""I always hope that if one million people see my movie, they see one million different movies."" " Quentin Tarantino." "This film is made up of three stories, organized into five different chapters." "This first chapter is usually just referred to as "The Prologue."" "Quentin prefers to start most of his films with a scene before the main titles." "The movie starts "cold," without any titles or credits." "Quentin's script only refers to these characters as "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny."" "We don't learn Honey Bunny's real name until the end of the movie." "The first scene of the movie was shot on the first day of production." "Quentin specifically wrote these parts for Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer after seeing them perform together in a short film called Monkey Park" "The first close-up shot of the movie is the waitress, played by Laura Lovelace." "Laura was also one of the film's music consultants." "Laura reprised her waitress character in Quentin's next film, Jackie Brown" "Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer worked together again in the Wim Wenders film The Million Dollar Hotel" "Tim also played Mr. Orange in Quentin Tarantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs" "At one point, Quentin considered Tim for the lead role of Vincent Vega, but he really wanted Tim to play Pumpkin." "Tim also played Ted the Bellhop in the anthology film Four Rooms" "The movie consisted of four short films directed by four different directors, including Quentin." "Tim was the only actor to appear in all four segments of the film." "Pumpkin's line about "gooks" is a reference to the book No Beast So Fierce, written by Eddie Bunker." "Eddie was a real-life hood who became a writer when he was in jail." "Tim Roth also appeared in a film called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with his good friend Gary Oldman." "Amanda Plummer also appeared in The World According to Garp and The Fisher King, which was directed by Terry Gilliam." "Terry was one of the directors that helped Quentin develop Reservoir Dogs at the Sundance Institute." "Amanda's father is the actor Christopher Plummer, who appeared in such classic films as The Sound of Music, The Man Who Would Be King and Twelve Monkeys (which was also directed by Terry Gilliam)." "Amanda has won a Tony Award and an Emmy Award." "This isn't the first time Quentin has featured a crime-troubled couple that is intensely in love." "The script for True Romance featured the star-crossed lovers Clarence and Alabama, and his script for Natural Born Killers featured serial killers Mickey and Mallory, who were as crazy-in-love as they were just plain crazy." "Quentin often uses coffee shops and diners in his films." "During his youth, Quentin spent endless hours hanging out with his buddies in them, talking about movies." "All of the stories in the film are interlinked." "During one story, you can see elements of the other stories." "For instance, in the background you can hear Jules talking about quitting his career." "While first-time viewers are unaware of things like this, the film is rich with details like this that viewers will appreciate on repeat viewing." "Another example of foreshadowing... if you look carefully in the background, you can see the Vincent walking to the bathroom (watch for his shorts, t-shirt and book)." "Eddie Bunker (quoted earlier) also wrote one of the best crime films of the 1970s, Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman, which was a big influence on Quentin and this film." "Eddie eventually became an actor, appearing in films such as The Long Riders and Miracle Mile" "He also co-starred in Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, as Mr. Blue." "Tim Roth told Quentin, "I want to work with Amanda in one of your films, but she has to have a really big gun."" "Quentin was happy to oblige, as you'll see in a moment." "A couple scenes in the film are seen twice when the movie backtracks and overlaps." "In these scenes, there are some minor but intentional discrepancies." "For instance, when we see the hold-up at the end of the movie, the line about "pricks" is slightly different." "Intentional discrepancies such as this are sometimes incorrectly regarded as "mistakes."" "They are done on purpose to show different perceptions of events." "The freeze frame at the end of the opening scene is reminiscent of the opening of Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch, which was a big influence on Quentin." "This opening scene is abruptly interrupted by a blast of music as Dick Dale rips into the opening riffs of "Misirlou."" "The name of Quentin's company is taken from one of his favorite films..." "Jean-Luc Godard's Bande a parte" "Jersey Films is the name of the production company owned by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Stacy Sher." "They have produced many films, including Reality Bites, Gattaca, Man in the Moon and Erin Brockovich" "Quentin's use of music in this film was so distinctive that old songs were instantly re-invented as an integral part of this film and became known as "that song" from Pulp Fiction" "For instance, despite being around for decades before this film, this song would instantly and forever become known merely as "the Pulp Fiction theme."" "This song's real title is "Misirlou." It was written by Fred Wise, Milton Leeds, S.K. Russell and Nicholas Roubanis, and performed by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones." "Quentin told Dick Dale, "I've been a fan for years." "Your song "Misirlou" is a masterpiece." "It's like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly It's like Ben" " Hur It's very heraldic."" "Music is very important to Quentin and his filmmaking process." "The music helps him find the rhythm for the movie and set the tone." "According to Quentin, he picks about 60% of his music before he even writes his script, 20% while he's writing and 20% after the script is done." "Chuck Kelley and Laura Lovelace were music consultants for Pulp Fiction" "They suggested songs to Quentin and helped create the film's soundtrack." "The music changes (like a radio) just as the credit for Music Supervisor appears on the screen." "Karyn Rachtman also supervised the music