Ranking the 60 greatest Quentin Tarantino characters
The true definition of an auteur filmmaker, the work of American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino abides by a distinctive cinematic style. Inspired by genres and filmmakers from across the globe, Tarantino’s work is suffused with a passion for cinema, breathing with the same classy elegance as Sergio Leone, the frenetic mania of Takashi Miike and the endless experimentation of Jean-Luc Godard.
Whilst the filmmaker has a passion for grisly on-screen violence, snappy dialogue and peculiar shots of people’s feet, nothing defines Tarantino better than his characters, whose cinematic reputation often precedes the movies they star in. Ever since his very first major feature film Reservoir Dogs, in 1992, the director has proven that thanks to his tightly-written scripts, he’s adept at creating layered characters that ooze larger-than-life charisma.
Though he is undoubtedly proficient in serving up smooth-talkers and voguish violent criminals, Tarantino can do more than mere cinematic melodrama. Take Samuel L. Jackson’s Stephen in 2012’s Django Unchained, a complex, deeply troubled supporting character, or the strong and assured Jackie Brown from the 1997 movie of the same name, with both iconic roles standing out in his sparkling filmography.
Looking back at each of his movies, including the ones he only penned the screenplay for, we’ve created a definitive list of Quentin Tarantino’s 60 greatest characters below, sorting the Djangos from the Pussycats.
The 60 best Quentin Tarantino characters:
60. Floyd – True Romance (1993)
We’ve all lived with a Floyd at some point in our lives. Played by a young Brad Pitt, this couch-dwelling stoner is the unemployed roommate of Dick Ritchie in 1993’s True Romance.
A dope smoker and serial TV binger, he spends his days supine but ends up being one of the most memorable characters in this drama about a pair of cocaine-trading lovers trawling around California. “Hey! Get some beer… and some cleaning products.”
59. Sex Machine – From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Played by American make-up artist and actor Tom Savani, Sex Machine is a biker-turned-vampire with a talent for stealing people’s beer with a tiny lasso. Oh, and he has a twin-barrel pistol concealed in his jockstrap.
A supporting character in From Dusk Till Dawn – starring George Clooney, Salma Hayek and Tarantino himself – Sex Machine manages to turn both Frost (Fred Williamson) and Jacob (Harvey Keitel) into vampires before being decapitated, transformed into a rat and eventually killed by Kate.
58. Earl McGraw – Various
One of the few Tarantino characters capable of jumping between movie universes – Wolf from Pulp Fiction is another – Earl McGraw, portrayed by veteran actor Michael Parks, first appears in From Dusk Till Dawn.
The Texas ranger was shot by the Gecko Brothers but went on to star in two more films, delivering what has to be one of the most memorable lines from Kill Bill: Volume 1 the unforgettable: “Son Number One, this tall drink of cocksucker ain’t dead”.
57. Richie Gecko – From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
One of Tarantino’s most unsavoury characters, it’s no wonder the director wanted to play this part himself. Richie Gecko is the younger – and more psychotic – brother of career criminal Seth Gecko.
Far more unhinged and unpredictable than his brother, Richie is a sex offender with an enormous propensity for violence. When Seth comes home to find Richie watching TV, it soon becomes apparent he’s raped and butchered their hostage. “We do not rape women,” Seth yells. Something tells us it’s not the first time Richie’s had to be reminded.
56. Pai Mei – Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Over 1,000 years old and yet miraculously still with a full head of hair, Pai Mei, portrayed by Gordon Liu, is the revered Kung Fu master who teaches Bill, Elle Driver and Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill Vol. 2.
He’s also responsible for the removal of Elle’s right eyeball and for teaching Beatrix the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique and the Three-Inch Punch. Conceited, domineering and unflinchingly cruel, no wonder Elle decides to poison him.
55. Clifford Worley – True Romance (1993)
While his son Clarence Worley naturally took most of the screen time of True Romance as its protagonist, we ought not to forget the father of the family, Clarence Worley. Worley once worked as a policeman in Detroit before leaving the force and taking work as a security guard instead. His alcoholism and abuse led to his divorce from his wife and the estrangement from his son.
However, it is through True Romance that Dennis Hopper and Christian Slater’s characters are reunited. Unfortunately, Clarence drags Clifford into deep shit when he asks his father to get intel on his new wife’s former pimp through his old police colleagues. Clifford’s end is tragic, but he provides a moment of fatherly redemption in a unique showing from Tarantino.
54. ‘Nice Guy Eddie’ Cabot – Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Played by Chris Penn, Edward ‘Nice Guy Eddie’ Cabot is the secondary antagonist – the other is Victor Vega, Vincent Vega’s brother – in 1992’s Reservoir Dogs. With the help of his father, crime boss Hoe Cabot, Eddie plans a heist on a jewellery store with six other men, each with a colour-coded alias.
When it becomes apparent that one of the team has betrayed the rest, Eddie finds himself in a Mexican standoff with Joe, Mr White and Mr Orange. Interestingly, he is the only one of the main characters who doesn’t wear a black and white suit, though he is shown in one on the cover of some VHS copies of Reservoir Dogs.
