Pulp Fiction: A Q&A

POPULAR THEORIES:

This is probably the most asked, re asked, and asked again question about Pulp Fiction. And there are endless theories out there on it. I'm not going to go through and list every last one of these theories, of course, but I have listed a few the ideas (and the reasoning's behind them) that appear to be the most popular.

A.) The case contains gold.

What backs this up?
1.) The golden glow that shines from the case.
2.) Everyone's instant recognition of what's inside of the case -- when you see gold, you know it.

B.) The case contains the diamonds stolen from Tarantino's previous cult favorite, Reservoir Dogs.

What backs this up?
1.) It's not unusual for Tarantino to connect his films through characters, events, and other various references.
2.) This would also explain why everyone knows what's in the briefcase as soon as they lay eyes on it.
3.) It would explain how light the case is to carry around; as oppose to gold, which would be a quite a strain for the characters to lug all over the place.

C.) The case contains the evil soul of Marsellus Wallace.

What backs this up?
1.) The band-aid on the back of Marsellus's neck. Some believe that below this bandage could portal in which his soul escaped.
2.) The combination to the lock of the briefcase is "666" -- the mark of the devil.

The most favored theory out of all of these appears to be C, the demonic soul theory (this is also reported to be Tarantino's own favorite fan-explanation).

THE ANSWER:

The pragmatic truth behind the briefcase is that there is nothing inside it at all, only a golden light bulb. This was done because there was a need to have something of high importance inside of the case but it seemed nearly impossible to think of just the right thing for the job. So it was left ambiguous. Left up to the viewer. There literally is no right or wrong to this question because what's in the case is irrelevant. It's only a device used to further along the story; what Alfred Hitchcock so famously referred to as a McGuffin.

THE ANSWER:

Yes.

If you watch the film closely you can see that it wasn't nonsense at all.

When Jules and Vincent dodged the bullet at the beginning of "The Bonnie Situation", Jules immediately saw it as a sign: A second chance to make his life a better one, without the crime and murder he was wrapped up in up to this point. It was, to him, as if God himself were speaking to him and warning him that he was going down a dangerous path. He comes to the realization that if he keeps up this kind of lifestyle then it would surely lead to his own demise. So, later on, while eating his muffin, Jules makes the choice to "get out of the life".

Vincent, on the other hand, didn't buy into any of this. He's far too pragmatic for such illogical ideas. He saw the bullets that barely missed Jules and himself as nothing more than good luck on their part and very bad luck on the Jerry Seinfeld looking guy who shot at them. Therefore, Vincent was not moved by this supposed sign from God and chose to keep on with his criminal life and continue with his sinful ways.

When you rewatch the film you notice this:

Once Butch goes against Marsellus's wishes in "The Gold Watch" and doesn't go down in the fight when he's suppose to, Marsellus sends his troops after him. He needs two of his men to stay and stakeout Butch's apartment. He chooses Vincent and Jules for this job but, unfortunately for him, Jules has just had this life changing epiphany and will no longer let himself be involved in such immoral activities. So Marsellus himself is forced, on short notice, to fill in as Jules' replacement and becomes Vincents partner on the job. This, of course, ends in the death of Vincent and the brutal rape of Marsellus.

If Jules hadn't gone with his gut and taken "the path of the shepherd," then he too may have died right along with Vincent. His acknowledgement of the divine intervention saved his life.

THE ANSWER:

... no comment.

THE ANSWER:

Apparently so.

If you notice in each of the stories of Pulp Fiction, a bathroom is incorporated into the scenes during many of the films pivotal moments:

A.) "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"

+ We first see a bathroom come into play when we see Mia Wallace doing coke in the restroom at Jack Rabbit Slims. This is a foreshadow of how she would later snort Vincents heroin and overdose.

+ Later, during this same story, Vincent contemplates a moral dilemma to himself while inside of a bathroom. Only to exit moments later and find that Mia has overdosed on the heroin that she mistook for coke.

B.) "The Gold Watch"

+ Once Butch makes it back to his motel, after his fight, he goes to the bathroom to take a shower. While there, he has a conversation with his wife about leaving the country.

+ After Butch makes it back to his apartment, he finds Vincent exiting from his bathroom and immediately shoots and kills him.

C.) "The Bonnie Situation"

+ Just before Vincent and Jules are shot at by man with the hand-cannon, we see that the -- soon to be dead -- shooter is hiding in a bathroom.

+ When Vincent and Jules make it to Jimmy's house they examine their terrible situation while in a bathroom.

+ When Vincent is in the bathroom at the diner relieving himself and reading his pulp novel, he exits to find that Hunny Bunny and Pumpkin have held up the restaurant.


So yes. Crappers in Pulp Fiction definitely appear to be a foreshadow of bad things to come.

THE ANSWER:

As you can see in the bar scene, after Marsellus pays off Butch to throw the fight, Butch runs into Vincent Vega and has a brief confrontational scene were Vince appears to not like Butch. Why?

(an excerpt from the scene in question)

Butch - "You lookin' at somethin', friend?"
Vince - "You ain't my friend, Palooka."
Butch - "What was that?"
Vince - "I think you heard me just fine, punchy."
Marsellus - "Vincent Vega's in the house? My nigga! Getcha ass over here."
(a clip of the confrontation)

THE ANSWER:

Yes.