for the Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs and Four Rooms" "Her brother Riki Rachtman was an MTV veejay and actor and had a cameo in the film Plump Fiction, which was a parody of Pulp Fiction" "David Wasco has been the production designer on all of Quentin's films." "Sally Menke has edited all of Quentin's films to date." "She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Pulp Fiction" "She wasn't the only one to get an Oscar nomination for this film." "The film received a total of seven Academy Award nominations." "Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary won an Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen." "Lawrence Bender has produced all of Quentin's films to date." "He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for Pulp Fiction." "The Oscar for Best Picture went to Forrest Gump." "Quentin Tarantino was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director." "After receiving his Academy Award for co-writing, Roger Avary said, "I have to go pee."" "Some people weren't sure if he was making a crude joke or really had to go to the bathroom." "Actually, Roger was just quoting a line from Forrest Gump, which won six Oscars that night." "The song Jungle Boogie is performed by Kool  The Gang, and was their second big hit when it was released in 1974." "Twenty years later, Pulp Fiction made the song a hit all over again with a whole new generation." "Kool  The Gang also had a song on the soundtrack to Travolta's previously most successful movie, Saturday Night Fever" "This scene became an instant classic." "Within a few years of the film's release, the scene became one of the most-quoted, best-loved and most-parodied scenes in movie history." "Quentin says, "They are on their way to blow away a couple of guys." "But the thing is, they're just going to work." "So they're having, like, a carpool conversation that you might have on your way to work."" "Dialogue is one of the things everyone loves most about Pulp Fiction" "Even though the film is 21/2 hours long, nobody complains that it's a slow movie." "That's because Quentin's dialogue gives the film energy and momentum." "The guy on the left is Vincent Vega and the guy on the right is Jules Winnfield." "One of Pulp Fiction s executive producers, Danny DeVito, starred in the film Twins The twins were named Vincent and Julius... almost the same names as these characters." "Jules and Vincent are driving a Chevy Nova." "A Chevy Nova was also the car stolen by the thieves in Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs" "The trunk shot is one of Quentin's favorite camera angles." "This point-of-view shot was also used in Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown" "Robert Rodriguez also used it in the Quentin-scripted, Quentin-starring From Dusk Till Dawn" "When Vincent says "our guy," he is referring to Marvin, the "inside man" in the apartment." "Jules is played by Samuel L. Jackson." "Samuel L. Jackson also played Big Don in True Romance, which was written by Quentin Tarantino." "Unfortunately, most of his performance in that film was edited out." "Samuel L. Jackson also played Ordell Robbie in Quentin's next film, Jackie Brown" "Sam Jackson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Pulp Fiction" "Martin Landau received the Oscar that year for his performance in Ed Wood" "Jules's character was originally supposed to have a gigantic Afro hairdo." "Since Sam Jackson normally wears his hair very short or completely shaved, a wig was required." "The crew member that was sent for Afro wigs also brought in a Jheri-curled wig." "Quentin and Sam loved it and used that instead of the Afro." "Sam attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, the same university attended by Spike Lee." "Spike Lee directed Jungle Fever, the first film to bring Sam widespread international acclaim." "Spike also directed Quentin in the film Girl 6" "Quentin played a film director called "Q.T."" "In this sequence, Quentin uses wide shots or two-shots instead of close-up shots." "This creates a rhythm that builds tension for the violence that is about to come." "Some people think Sam Jackson is a workaholic." "In the 10-year period from 1990 to 2000, Sam appeared in 49 films, an average of almost 5 films a year." "During the same period of time, Eddie Murphy only made 12 films." "Just like his filmmaking hero Brian De Palma, Quentin likes to use long Steadicam shots." "Note how long this next shot is going to be." "John Travolta plays Vincent in a role that is widely acknowledged as single-handedly reviving his acting career." "By 1980, Travolta was one of the most popular and successful movie stars in the world." "But by 1990, a series of unsuccessful films left him with fewer career choices for less money." "Quentin says, "Travolta is one of the best American film actors around." "He was awesome in De Palma's film Blow Out" ""I used to watch that film over and over and wonder why other directors weren't using him." ""No director's really used John to that effect since [De Palma] did in Blow Out, and before I worked with him, I felt he was like the secret weapon that nobody's using."" "Pulp Fiction changed Travolta's life." "He was nominated for an Academy Award and was deluged with acting offers." "While he was paid only $100,000 for appearing in Pulp Fiction, he now commands over $20 million per picture." "During casting, Quentin invited John to his L.A. apartment to discuss the film." "It turned out to be the very same apartment Travolta once lived in as a struggling Hollywood newcomer." "John was reluctant to take the role at first because he thought that Vincent was a negative role model." "Travolta's performance made the character so charming, likeable and cool that everyone loved him." "Some people wonder about the source of Vincent Vega's name." "The Vega brothers were not named after the Chevy Vega." "During the 1990s, Suzanne Vega was one of Quentin's favorite singer/songwriters." "In one of the deleted scenes, Vincent tells Mia Suzanne Vega is his cousin." "In a moment, Vincent and Jules walk down the hallway to kill some time, and the camera stays by the apartment door." "The camera doesn't follow them, almost as if it wants to remind the characters that the apartment is their