53. Jacob Fuller – From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Servant of God and killer of “satanic cocksuckers”, Jacob Fuller – played by Harvey Keitel – is a “faithless preacher” with a natural talent for dissolving bad guys. He is later taken hostage by the Gecko brothers and subsequently turned into a vampire by Sex Machine — worst luck.
After kicking some serious butt in Titty Twisters, he’s killed by his son Scott, having previously asked to be killed if bitten by one of the vampires. Calm, collected and yet somehow incredibly badass, this old man is a dab hand when it comes to dispatching Satan’s spawn.
52. General Sanford ‘Sandy’ Smithers – The Hateful Eight (2015)
Played by a rather wilted Bruce Dern, General Sanford Smithers is one of the many characters we find hauled up in Minni’s Haberdashery in The Hateful Eight. We soon learn that he’s a decorated Civil War ex-confederate officer and the father of Chester Charles Smithers, who Samuel L Jackson’s character knew very well indeed.
We come to hate Smithers for his racism, arrogance and brutality. And yet, despite all his misgivings, we can’t help but feel for him when he learns of his son’s fate. Suddenly, he’s not a war criminal; he’s just a withered old man.
51. Donny Donowitz – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Famed for his strength, Donny ‘The Bear Jew’ Donawitz earned his nickname for his ability to smash the heads of Nazi soldiers using his trusty baseball bat.
Played by a swaggering Eli Roth, who put on 35 pounds of muscle to play the part, the character is one of Aldo’s Raine’s Basterds, an elite unit whose sole purpose is to strike fear into the Nazis, and boy, do they. In his first scene, Donny emerges from a cave swinging his bat and promptly smashes the skull of a Nazi soldier “who wants to die for his country”.
50. Zoë – Death Proof (2007)
Zoë Bell is one one the main characters in 2007’s Death Proof. Portrayed by the woman herself, the New Zealand stuntwoman and actress of the same name, she is one of the film’s highlights. From seeing her perform the crazy ‘Ship’s Mast’ game whereby she rides the hood of the 1970 Dodge Challenger holding belts fastened to the car to being a source of comic relief, it’s arguable that Death Proof wouldn’t be half as thrilling without the real-life vibrancy of Bell.
By far the toughest out of the three friends in whom antagonist Mike McKay meets his maker, watching her, Abbie and Kim beat him to death is one of the most satisfying moments of graphic violence Tarantino has delivered. Zoë’s spinning kick that ends him is delivered with killer precision.
49. Randy Miller – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Randy Miller is both a minor character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and its narrator. Played by a suave-looking Kurt Russell, with his hair slicked back, wearing a green bomber jacket and shades, his stand-out scene is his argument with Rick Dalton in the trailer. Sceptical of hiring Cliff Booth, he tells Dalton: “I don’t dig him, and I don’t dig the vibe he brings to a set”. His wife later comically criticises him for taking a punt on Booth.
Bringing Russell’s natural cool to the set and augmenting the film with the relaxed drawl of his narration, it’s a clever small part. Adding to the intrigue of proceedings is the theory that he might be a nod to one of Russsell’s other Tarantino characters, the murderous stuntman Mike McKay from Deathproof.
48. Drexl Spivey – True Romance (1993)
“Up on that screen is a woman with her breastesses hangin’ out, you ain’t even bothered to look. You just been clockin’ me. Now I know I’m pretty, but I ain’t as pretty as a couple o’ titties”, says the secondary antagonist of True Romance, Drexl Spivey, who is best described as a total weirdo. If you came across him in the street, you’d cross the road.
This villain, portrayed by Gary Oldman, has an appropriately frightening aesthetic to match his unhinged personality. A violent drug dealer, protagonist Clarence shoots him in the groin and face, killing him whilst also unknowingly taking his cocaine, setting the rest of the film’s plot in motion. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of Spivey, as he’s the most memorable character of the lot.
47. Trudi Fraser – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Trudi Fraser is the quintessential difficult child actor. Said to be partially inspired by Jodie Foster, one of the most famous child stars in Hollywood, this ten-year-old is very precocious for her years. Rick Dalton meets her on the set of Lancer, sitting in her chair, reading a book, and resting her feet on a small barrel.
After Dalton asks Trudi if it would bother her if he sat next to her and read his book, after a brief moment’s thought, she commands, “sit”, and a hilariously awkward conversation ensues. One of the film’s most comedic characters, she then becomes an Academy Award-nominated actor, with her skills clearly much better than her Lancer co-stars.
46. Captain Koons – Pulp Fiction (1994)
A significant character in the complex tale that is Pulp Fiction, Captain Koons also happens to be a very minor one. He’s played by Christopher Walken and is famed for his line about hiding the golden watch up his rectum for two years during Vietnam. We find him in a flashback when he delivers the coveted “hunk of metal” to a young Butch after serving alongside his father, the dead Major Coolidge.
