Quentin Tarantino is one of the greatest filmmakers of this generation (or any other). He's produced such hit films as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, and Django Unchained, just to name a few. Having directed only ten films in his career, anytime a Tarantino movie comes out, it feels like an event. His films are known worldwide for their over-the-top violence, extensive dialogue, and star-studded ensemble casts. A Tarantino film has a particular feel, an undeniable vibe, a style that the director pulls off time and time again.

Updated: July 11, 2023: This article has been updated by Micah Bailey to feature even more titles that we wish the legendary filmmaker Quentin Tarantino directed.

Tarantino has recently expressed his desire to have been able to direct the 2000 hit Japanese film Battle Royale, and that got us wondering: Imagine if Tarantino had applied his special cinematic eye to other popular movies throughout history. The laws of time and space do not apply to the following list in any way, shape, or form. Let's travel to a world where Tarantino was alive and directing with an established style in each one of the years that these films debuted, some of which he was already active during. Without further ado, let's talk about some of the films we wish Quentin Tarantino had helmed.

14 The Thing (1982)

The Thing
Universal Pictures 

Along with the gangster genre, one set of films moviegoers would love to see Tarantino tackle is the horror genre, more specifically, the body-horror genre. One of the best body-horror films of all time and one of the most frightening horror films from the '80s is John Carpenter's The Thing. In fact, The Hateful Eight, in many ways, is Tarantino's spin on The Thing as it features Kurt Russell trapped in a snowy environment in a place where nobody can trust each other and features a score by Ennio Morricone.

13 No Country for Old Men (2007)

No Country For Old Men
Miramax Films

No Country for Old Men is a classic film in its own right and one of the best pictures directed by the famed Coen Brothers. But that doesn't stop one from wondering what it would have been like had it been directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film moves at a slow and deliberate pace under the direction of the Coen Brothers and is by all accounts a modern-day Western.

Tarantino's love for Westerns, his experience having directed one or two himself, along with his penchant for deep and intricate dialogue would have taken No Country for Old Men to even greater heights. A character like Anton Chigurh in the hands of Tarantino would be a match made in heaven.

12 Elvis (2022)

Austin-butler-Elvis
Warner Bros. 

Baz Luhrmann's Elvis may be a fantastic biopic, but it's worth considering how Tarantino would have chosen to depict Elvis's life. Darker, more violent, and drug-fueled to an almost nightmarish degree? Almost certainly. A larger-than-life figure like Elvis, with his tumultuous stardom and tragic death, is a perfect subject for Tarantino to tackle. In his hands, the film would likely be far less accurate than Luhrmann's version, but Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has shown that Tarantino can do historical revisionism right.

Related: 8 Performances in Quentin Tarantino Movies That Deserved Oscar Nominations

Also, a fun fact, Tarantino and Elvis have a brief connection. One of Tarantino's first gigs was a background extra in an episode of The Golden Girls, where he played an Elvis impersonator. It certainly would have brought everything full circle to see him direct Elvis.

11 Crimson Tide (1995)

Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman as Ron and Frank in Crimson Tide
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

The late Tony Scott’s 1995 political thriller Crimson Tide stars Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Viggo Mortensen, and the late James Gandolfini in a story set during political turmoil between Russia, America, and Japan and threats of each nation launching nuclear warheads at one another. The film received mostly positive reviews and grossed 150 million dollars with a budget of $53 million. Although Michael Schiffer is the movie’s credited screenwriter, Tarantino provided uncredited rewrites to the film, and many of his signature tropes, like references to pop culture and punchy back-and-forth dialogue, are present.

Another of Tarantino’s signatures is his choice of language regarding African-Americans, as heard in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. While the instance in Tide is masked behind a metaphor involving horses, star Washington took exception to it and even confronted the filmmaker about it on set. Nevertheless, it would have been interesting to see how Tarantino would have directed the talent involved, and it isn’t a stretch to assume he might have even hired some of the collaborators from his first two films.

10 Natural Born Killers (1994)

Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as Mickey and Mallory in Natural Born Killers
Warner Bros.

Directed by Oliver Stone, 1994’s Natural Born Killers follows Mickey and Mallory Knox as they go on a killing spree across America. Despite the film receiving mostly negative reviews (many of which were attributed to the film’s depictions of violence), Natural Born Killers has since gone on to become a cult classic and has retroactively been praised for its acting performances, messages, and graphic scenes. Heavy rewrites of Tarantino’s original script left him receiving a story by credit when all was said and done, but with him in the director’s chair, we’re willing to bet the film would have performed much better.

Among Tarantino’s strengths as a writer, he is really good at convincing his audience that his characters are real. Hate them or love them, they usually can be empathized with. Films and movies like Natural Born Killers can easily be filed away in the hypergraphic category, and that’s it, but when it comes to the writer-director, he goes to great lengths to ensure all of his violence has meaning behind it.

9 True Romance (1993)

Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette as Clarence and Alabama in True Romance
Warner Bros. 

True Romance was the first instance of Tarantino writing a script and Tony Scott directing it as Tarantino used the funds earned from selling True Roomance’s script to shoot Reseroiv Dogs. Despite initially disagreeing with Scott’s ending, the writer-director eventually came to appreciate it as Scott’s ending was better suited for his vision. Even though the film was a success and helped launch the careers of most of its cast, we can’t help but wonder how Romance would have turned out had Tarantino directed it. Would the film improve from a non-linear storytelling, would there have been more violence, and would Tarantino’s original ending of the protagonists dying been better suited?

8 Luke Cage (2017)

Mike Colter as Luke Cage in Luke Cage
Netflix

Although the story behind Tarantino wanting to direct a Luke Cage live-action film adaptation is a little more popular now, there are still plenty of people unaware of the Marvel Comics character ever being on the filmmaker’s radar. As a part of the story goes, Tarantino wanted to cast the criminally underrated Laurence Fishburne, whereas everyone else wanted action star Wesley Snipes for the role considering his martial arts background and bigger box office appeal.