priority." "Touches like this are reminiscent of French New Wave films like those of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut." "Godard's films would often parody cinematic conventions by calling attention to them." "The protagonists in Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, also wore black suits with black ties." "Quentin says, "When Jean-Pierre Melville was making his crime films, he talked about how it was very important that his characters have a 'suit of armor.'" ""[Melville had] the snap-brim fedora and Bogart-like trench coat. [Sergio] Leone had the duster, [Clint] Eastwood the poncho." ""I've always said the mark of any good action film is that when you get through seeing it, you want to dress like the character." ""That's totally the case, for instance, with Chow Yun-Fat's wardrobe in A Better Tomorrow." "The black suits in Pulp Fiction, that's my suit of armor."" "As the movie goes on, the suits gradually go from clean and crisp to dirty and mussed up, until Jules and Vince are finally forced to strip them off and dress in the exact opposite of cool: shorts and t-shirts." "Notice that we are just now coming to the end of the long Steadicam shot." "It's been one continuous shot for over 21/2 minutes." "This long, uninterrupted shot helps build the tension for the coming violence." "Pulp Fiction is infused with Quentin Tarantino's love of films." "From story lines to camera angles, from dialogue to hairdos, from characters to weapons, the film is filled with references to and inspirations from films around the world and throughout history." "Inspirations for this film include everything from 1950s teen flicks to 1970s Blaxploitation, from 1940s film noir to 1970s kung fu." "Combining old movie stories with modern movie style, Quentin fuses everything together to create a film entirely his own." "One of the enjoyable things about this film is that it reminds you of so many other great movies." "Hopefully by learning about some of Pulp Fiction s many cinematic references, you will be inspired to watch some of the movies that have inspired Quentin." "The door was opened by Marvin, the "inside man." He is standing in the corner by the door." "This is Brett." "He's played by Frank Whaley." "Frank has been in such films as Swimming With Sharks, Field of Dreams and A Midnight Clear." "Note that the earlier wide shots and long takes have now been replaced with tighter shots and lots of edits." "This changes the rhythm of the film and increases the tension for what's about to happen." "Note the framing of this shot." "Brett is seated, while Jules is standing." "This puts Jules in a position of power." "You can see Jules in front of Brett and Vincent behind Brett, creating the feeling that Brett is trapped between the two gunmen." "Big Kahuna Burgers are first mentioned in Quentin's film Reservoir Dogs A Big Kahuna Burger was also eaten by Seth in the movie From Dusk Till Dawn" "Five years after executive-producing Pulp Fiction, Danny DeVito acted in a film called The Big Kahuna" "If you pay attention, you'll see the amount of Brett's burger that has been eaten changes when Jules picks it up." "Jules and Vincent are here to get Marsellus's briefcase." "There has been a great deal of discussion in the media, on the Internet and in academic circles about what is in the briefcase." "Quentin has said he won't reveal the contents of the briefcase, preferring for viewers to decide on their own." "Later on in the movie we'll discuss some of the theories that viewers have about the briefcase contents." "You never see Vincent close up during this scene." "He is a threat that is hovering in the background, out of Brett's sight." "Marvin is played by Phil LaMarr." "He also played the stage manager in the film It s Pat, which starred Quentin's friend Julia Sweeney, who is also in Pulp Fiction" "Phil and Julia were members of the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings." "Phil was also a cast member on the sketch television show Mad TV" "Notice that while Jules is drinking, there is no cutaway to Brett." "Because the viewer expects to see Brett, the lack of edit builds tension even more." "When Jules refers to the guy on the couch as "Flock of Seagulls," he is referring to his stupid haircut." "Flock of Seagulls was an English band from the early 1980s whose biggest hit was I Ran (So Far Away)" "The band's singer had a strange haircut that fell into his eyes." "Singer Mike Score and his band-mate Frank Maudsley were former hairdressers." "Despite the success of the band's hit song, they are best known today for Mike's stupid haircut." "About the briefcase, Quentin says to fans, "I love the mythology that's in the movie and grown up around it." "So you think you want me to tell you [what's in the briefcase], but you don't."" "While some critics accuse Quentin of shocking viewers with gratuitous violence, in reality this film has very little on-screen violence, and what little there is, is balanced out with a lot of positive values." "The movie is not as violent as some people think it is (certainly not by the standards of modern action movies)." "It SEEMS more violent than it is because of how Quentin tells his story." "Most of the violence is off-screen." "When the guys in the apartment are shot, the camera is on Jules or Vincent, not on the victims." "When the hypodermic needle goes into Mia's chest, the camera cuts away to a reaction shot of Rosanna Arquette." "Marvin is shot in the car off-screen." "Zed and Maynard's assault of Marsellus (in the pawn shop basement) mostly occurs off-screen, except when Butch comes to rescue him." "The film only shows viewers six major deaths..." "Brett, Roger and the Fourth Man (all from the apartment): plus Vincent, Marvin and Maynard." "There are also three unseen or implied deaths..." "Floyd Wilson, the dead boxer:" "The Gimp, who we assume is dead from a broken neck: and Zed, who we assume will be dead when Marsellus is through with him." "Balancing out this body count are the lives of several people who are saved in the movie." "Mia is brought back from the dead after an overdose, Marsellus is saved by Butch in the basement and many potential victims in the coffee shop are saved after Jules talks Honey Bunny and Pumpkin into calling off