He explains the history of the gold watch to the young Butch, thus conveying its importance to him, which becomes a central theme in his arc. Then, when Butch goes home to retrieve the timepiece, he encounters protagonist Vincent Vega and shoots him dead. An excellent demonstration of how to weave a story.
45. Sharon Tate – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is all about star power, invoking a sense of nostalgia for a Hollywood that is permanently lost to the past. From this specific cultural point of view, Margot Robbie rises to the occasion as Sharon Tate – a fictionalised version of the real actress who was brutally murdered by the Manson family.
Tarantino’s alternate version of the historical events transforms the character of Tate into a completely different person who manages to transcend the violence of her myth. Robbie makes the role her own, reclaiming the lost agency of Tate and contributing to the generation of Tarantino’s fantasy where evil does not win.
44. The Wolf – Pulp Fiction (1994)
Each and every character in Pulp Fiction brings something new to the table, adding to the nuanced panorama of LA’s criminal underbelly that Tarantino constructs for us. However, it is truly special to see Harvey Keitel as The Wolf – a character that doesn’t linger for long but leaves a concrete impact on the minds of audiences.
Drawing on the role he played in Point of No Return, Keitel creates a strong presence through the character of The Wolf, a “cleaner” who comes in to clear up the mess made by Jules and Vincent. Confronting the psychological chaos of the narrative, Keitel’s skilled fixer calmly rectifies the incompetence displayed by the central partners.
43. Chris Mannix – The Hateful Eight (2015)
Former lost cause militiaman and Sheriff of Red Rock, we find Chris Mannix in the highly underrated western mystery, The Hateful Eight. Instantly loathable for his unrestrained dedication to the Confederacy and racism, we begrudgingly warm to him as the film progresses, as he and his antithesis Major Marquis Warren form a robust collaborative force to survive against Domergue and her gang of killers.
Played by the hilarious Walton Goggins, the character is authentic due to the actor’s roots in Alabama, one of the central Confederate States. The Abraham Lincoln letter scene is fantastic, as is the ending. Although totally fictional, he’s also a reminder of how recent America’s dark past was and how we should never return to that.
42. Vincenzo Coccotti – True Romance (1993)
Christopher Walken was made to play sinister villains, with this sentiment really coming to the fore here. In True Romance, he plays Vincenzo Coccotti, the main antagonist in the film, and the Consigliere to ‘Blue’ Lou Boyle. We only see him once in its entire duration, during one lengthy interrogation scene, as his men are sent to do his bidding everywhere else.
He is remembered for the deadly kiss on the cheek he gives the tenacious Clifford before ending him and the creepy following line: “I’m the Anti-Christ. You got me in a vendetta kind of mood. You tell the angels in heaven you never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you.” He’s a criminally overlooked villain that deserves more praise. Decked in black, he is the Angel of Death incarnate.
41. Pussycat – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Margaret Qualley’s Pussycat is by far the most likeable of the Manson Family members we meet in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. A composite character drawing on the real-life tales of cult members Ruth Ann Moorehouse and Kathryn Lutesinger, she also takes direct inspiration from the latter’s nickname, ‘Kitty Kat’.
Notoriously, Manson would frequently send Moorehouse into the city to lure men with money back to their base, Spahn Ranch. That’s similar to what Pussycat does in the film, but the strong-headed Booth evades their clutches and manages to poke his head around the Ranch, discovering that the family are taking advantage of its nearly blind owner, George Spahn. A minor character that acts more of a plot device than anything, she is full of hippie vitality, with a dash of sinister thrown in. There’s no wonder Qualley received many plaudits for her performance.
40. Mallory Knox – Natural Born Killers (1994)
Tarantino might not have directed Natural Born Killers, but it’s clear that the deranged serial killers, Mallory and Mickey Knox, were the workings of his mind. Played by Juliette Lewis, Mallory Knox is a ruthless killer, self-described as “born bad”, who embarks on a sadistic murdering spree with her husband.
Mallory is often more intense than Woody Harrelson’s Mickey, using murder and violence as a form of therapy following years of abuse from her father. The villainous characters were inspired by Bonnie and Clyde, although Lewis and Harrelson’s performances were almost too good, inspiring a wave of copycat crimes in real life.
39. Oswaldo Mobray – The Hateful Eight (2015)
Oswaldo Mobray is a stand-out character in a film brimming with excellent ones. Played by four-time Tarantino collaborator Tim Roth, this villain is a duplicitous one. Posing as the English travelling executioner/hangman staying at Minnie’s Haberdashery, Mobray is not who he appears to be. His intellectual guise soon gives way to something much more barbaric.
It transpires that he is actually English Pete Hickox, one of the deadly Domergue gang, who has helped kill those at the Haberdashery before John Ruth arrives and lays the trap. When the Domergue gang commit their slaughter in the flashback, Hickox shoots the girl holding the glass jar of sweets off her stool. A wicked man, we see him bleed out in the armchair before being shot one final time.
