Quentin Tarantino is a master director and writer who knows how to create unique scenes and dialogue. The other thing he does best is extract great performances from his actors. Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, and Margot Robbie have all made incredible characters shine bright in his movies. These are the best performances in every Quentin Tarantino movie, ranked.

10 Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike - Death Proof

Death Proof with Kurt Russell
Dimension Films

A scarred stuntman stalks groups of women and kills them with the help of his “death proof” car. Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike in Death Proof, and the brilliance of his performance is how it changes during the film. It starts as the menacing bad guy in the slasher movie, and ends up as a pathetic little man who has been bested by a group of young, brave, and resourceful women. It’s not easy to show the evolution from the starting bravado to the scared guy, and Russell sells the transformation. Not many recognized actors would love to play this kind of character, and Russell does it in excellent fashion, making one of Tarantino's least successful films an entertaining one.

9 Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen - Django Unchained

Django Unchained - Samuel L Jackson
Sony Pictures Entertainment

Django (Jamie Foxx) learns how to be a bounty hunter when Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees him from slavery. Django wants to find his wife and will go anywhere to get her back, even to the house of slave-owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). In Django Unchained, the best performance is by one of Tarantino’s favorites: Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen. He’s the worst character in the film (and that’s saying something) as he aligns with his master and against the other slaves, because he knows it’s most beneficial for him. He’s a madman with Stockholm syndrome? Not really, Stephen knows what he’s doing is bad, but he’s only looking out for himself, and Jackson sells the hell out of it, giving the most intense performance, even if DiCaprio literally spilled blood for his character in the film.

8 David Carradine as Bill - Kill Bill: vol 2

Kill Bill 2
Miramax 

The Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her revenge tour, scratching off the names of all that have wronged her, especially Bill (David Carradine). Let’s start by saying that if they were just one film, Thurman would be our selection, but since we have two movies, we’ll say David Carradine has the best performance in Kill Bill: Vol. 2. Bill is a terrible person that has created the revenge machine that is The Bride in the two movies. But in the last part of the film, Carradine instills in Bill dignity, even knowing his life is finished, and he’s going to die, he decides to spend his last hours with the love of his life and their daughter, giving their final encounter a lot more meaning and grace, as if it has been an incredible battle; and that is only possible because of the chemistry of Carradine and Thurman.

Related: Why Kill Bill Vol. 3 Needs to be Quentin Tarantino’s Final Film

7 Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue - The Hateful Eight

Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Hateful Eight
The Weinstein Company

During a blizzard in the West in the 19th century, eight hateful, suspicious characters wait in a lodge until the weather gets better, and they can continue their way. One of them is the murderer sentenced to death, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Leigh is a hurricane as Domergue, as our eyes can’t escape her magnetism and evilness. She’s a woman in a world of men and gets beaten up more times than necessary, but she never seems frightened, as she’s already planning and scheming her way out of an unfortunate situation. Leigh plays all those notes brilliantly in a movie with many great performances. She also, literally, plays the notes on the guitar as a bonus. Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly about casting Leigh: “In the ‘90s, she (Jennifer Jason Leigh) was like a female Sean Penn. You didn’t just cast her in girlfriend roles; you cast her in movies where the whole movie was about her performance. So it got me very, very excited about seeing a performance-dominated Jennifer Jason-Leigh movie.”

6 Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde - Reservoir Dogs

Mr-Blonde.Reservoir-Dogs
Miramax Films

A jewelry heist goes wrong, and every criminal in the gang is suspicious of the rest. Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s first movie and already had his voice and ideas. The film is full of great performances: from Steve Buscemi to Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth, but the best performance is the one given by Michael Madsen. As Mr. Blonde, Madsen shows many levels of menace and madness. From the start, it looks like something is not right with this character, until he decides to torture a cop, for fun. The most frightening thing is that he’s doing so while joking and having fun; as if this moment is just a normal Tuesday for him, showing his evil has no end, and his dancing is a lot better than his moral code.