their robbery." "And, of course, the lives of Jules and Vincent are saved when a volley of shots in the apartment misses them." "Jules chooses to call this a miracle, a sign from God, and retires from crime." "Vincent shrugs it off, and pays the price." "Jules's upcoming Ezekiel speech is reminiscent of Preacher Harry Powell, the murderous man of God played by Robert Mitchum in the classic film The Night of the Hunter" "Quentin was more inspired by Sonny Chiba's television series Kage No Gunda, or Shadow Warriors" "In the series, the villain would hear a lengthy morality lecture from Chiba about how the world must be rid of evil before finally being killed." "Quentin met Sonny in Japan while promoting Reservoir Dogs Quentin invited Sonny to visit the set of Pulp Fiction during filming." "Coincidentally, he arrived on the same day that Sam Jackson was delivering his Ezekiel speech in the apartment." "Quentin told Sonny how he was the inspiration for the scene." "Sam Jackson was excited about meeting the legendary action star because he is a huge fan of Sonny's martial arts films." "The Ezekiel speech was originally written for the character of Jacob (Harvey Keitel) to keep the vampires away in Quentin's script for From Dusk Till Dawn" "The actual text of Ezekiel is, "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes:" "and they shall know that I am the LQRD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them."" "The original text has been changed for his own dramatic purposes." "Quentin says, "I re-wrote it a little bit." "Typical writer... 'It doesn't work that well." "I gotta make that a little better.' Bible quotes are hard to re-write."" "When Jules finishes shooting the yuppie kids, his gun is locked back in the open position, indicating he is out of bullets." "When this scene replays later, the slide is forward and the gun remains loaded after firing, allowing him to blow away the hidden gunman who comes out of the bathroom." ""Let's Stay Together" was written by Al Green, Al Jackson Jr., Willie Mitchell, and performed by Al Green." "According to Al Green, the use of his song in this film brought him renewed recognition and led him to release his first secular album in 17 years (after years of recording only gospel albums)." "Although you never see it, the name of this bar is Sally Le Roy's." "Note the sharp line of a shadow on the bottom half of Butch's face, dividing it into light and dark." "Some think this represents his choice between good and evil." "Butch Coolidge is played by Bruce Willis." "Bruce Willis also made an uncredited appearance as Leo in Quentin's segment for the anthology film Four Rooms" "Halfway through the production of Pulp Fiction, the cinematographer Andrzej Sekula shattered his leg in a car accident." "He completed the film working in a wheelchair." "The man you can't see is Marsellus Wallace, the man Vincent and Jules work for." "From when he first wrote the script, Quentin knew that he would keep Marsellus off-camera during this scene." "Not showing Marsellus's face makes him seem like a more powerful, mysterious figure, and builds tension in the scene." "Marsellus is played by Ving Rhames." "Ving Rhames's real name is Irving Rhames." "He was given the nickname "Ving" by the actor Stanley Tucci, his one-time roommate in college." "In Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, Joe Cabot mentions an underworld figure who's away on a long stretch named Marsellus Spivey." "Floyd Wilson is the name of the fighter to whom Butch is supposed to lose." "Wilson was also the name of the fighter against whom Terry Malloy took a dive in On the Waterfront, probably the most famous boxer-takes-a-dive movie." "Many people wonder why there is a Band-Aid on Marsellus's neck." "Some think this proves that the devil has stolen Marsellus's soul (through an incision on the back of his head)." "The real reason is that Ving Rhames had a scar on the back of his neck." "The makeup artist covered it with a Band-Aid so that the scar wouldn't distract the audience." "In the original script, Vince arrives at Sally Le Roy's and parks right next to Butch's white Honda despite the fact the parking lot is almost empty." "This information about the parking will help you connect the next Butch scene with a later Vincent scene." "The ensemble cast meant that different stars came in to work at different times." "The crew described it as shooting three separate movies, each with its own set of stars." "The bartender refers to himself as "Paul."" "In the script, the character is described as "English Dave." "Dave isn't really English." "He's a young black man from Baldwin Park."" "When Quentin worked at Video Archives, he used to have a roommate known as "Dave the British Guy."" "In the diner scene at the end of the film, Jules refers to the character as "English Bob."" "Paul is played by Paul Calderon." "He also plays Norman in Quentin's anthology film Four Rooms" "Paul was a New York stage actor who almost got the part of Jules." "Sam Jackson had already been promised the role of Jules." "Paul auditioned for the part of Jules." "He really impressed everyone and almost took the part away from Sam." "Harvey Weinstein convinced Sam to come back in for a second audition." "Sam performed the final diner scene, blew everyone away and secured the role that made him a star." "In a moment, Butch will buy some Red Apple cigarettes." "They're a brand that Quentin made up." "Red Apple is also the brand of cigarettes smoked by Tim Roth's character in Four Rooms" "Red Apple cigarettes can also be seen on a billboard in Romy and Michele s High School Reunion" "That film had the same art director as From Dusk Till Dawn" "Vincent calls Butch "Palooka," a reference to a boxer named Joe Palooka who was supposed to lose a fight, but didn't." "Many people consider the term to be synonymous with a losing boxer." "Butch is angry at Vincent, but he doesn't want to pick a fight because he can see that Vincent is good friends with Marsellus." "You'll realize later that he found another way to get back at Vincent." "Instead of yelling "Cut" at the end of scenes, Quentin would sometimes just yell, "We're loving it!"" "This scene takes place in Echo Park, a suburb of Los Angeles." "This character with all the piercing is