The Hateful Eight, the highly anticipated (and excellent) new film by Quentin Tarantino, begins its limited 70mm roadshow release this week. To mark the occasion, we decided to look back through Tarantino’s explosive filmography for some of our favorite scenes.

Amongst the bullets, pitch-perfect dialogue, and close-ups of Uma Thurman’s feet, we’ve found ten scenes that range from hilarious to downright scary. It’s a testament to Tarantino’s command of cinematic tone, the ability to navigate effortlessly between scenes of starkly differing styles and techniques. While one can endlessly argue over this topic, we believe these are the foundations of what makes Tarantino, well, strictly Tarantino.

Enjoy the list below, including clips where available, and suggest your own favorites in the comments.

Diner Opening (Reservoir Dogs)

It’s the oft-quoted scene that first established Tarantino as a master of dialogue, drawing attention from critics for his unique, pop-culture-infused conversation. Fittingly, the first voice heard in a Tarantino movie is his own, extorting some amusingly crude philosophies on Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” The scene is also a classic for how it builds to Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) and his anti-tipping tirade, which draws the shocked outrage of every murderous criminal at the table. We’re even treated to some stellar back-and-forth with Laurence Tierney and Harvey Keitel, playfully bickering over an old address book, which prompts the immortal line from Keitel: “If you shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.”

Butch and Mr. Wallace (Pulp Fiction)

For a sequence opening with a title card that reads “Vincent Vega and Marcellus Wallace’s Wife,” the scene oddly enough has nothing to do with either of the aforementioned characters. Instead, we meet Butch (Bruce Willis) as an off-camera Wallace doles out some of the finest dialogue of Tarantino’s career over the smooth sounds of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” Wallace wants Butch, a low ranking boxer to throw his upcoming fight in exchange for a envelope of cash. The Pride speech feels thematically linked to another given later in the film, like two sides of the same coin. In the first shot, Willis stares silently at the camera as his proposed fate is dictated to him. In the second, Christopher Walken muses directly to the audience about an all-important gold watch, while young Butch remains helpless and off-camera. Throughout his bruised life, Butch is forced to passively listen as his world is elucidated by those more powerful than himself. Little do they know that Butch’s ass isn’t going down in the fifth.

After Dinner with Candie and Schultz (Django Unchained)

After the deal for Broomhilda’s freedom is agreed upon, Schultz (Christoph Waltz) sits in Candie Land’s drawing room, listening to Beethoven emitted from a nearby harp. Schultz’s mind is on D’Artagnan, the poor slave he saw torn to shreds by dogs that afternoon. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) did not choose the label D’Artagnan thoughtlessly, naming his slave after the lead character from Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. As Candie eats a slice of white cake (what a great, not-so-subtle detail), Schultz asks what he thinks Dumas would have thought of what happened to poor D’Artagnan. Candie admits, egg on his face for the first time, that Dumas likely would not have approved, describing the author as “a soft-hearted Frenchie.” At which point, Schultz replies: “Alexandre Dumas is black.” Touché, Mr. Schultz.

Butterfly’s Lap Dance (Death Proof)

Death Proof, Tarantino’s half of Grindhouse, was critically maligned at the time of its release. If it feels like the slightest film in his catalog, it’s not surprising. The conceptualized nature of this project forced the filmmaker’s hand, filtering his chatty cinematic sensibility through the required tropes of the genre. Has age ripened this exploitation homage? Hard to say. Tarantino’s inimitable voice breaks through when Kurt Russell‘s Stuntman Mike provokes the lovely Butterfly (Vanessa Ferlito) for the lap dance advertised on Jungle Julia’s radio show. He recites the poem immaculately, but Butterfly shuts him down. As a last-ditch effort, Stuntman Mike produces a book, in which he lists everyone he’s ever met. Unfortunately for Butterfly, due to her reluctance to dance, he will be forced to list her in the book as a chicken-shit. She bites, taking the challenge and the lap dance that follows is one of the most lively and fun scenes in all of Tarantino’s films. Stuntman Mike’s challenge is indeed a clever little pick-up line, although it’s basically the same tactic that Biff Tannen uses to goad Marty to fight in Back to the Future: “What’s wrong, McFly? Chicken?!”

Royale with Cheese (Pulp Fiction)

A casual discussion of Amsterdam hash bars abruptly turns to European fast food, where everything is just a little bit different as Vincent Vega (John Travolta) points out to his partner, Jules Pitt (Samuel L. Jackson). Famously, the conversation’s centerpiece is the term Royale with Cheese, a Parisian name for a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese. The much-homaged, much-parodied dialogue exchange has become iconic, but why? It’s a thoroughly charming introduction to these epochal characters. Not everyone has experienced a hash bar, but we’ve all been to McDonald’s. They seem like normal guys on their way to work, shooting the breeze, save for the fact that they have loaded guns in the trunk of the car. It’s an inventive slice of dialogue, which builds to a delightful punchline. Jules ponders what a Whopper would be called in Paris. Vincent replies: “I don’t know. I didn’t go into Burger King.”

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