The 10 greatest deleted scenes from Quentin Tarantino movies
The iconic American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino isn’t scared of a long film, with many of his movies being three-hour crime tales and epic cinematic stories. In fact, Tarantino has only ever made one 90-minute movie, with his shortest movie to date being his debut independent flick Reservoir Dogs, whilst his longest is The Hateful Eight, which clocks in at just under 180 minutes.
Despite his love for long cinematic chronicles, Tarantino still realises the benefit of the edit, significantly cutting scenes from his movies, which have each been destined to be DVD extras or archived snippets that have never seen the light of day. Though, whilst deleted scenes are usually cut for a reason, there is a collection of disregarded Tarantino moments that we’re not too sure should have been cut from the final film.
Therefore, we’ve taken the time to compile a list of the ten greatest deleted scenes from the filmography of Quentin Tarantino, tracking each and every one of his releases, from 1992’s Reservoir Dogs to 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Take a look at our list below and enjoy Tarantino scenes that few movie fans will have ever seen before.
Quentin Tarantino’s 10 best deleted scenes:
10. Erotic Lap Dance – Death Proof (2007)
Of all his movies, Death Proof is the one that Tarantino vocally considered to be his “worst”. Starring Kurt Russell as a sadomasochistic stunt driver who kills people with his car, this tribute to cheap grindhouse and B-movies is about as trashy as Tarantino has ever got.
It’s nevertheless a fantastic film. But this one scene exemplifies a moment where he perhaps went a little too far. The lap dance scene in the theatrical version, in which Butterfly (played by Vanessa Ferlito) performs for Russell’s Stuntman Mike, is still regarded as an iconic and sexy moment. The uncut version, however, is just a little bit too explicit with its suggestions. In the end, Tarantino made the wise choice to not distract us, cut half of it, and let the real story unfold.
9. One Enigmatic Cab Driver – Pulp Fiction (1994)
Who can forget Butch’s hazy and mildly erotic cab ride home from the fatal boxing match? From its taught pacing to Tarantino’s use of an obvious projected background, the whole thing feels like a noir fever dream — thanks to Esmerelda, the sultry and enigmatic driver who asks him, “What does it feel like to kill a man?”
However, in an alternate version of the film that we’ll sadly never see, this scene plays out a lot longer and slower. The depth of their brief but potent friendship is expanded upon, and Esmerelda even answers her own question about the meaning behind their names. Ultimately, it dragged too long to a point where, as Tarantino says, “You don’t wanna take a long time.” Bon soir, Esmerelda.
8. Killer Bill – Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
From its overt wuxia/martial arts influences to the vibrant world-building undertaken by Tarantino itself, the Kill Bill films themselves feel like the deleted scenes of a sprawling, ten-hour epic saga. This one, snipped from the cutting room floor, shows the titular Bill at his most homicidal.
In a flashback, presumably intended to accompany the rest of the legendary Pai Mei sequence, a young-and-in-love Bill and Beatrix encounter a jaded pupil in rural China. Asking Beatrix to step aside, Bill then demonstrates his prowess with both blade and fist. It’s fun, albeit somewhat campy — and it’s not hard to understand why it was kept from the final version.
7. The Journey of Broomhilda – Django Unchained (2012)
This never even ended up being filmed, let alone edited, which is a shame — it sounds riveting. In the original script for Tarantino’s Antebellum South slavery/western mash-up, there are prolonged sequences that explain precisely how Broomhilda (played by Kerry Washington) ended up at Leonardo DiCaprio’s Candyland in the first place.
After being separated from Django, Broomhilda is sold to a young man named Scotty Harmony, who then subsequently bets and loses ownership over her to Calvin Candie during a card game. Whilst interesting, these sequences amount to nearly half an hour of material, so considering the final film’s already lengthy two-and-a-half run-time, it’s hard to imagine them being included.
6. Exploring Zoë Bell’s Past – Django Unchained (2012)
In one of the greatest love stories in cinema, Zoë Bell, the stunt actor for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, made such an impression on Tarantino that he ended up casting her as a bonafide actor in her own right. After playing herself in Death Proof, Tarantino cast her in Django Unchained. But in the final version, if you blink you’ll miss her.
