Quentin Tarantino's 20 Coolest Movie Characters Of All Time

The release of writer-director Quentin Tarantino's seventh feature film, "Django Unchained," comes during the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking filmmaker's 1992 debut, "Reservoir Dogs." And what a pair of decades it's been for QT: as he's hopscotched from gangster flicks to samurai epics to World War II dramedies to, now, a South-set spaghetti western, Tarantino has brought some of the most arresting film characters of all time to life.

Looking back on "Django" and the rest of Tarantino's filmography presents a difficult question: which characters are among the director's coolest creations? Click above to check out our countdown of Quentin Tarantino's 20 coolest movie characters over his 20 years of filmmaking, and tell us what we got right and what we got very, very wrong.

20. Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), "Death Proof"

The list begins with one of Tarantino's scariest creations: a charming serial killer who prefers killing unsuspecting females with his stunt car following some delightful conversations. After years of family-friendly material, Russell triumphantly returned to the muscular badassery of his "Road House" days.

19. Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), "Pulp Fiction"

Obsessed with potbellies and known to leave behind priceless watches, Fabienne is only given a few "Fiction" scenes but quickly establishes an exotic flair as Butch's better half, and becomes the wide-eyed soul of the film's middle third. Without de Medeiros, Bruce Willis' samurai sword-wielding louse doesn't really have a moral compass.

18. "Nice Guy" Eddie (Chris Penn), "Reservoir Dogs"

The late Chris Penn delivered his most memorable performance as the steely thug who foils Mr. Orange's undercover plot in Tarantino's debut. Although "Nice Guy" Eddie doesn't snag as much screen time as the suited thieves, his presence is the lynchpin of the blood-soaked finale.

17. Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah), "Kill Bill"

Years of forgotten Daryl Hannah moments (yes, there were two "Grumpy Old Men" movies in there somewhere) were atoned for with her tour de force performance as Bill's other lethal gal, who happens to despise "Kill Bill's" heroine. Without her slimy presence in "Volume 2," the second half of the Bride's journey becomes a lot less interesting.

16. Sgt. Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz (Eli Roth), "Inglourious Basterds"

The Bear Jew really, really hates Nazis in "Inglourious Basterds," and Tarantino bestowed his pal Eli Roth (the director of "Hostel," if you were wondering) with one of his war epic's most stomach-churning scenes. If you thought the Hebrews in "Munich" kicked ass, you've never seen Donny Donowitz take on the Third Reich.

14. Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), "Jackie Brown"

Coming off the dizzying high of his star turn in "Pulp Fiction," Samuel L. Jackson got to showcase another quick-witted creep in Tarantino's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch." Devastatingly strange hair aside, Ordell the arms dealer remains one of Jackson's more underrated performances: he straddles the line between total self-interest and an emotional investment in the titular character, always keeping the audience guessing as to whether or not to warm up to his antagonist.

13. O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), "Kill Bill"

There's the anime prologue, and then the decapitation, and of course, the "House of Blue Leaves" battle centerpiece. O-Ren Ishii had some kick-ass compatriots by her side in "Kill Bill Vol. 1," but how many other female mafia bosses have had RZA songs written about them? After the child's play of the "Charlie's Angels" movies, Liu here was allowed to kick some adult ass with Tarantino.

12. Django (Jamie Foxx), "Django Unchained"

Don't be fooled by the flashier characters surrounding him: the titular character of Tarantino's latest film is just as intensely likable and downright crafty as his friends and enemies, but operates with a slower tongue and quicker trigger finger. Years after "Ray" made him an A-list star, Jamie Foxx displays a fearlessness of physical expression, flashing a sharp, searing anger with just the wiggle of a finger and a "I like the way you die, boy."

11. Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), "Pulp Fiction"

There's a reason why Thurman's gorgeous black bangs and disinterested gaze were front and center on the "Pulp Fiction" poster: as the dreadfully unhappy and serenely drug-addled Mia Wallace, Thurman reinvented the "mobster moll" archetype. And her "ketchup" joke was actually funny!

10. Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), "Inglourious Basterds"

With a ridiculous accent, broken vernacular and hit-or-miss superstar asked to embody him, the character of Aldo Raine could have easily stuck out like a sore thumb in Tarantino's World War II re-imagining. But Brad Pitt ran with the assignment at hand and turned the hard-headed Basterds leader into a comic masterstroke. In between strong dramatic turns in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Moneyball," Pitt demonstrated his versatility in arguably his strangest role to date (okay, "Interview with the Vampire" probably wins, but still).

9. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), "Django Unchained"

Tarantino has created a lot of bastards (and, er, Basterds) in his past scripts, but there's a special place in movie hell reserved for Calvin Candie, the guilelessly sinister plantation owner who serves as Django's biggest hurdle in "Django Unchained." In a startling change of pace, DiCaprio recognizes just how much a little Southern charm can mask an absolute and almost childish ruthlessness within his character's uber-racist bones. The owner of "Candieland" and the biggest Francophile in the pre-Civil War South presents the most interesting wrinkle in Tarantino's latest adventure.

8. Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), "Pulp Fiction"

The hulking embodiment of fear in "Pulp Fiction," Marsellus Wallace was the antithesis of the jittery robbers in the film's diner scene -- brutal and calculating, the character controlled the seedy world of Tarantino's plot until a "hillbilly" named Zed turned that world upside down (and ugh, no pun intended). Forever the bruising kingpin, Rhames shook off supposed tough guys like Travolta and Willis with a single medieval sneer.

7. Bill (David Carradine), "Kill Bill"

We know that Bill is supposed to be the bad guy of "Kill Bill," but David Carradine's silky presence in the film makes him a difficult master to root against. As the head assassin and the cause of The Bride's rampage, Bill remains offscreen in "Vol. 1" but owns "Vol. 2" with quiet grace and a surprising amount of worn-out emotion. The role would be one of Carradine's last major screen shots before his death in 2009, but the former "Kung Fu" star played the villain with tremendous control.

6. Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), "Jackie Brown"

As the highly anticipated follow-up to his most critically beloved film to date, "Jackie Brown" is Tarantino's least "epic" film thus far -- even the genre exercise "Death Proof" is more self-serious about its tone -- and whizzes along with a crackerjack plot that never becomes too fussy or overly dramatic. The soul of the film, of course, is Pam Grier, the veteran actress who headlined a handful of Blaxploitation flicks in the 70s and enjoyed a career revival with her measured performance as a flight attendant with her eye on a bag of money. Whether she's sharing tender moments with Robert Forster or gunning down her biggest threat, Grier holds nothing back in "Jackie Brown," and Tarantino's third film soars because of her presence.

5. Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe (Harvey Keitel), "Pulp Fiction"

The Wolf makes the Top 5 of this list because let's face it: he's such a cool character that "Pulp Fiction's" final third allows for a lot of sloppy plot development just so Harvey Keitel can pulverize the scenery, one slick order at a time. The fast-driving problem-solver helps Jules and Vincent efficiently dispose of a body and its splattered brains while nimbly handling both of their egos -- and looking fresh as hell to boot. Further proof that Keitel killed this performance: compare it to Tarantino's tonally challenged work as Jimmie in the film, and you'll see just what a boon Winston Wolfe is to "Pulp Fiction."

4. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), "Reservoir Dogs"

Before he showed up as the secretly psychopathic Budd in the "Kill Bill" movies, Michael Madsen rattled "Reservoir Dogs" with a gleefully deranged, thankfully doomed character that stands as one of Tarantino's most interesting creations. Vic Vega, better known as "Mr. Blonde," is completely devoid of nerves: when Harvey Keitel's character is yapping at him, Madsen's madman shrugs off the insults, and when a cop is tied to a chair, Blonde doesn't think twice about helping him out with that pesky ear. In a story about honor among thieves and non-thieves, Mr. Blonde is stuck in the middle as a soulless mercenary, with a type of bone-deep carelessness that makes him truly a nightmare.

3. Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), "Inglourious Basterds"

Christoph Waltz's character in "Django Unchained," Dr. King Schultz, almost made the cut for this list, but it's hard not to think of that performance as a great variation on Waltz's first stroke of Tarantino-bred genius. As the dastardly Nazi colonel nicknamed "the Jew Hunter," Waltz was given the role of a lifetime and lived up to the arduous task: Hans Landa is charming, witty, likable, and also, an unrepentant murderer, dashing the hopes of the Allies until a fortuitous flip-flop in the final act. Waltz, not his marquee co-star Brad Pitt, owns "Inglourious Basterds," and wrings each movement and turn of phrase of as much panache and dread as humanly possible.

2. The Bride (Uma Thurman), "Kill Bill"

Easily Tarantino's most complex character to date despite lacking a proper name through 90 percent of "Kill Bill," Thurman's journey for vengeance was so epic that one mere film could not contain it. But for all the bloodlust and blood-splatter, "Kill Bill" would fall apart if not for the deep sorrow that Thurman nestles deep within the character throughout both volumes; a killer whose dreams of a normal life have been violently dashed, the Bride must mechanically destroy her enemies for ruining her one shot at humanity. And when she is finally reunited with her daughter and wins that freedom, "Kill Bill" becomes an undeniable crowd-pleasers. Nos. 1 and 3 on this list were both nominated for Academy Awards for their respective performances; nearly a decade later, Thurman's omission is still glaring.

1. Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), "Pulp Fiction"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration?" Tarantino films -- and specifically Tarantino's style of dialogue -- would be viewed totally differently had he not created Jules Winnfield, the standard-bearer for the mix of lyrical conversations and virtuosic violence that has come to define the director's scripts. Jackson's sweaty curls and mutton chops shook with every syllable leaving his mouth, and his extended monologues about European McDonald's and foot massages were almost as rapturous as his now-famous favorite Bible passage. Yet, as much originality as Jackson injected into the character, Jules was always meant to be a throwback: like Caine, the "Kung Fu" character he quickly references in the final scene, the hitman is inclined to walk among the world's various troubles and visit them with grit and fortitude. He's trying real hard to be the hero of "Pulp Fiction's" universe of drugs and violence, and for that, we're likely to never forget him.