Jody, who is played by Rosanna Arquette." "Rosanna's brother Alexis Arquette plays The Fourth Man at the end of the movie, and her sister Patricia Arquette played the character of Alabama in True Romance" "Quentin asked Pam Grier to audition for the part of Jody but didn't think it would be believable for Eric to yell at her." "He finally got to work with Pam when he cast her in the lead role of Jackie Brown" "Jody's friend Trudy is played by Bronagh Gallagher, who was also in The Commitments and The Phantom Menace" "The drug dealer Lance is played by Eric Stoltz." "Lance was also the name of Clarence's boss in True Romance" "Both characters are named after Quentin's boss at Video Archives, Lance Lawson." "The second type of heroin is called "Bava" as a tribute to Mario Bava, the director of Black Sabbath, one of the inspirations for Pulp Fiction" "Eric appeared with Tim Roth in the film Bodies, Rest  Motion" "He was promoting the film at the Sundance Film Festival when Tim Roth introduced him to Quentin." "Quentin later agreed to appear in a film that Eric was producing called Sleep with Me" "Sleep with Me featured Quentin delivering an unforgettable monologue about the homosexual subtext of Top Gun" "The music in the background is "'Bustin' Surfboards" by the Tornadoes." "The Tornadoes were a California band formed by the Sanders brothers with a cousin and a friend." "They are unrelated to the other three bands called the Tornadoes." "There were bands called the Tornadoes in the Midwest, in Washington, and in England." "Lance is out of balloons, the traditional way to package and transport heroin." "Instead he uses a regular kitchen baggie." "This will become a problem later on." "When Vincent complains about his keyed car, we realize how Butch found a way to get back at Vincent." "Quentin originally had a monologue here with Lance complaining about a guy who intentionally gave him wrong directions." "Quentin took it out because he felt the movie needed to get to the date with Mia sooner." "You can see Lance's monologue in the deleted scenes section of the DVD." "The heroin scene determined the fate of this film." "Jersey Films had a distribution deal with TriStar Films, but TriStar did not want to release a film that featured a heroin user." "Miramax stepped in and signed a deal to take over the film, beginning a long and fruitful relationship with Quentin." "They have released all of Quentin's movies since then." "John Travolta was very hesitant about playing a heroin addict." "Quentin had to talk him into taking this role." "Vincent Vega drives a Chevelle Malibu convertible." "The Malibu driven by John Travolta in the film actually belonged to Quentin Tarantino." "It was later stolen." "In a moment, you will see footage of a city street projected behind Vincent's car." "This is called a "process shot" and was used in older films." "This is another example of Quentin calling attention to cinematic conventions, like Godard did." "The song playing in the background is "Bullwinkle, Part Il" by the Centurions." ""Son Of A Preacher Man" was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, and performed by Dusty Springfield." "According to Quentin, this song was always part of the scene." "Quentin says, "That sequence in the movie where a guy goes to a house to pick up a date and he's waiting for her, and there's all this tension..." ""That whole idea for a story I've had in my head for six or seven years, and it always was scored to 'Son of a Preacher Man.'" ""The key to the sequence was 'Son of a Preacher Man.' I can't even imagine it without 'Son of a Preacher Man.'" "I probably would have cut [the scene] out if I couldn't get 'Son of a Preacher Man."'" "Mia Wallace is played by Uma Thurman." "Uma was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Pulp Fiction" "Uma Thurman uses the word "disco" as an affirmation (like "bingo")." "Coincidentally, John Travolta starred in the most famous disco movie of all time, Saturday Night Fever" "The story of Vincent and Mia is reminiscent of the film Out of the Past, in which Robert Mitchum falls for a bad guy's girl." "Once again, Quentin is introducing a character without letting the viewer see their face." "As before, this builds tension about who we are about to meet." "The picture of Uma Thurman hanging on the wall was painted by Steve Martinez, the brother of Jerry Martinez, the chief graphic designer on Pulp Fiction" "Jerry has known Quentin since their days working together at the Video Archives video store." "In a scene that was deleted from the final movie, Mia first appears behind a camcorder, using it to interview Vincent and find out more about him." "In the deleted scene, Mia says the world can be divided into two types of people..." "Elvis people and Beatles people." "She decides Vincent is an Elvis man." "When Mia says, "An Elvis man should love it," she's referring to the earlier deleted interview scene." "The drawing effect is another homage to the unexpected anti-cinematic conventions of the French New Wave." "In the deleted scene, Mia also asks Vincent if he has ever fantasized about being beaten up by a girl." "He replies, "Sure." "Emma Peel on The Avengers" "Three years later, Uma Thurman played Emma Peel in a film version of The Avengers" "The Jack Rabbit Slim's bunny logo was designed by Russell Vossler and Gerald Martinez, two of Quentin's colleagues from Video Archives." "As they walk through the restaurant, you can see people imitating various pop culture icons of the 1950s and '60s." "The restaurant host is imitating Ed Sullivan, who hosted a very popular television variety show from 1948 to 1971." "Sullivan's show was an old-fashioned variety show, featuring a combination of every act imaginable... everything from Chinese acrobats to Broadway shows, from opera singers to sports figures, from plate spinners to rock bands." "The Ed Sullivan Show was so popular that his show was a Sunday night institution for Americans throughout the 1950s and '60s." "Some of the people who appeared on Ed Sullivan's show are the personalities you'll see in this restaurant:" "Ricky Nelson, Marilyn Monroe, Mamie van Doren, James Dean, and Martin  Lewis." "While most of the film was shot on existing locations, Jack Rabbit Slim's was built especially for