Frustrated with settling on who to cast, the idea eventually faded, and the director went on to direct Jackie Brown; meanwhile, Snipes would eventually star as Blade in the iconic 1998 movie Blade. Although we take the MCU for granted nowadays, Tarantino’s Luke Cage would have been released in the late 90s - well before the MCU’s inception, and his style, themes, and dialogue would have meshed perfectly with Cage’s aesthetic and storylines. The idea of Tarantino doing a superhero movie is enough to get anyone excited.

7 Harakiri (1962)

Scene from Harakiri
Shochiku

Widely considered to be one of the best Samurai movies of all time, Harakiri tells the story of Hanshiro Tsugumo, whose desire it is to commit seppuku, a form of ritualistic suicide in Japanese culture. This request and visit to a Japanese clan sets him on a path of discovery, all while challenging the clan itself. Along with Westerns, another genre that has a heavy influence on Taratino's style is the Samurai genre, clearly seen in films like Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2. We truly wish we could see the scope and fight scenes of Harakiri through Tarantino's eyes.

6 Evil Dead (2013)

Evil Dead remake 2013
TriStar Pictures

2013 saw the release of the re-imagining of the cult horror classic Evil Dead. While we wouldn't want Tarantino to touch Sam Raimi's original, we do wish he had stepped in to helm this remake/reboot. For all his love of genre films, Tarantino has never directed a horror movie. It's a pretty sizable gap in his resume and one we hope he fills before retiring.

If he had taken on 2013's Evil Dead, we would have gotten something far more violent, funnier, and memorable than what we did get. The campy fun of the Evil Dead franchise makes it a perfect fit for someone like Tarantino. Just imagine the fireworks if he and Bruce Campbell worked together.

5 12 Angry Men (1957)

A scene from 12 Angry Men (1957)
United Artists

12 Angry Men might not seem like a movie that would fit the Quentin Tarantino model of filmmaking. The classic drama primarily takes place in just one jury room as twelve men attempt to decide the fate of a young man on trial. There is no action or violence, and the plot itself is a slow burn, all things that we do not see in Quentin Tarantino's films.

Related: Best Sidney Lumet Movies, Ranked

What makes 12 Angry Men the perfect film for Tarantino to flex his cinematic muscle is the dialogue. Think back to the tipping conversation that opens up Reservoir Dogs, the interrogation of a French farmer by Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds, or the final conversation between The Bride and Bill in Kill Bill Vol. 2. Quentin Tarantino knows how to write dialogue and move a story through it. A film like 12 Angry Men, which speaks on themes of democracy and American civic duty, is one of the most intriguing films we wish Tarantino had directed.

4 Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek 2009 cast
Paramount Pictures

This one feels a bit like cheating, as Tarantino has long wanted to direct a Star Trek film of his own. It's long been speculated that he was working on an R-rated entry in the franchise for Paramount, as Variety reports. Though it never came to light, we can imagine how things would have gone if Tarantino had directed the 2009 reboot film Star Trek. Goodbye Chris Pine, hello Samuel L. Jackson? If it sounds crazy, that's because a Tarantino Trek movie would be crazy. It would be a refreshing change of pace for the franchise, to say the least.

3 The Departed (2006)

Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon
Warner Bros. 

Of all the entries on this list, The Departed feels most like it could be a Quentin Tarantino movie. The film features several high-profile actors, all participating in separate yet interconnected story arcs; the dialogue is fantastic, and it features extreme violence at times. What could Tarantino bring that Martin Scorsese did not?

Scorsese is the master of the gangster genre, a category of films that many wish Tarantino would dip his toes into. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction have hints of a gangster film, but all subsequent Tarantino films fall into different genres. Film fanatics want a Quentin Tarantino gangster film; we just wish he could have helmed one of the best gangster movies ever made.

2 Casino Royale (2006)

casino-royale-james-bond-vesper-lynd
MGM

Yes, Casino Royale is one of the best Bond films ever made. That doesn't make it any less fun to imagine what Tarantino's version of the first Daniel Craig Bond movie would have looked like. Maybe it's time for an R-rated, ultraviolent, profanity-laced spin on the spy thriller. Though Tarantino will probably never helm a Bond film in the future, Cheat Sheet reports that he originally wanted to direct Casino Royale before the rights were bought by someone else. We were this close to seeing Tarantino's Bond - now all we can do is dream.

1 Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Once Upon
Paramount Pictures

Once Upon a Time in the West is widely considered to be one of, if not the greatest westerns ever made, and a film that is still revisited 50+ years after its release (per Film Inquiry). It also had a profound impact on Quentin Tarantino's own Western films. You can see it in his work on Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, and even a more modern tale that almost shares a name with the Western, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. An aspect of the spaghetti western that made it so intriguing when it was released was the casting of Henry Fonda as the villain of the tale. Fonda had a reputation for playing the good guy, and his role in Once Upon a Time in the West allowed him to showcase a different set of skills. This is something Tarantino does with actors in his own films.

Casting a beloved actor like Leonardo DiCaprio and turning him into the vile Calvin Candy, transforming Jennifer Jason Leigh into the foul-mouthed Daisy Domergue, or taking '80s action star Kurt Russell and casting him as a psychopathic stuntman in Death Proof -these things would be possible under Tarantino's direction. He has skill at taking actors and casting, writing, and successfully directing them against type. While there is more to Once Upon a Time in the West than Fonda's role, the compelling villain is what helps make this Western stand the test of time, and it's a story we wished we could have seen taken on by Tarantino.