16. Eye for an eye
Coolest element: Naturally, it ends badly for Elle. She kinda had a grisly fate coming after what she did to The Bride, who proceeds to yank out Elle's one remaining eye.
15. Stuck in the middle with you
The film: Reservoir Dogs
The moment: One of the first times Tarantino's keen sense of music and story comes together is a rather brutal affair, as Mr. Blonde is left alone with the Dogs' hostage: a poor beat cop Marvin Nash. The scene plays out unexpectedly, as Michael Madsen's unsympathetic brute tortures the policeman. With the radio cranked high to Steeler's Wheel "Stuck In The Middle With You" he sashays across the vacant warehouse, savagely slicing off Nash's ear.
Coolest element: It probably wasn't Tarantino's intention to circumnavigate a harsh rating and yet the film's most violent moment actually occurs offscreen. The camera sidles to the left, lingering on a shabby corner of the room, while Nash screams and screams...
14. Clarence loses it in the elevator
The film: True Romance
The moment: Clarence, Alabama and Dick enter the elevator with Elliot Blitzer to pay a visit to Lee Donowitz, a hotshot Hollywood producer eager to buy Clarence's stash of coke. Just to make sure Elliot isn't trying to con them - which he totally is, by the way - Clarence puts a gun to his temple and lets rip a tirade of doubt onto the quivering wreck of a man. Right from the moment Christian Slater calmly tells him to get on his knees, he never lets up, delivering a brilliant stream of invective.
Coolest element: Cutaways to Tom Sizemore and Chris Penn's cops, listening in on the wire that Elliot wears, chuckling away at how cool Clarence is.
13. Commode chatter
The film: Reservoir Dogs
The moment: Mr. Orange regales his potential new employers with an anecdote concerning a previous drug incident. Told in black and white, we hear of an innocent trip to the toilet when a bunch of cops bust in with sniffer dogs. It's told with all the necessary detail in a flawless American accent from Tim Roth, who totally sells the story.
Coolest element: Slow-mo shots, Roth's drawn-out reaction, the version of Mr. Orange in the scene delivering the story... all excellent aspects of what makes this scene so damn powerful. But the best part is that none of it ever took place. The whole thing is a fiction cooked up by Mr. Orange's superiors - he's an undercover cop.
12. The Gold Watch
The film: Pulp Fiction
The moment: Another prime example of Tarantino's ability to make a lengthy monologue into a movie highlight, this one's made all the cooler by the presence of Christopher Walken. He delivers the whole mouthful to a young Butch Coolidge during a visit with the lad, telling him the story of the gold watch, a family heirloom which belonged to his father, and his father before him, passed down through the generations in a very uncomfortable manner.
Coolest element: Hearing a tale of such lavatorial farce from the mouth of Walken. It's far from crude, his inimitable voice just too darn smooth to be silly. Though also, it's really, really silly.
11. Jackie pulls a swift one on Ordell
The film: Jackie Brown
The moment: Jackie arrives home only to find Ordell Robey acting the gumshoe, hiding in a dark corner of her apartment. Their first onscreen meeting in the movie finds the gun-totin' launderer desperate to wipe out the one remaining link in his criminal chain... but Jackie's no ordinary crook.
Coolest element: Pam Grier's Jackie doesn't suffer fools. The tables are turned on Ordell quickly; she trains her gun on him before he even realises he's been had. And keeps it there for the entire scene.
10. The cellar stand-off
The film: Inglourious Basterds
The moment: Tarantino crams his cast into a low-ceilinged basement bar for a damn tense scene, with Michael Fassbender's British officer Archie Hicox joining the Basterds. Dressed undercover as Nazis, their flawless ruse comes unglued when a particularly astute German officer picks apart Hicox's accent. The entire plan falls apart - perfect for a violent blow-out - and the dusty cellar bar becomes littered with blood and corpses.
Coolest element: The tension. Much like the movie's opening sequence, it's excruciating to watch the Basterds maintain their poise and professionalism, and of course, their ruse. Plus, the Mexican standoff-esque showdown is a spectacular sight to behold.
9. The House of Blue Leaves battle
The film: Kill Bill Vol. 1
The moment: The Bride arrives at the House of Blue Leaves for an exhaustive battle against O-Ren Ishii's seemingly insurmountable troops. The "Crazy 88" are an unrelenting brigade of warriors versed in the ways of the samurai. Both they and the entire ten-minute sequence are inspired by Tarantino's favorite martial arts films, rolled together into a brutal assault that's a breathtaking feat of fight choreography.
Coolest element: The stand-off between The Bride and Gogo, one of O-Ren's trusted fighters. She might be dressed like a schoolgirl, but don't let that fool you. She also arrives on the scene wielding a meteor hammer - a spike-riddled instrument of utter destruction.
8. Candyland in flames
The film: Django Unchained
The moment: The ole "how many bullets did he fire?" schtick is a well-worn trope in gunslinger cinema. Here, that same idea is spun on its head as Django reveals to the doddering Stephen that the biggest issue isn't ammo - it's the guns! A couple of blasts take out the butler's kneecaps, while Django casually saunters down the stairs delivering a brilliant monologue to the shrieking man.
Coolest element: Django rigs Candyland to blow, and takes a moment to look back at the site of pure evil up in the flames.
7. The twist contest
The film: Pulp Fiction
The moment: Vincent Vega promises Marsellus, his boss, that he will show his wife Mia a night on the town of her choosing. That takes them to Jack Rabbit Slim's, a diner decked out like a '50s establishment, and up onto the stage for a dance contest. They boogie and twist to Chuck Berry, as the camera swirls around them, capturing a moment of effortless movie cool.
Coolest element: What's not cool about this scene? Vincent and Mia both surrender all pride and do whatever it takes to snag that trophy, busting out some of the oldest dance moves in the book.