this movie." "An ad for Jack Rabbit Slim's can also be heard during the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs." "In the background, you can hear two guys imitating the comedy/singing team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis." "Jerry Lewis was an actor who became a director (like Quentin)." "To help him direct, he invented the video assist, which is used by almost all filmmakers today." "The waiter dressed as Zorro is the film's producer, Lawrence Bender." "The restaurant is decorated with posters for the classic "B" movies that Quentin loves, such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Motorcycle Gang and The Young Racers" "The decor was inspired by such classic racing pictures as the Howard Hawks film Red Line 7000 and the Elvis Presley vehicle Speedway" "You can't see it until the dance scene, but the dance stage looks like a tachometer." "The Buddy Holly waiter is played by Steve Buscemi." "His schedule prevented him from having a major role in Pulp Fiction, but he agreed to play this cameo role." "In Reservoir Dogs, Buscemi played Mr. Pink, who refused to tip waitresses." "The character was based on Quentin, who in his early days was notorious among his friends for not tipping." "Buscemi thought Vincent and Mia should refuse to tip the Buddy Holly waiter." "Like all 1950s diners, the food here is named after '50s icons, but Quentin picked some a little more off-beat." "The "Douglas Sirk steak" refers to the great director of such films as Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels and Magnificent Obsession" "The steak can be prepared "burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell," a reference to the director's more melodramatic films." "Sirk's film Magnificent Obsession was remade by one of Quentin's favorite directors, John Woo, as The Killer" "Mia's burger is named after Durward Kirby, the announcer/co-host/performer on a number of 1950s variety shows." ""Amos 'n' Andy" refers to a radio and television show featuring black characters, while "Martin  Lewis" was a white stage and screen team." "This is the waiter's way of asking if she wants her milkshake chocolate or vanilla." "Note that Mia also smokes Red Apple cigarettes, the same brand that Butch smokes." "Mia calls Vincent "cowboy." Vincent calls Mia "cowgirl" in return." "John Travolta starred in the film Urban Cowboy, which was a massive box office success." "Uma Thurman starred in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which was a massive box office failure." "Later on, Winston Wolf asks Vincent, "How 'bout you, Lash LaRue?" "Can you keep your spurs from jingling and jangling?"" "Lash LaRue was an actor who came to fame in a series of Western movies in the late 1940s." "A lot of dialogue was cut out of this scene to emphasize the "uncomfortable silences" that go with a first date." "In the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD, you can see a longer, slower-paced version of this scene." "Uma refers to her "15 minutes." This is a reference to a very famous quote by Andy Warhol, a pop artist who claimed that "in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes."" "Uma Thurman talks about the pilot she did for a show called Fox Force Five" "This is not the only fictitious movie or show created by Quentin." "True Romance mentions The Return of T J Hooker and Coming Home in a Body Bag" "The character Mia describes playing in Fox Force Five bears some resemblance to the sexy spy Modesty Blaise." "For the rest of the movie, we will notice Vincent reading the book Modesty Blaise" "Quentin deleted the camcorder interview scene because he felt the cinematic device of the camcorder interview was becoming clichéd in films at the time." "Generally, Quentin doesn't have a lot of scenes that get cut out of the final film." "He does his editing during the writing period." "What's in the script is usually pretty close to the finished film." "Quentin did some tests transferring the camcorder scene from video to film." "At the time, Quentin says, he realized that you could shoot a feature on video and transfer it to film." "Before the end of the decade, this had become common practice." "In behind-the-scenes footage shot during the making of Pulp Fiction," "Bruce Willis points to a camcorder and says, "Someday, some kid will use one of these to make a feature film."" "Six years later, a film shot on a camcorder (The Blair Witch Project) became one of the highest-grossing movies of the year." "Tarantino says he loved working with Uma Thurman." ""After we worked on Pulp Fiction, we've always kind of felt she was my actress and I was her director." "So we just wanted to work together again."" "In the year 2002, the Pulp Fiction star and director are working on their next film together, tentatively titled Kill Bill" "According to Quentin, it was "an idea that I had on the set of Pulp Fiction" "I wrote the first 30 pages of it right after Pulp Fiction, then put it away."" "Seven years later, he pulled out Kill Bill and finished the script, which Quentin describes as a "balls-to-the-wall, violent revenge movie."" "Uma's hairdo is reminiscent of a score of cinematic vixens, from Louise Brooks in G.W. Pabst's film Pandora s Box (1928) to Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard's A Woman is a Woman (1961)" "to Melanie Griffith in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986)." "Mia's character contains a little bit of each of those other characters." "Like all those other women, she can lead a man to trouble." "Jack Rabbit Slim's is a parody of the 1950s "theme" restaurants that seemed to take over America in the 1980s and '90s." "In Quentin's script, he refers to this as "either the best or worst of these places, depending on your point of view."" "The production notes refer to this as "a theme diner on heroin."" "In this part of the scene, Quentin uses an unusual framing to reflect how the characters are uncomfortable with each other." "Uma Thurman has a very interesting family." "Her father, Robert A. F. Thurman, is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University School of Religion." "He was the first westerner to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk." "He named Uma for a Hindu goddess." "Her mother Nena was