Quentin Tarantino's IQ is often listed as 160, but no test has ever been cited. His real credential is an encyclopaedic, self-taught command of film, demonstrated on screen, never scored.
A kid taken to R-rated movies
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on 27 March 1963 to Connie McHugh, then a teenager, and aspiring actor Tony Tarantino, who left before he was born. His mother moved them to Los Angeles when he was about two, eventually settling in the South Bay.
She and his stepfather took him to films like Carnal Knowledge and Deliverance while he was still in primary school. He wrote his first screenplay-style stories as a boy, and struggled at school in every subject except history and reading.
“I didn't go to film school, I went to films”
The formal record is short. The real curriculum was on the shelves.
Dropped out at 15. He has said he hated school and only did well in subjects he cared about.
Took acting classes for several years; later studied with Allen Garfield.
Worked as a clerk at a video rental store, the education he credits for everything that followed.
Clerks talked films all day and argued over recommendations. Coworkers included Roger Avary, later his Pulp Fiction co-writer. Shelf labels here are genres he has cited as influences.
Put Pulp Fiction back in order
The film tells its stories out of sequence. Toggle between the order you see and the order events happen (approximate).
Shown this way, the film opens and closes in the same diner, and Vincent's death lands two-thirds of the way through.
The ten-film plan
He has long said he'll retire after ten films (he counts Kill Bill as one). Nine are made. The tenth slot is still open.
A botched heist told almost entirely in the aftermath. Premiered at Sundance.
Palme d'Or at Cannes; Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with Roger Avary.
Adapted from Elmore Leonard, starring Pam Grier.
Uma Thurman's revenge saga, released in two parts but counted as one film.
His half of the Grindhouse double bill with Robert Rodriguez.
An alternate-history war film; Christoph Waltz won an Oscar.
A western set in the pre-Civil War South; his second screenplay Oscar.
Eight strangers snowed in at a stagecoach lodge; shot in 70 mm.
Los Angeles in 1969; Brad Pitt won an Oscar.
He dropped a planned project, The Movie Critic, in 2024. The final slot is open.
His script, directed by Tony Scott.
Oliver Stone's film from his original story; he disowned the rewrite.
A novelisation that expands the characters' back-stories.
Essays on the 1970s films he saw as a child.
Sources
- Tarantino, Q. (2022). Cinema Speculation. Harper
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards database
- Festival de Cannes archives (1994)
- Bernard, J. (1995). Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies
- What's Your IQ editorial review of circulated figures