38. Gogo Yubari – Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Gogo Yubari is one of the most fearsome antagonists in Kill Bill, as her unhinged lust for violence, young age of 17, and schoolgirl uniform create a strange juxtaposition of a character that really works to drive home the violence. Describing her, Uma Thurman’s Bride says: “The young girl in the schoolgirl uniform is O-Ren’s personal bodyguard, 17-year-old Gogo Yubari. Gogo may be young, but what she lacks in age, she makes up for in madness.”
It is true; Gogo is insane. The final showdown between her and The Bride is one of the most memorable in the duology, with her use of the flail violently accurate. The Bride eventually gets the better of her though, ramming the nail-end of a broken bit of wood into her foot before smashing it into the side of her head. The bleeding eyes never fail to turn the stomach.
37. Wayne Gale – Natural Born Killers (1994)
Over the course of his illustrious career, Robert Downey Jr has put in memorable performances in several iconic projects such as Zodiac and Tropic Thunder. In addition to those popular extras to his filmography, Downey Jr delivered one of the best performances of his career in Oliver Stone’s 1994 gem Natural Born Killers. He was charming and convincing as Wayne Gayle, an ambitious journalist who capitalises on cultural violence.
According to multiple reports, the actor studied popular TV figure Steve Dunleavy before taking on the role. While talking about Downey Jr.’s sources of inspiration, Stone told the New York Post: “That was one of them—Geraldo Rivera was another. There were numerous media types running around calling attention to themselves, putting themselves above the material. Robert Downey loved the idea of Dunleavy’s Australian accent.”
36. Ray Nicolette – Jackie Brown (1997)
Tarantino’s 1997 homage to blaxploitation movies, Jackie Brown, saw Michael Keaton play Ray Nicolette, a gum-chewing ATF agent. The film, also starring Pam Grier, Samuel L Jackson, Robert De Niro and Bridget Fonda, was received positively, although it remains one of Tarantino’s less popular works.
Funnily enough, Keaton reprised his role as the leather-clad Ray Nicolette in Out of Sight by Steven Soderbergh because the character appears in both of the novels the films were adapted from by Elmore Leonard. In Out of Sight, Ray is promoted to the role of an FBI agent.
35. Bridget von Hammersmark – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
One of Tarantino’s biggest strengths as a director is his ability to assemble star-studded casts, and that was certainly the case for Inglourious Basterds. Ranging from Brad Pitt to Christoph Waltz, some of Hollywood’s biggest names came together to contribute to Tarantino’s imaginative war film. Among them, Diane Kruger provided a stand-out shift as Bridget von Hammersmark – a German movie star who also works as a British spy.
Despite the immense success of the film, Kruger maintained a grudge against Tarantino because he didn’t want her initially. She revealed: “He auditioned everyone. He didn’t want to audition me because he saw a movie that I was in that he didn’t like… So he didn’t believe in me from the get-go. Literally, the only reason he auditioned me is because there was no one left to audition.”
34. Mr. Pink – Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Tarantino burst onto the landscape of American cinema in the ‘90s with Reservoir Dogs, an uber-cool crime film that redefined the frameworks of the genre. It was also an important decade for Steve Buscemi, who was fantastic as Mr Pink – a formidable heist man who has a strange aversion to tipping culture.
Buscemi later mused: “I don’t know if anyone else thinks about this, but because my character of Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs was such a cheapskate, and he didn’t like to tip, I thought it was poetic justice that my next film with Quentin [Pulp Fiction], I play a waiter. I even like to think that maybe Mr. Pink got away somehow in Reservoir Dogs and he’s hiding out as the Buddy Holly waiter. And he probably gets tipped terribly. That’s his fate.”
33. Seth Gecko – From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
From Dusk Till Dawn is relatively neglected when it comes to Tarantino’s overall oeuvre, even though it is definitely among the more enjoyable projects he has worked on. Structured as an action horror flick, this 1996 work revolves around two notorious criminals who try to escape to Mexico by holding a family hostage.
George Clooney stars as Seth Gecko, a slick criminal who is broken out of prison by his mentally disturbed brother (played by Tarantino). The character of Seth is so interesting because his reckless criminal actions and violent past is complicated by his personal code of honour, which prevents him from resorting to senseless violence.
32. Lt Archie Hicox – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
It’s hard to single out characters from Inglourious Basterds simply because of the cast’s incredible range. However, one character who often gets overshadowed by the likes of Hans Landa and Aldo Raine is Michael Fassbinder’s Lieutenant Archie Hicox – a competent British commando who comes to the aid of the Basterds.
Tarantino initially wanted to cast Simon Pegg for the role, but it went to Fassbender, who wanted to play Landa. Looking back, the casting seems spot on because Fassbinder brought the necessary charm to the character of Hicox – modelled after the iconic on-screen persona of beloved actor George Sanders.
31. Louis Gara – Jackie Brown (1997)
Often regarded as one of the finest cinematic achievements of Tarantino’s career, Jackie Brown is a highly engaging adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch. Starring alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Pam Grier, Robert De Niro plays the role of Louis Gara – an ex-con who jumps right back into the scene after getting out of prison.