a Swedish model who became a psychotherapist." "At 16, Nena was discovered in Stockholm by photographer Norman Parkinson." "Salvador Dali introduced Uma's mother Nena to her first husband, Timothy Leary." "Uma's grandmother, Brigit Holmquist, has a nude statue of her standing in the port town of Trelleborg." "Uma once described herself as "Tall, sandy blonde, with sort of blue eyes, skinny in places, fat in others." "An average gal."" "Empire magazine didn't think she was average when they chose her as one of the Sexiest Stars in film history (#20 on the list)." "From 1990 to 1992, Uma was married to Gary Oldman, a close friend of Tim Roth." "Uma once said, "It is better to have a relationship with someone who cheats on you than with someone who does not flush the toilet."" "We don't know if she was talking about Gary." "The framing of the scene is now more conventional, to reflect how the characters are more comfortable with each other." "After Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, brought him international acclaim and attention, the world was anxiously awaiting the follow -up from this exciting new filmmaker." "Pulp Fiction did not disappoint." "If you weren't around at the time, it's hard to appreciate the incredible impact Pulp Fiction had when it was released." "Around the world, it received glowing reviews from ecstatic film critics as a masterpiece of an original talent." "So great was the impact and influence of Pulp Fiction that even though it was only Quentin's second film, the adjective "Tarantino-esque" instantly became widely accepted around the world." "You couldn't go anywhere that year where people weren't talking about the film, and Pulp Fiction references and parodies were all over the airwaves." "Pulp Fiction went on to become one of the most successful movies of the year, earning over $200 million worldwide and picking up seven Academy Award nominations." "Despite the fact that Forrest Gump swept the next year's Academy Awards, Pulp Fiction was THE film of 1994, and... many people say... the most important film of the decade." "It's worth noting that even though it made almost as much money as Forrest Gump, it was produced for a small fraction of Gump s budget." "It's important to Quentin to make films for reasonable prices so that financiers will get their money back and everyone can be happy and he'll be able to make more films." "Quentin says, "I always want to make sure I put the money on the screen." ""On Reservoir Dogs, we shot the movie for 1.5 million, but I wanted it to look like an eight-million-dollar movie." ""With Pulp, we had $8 million." "I wanted it to look like a $20-25 million movie." "I wanted it to look like an epic." "It's an epic in everything... in invention, in ambition, in length, in scope, in everything except the price tag."" "Pulp Fiction firmly established Tarantino as an influential filmmaking talent and a major Hollywood player." "The reason Mia says Vincent's name funny is because she is imitating Elvis Presley (remember, he's "an Elvis man")." "The song they dance to is You Never Can Tell, written and performed by Chuck Berry." "Many people felt that the dancing scene was an homage to Saturday Night Fever, which featured John Travolta doing a lot of disco dancing." "Quentin says, "Everybody thinks that I wrote this scene just to have John Travolta dancing." ""But the scene existed before John Travolta was cast." "But once he was cast, it was like, 'Great." "We get to see John dance." "All the better."'" "The dance competition is actually inspired by an earlier film, Jean-Luc Godard's Bande à parte" "Quentin says, "My favorite musical sequences have always been in Godard [films]," ""because they just come out of nowhere." "It's so infectious, so friendly." "And the fact that it's not a musical, but he's stopping the movie to have a musical sequence, makes it all the more sweet."" "Quentin explained some general moves to the two actors and showed them their basic moves, but otherwise they did not have any professional choreography help." "Quentin showed the actors the scene from Bande á parte to show them what he was looking for in the scene." "Quentin said some of Mia's dance moves were inspired by the dancing of Duchess in the Disney animated feature The Aristocats" "Quentin stood to the side and called out dance moves for John and Uma to do." "The dancing became one of the most iconic scenes of the film." "Some think that Mia and Vincent did not win the dance contest, but in fact stole the trophy to make it look like they had won." "The exchange about too much information was one Quentin used to have with his friends." "So far we've seen Mia with a record player and a reel-to-reel tape player." "Apparently she does not have a CD player." "The song "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" was originally written and performed by Neil Diamond, who scored a Top 20 hit with the song in 1967" "This version is performed by Urge Qverkill, who recorded it for their Stull E.P." "Quentin says, "I've always loved Neil Diamond's version of that song, but I like their version even better." ""Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was the song Mia had to dance to by herself." "It was one of those things where I was in love with four or five [other] songs, then I found my true love."" "The bathroom mirror is an effective metaphor for the character's self-reflection." "Quentin likes using bathrooms for these moments of reflection." "Quentin says, "It's small, it's private and you have a mirror in front of you." "What more could you want?"" "Other Quentin characters that talk to themselves in the mirror include Freddie in Reservoir Dogs and Clarence in True Romance" "Remember how Lance was out of balloons?" "Because of the baggie, Mia thinks that Vince's extremely pure heroin is just cocaine." "The idea for this scene has its roots in Quentin's aborted attempt at a first film, My Best Friend s Birthday, when his character of Clarence snorts itching powder that he believes to be cocaine." "The media focused a lot of attention on the casting of John Travolta in this film." "Some people feel that Quentin plays an important role giving second chances to actors that are forgotten by everyone else." "Quentin says he's happy to help out