5 Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa - Inglorius BasterdsChristoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

It's Nazi-occupied France during World War II, and a group of soldiers plans to kill Hitler. They’re not the only ones. Inglorious Basterds has great performances all around, especially by Mélanie Laurent as Shosanna, but the best is Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa. Who would’ve thought that in a Nazi movie where Hitler appears, he wouldn’t be the scariest character? Waltz’s Landa is pure evil. He loves to torture his Jewish prey. Waltz (who before this movie was an unknown in Hollywood) shows how the character relishes every one of these moments; having the time of his life scaring and ending the lives of his victims. The actor, obviously, won his first Academy Award for this incredible performance.

4 Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton - Once Upon a Time... in HollywoodLeonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), an actor whose fame is disappearing more every day, and his stunt double (Brad Pitt) try to get new jobs at the end of the '60s, while Sharon Tate’s (Margot Robbie) career is just starting. Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood gives us one of DiCaprio’s best performances ever. Rick Dalton is insecure and drunk most of the time, and knows his best times as an actor are almost over. You can see all those feelings in every interaction DiCaprio has, as the character is losing all his power and influence, even if he’s still a great actor on his better days, like in the scene with the young actress Trudi (Julia Butters).

3 Uma Thurman as The Bride - Kill Bill: vol 1

Uma Thurman in Kill Bill: Volume 1
Miramax Films

After waking up from a four-year coma, an ex-assassin, known to us as The Bride (Uma Thurman), will get her revenge on the people who tried to kill her. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is Uma Thurman’s movie as her performance as The Bride is the whole film. The Bride is one of Tarantino’s best characters ever. Even if everything is violent and stomach-churning, we are with her and her physical and emotional journey. Thurman shows every emotion in the book during the movie: heartbreak, fun, love, hate, disgust, grief, admiration, and every one of those feelings tracks with her character and where she’s on her journey to end the assassins that almost killed her.

Related: Quentin Tarantino Movies Ranked Best to Worst

2 Pam Grier as Jackie Brown - Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown
Miramax Films

Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is a flight attendant caught by the ATF for smuggling. Both ATF and her drug dealer boss pressure her into deals where she probably will end up dead. So, Jackie creates her own plan. As he did with John Travolta, Tarantino rescued Pam Grier from actor hell and gave her the lead role in Jackie Brown, and she took that opportunity and made gold with it. Grier is excellent; she’s tough, she’s scared, she’s flirty, she’s smarter than she looks, and she’s resourceful, showing her charisma in every moment. Especially in all her scenes with a career-changing performance by Robert Forster. Together, they make each other better, while their characters discover a middle-aged romance neither was looking for. Maybe it’s because the script is based on an Elmore Leonard book (Rum Punch), but Jackie Brown has more romance, intimacy, and low-key love than any other of Tarantino’s movies, and both actors nail that part of the story. Grier told The Guardian of the first time she walked into Tarantino’s office: “Quentin had my posters up on the walls,” she says. “I was honored to see them because what I had been part of was a female cinematic revolution.”

1 Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield - Pulp Fiction

Samuel L. Jackson in a suit pointing a gun in Pulp Fiction
Miramax Films

Many criminal lives are intertwined in four tales of violence and redemption in '90s Los Angeles. Pulp Fiction is still Tarantino’s best. It’s the best action movie of the '90s and one where every character is spectacularly written, thought out, and specific. Those magnetic characters bring out the best performances from the actors playing them. That’s why we could do a whole list only with performances from this movie; be it Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Ving Rhames, or, especially, Harvey Keitel as The Wolf. There’s one performance that beats them all; one blending actor and character, making one of the most iconic combos in cinema history: Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield. The Ezekiel monologue made both Jackson and Tarantino’s careers. The whole performance is great, but in that simple scene, Jackson shows all the sides of his character, as he’s playful with his friend Vincent, menacing with the guys they’re going to kill, and scared when they survive, and has his crisis of faith. Samuel L. Jackson's performance as Jules Winnfield will be remembered forever, and that’s why it's the best performance in a Quentin Tarantino movie.