Rise to Fame
He didn't go to film school. He worked at a video rental store in the LA suburbs and watched every movie they had, which turned out to be the same thing. Reservoir Dogs announced him in 1992, but Pulp Fiction in 1994 is what changed the conversation. He turned down an offer to direct Speed to write it in Amsterdam, and came back with a nonlinear crime film that won the Palme d'Or and grossed $213 million on an $8.5 million budget. Nobody was doing dialogue like that. Nobody was doing structure like that.
In the Spotlight
He's been promising to retire after his 10th film for years, and the more time passes, the clearer it is he doesn't actually want to stop. In 2025, he scrapped The Movie Critic despite having Brad Pitt attached, saying he wasn't excited going into pre-production. Then he pivoted to a stage play for London's West End. Meanwhile, he handed a Cliff Booth spinoff with a roughly $200 million Netflix budget to David Fincher rather than direct it himself. He says he's in no hurry. He isn't.
Side Notes
Before anyone knew his name, he was an usher at an adult movie theater in Torrance, then a production assistant on a Dolph Lundgren exercise video. He guest-starred on The Golden Girls as an Elvis impersonator. When Video Archives closed in 1995, he bought the entire VHS inventory and rebuilt the store at his house. The video store wasn't just a job. It was a collection he refused to give up.