Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 film The Killing stands as a pivotal influence on Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, shaping both its narrative structure and its approach to the heist genre. Before Reservoir Dogs hit theaters in 1992, Tarantino was a young cinephile, deeply inspired by Kubrick’s innovative storytelling. The Killing was groundbreaking for its time, employing a non-linear timeline and presenting the same event from multiple perspectives, a technique that was far removed from the straightforward narratives typical of 1950s Hollywood crime films.

Kubrick’s film, adapted from Lionel White’s novel Clean Break, follows a group of men as they plan and execute a racetrack heist. What set it apart was not just the plot but the way the story was told: fractured, tense, and immersive. This approach made the audience feel like participants in the crime, rather than mere observers. Tarantino, who has always openly acknowledged his influences, once said, “I didn’t go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my Killing, my take on that kind of heist movie”.

When Reservoir Dogs premiered, critics and audiences were struck by its raw dialogue, violent standoffs, and especially its jumbled timeline-echoes of Kubrick’s earlier innovation. Tarantino’s film, like The Killing, broke the story apart, revealing overlapping perspectives and exploring the emotional fallout of betrayal. At Cannes, Tarantino even called The Killing his favorite heist film, underscoring the deep creative lineage between the two works.

For those familiar with film history, Reservoir Dogs felt like a spiritual successor to Kubrick’s noir classic. Tarantino swapped noir trench coats for black suits and fedoras for sunglasses, but retained the tension, moral ambiguity, and structural daring that made The Killing a touchstone of the genre. The DNA of Kubrick’s film is evident in Tarantino’s manipulation of time, his construction of scenes, and his ability to build suspense through dialogue and silence.