While De Niro is known for his explosive performances, Gara is much quieter in comparison and almost has a comical quality to him. The casting of De Niro is an especially interesting one because Tarantino clearly wanted a not-so-intelligent hired muscle, initially pursuing Sylvester Stallone for the role who inevitably turned him down.
30. O-Ren Ishii – Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
The Kill Bill saga’s contribution to popular culture discourse is simply immeasurable, reshaping the way we view action films. Often classified as arthouse action, Tarantino drew inspiration from Asian action flicks while formulating the unique aesthetic lens which we see at work during the highly stylised fight sequences.
While Uma Thurman definitely delivered a career-defining performance as the Bride, Kill Bill also featured Lucy Liu in one of her best roles. She is brilliant as O-Ren Ishii, a notorious ex-member of the Deadly Vipers who climbs the ranks of the Yakuza and attracts the attention of the Bride.
29. Mr. White – Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The ensemble cast in Reservoir Dogs works as a unit, but the actor who is the most responsible for the creation of the film is undoubtedly Harvey Keitel. Putting in an inspired performance as Mr White, Keitel was key to the movie’s development because Tarantino had a very specific image in mind when he was working on the pre-production of the heist flick.
“The only person who was pre-cast in the movie was Harvey Keitel,” Tarantino revealed at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. “As I told you, we never dreamed we’d be able to get Harvey. Understand, he’s my favourite actor in the world. I don’t mean because I worked with him, and he’s a nice guy, and I’ve seen [myself] what he’s capable of. I was fifteen years old, and I saw him in Taxi Driver and The Duellist… I’ve seen Harvey’s performance as the terrorist in [James Toback’s] Exposed. Oh, he’s wonderful in that. He gives such a wonderful speech about terrorism that he completely convinces you.”
28. Marsellus Wallace – Pulp Fiction (1994)
Ving Rhames portrays crime lord Marsellus Wallace, husband of Uma Thurman’s iconic Mia Wallace, in perhaps Tarantino’s most popular movie, Pulp Fiction. As the boss of Jules Winfield, Vincent Vega and Butch Coolidge, his existence is central to the film’s narrative. Marsellus is a domineering, powerful figure not to be messed with – he even throws a man off a balcony for giving Mia a foot massage.
Marsellus spouted some pretty quotable lines, such as: “You hear me talkin’, hillbilly boy? I ain’t through with you by a damn sight. I’m gonna get medieval on your ass.” If you want to stay alive, it’s best not to double-cross the gangster.
27. Stephen – Django Unchained (2012)
In Django Unchained, Samuel L Jackson plays a loyal house slave, Stephen, who is devoted to his master, the horrific Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He believes himself superior to other slaves, instead doing what he can to protect Calvin and his empire.
Discussing his decision to play such a controversial character, Jackson told Entertainment Weekly, “I had no trepidation. I liked the fact that Stephen calculates, and he’s interesting. And Quentin put a lot of great things in his mouth to say. He’s the dialogue king. So I loved doing it. Inhabiting that space is kinda cool.”
26. Elle Driver – Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Portrayed by Daryl Hannah, Elle Driver, known by her codename California Mountain Snake, was one of Kill Bill’s ruthless assassins who fell in love with the eponymous villain, despite his romantic engagement with The Bride. She joined the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad to be around him, where she became a skilled killer. Elle, known for her missing right eye, covered by a patch, was responsible for shooting The Bride at the wedding rehearsal while killing eight people in attendance.
Wearing a nurse costume, Elle appears at the hospital where The Bride lays comatose, ready to poison her, until Bill aborts the mission. Later, The Bride enacts her revenge by removing her left eye, making her completely blind. Hannah gives an incredible performance, imbuing Elle with complete and utter coldness.
25. Mickey Knox – Natural Born Killers (1994)
Woody Harrelson plays Mickey Knox, the sadistic husband of Juliette Lewis’ Mallory in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, based on a story by Tarantino. Until this point, Harrelson was primarily known for playing comedic roles, but he channelled his inner darkness to portray a modern Clyde Barrow. Mickey embarks on a merciless killing spree with his wife, leaving very few people unscathed.
Talking to The New York Post, Stone stated that he cast Harrelson because “I thought he was sort of psycho. That’s why I liked him. His eyes were kind of blue and blank, and he had a lot of qualities of the American Middle West.”
24. John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth – The Hateful Eight (2015)
Kurt Russell portrays the terrifying bounty hunter John Ruth, also known as The Hangman, in Tarantino’s 2015 western The Hateful Eight. When a blizzard forces him to spend a night with Daisy Domergue, who he has captured, he discovers that she is even scarier than him. Although he chains himself to Daisy, showing no mercy, this proves fatal for the overconfident character.
While filming the scene where Russell smashes a guitar, he accidentally destroyed a 145-year-old antique instrument, unaware that it wasn’t the replica. Thus, the shock on Jennifer Jason Leigh’s face – who played Daisy – was totally genuine.
23. Alabama Whitman – True Romance (1993)
Patricia Arquette’s Alabama Whitman is the driving force of Tony Scott’s True Romance, penned by Tarantino. Happy, dedicated and optimistic, Alabama is a ray of light in the seedy world of the movie, where ruthless criminals lurk around every corner. After beginning her career as a call girl, she quits after falling in love with Clarence, whom she was hired to sleep with.
