TOP 5 TARANTINO ENDINGS OF ALL TIME (RANKED)
Beginnings are hard but endings are harder still. Tarantino is pretty good at nailing endings and often they make some of the more laboured of his films more worthwhile with their cute final payoffs.
Here are my Tarantino top 5 endings of all time (ranked).
5. Kill Bill Vol 2 (2004)
As much as there is much to admire in the kaleidoscopic hyper-gonzo production of 'Kill Bill Vol 1' and 'Kill Bill Vol 2', for me, it's really only the final twenty minutes of Vol 2 that has left any lasting impression. Perhaps this is something to do with the fact that Tarantino underplays what one might naturally assume would become a blood-soaked finale with a swift, feather-stroke switcheroo. There is some form of genius to this neat approach remembering that Tarantino has indulged nearly four hours in a violent odyssey of Charles Bronson-like proportions only to end with a snappy snake bite of a final move in a 'blink and you'll miss it' execution of title character Bill.
I see the entire last half hour as being like one extended ending, beginning with Malcolm McLaren's 'About Her' cover version all the way through to Chingon's 'Malaguena Salerosa' festive riot of a song that overlays the final image into end titles. If, however, that's being too liberal with my definition of an ending then the final scene works perfectly well with The Bride's (Uma Thurman) young daughter (Perla Haney-Jardine) watching cartoons on a TV in her bedroom while she herself sobs uncontrollably in the en suite bathroom clutching a toy teddy and experiencing the fulfillment of a mother's mission to gain back everything she'd thought she'd lost.
It seems that Tarantino's idea of a happy ending is sitting in front of a screen and losing oneself in entertainment after all The Bride's chaotic violent storms have finally blown themselves out.
Perhaps that's exactly how he feels when he's completed the making of one of his own movie productions.
And who could blame him?
4. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
When Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) carves a swastika into the forehead of 'Jew Hunter' Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz) and exclaims "You know somethin', Utivitch, I think this just may be my masterpiece," it's hard for the audience (or at least me) not to think Tarantino is talking about himself and his WW2 epic where his cinema and his (unhealthy) love of sadistic violence have become so completely entwined. I've often thought of Tarantino that if he hadn't been a filmmaker he would surely have made a phenomenal serial killer and his triptych of historical 'revenge' moves proves this somehow more likely to be the case to my mind than not.
The whole film sort of reminds me of one of those childhood friends who takes great pleasure in twisting and breaking off parts of his toy soldiers to take the realism of his staged war scene to new levels, relishing each snap and misshaping of his plastic toys as they lay scattered and strewn on the carpet battlefield.
In a sense adult Tarantino is just like some overgrown kid still playing at battle scenes with his toy army and in a strange way this detaches me from thinking of his WW2 film as being anything more than a juvenile recreation albeit one made by a fifty-year-old man.
But in the sheer swagger in the way the director unapologetically delivers his cinematic love letter to war films in all the many various subcategories of the genre, I can't help but applaud the crazy sick bastard.
And the ending here is the blood-filled cherry on top.
3. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
Putting the lid back on the Pandora's Box of Charles Manson's murderous chaos, Tarantino restores his Eurydice (in this instance Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie)) by having his fictional characters Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) deal with the satanic forces that have descended on Cielo Drive in the late summer of 1969.
What makes 'Hollywood' different is contrasting the signature Tarantino Grand Guignol bloodbath with the deft sweetness of an ending that is truly a 'Once Upon A Time' fairytale where Tate remains unscathed and Hollywood is likely to continue in that endless summer dream of the 1960s with its creaking monolithic movie productions forever being made by the old studio system in the director's cinematic fever dream.
The ending of 'Hollywood' actually reminds me of David Lynch's awe-inspiring ending to Twin Peaks Season 3 where Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) as 'Orpheus' somehow manages to interfere with the story timeline in which Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) is headed toward her grisly fate in the deserted train carriage underworld and led away home to safety. Only Lynch realises that by playing around with the original timeline all sorts of other unimagined horrendous consequences will be unleashed and the final scene is anything but a fairytale.
Happily in 'Hollywood' we get our twisted happy ending courtesy of Mr. Tarantino and it proves that the power of art is able (in its unique way) to defy death itself.
Maybe then, Quentin isn't quite as sadistic as I previously thought.
2. Jackie Brown (1997)
Perhaps even more than 'Hollywood', Tarantino delivers the most touching and emotional scene of any of his movies as Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) drives off to Spain leaving bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster) behind to take a call in his office forever wondering about the 'what ifs' of their potential romance and future life together.
Bookending Bobby Womack's iconic song 'Across 110th Street' at the start and end of the movie is a touch of genius as our protagonist Jackie takes back control behind the steering wheel of her destiny after the two hours of continual jeopardy and Elmore Leonard constructed shenanigans have threatened to throw her off course and her chance to return to her life as a strong, independent woman.
It could be said that Jackie is almost too strong and independent for her own good in the end and possibly regrets not being able to entice Max to join her in a happy ending shared together.
One hopes those two will see each other again one day but more likely not as Jackie likes risky business whereas Max is more risk-averse and we suspect won't break free of the comfort of his homey office to take a chance on something he can't control.
Aka Jackie.
1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
Having brought non-linear storytelling into mainstream filmmaking, Tarantino's denouement presents us with a twisted equilibrium of sorts as we know one of the two characters (Jules and Vincent) has already died during the middle of the film.
What's incredible about this audacious ending is how we're tricked into almost forgetting this major plot detail and feel the same satisfaction of these protagonists surviving as if Vincent (John Travolta) had never been shot through the chest by Butch (Bruce Willis) as we might in a classic old Hollywood Western with the heroes riding off triumphantly into the sunset.
As 'Surf Rider' by The Lively Ones plays the two hitmen out of the diner where they've just prevented a major public blood bath (ironic) in their corny, borrowed Hawaiin-style T-shirts we experience an almost ecstatic sense of resolution as the 'cooler than cool' Jackson and Travolta exit the scene seemingly in complete control of their fate.
Now I look back on the film almost thirty years after its original release, I can't help but think that the Jekyll and Hyde combo of Jules and Vincent represents both sides of Tarantino's psyche, one in control (Jules) and the other, an overgrown child (Vincent) unable to rein in his impulsive instincts.
Similar yet different to Tate in 'Hollywood', Vincent only survives in the final scene by a quirk of a cleverly devised timeline where the director plays God with our preconceptions of narrative and happy endings.