Quentin Tarantino’s Films: The Real Stories Behind His Inspirations

With just nine feature films under his belt, Quentin Tarantino has carved out a reputation as one of the most distinctive directors in the business. His works are known for their sharp dialogue, stylised violence, and a knack for blending genres. But what really sparked the ideas behind each of his films? Here’s a look at what inspired every Tarantino flick, ranked from least to most iconic.

Reviving Old-School Grit: Death Proof and The Hateful Eight

Death Proof, often considered Tarantino’s weakest effort, was a deliberate throwback to the grindhouse cinema of the 1970s. The story follows Stuntman Mike, a menacing character who uses his ‘death proof’ car to terrorise women. Tarantino went all out to recreate the rough, patched-together feel of old grindhouse films, complete with jumpy edits and battered visuals. He’s said to have drawn inspiration from Dario Argento’s The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and classic car chase scenes from the era.

The Hateful Eight, meanwhile, is set in a snowed-in Wyoming cabin where a group of strangers, each with their own secrets, are forced together. Tarantino has pointed to a range of influences, from Rio Bravo and Bonanza to his own Reservoir Dogs. The film’s tense, claustrophobic atmosphere owes a lot to these earlier works, as well as the idea of a group of people who simply can’t trust each other.

Literary Roots and Homages: Jackie Brown and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Jackie Brown stands out as the only Tarantino film adapted from another source—Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch. The film leans into the slower, character-driven style of Leonard’s writing and pays tribute to Pam Grier’s earlier roles in Blaxploitation cinema. Rather than relying on over-the-top violence, it focuses on mature themes and a more measured pace.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino’s ode to the end of the 1960s in Los Angeles. The film draws heavily from the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Corbucci and the TV shows and films of the era, such as Alias Smith and Jones and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The backdrop of the Manson murders is used to reimagine a pivotal moment in American pop culture, blending fact and fiction in Tarantino’s signature style.

Global Influences: Kill Bill and Django Unchained

Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 are a love letter to Japanese cinema, with nods to everything from Lady Snowblood and Tokyo Drifter to the Street Fighter series and Shogun Assassin. Tarantino borrowed Akira Kurosawa’s dramatic blood effects and the vibrant style of 1960s Japanese films. The Bride’s showdown with O’Ren Ishii is a direct homage to Lady Snowblood, while the overall narrative pulls from a wide range of Asian and Western sources.

Django Unchained, Tarantino’s first Western, takes cues from Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns and the original 1966 Django film by Sergio Corbucci. The story also draws from the 1975 film Mandingo, which tackled the brutal realities of slavery in the American South. The result is a film that mixes classic Western tropes with a hard look at a dark chapter in history.

Heist, War, and the Anthology: Reservoir Dogs, Inglourious Basterds, and Pulp Fiction

Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino’s debut, is a heist film that never actually shows the heist. He’s admitted to being influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, saying,

I didn’t go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my Killing, my take on that kind of heist.

The film also borrows from Ringo Lam’s City on Fire, with its undercover cop storyline and tense, character-driven drama.

Inglourious Basterds was born out of a rough patch for Tarantino, following the flop of Death Proof. He channelled his energy into a World War II epic inspired by films like Hangmen Also Die!, O.S.S., and The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly. The film’s opening scene and structure reflect these influences, as well as a host of lesser-known war films from the mid-20th century.

Pulp Fiction, widely regarded as Tarantino’s masterpiece, broke new ground with its non-linear narrative and sharp, witty dialogue. The film was inspired by the gritty short stories of Black Mask magazine and the cool, experimental style of Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave. Tarantino also drew from films like Kiss Me Deadly and Hammett, as well as Spaghetti Westerns and B-movies, to create a film that redefined what a crime anthology could be.