On the run, Alabama and Clarence are hopelessly in love, with the former telling her new husband, “Those three words kept repeating in my mind like a broken record. You’re so cool. You’re so cool. You’re so cool.”
22. Calvin Candie – Django Unchained (2012)
Leonardo DiCaprio played one of the vilest characters of his career in Django Unchained, Tarantino’s revisionist western. In the film, Jamie Foxx plays the enslaved Django, who sets out to save his wife from Calvin Candie’s plantation. Calvin dubs his plantation – the fourth largest in the state – Candyland, and subjects every non-white person he encounters to heinous acts of racism.
DiCaprio’s character is evil in every sense of the word, and he takes great joy in watching other people suffer. The actor does a brilliant job of playing a character that has absolutely no redeeming qualities, eventually reaping the consequences of his actions by receiving a fatal gunshot to the heart.
21. Mr. Orange – Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Surely Tim Roth’s coolest performance came in Tarantino’s feature-length debut Reservoir Dogs, in 1992. He played Mr Orange, the undercover cop. Most of the other anonymous thieves in the film know that someone is the “rat” within the group, but they sure as hell don’t know it is indeed Mr Orange.
Roth’s best moment in the film comes when he lies in the back of the car, shot to pieces, bleeding out. Growing paler and paler, all he can spit out is, “They fucking shot me”. Then, back at the warehouse, Roth reveals his true identity to Harvey Keitel’s Mr White, who is torn between his anger at being double-crossed and his care for Mr Orange, who he has taken a liking to. Tarantino’s undercover maestro is certainly one of his best creations.
20. Stuntman Mike – Death Proof (2007)
Stuntman Mike was perfectly portrayed by Kurt Russell in Tarantino’s grindhouse movie homage Death Proof from 2007. The film’s antagonist is a sociopathic serial killer who hunts down young women, obsessed with bringing an end to their lives by crashing his stunt car into them. Little background information is known about Mike other than the fact he has much experience in the film industry, as his title suggests.
One might think that the impact of crashing would kill Stuntman Mike, but the trick is that his seat in the car is the only one that is truly “death-proof”. Russell is a great friend of Tarantino, and his typical Hollywood good looks and piercing eyes lend the perfect appearance to one of Tarantino’s most barbaric, terrifying villains.
19. Butch Coolidge – Pulp Fiction (1994)
Bruce Willis has several iconic characters in his filmography, but few are as iconic as Butch Coolidge, the sentimental boxing champ from Pulp Fiction. Coolidge’s story revolves around the gold wristwatch that his father left for him – and that Christopher Walken’s Captain Koons hid up his ass for several years to get it safely to him at the end of the Vietnam War.
It’s that wristwatch that gets Coolidge into deep shit in the infamous scene at Zed’s pawnshop. He just wanted to escape Los Angeles with his naïve French girlfriend Fabienne, but his insistence on collecting his father’s watch from his nightstand – which Fabienne forgot to grab – is what leads to the tension of Butch’s storyline. Well, that and the fact he bravely decided to double-cross Marcellus Wallace, killing his boxing opponent in the process.
18. Bill – Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Bill, also known by his code name Snake Charmer, remains elusive from much of the action of Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2. It’s only at the film’s ending that we really get to sit down with the main antagonist and figure out what he’s all about. Bill is the founder of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad that Uma Thurman’s The Bride belongs to.
The brother of Michael Madsen’s Budd also ordered the murder of The Bride’s fiancé and unborn child, as well as unsuccessfully trying to kill The Bride herself. David Carradine played Bill with an unrivalled sense of effortless cool, and the final showdown at Bill’s place takes place mostly with a battle of the heart and tongue. Perhaps Bill truly understands The Bride’s quest for revenge, and his lack of fightback makes him one of Tarantino’s most interesting characters.
17. Major Marquis Warren – The Hateful Eight (2015)
Another Tarantino film and another amazing performance by Samuel L. Jackson. In 2015’s The Hateful Eight, Jackson played Major Marquis Warren, also known as The Bounty Hunter. Warren was once a slave who was forced to work on a plantation in the Southern United States, but when the Civil War broke out, he joined the Union Army and took his revenge by killing as many Confederate soldiers as possible.
His brutality earned a reputation for Warren, and a Confederate bounty was placed on his head. When the war ended, Warren himself became a bounty hunter and a damn good one at that. In fact, Warren has the highest kill count of all the characters in The Hateful Eight at 91. As always, Jackson bought his unique combination of seriousness and humour to make Major Marquis Warren a truly memorable character.
16. Daisy Domergue – The Hateful Eight (2015)
The Hateful Eight saw Tarantino explore the western genre for a second time, setting the movie in the 1870s, where a group of strangers meet at a stagecoach stopover to escape from a snowstorm. Violence and chaos ensue as the characters interact and motivations are revealed, with Jennifer Jason Leigh’s Daisy Domergue acting as one of the movie’s main antagonists.