Credited as “the Tracker”, we saw a glimpse of Bell’s eyes above a western bandana — before Django bursts in and shoots the whole place up, the tracker included. She was, however, originally intended as a huge antagonistic character, but, according to Bell, Tarantino ran out of time: “There was a backstory… but I guess when you’re getting such brilliant shit with Leo and Jamie and Christoph, you just keep shooting.”
5. The Backstory of Mr. White – Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The backstory of Mr. White, played by Harvey Keitel, is explored in the longest deleted scene from Tarantino’s spectacular debut feature Reservoir Dogs, which changed the landscape of independent cinema upon its release. The scene sees Keitel’s character having a background check by undercover cop Freddy, aka Mr. Orange, played by Tim Roth, alongside his police department.
Adding some nice detail and some admittedly needless exposition to the movie, the scene sees the film’s only speaking female character, played by Nina Siemaszko, laying out the facts of Mr. White’s life, including his fondness for dual 45 calibre handguns.
4. The Cinema of Madame Mimieux – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
As one of Quentin Tarantino’s greatest movies, 2009’s Inglourious Basterds is littered with great moments of character building. One such character who was cut from proceedings, however, was Maggie Cheung’s Madame Mimieux, the aunt of Shosanna (Melanie Laurent), who owned the Le Gamaar Cinema that became the set for the final climax. The deleted sequence from Inglourious Basterds showed Mimieux discovering Shosanna hiding in the cinema before convincing her to help run the business.
After Mimieux died of a fever, Shosanna took the cinema and the Minieux surname, explaining how the major character managed to settle down in France. Tarantino didn’t think these scenes were necessary, however, cutting the legendary Hong Maggie Cheung from proceedings. Sadly, the deleted scene is not viewable as Tarantino could not get permission from Cheung to release it in a re-released version of the film.
3. Louis Gara and Odell Robbie in the Cockatoo Lounge – Jackie Brown (1997)
After back-to-back hits with Reservoir Dogs and his 1994 Palme d’Or winner Pulp Fiction, Tarantino returned to the silver screen with a far more restrained piece of cinema in the form of Jackie Brown. Telling the story of a flight attendant who gets arrested for drug smuggling and is forced to go undercover, the film features a number of iconic crime movie stars, including Pam Grier, Robert De Niro and Samuel L. Jackson.
The deleted scene in question comes when De Niro’s Louis Gara and Jackson’s Odell Robbie visit the Cockatoo Lounge. Speaking about the moment, Tarantino states: “It’s one of my favourite pieces of dialogue, in fact, it’s the only scene…maybe that’s the only scene I should have left in, it’s pretty good”.
2. Rick Dalton and Trudi’s final conversation – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
For our money, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Quentin Tarantino’s finest piece of cinema, establishing his style within a narrative that teeters on the edge between reality and fantasy. The character of Trudi Frazer is something of an underrated asset to the film, too, acting as in innocent opposition to Leonardo DiCaprio’s erratic Rick Dalton, with the pair using each other to bat ideas despite the obvious age gap.
Speaking on the ReelBlend podcast, the director spoke about a deleted scene where the pair have a final conversation, stating: “That was my favourite scene in the script. So the idea that that wouldn’t be in the movie was unfathomable…I think it was probably Leo’s favourite scene that he shot. We were in tears. It was the only time … I’ve gotten misty-eyed every once in a while when I was shooting this scene versus that scene.”
He eventually reluctantly cut the scene as he didn’t think it fit the pace of the rest of the movie. Check out their most iconic scene together that actually made the cut below.
1. O-Ren Ishii’s Animated Backstory – Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
For all you fans of Tarantino’s violent revenge flick Kill Bill Vol. 1, you’ll know of the iconic anime sequence that explores the backstory of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), telling a violent tale of bloody revenge created in a hand-drawn animated style. This fabulous seven-minute sequence was supposed to be much longer, however, with fans having been eager to get their eyes on the extended take ever since.
Speaking about the scene back in 2014, Tarantino stated: “[Japanese Anime Studio] IG who did Ghost in the Shell said we can’t do that and finish it in time for your thing. And you can’t have a 30-minute piece in your movie…I said okay. It was my favourite part but it was the part you could drop. So we dropped it and then later when IG heard we were talking about doing Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, they still had the script, so without even being commissioned, they just did it and paid for it themselves”.
Despite promising to add it to Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, Tarantino wasn’t able to get the scene together, meaning the masterpiece is probably lost somewhere on a hard drive in a dusty corner of IG.
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