Whether you like his work or not, there’s no denying that when you watch a Quentin Tarantino movie, you know you’re watching a Quentin Tarantino movie. One of the ways that Tarantino has managed to create so many movies that ooze his signature filmmaking style, yet somehow also feel unique, is opening each movie with the perfect shot to begin that story.
If he immerses us into that movie’s world immediately with a brilliant opening shot, then we’re hooked for the rest of the movie, whether its runtime is 99 minutes (Reservoir Dogs) or 187 minutes (the roadshow cut of The Hateful Eight). So, here are All Of Quentin Tarantino’s Opening Shots, Ranked.
Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino only added the opening diner scene to Reservoir Dogs when he realized Mr. Blue didn’t have any lines in the original script. Tarantino’s debut feature film begins on a black screen with a couple of opening titles. Instead of a musical soundtrack, we hear Tarantino himself – as Mr. Brown – explaining the hidden meaning of Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.”
The opening shot doesn’t show Mr. Brown doing his monologue; instead, it shows Mr. Blonde and Mr. Blue reacting to it. It’s not particularly exciting, but Michael Madsen lighting a cigarette in a black suit looks incredibly cool, setting up the tone of the film.
Death Proof
Quentin Tarantino has admitted that he believes Death Proof to be his worst film (and he wants to keep it that way), and most people seem to agree.
Its opening shot might flagrantly show off Tarantino’s obsession with women’s feet in one of the most egregious examples in his entire filmography, but it’s also a perfectly centered shot, there’s a lot going on in the frame, and it subtly foreshadows the horrific later moment in which Julia’s leg is ripped from her body in a head-on collision with Stuntman Mike. And the artificially-added film grain is a nice touch, harkening back to the cheaply-produced old B-movies that inspired the movie.
Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction begins with a title-card defining “pulp,” to explain the meaning of the title to the audience. It mentions “lurid subject matter.” Then, the film opens with a man and a woman sitting across from each other in a typical diner. There’s half-eaten breakfast food on the table and the man is puffing on a cigarette.
The shot doesn’t cut for another 36 seconds (which doesn’t sound like a lot, but the average shot length is 2.5 seconds) as Tim Roth’s monologue about robbing diners keeps us captivated. It starts off as a casual hypothetical discussion over breakfast, but by the end of the scene, they decide to test their theory and actually rob the diner.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, opens with a promotional montage of clips from Rick Dalton’s TV western series, Bounty Law. Shot on black-and-white film in a 4:3 aspect ratio on a studio backlot, the scenes from Bounty Law perfectly recreate the cowboy shows from that area. After this, there’s an interview with Rick and his stunt double Cliff Booth, in which Cliff jokes about carrying Rick’s load.
This is a story about the mystique of the movie star and how quickly the artifice of stardom can fade away. The opening shot of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood gives us a fleeting glimpse of young Rick Dalton as a huge star, before two-and-a-half hours of an older Rick Dalton as an insecure has-been.
The Hateful Eight
The main criticism levied at The Hateful Eight is that it’s overlong. And at three hours, those critics have a point. But The Hateful Eight is a slow movie by design. It has the perfect pace to build suspense towards its explosive payoffs; it just so happens that the perfect pace is a slow one. It’s a movie to watch if you have three hours to spare. Just let it enrapture you with its tense, cinematic atmosphere.
It opens on a breathtaking wide shot (very wide – the movie was shot on antique Ultra Panavision 70 lenses, allowing for a super-wide 2.76:1 aspect ratio) of the snowy Colorado wilderness, establishing that this movie is set in the middle of nowhere. Set to Ennio Morricone’s spooky Oscar-winning score, this opening instantly engages the viewer, despite the fact that nothing is really happening – it’s all about how it feels.
Kill Bill: Volume 2
Quentin Tarantino considers Kill Bill to be one film, and it should be viewed that way as a complete piece, but since it was released in two separate parts, it has two opening shots. Volume 2 begins by repeating Volume 1’s opening shot to recap audiences, but then it begins with its own prologue.
It’s a black-and-white shot of the Bride driving, on her way to literally kill Bill (right before the third act of the film, chronologically), talking directly to the camera. It’s shot and lit in a really romantic, noir-ish way, while the actual content of the monologue gets us excited for the showdown in this final chapter of the Kill Bill saga.
Django Unchained
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s ambitious spaghetti western tackling the horrors of American slavery through grisly revenge fantasies, begins with a simple static shot of a rocky desert landscape. The first few opening titles appear over this shot, before the camera pans down to a chain gang being marched across the desert by a couple of white slavers.
The camera settles behind Jamie Foxx’s Django, the hero of the story, showing the whipping scars on his back. (On the sides of the frame, we can see that all the slaves have this scarring on their back.) First, the name “DJANGO” appears, telling us who this is, and then the word “UNCHAINED” appears under it. Opening a movie called Django Unchained on a shot of Django in chains was a genius move.
Inglourious Basterds
Since Quentin Tarantino compares his screenwriting process to the process of writing a novel, he often separates his movies into chapters. Inglourious Basterds introduces its first chapter as “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France” over a black screen, and then fades in on a wide shot of business as usual on a French dairy farm.
The farmer is chopping wood, while his wife hangs laundry on a clothesline. But we know that this is France under a ruthless Nazi regime, so something sinister could be right around the corner. And as some S.S. officers drive towards the farm, those fears come to fruition.
Jackie Brown
Easily Quentin Tarantino’s most underrated film, Jackie Brown fades in on the mosaiced wall of an airport terminal. After the first couple of opening credits appear, Pam Grier glides into frame on a travelator and the camera starts tracking her. She’s dressed in an air stewardess’ uniform, and the nonchalant look on Grier’s face tells us that surfing through an airport terminal is nothing new to her.
It’s an obvious homage to The Graduate, but the contemplative tones of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” are replaced by the more upbeat sound of Bobby Womack’s soul hit “Across 110th Street.”
Kill Bill: Volume 1
When Quentin Tarantino came to Uma Thurman with the idea for Kill Bill, all he had was the opening shot: an overhead shot of a woman lying, beaten and bloodied, looking up at her attackers, silently vowing revenge. Thurman then had the idea to pull out and reveal that the woman is wearing a bridal gown. Hence, the Bride was born.
In its execution, this opening black-and-white shot is spectacular. A man named Bill speaks calmly to her off-screen, then shoots her in the head, leading to the opening titles of a movie called Kill Bill, leaving the audience with a million questions as Nancy Sinatra solemnly sings “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” on the soundtrack.