She is fearless and clever, refusing to abandon her goal of murdering her targets, such as John Ruth, who previously captured and handcuffed her to him. Leigh told The Guardian: “She’s as tough as they come. She’s seen a lot of violence in her life, and you can tell by the way she takes a punch. She gets her sense of self from that, too.”
15. Shosanna – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Shosanna Dreyfus is, alongside The Bride from Kill Bill, the epitome of Tarantino revenge, this time with a religious motive. Shosanna goes under the alias Emmanuelle Mimieux in Tarantino’s Second World War film Inglourious Basterds. After Shosanna’s Jewish family is killed in the opening scene of the film by Christoph Waltz’s truly evil Hans Landa, Shosanna makes it her personal mission to take revenge on the Nazis.
The owner of the Le Gamaar Cinema hatches an inventive plan after the theatre is selected as the venue for the Nazi Army celebratory film Stolz der Nation. Funnily enough, the American commando unit, The Basterds, also plans to take care of the Nazis at the screening, so they receive double punishment. But it is Shosanna’s revenge that is the sweetest, and she even sacrifices herself in the process to make sure the Nazis get their just desserts.
14. Clarence Worley – True Romance (1993)
One of Tarantino’s most autobiographical characters, Clarence Worley, played by Christian Slater, was pulled from the director’s script Open Road and his incomplete short film My Best Friends Birthday, in which Tarantino played a prototype of the character.
Worley is a die-hard Elvis Presley fan. “I always said, if I had to fuck a guy, I mean if my life depended on it,” he says at one point, “I’d fuck Elvis.” The character’s obsession with the rock ‘n’ roller is so potent that he experiences visitations from his so-called mentor during trips to the bathroom.
13. Vincent Vega – Pulp Fiction (1994)
We’re really getting into iconic territory now, and one of the most memorable characters Tarantino ever penned is definitely Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta in one of his career-defining roles. Vincent is the ultra-laid-back criminal partnered by Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield. Together, they made one of the best on-screen buddy duos of all time.
However, Vincent’s lackadaisical approach to undertaking his underworld duties is what leads him to get into all kinds of trouble. For starters, he leaves a bag of China white heroin lying about for Mia Wallace to mistake as cocaine, leading to a severe overdose, then his waving a gun about in Marvin’s face in the back of Jules’ car has him inadvertently blow it off completely. Vincent’s clumsiness is in profound contrast to Jules’ serious professionalism, but we just can’t help but love him for it. Not to mention those super smooth dancing moves.
12. Dr. King Schultz – Django Unchained (2012)
Christoph Waltz’s Dr King Schultz is dripping with charisma and is certainly the Tarantino character with the most silver of tongues. In Tarantino’s Django Unchained, it is Schultz who is responsible for unchaining our titular hero and helping him to free his wife. Schultz is one of Tarantino’s most likeable characters, and his relationship with Jamie Foxx’s Django is a thing to marvel at.
Schultz’s defining characteristic is certainly his ability to talk himself out of any sticky situation, like when he and Django penned in in a saloon with an entire town’s worth of guns pointing down at them and still managed to get out unscathed. Schultz can also think on his feet, as quick and cunning as a fox. He is certainly one of the good guys and a true hero in every sense of the word.
11. Ordell Robbie – Jackie Brown (1997)
Once again, Samuel L. Jackson showed that he is just the coolest motherfucker around when he took on the role of the bad guy in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. Sporting his iconic Kangol caps – worn backwards, of course – and a braided goatee, Ordell Robbie is a black-market guns and drug dealer in Los Angeles, and only Jackson could have played him with the verve required to bring the character to life.
Robbie is extremely devious, though, even if he wouldn’t have you believe it. It’s Robbie that has flight attendant Jackie Brown smuggle drugs back into the United States from Mexico, getting her wrapped up in more than she had bargained for. The way Robbie deals with former employee Beaumont Livingston whilst listening to The Brothers Johnson shows that he is at once effortlessly cool and brutally fearsome.
10. Lt. Aldo Raine – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Many of Quentin Tarantino’s movies toy with fantasy, exploring countless ‘what if’ scenarios. Such is the case for 2009’s war flick Inglourious Basterds, which follows the story of a group of Jewish US soldiers during WWII who seek to assassinate Hitler. At the helm of this group of soldiers is Lt. Aldo Raine, a stylish, smooth-talking American who deals with Nazis with cold-shouldered flair.
Played excellently by Brad Pitt, the character leads the titular ‘Basterds’ with the same freneticism as Tarantino’s own electric mind, with the actor thriving alongside the likes of Eli Roth, B. J. Novak and Michael Fassbender.
9. Mr. Blonde – Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Some of Tarantino’s greatest characters are his jet-black villains, with Mr Blonde in Reservoir Dogs being a great example of this. Played by Michael Madsen, Blonde is a sinister fellow who takes joy in torturing his enemies, adding a sense of uneasy edge to the director’s otherwise fun and frivolous debut. Walking away from Reservoir Dogs, it is Madsen’s uncomfortable ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ dance number that sticks in your head.
