If there's one thing Quentin Tarantino is best known for as a filmmaker, it's likely his tendency to make violent movies. However, if there can be a second thing Quentin Tarantino is best known for as a filmmaker, it's probably his propensity for profanity in his movies. Few bodies of work contain quite as many curse words as Tarantino's, with his filmography having almost 1000 F-words contained within it.
Mathematically breaking down his 10 films (here splitting Kill Bill in half, seeing as it was released in two volumes) leads to an average of almost 100 F-words per movie, which is an impressively consistent amount of bad language. Those films are ranked below in ascending order from the fewest F-bombs to the most, given that word is easily the most frequently occurring swear word within Tarantino's filmography.
10 'Kill Bill Vol. 1' (2003) - 16 F-words
While Kill Bill Vol. 1 may be Tarantino's least profane movie, at least it holds the title for his bloodiest. It's almost definitely the Tarantino film that required the most fake blood to be used during production, with its climactic fight featuring The Bride taking on a small army of gangsters being particularly gruesome.
It's the more action-packed half of this revenge epic, and therefore easily contains the most action, as well as having less dialogue than its more deliberately paced subsequent volume. Chances are, there are simply fewer opportunities for characters to swear in this movie, given that so many of them are so often engaged in elaborate fight sequences.
9 'Inglourious Basterds' (2009) - 22 F-words
Inglourious Basterds takes place in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War, and features a few different storylines that converge by the film's end. Essentially, though, the film's heroes are all rebelling against Nazi forces in their own way, and so naturally, there's a ton of violence committed against the Nazi Party.
It's arguably right up there with Kill Bill Vol. 1 for the level of violence, and while it might not be as bloody, it has a higher number of on-screen fatalities. That makes it strange that like that first volume of Kill Bill, it's also fairly light on swearing (at least by Tarantino's standards), with a total of 22 F-bombs.
8 'Kill Bill Vol. 2' (2004) - 26 F-words
Pumping the brakes on the violence to the point where it's actually one of Tarantino's least deadly movies, Kill Bill Vol. 2 serves as a satisfying second part to the overall story of Kill Bill. The Bride's already worked her way through two targets on her five-person list, with Vol. 2 involving her tracking down the last three, including the titular Bill as her final target.
It also takes the time to flash back to before the first volume, leading to an entertaining sequence where The Bride (AKA Beatrix) learns her fighting skills through the power of a good training montage. Its reduced emphasis on fight scenes and increased amount of time spent on training scenes and dialogue therefore means there are naturally a few more F-words than the first volume, though not by much, given it only tops Vol. 1 by 10.
7 'The Hateful Eight' (2015) - 28 F-words
If anything, you might expect characters as hateful as the ones in The Hateful Eight to swear a little more than they do. After all, the film is heavy on dialogue and largely contained to one setting: an isolated cabin where all the characters therein don't trust each other and bicker among themselves for a while before things explode into inevitable violence.
There are other examples of offensive language used in The Hateful Eight, but as far as F-words go, there aren't too many. It ends up having a little under 30, which means they're surprisingly infrequent when you take into account the fact that this Western is about three hours long.
6 'Django Unchained' (2012) - 31 F-words
After years spent referencing Westerns of old, Django Unchained marked the first time Tarantino fully embraced the genre and made his own film within it. It's about what anyone would expect a violent, post-modern, and Tarantino-helmed Western to look like.
It also depicted a story about revenge, which was a theme Tarantino had explored to some degree in Inglourious Basterds and to a great extent in both volumes of Kill Bill. The heightened emotions that come with a high-stakes revenge story naturally lead to a good deal of forceful language, allowing Django Unchained to rack up a respectable - though not exactly mammoth - F-word count of 31.
5 'Death Proof' (2007) - 59 F-words
When it comes to ranking all of Tarantino's movies by the amount of profanity, Death Proof marks a significant step forward, as it surpassed the milestone of 50 F-bombs. It's one half of the 2007 double-feature Grindhouse (with the other half being the arguably superior Planet Terror), and follows a murderous stuntman who targets groups of women with his souped-up vehicle.
Much of the film involves characters chatting about seemingly unimportant things, punctuated by a large-scale scene of carnage around the halfway mark, and then a memorable car chase serving as the film's climax. The characters are generally unafraid to swear like sailors, but even then, their efforts pale in comparison to the characters from the several Tarantino films that are even more profane.
4 'Jackie Brown' (1997) - 114 F-words
Quentin Tarantino's earliest films were generally his most swear-filled, with all of his 1990s releases accumulating 100+ F-words. Jackie Brown is included among those, with this complex crime caper about a flight attendant getting wrapped up in a money smuggling and gun-running operation having a total of 114 F-bombs.
Having Samuel L. Jackson in a movie isn't always a guarantee that the movie is going to be filled with profanity, but few actors are as legendarily good at swearing as he is. He undeniably does a good deal of the heavy lifting when it comes to profanity in Jackie Brown, but it should be noted that the other actors are no slouches in the swear department either.
3 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' (2019) - 115 F-words
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood marked something of a departure from Tarantino's usual style. It was more laidback and less focused on story, as well as less persistently violent than most of his other movies. However, it did sneak in a little trademark graphic violence towards the very end, and it retained his signature fast-paced, profane dialogue.
Its characters may not have been in as much frequent danger as most Tarantino characters, but they still managed to swear up a storm. It's yet another Tarantino film that managed to rack up well over 100 F-bombs in its runtime, showing that even if life was seemingly more laidback in the late 1960s, people were just as fond of cussing.
2 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) - 265 F-words
A darkly comedic crime movie that tells three stories all at once and in a non-chronological fashion, Pulp Fiction is one of Quentin Tarantino's absolute best films. It's undeniably hip and stylish, still retaining its cool almost 30 years on from release, and despite being influential on plenty of up-and-coming filmmakers, no one's quite matched or replicated it yet.
It's also up there with the most F-bomb-heavy movies of the 1990s, or even all time. It misses out on the top spot when it comes to profanity in Tarantino's films by just a few usages, but it shouldn't be understated just how profane it still manages to be, with an average of close to two F-words every minute.
1 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992) - 269 F-words
Quentin Tarantino's first feature film and also his most profane, Reservoir Dogs is a classic film within both the crime genre and the pantheon of swear-heavy movies. It tells the story of a jewel heist without actually showing the jewel heist, instead focusing on the planning stages of the crime, and then its dramatic aftermath, following everything going pear-shaped on the day of the steal.
It's a movie where characters are exceptionally high-strung and angry at each other for most of the runtime, naturally leading to tons of bad language (often shouted) being heard throughout. With a runtime that's a little over 90 minutes, Reservoir Dogs comes close to featuring an average of three F-words every minute, which even those who don't like hearing bad language in movies would have to admit is kind of impressive.