Quentin Tarantino Says This Bruce Willis Performance Is His Absolute Best

Bruce Willis took a significant gamble when he signed on to play Butch Coolidge, the veteran boxer who refuses to take a dive in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 masterpiece, Pulp Fiction.

At the time, Willis was coming off a string of movies that hadn’t done very well at the box office, yet he was still a massive A-list star. Joining an ensemble cast for an indie-style film meant stepping out of the solo spotlight, but the risk turned into one of the most successful moves of his entire career.

While Tarantino is famous for being very proud of the work actors do in his movies, he actually believes a different director captured the best work Willis ever produced. During a 2009 interview, he listed his favorite movies made since he became a director.

Tarantino pointed to the year 2000 thriller Unbreakable as his top choice for the actor. He was very clear about his opinion, stating that the film contains the best performance on film that Bruce Willis has ever given and calling his work absolutely magnificent.

In the movie, which was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Willis plays a man named David who is the only person to survive a horrific train crash without a single scratch. He eventually meets a mysterious man who tries to prove that David actually possesses superhuman powers he didn’t know about.

Tarantino praised the way the story reimagines superhero tropes, saying it is a brilliant retelling of the Superman mythology that asks what would happen if Superman lived on Earth but had no idea who he was.

The quiet and somber tone of the film allowed Willis to give a very subtle performance that stood out from his usual high-energy action roles. Shyamalan eventually returned to this world many years later, connecting the story to his 2016 film Split and finishing the series with Glass in 2019. Even with those later additions, the original performance by Willis in the first chapter remains the gold standard for Tarantino.

As of this year, Bruce Willis has remained largely out of the public eye following his retirement from acting due to his ongoing health battle with frontotemporal dementia. His family, including his wife Emma Heming Willis and his ex-wife Demi Moore, frequently share updates on social media about how they are navigating this difficult journey together. Fans have continued to celebrate his legendary career, especially as 2025 marked the 40th anniversary of his breakout hit TV series Moonlighting.

There are also reports that a major museum in Los Angeles is planning a massive retrospective exhibit for later this year to honor the “Everyman Hero” archetype that Willis perfected in the Die Hard franchise.

While Willis may not be on screen anymore, the “Unbreakable” bond he formed with his audience ensures that his best work will be studied for decades to come. His shift from the “invincible” action star to the vulnerable hero in Shyamalan’s universe remains a blueprint for actors looking to reinvent themselves.

Do you agree with Quentin Tarantino that Unbreakable is the absolute peak of Bruce Willis’s acting career, or do you think his role in Pulp Fiction or Die Hard is more iconic? Share your thoughts in the comments!