Shining alongside the likes of Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi and Chris Penn, Madsen delivers a nail-biting performance that forever sticks in the head of anyone who has had the pleasure of watching him.
8. Mia Wallace – Pulp Fiction (1994)
Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace may just be Quentin Tarantino’s most iconic character; after all, she appears on Pulp Fiction’s famous poster, elegantly lying on a bed with a smoking cigarette in her hand. Whilst she is not the central character, she does play a major role in Tarantino’s ensemble cast, appearing alongside Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth and John Travolta, among many others.
Wallace is far from a mere prop for the movie poster, however, with the character herself being a magnetic force within Tarantino’s magnum opus, carrying a tremendous amount of influence in the crime drama whilst concealing a complex mystery.
7. Cliff Booth – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Tarantino is one of the few filmmakers who has seemed to get better and better year after year. His most recent movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is arguably his very best, telling the story of the cultural change of late 20th century America within the context of the setting sun of Hollywood’s golden age. Just off the centre of this tale is Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, a stuntman and alluring enigma.
Mysterious and completely fascinating, Booth encapsulates both Tarantino’s aptitude for writing deeply intriguing, complex characters, as well as for unabashed badasses, taking the plot into his own hands for the film’s thrilling climax.
6. Django – Django Unchained (2012)
An ode to the blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, Django Unchained was a western tale of revenge which followed a freed slave who sets out to rescue his wife from a sinister plantation owner. One of Tarantino’s many iconic protagonists, Django is much like his very best characters, being a stylish but morally complex figure, played excellently in the film by Jamie Foxx.
Written as a straight-up revenge flick that plays off the cliches of blaxploitation flicks, it’s impressive how much Foxx does with the role, giving far more depth to the character than any other actor could.
5. Jackie Brown – Jackie Brown (1997)
Quentin Tarantino has long been criticised for how he writes his female characters, and whilst these criticisms are most certainly valid, he’s also created a number of iconic cinematic heroines. The titular Jackie Brown from his 1997 movie is one of his very best, largely thanks to the stellar performance of Pam Grier, with the suave character swaggering through the film outsmarting everyone who stands in her way.
A flight attendant with a history of criminal dealings, Brown is a character who flickers with intricacy, never letting the audience know exactly what is going on behind her eyes. She’s one of Tarantino’s greatest leads.
4. Jules Winnfield – Pulp Fiction (1994)
If this were a list of Tarantino’s most iconic characters, we’d be tempted to stick Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield from 1994’s Pulp Fiction right at the top of our list. The very definition of cool, Winnfield well reflects Tarantino’s own style, spouting slick dialogue whilst crunching burgers and sporting a smart Jheri-curl. It certainly helps that Jackson gives a career-best performance.
Thriving alongside John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Tim Roth, Jackson gives the best performance of the movie, embodying the spirit of Pulp Fiction as well as Tarantino’s free-spirited soul.
3. The Bride – Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Tarantino is known for his blood-splattering action movies and violent characters, but none of his protagonists can compare in this category to Uma Thurman’s Bride. Sporting a number of iconic looks, the Bride is most well-known for her yellow and black tracksuit, inspired by Bruce Lee in the 1978 movie Game of Death, giving the character an over-worldly sense of threat, authority and power.
A dogged action hero, the Bride is relentless in every way, pursuing Bill with every blood, sweat and tear without waiting to catch a breath. Though she might not be the most complex of Tarantino’s characters, the Bride well represents all that the director is, being a frenetic, violent hero born from cinema history, acted by one of cinema’s very best performers.
2. Colonel Hans Landa – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Tarantino might call Hans Landa his all-time favourite character, but we’re going to go against the filmmaker by putting the evil Nazi from 2009’s Inglourious Basterds at number two. Undoubtedly iconic in Tarantino’s filmography, Hans Landa is the director’s greatest villain by quite some stretch that established Christoph Waltz as a major film star, later winning an Oscar for his performance in the movie.
A dark, sinister and deeply complex figure, Landa fuels Inglourious Basterds together with Pitt’s Lt Aldo Raine, perfectly reflecting the insidious hatred of the German Nazi party with an edge of classic Tarantino melodrama.
1. Rick Dalton – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
As a director and screenwriter, Tarantino is a dreamer and a fantasist. Many of his movies reflect this, too, with Inglourious Basterds reimagining WWII if Hitler had been furiously assassinated and The Hateful Eight toying with tropes of the American West, framing his tale as if it were a playful fable. Tarantino’s best character, Rick Dalton, is no different, with his burning aspiration to follow the American Dream blinding him to devastating and hilarious consequences.
Shining alongside Pitt’s Cliff Booth, Leonardo DiCaprio delivers an iconic performance as a fragile film star desperately trying to climb the industry ladder. In Tarantino’s yearning love letter to Tinseltown, Dalton is the conduit, taking the audience through the thriving frivolities of the industry’s past to the somewhat bleak reality of its future. Stylish, charming and deeply flawed, Dalton is Tarantino’s finest character.
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