.
A drug-dealing pimp with dreadlocks and a penchant for using a dozen words when one will suffice hardly seems like the perfect role for a London-born thespian, but such is the strength of Oldman’s turn that it’s never anything less than entirely believable that Drexl himself operates under the assumption that his exaggerated persona represents his truest self.
Like many Tarantino antagonists before him, bullets play a key role in his demise as Christian Slater’s Clarence extricates Patricia Arquette’s Alabama from his clutches by any means necessary, and it’s a testament to the combination of script and performer that Drexl makes such an impression despite failing to survive beyond the first act.
5. Stuntman Mike (Death Proof, 2007)
The Grindhouse experiment may have been a well-intentioned colossal failure, with Death Proof regarded as comfortably the weakest of Tarantino’s directorial efforts, but it deserves a pass for bestowing the world of cinema with the gift of Stuntman Mike.
Square-jawed, chiselled, and handsome all-American hero Kurt Russell has never been known for breaking bad, but his outward confidence and constant twinkle in his eye makes him the perfect casting for a deranged serial killer who weaponizes his day job to claim fresh victims.
It’s hard not to be charmed by Russell regardless of what role he’s playing, and that baggage comes in especially handy for Stuntman Mike, who suppresses his true nature just long enough until he’s got his prey right where he wants them. His modus operandi is preposterous, even by the standards of an exploitation-styled thriller, but the actor’s megawatt star power luxuriates in the ludicrousness of it all.
4. Mr. Blonde (Reservoir Dogs, 1992)
Michael Madsen would go on to become a regular part of Tarantino’s repertory, but he’s never been better in any of the director’s subsequent features as he was in Reservoir Dogs, with Mr. Blonde the first of many ice-cold but undeniably cool scene-stealing criminals to feature in the director’s films.
At first, he presents himself as nigh-on unflappable, someone who can remain calm and collected even under the intense pressures of a bank job gone wrong. And yet, it eventually becomes clear that he’s as dangerous as he is unpredictable, which spells bad news for anyone who risks his wrath.
Dancing to ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ while casually torturing a police officer might be his signature moment, but Mr. Blonde had already mirrored one of his most famous soundbites by displaying that his bite was every bit as dangerous as his bark.
3. Bill (Kill Bill, 2003-2004)
The narrative thrust of Tarantino’s two-part roaring rampage of revenge is right there in the title, which left David Carradine with the unenviable task of doing justice to a character so irredeemable that Uma Thurman’s Beatrix Kiddo spent two entire movies trying to end his life.
Building him as a bogeyman figure in Vol. 1 by utilising the actor off-screen as the shadowy figure pulling the strings, the sequel flips the script by depicting him as a kindly old man raising his young daughter in quiet surroundings. Idyllic family life aside, the unfolding of The Bride’s backstory let the viewer know in no uncertain terms why he has to die.
Revenge thrillers don’t often lean on a multi-layered villain when the outcome is inevitable, but Carradine brings gravitas and pathos to Bill that sees him explain why he’s entirely convinced he made the right call to leave the mother of his child for dead. Of course, she disagrees vehemently, but there are few things more frightening than a big bad who can’t seem to understand why anyone would think they were in the wrong.
2. Stephen (Django Unchained, 2012)
Calvin Candie might be the face of his criminal operation, but nobody can argue that Stephen is the brains. If the two were to be combined personality-wise, then the result might have just been the ultimate malevolent mastermind, but the gaps in their enterprise are the ones Jamie Foxx’s Django ultimately slips through in the end.
As Calvin’s confidante, advisor, and head of the household, Stephen knows everything that he knows and so much more due to his intimate familiarity with the inner workings of the plantation and its slaves. That makes him even more dangerous, especially when he drops the act and reveals his true self.
He’s the ultimate sycophant when there are people around, but that’s just one small part of the elaborate ruse he’s spent years crafting, to the extent he can even bark orders at Calvin on occasion. Maintaining his own position – and, by extension, Calvin’s – it’s inarguable that Candie would be significantly worse off if Stephen wasn’t constantly the nefarious voice in his ear.
1. Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds, 2009)
By the end of his very first scene, Christoph Waltz had made it abundantly clear that the entirety of Inglourious Basterds would belong to Hans Landa, with his tension-laden introduction setting the stage for what was to come.
Every bit as charming as he is sinister, the Nazi officer is also disarmingly pleasant and vastly intelligent, as evidenced by the way he seamlessly switches between languages throughout the film. Far from a cookie-cutter World War II adversary for the intrepid band of heroes to take down, Tarantino was completely aware that the success of the entire film hinged on the casting of Landa.
With an Academy Award to show for it and a status as the favourite character the filmmaker has ever written, it would be safe to say Landa is unquestionably the greatest villain to emerge from Tarantino’s esteemed filmography.
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