As you've probably noticed, it's not at all unusual for Quentin Tarantino to have various characters, events, places, names, and stories from his films be intertwined. According to Tarantino, this is precisely what's going on with the Vic and Vincent Vega situation -- they are indeed meant to be brothers.

In fact at one point Quentin Tarantino had even planned on making a film about these two characters entitled The Vega Brothers. Unfortunately though, the plans for the film fell through over the years and it's now very unlikely to ever be made. This is because the film would have to be a prequel to both Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs (for obvious reasons) and the actors are now well past the age of playing someone younger than they were almost 20 years ago.

THE ANSWER:

No. But he is commonly referred to as such.

This is because of the actors uncanny resemblance to the well known comedian. The actor is actually none other than Alexis Arquette; brother of David, Patricia, and Rosanna Arquette. But you may know him better as this guy...

... yep.

The Answer

In the beginning of the film you see the definition below:

PULP /'palp/ n. 1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter.
2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter, and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper.
American Heritage Dictionary
New College Edition

Pulp magazines and novels are stories about crime, violence, lust, and quick, snappy dialog. They are stories about the dirty side of society -- film-noir on paper if you will. The film Pulp Fiction is Tarantino's homage to these kinds of stories.

THE ANSWER:

Marvin was one of them. He was their guy on the inside. Remember at the beginning when Vincent and Jules are arriving at Brett's apartment getting their weapons from the trunk?

(an excerpt from this scene in Pulp Fiction)

Jules - "We should have shotguns for this kinda deal."
Vincent - "How many are up there?"
Jules - "Three or four."
Vincent - "That's counting our guy?"
Jules - Not sure.
Vincent - "So that means there could be up to five guys up there?"
Jules - "It's possible."
Vincent - "We should have fucking shotguns."

THE THEORY:

I debunked this theory earlier, but here it is again:

The popular opinion on this is that there is a hole in the back of Marsellus's neck in which his evil soul had escaped. It's current location is supposedly in the glowing briefcase (unlocked by the code "666") that Vincent and Jules take back from the kids at the beginning of the film.

THE ANSWER:

The only reason for the band-aid on the back of Marsellus's neck (and this has been confirmed) was that the actor, Ving Rhames, had an ugly scar on that particular part of his neck. Thinking that it would distract the viewers during the closeup scenes, the studio went ahead and slapped the bandage on there.

Here's a photo from the film Baby Boy, in which Rhames reveals his scar.


Voila!

THE QUESTION:

Was it a mistake when Hunny Bunny's line from the beginning, "Any of you fucking pricks move, I'm gonna execute every mother fucking last one of you!" didn't match up with her line at the end?

THE ANSWER:

No.

Yes, it's true that at the beginning of the film, when Pumpkin and Hunny Bunny begin to rob the diner, she creams "Any of you fucking pricks move, I'm gonna execute every mother fucking last one of you!" and it's also true that when we loop back to that scene at the end of the film the line changes to "Any of you fucking pricks move, I'm gonna execute everyone of you mother fuckers!" But is it a mistake? Apparently not.

Tarantino has stated that this was purposely done to show the scene from two different perspectives. The first, that of Hunny Bunny and Pumpkins and the second that of Jules.

THE ANSWER:

Yes.

A total of 265 times actually.

THE ANSWER:

Ones chocolate and ones vanilla.

The reason for this is because Amos and Andy were a black comedy duo from the 50's and Martin and Lewis were a white comedy duo.

Black = Chocolate.
White = Vanilla.

Either way, a five dollar shake is a bit much.

THE ANSWER:

The weird cab driver, Esmerelda, is played by Angela Jones. Tarantino once saw Jones in a short film called Curdled, where she played a woman who was fascinated by murders and who had the occupation of cleaning up after them. After seeing the film, Tarantino was so impressed by Angela Jones' character and performance that he decided to cast her in the very similar role of Esmerelda in Pulp Fiction.

THE ANSWER:

No, it's not a coincidence.

Marsellus is already in Butch's neighborhood at this point because he is performing a stakeout of Butch's apartment with Vincent (who's previous partner, Jules, had recently quit the criminal lifestyle).

Butch "runs into" Marsellus in the street because Marsellus was within walking distance of Butches apartment. It appears that Marsellus had recently left to pick up some food for him and Vincent so he was probably on his way back to Butch's apartment when Butch pulled up beside of him.

THE ANSWER:

Yes. If you're a Steve Buscemi fan he did.

Vincent and Mia's waiter at Jack Rabbit Slims, who was dressed as Buddy Holly, was played by actor Steve Buscemi -- the funny lookin' guy from Fargo and star of Tarantino's previous film, Reservoir Dogs.

Buscemi was originally set to play the role of Jimmie but since his schedule wouldn't allow it, Tarantino took the role himself. Tarantino still wanted Buscemi to have a role in Pulp Fiction though, so he cast Buscemi as Vincent and Mia's waiter during the Jack Rabbit Slims scene.

The irony in this is that in Tarantino's previous film, Reservoir Dogs, Buscemi played a character that went on a long rant as to how he refused to tip inept waiters and waitresses.