actors, but his motivation is to make movies the best way he can, and that's by casting actors that are as adventurous as his writing and directing." "Quentin says, "I think there is far less artistry in the casting of most mainstream movies than there should be." ""The biggest problem is that most of the mainstream movies are working from the same list, so in a given year, you see the same character actor who happens to be hot at the moment."" "Quentin has always stressed that his priority is casting the best actor for the part, no matter who the actor is." "Quentin's motto is, "Treat actors like they're movie stars, and treat movie stars like they're actors."" "From Dusk Till Dawn star George Clooney says, "Quentin's in a great position in that he can get films made with those people." "It's the great advantage of being Quentin, and he's taking full advantage, which is not just admirable but smart on his part."" "This shot reflects a couple conventions of classic film noir movies." "First, the streets are wet, which allows the lights to reflect off the pavement." "Second, the hero is driving a convertible." "Besides making him cool, it also makes it easier to see the action inside the car." "Lance is watching The Three Stooges" "The line about love birds is delivered by Emil Sitka, who received credit as "Hold Hands, You Love Birds!"" "A character actor for over 50 years, Emil claimed to have appeared in 450 movies." "He's most famous for his appearances in 35 short films with The Three Stooges." "He has the distinction of having worked with all six of the men who played Stooges." "He has also been in such feature films as Who Done It?" "The Well and Blackboard Jungle" "When Vincent calls Lance, Lance is eating a bowl of Fruit Brute cereal." "This cereal was made by General Mills from 1975 to 1983." "Fruit Brute was from the "monster" family of cereals, along with Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry and Yummy Mummy." "Fruit Brute was the first of these cereals to be discontinued." "Quentin passionately loves cereal and has held onto this box for years, which he drops into his movies from time to time." "It previously appeared in Reservoir Dogs, where it can be seen in Freddie's apartment." "Quentin diffuses a lot of the violence in his films with humor, just like one of his biggest filmmaking influences, Brian De Palma, did." "Quentin says, "De Palma was a big influence to me." ""And one of the things about De Palma that people never talk about is that I think De Palma is probably the greatest black-satirist of the last 20 years in cinema." ""I mean, his films are hysterical, biting black comedies." ""I mean, you know, no one has his wit, at all." ""His wit is just fantastic, even though he never makes official comedies." "But like, you know, Scorsese, he's just daring."" "This scene is shot with a handheld camera to make the action feel more "real."" "You see one car drive past the front door." "When Lance gets outside, a second car has already been placed in the crash position." "The documentary style of this scene makes it feel more immediate and energetic." "When Vincent and Lance are preparing to give Mia the adrenaline injection, the board games Operation and Life are visible on a stool in the living room." "The fact that you can't see in the room increases the tension." "The brand name of the adrenaline (Wasco Med) is named after the production designer, David Wasco." "Before shooting the film, Quentin Tarantino couldn't decide if he was going to play the character of Lance or Jimmie." "He ended up choosing Jimmie because he wanted to be behind the camera during this scene." "Reality Check:" "Don't try this at home, because it wouldn't work." "Stabbing a thin and long needle into the sternum would most likely cause the needle to break, no matter how sharp the point is." "Also, adrenaline would have no effect on a patient with life-threatening levels of heroin in his/her system." "Drugs for a heroin overdose (for example, Narcan) are normally injected intravenously since any attempt to send it directly to the heart would not be absorbed fast enough to be effective." "When this film screened for the first time in the U.S. at the New York Film Festival, somebody fainted during this scene and the movie had to be stopped." "The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia's chest was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards." "If John had slammed it into Uma's chest as hard as it looks, he could have broken her ribs." "Note that Quentin does not use a process shot during this scene." "The cartoon is Clutch Cargo, a very strange children's show from 1959." "It was an action show made up of still pictures." "For the dialogue, moving human lips were superimposed onto the mouths of drawings." "Butch's mother is played by Brenda Hillhouse, who also played the hostage Gloria in From Dusk Till Dawn" "In that film, her character is raped and murdered by Quentin's character." "This is Captain Koons." "Koons was also the name of Vic Vega's parole officer in the original script of Reservoir Dogs" "Captain Koons is played by Christopher Walken." "Christopher Walken also played Vincent Coccotti in True Romance." "This monologue about life in a P.Q.W. camp is inspired by his Academy Award-winning performance as a P.Q.W. in the Vietnam war movie The Deer Hunter." "This scene was filmed on the very last day of shooting." "Quentin says, "I felt it was if we made three separate movies, and then shot this little short film on the last day."" "Because Christopher was working on another film at the time, he didn't really have time to rehearse the scene with Quentin ahead of time." "They scouted the location together, but that was it." "According to Quentin, Christopher showed up on the day of shooting and totally nailed the scene." "Quentin says, "He knew the monologue word for word, perfectly."" "Between takes, Christopher would drink Tabasco sauce." "Lawrence Bender assumed that drinking Tabasco was some sort of method acting technique to get him into the pain of the character." "Christopher said the real reason was much more practical." "The hot sauce produced saliva, which helped keep his mouth lubricated during the very long speech." "Many people incorrectly remember this monologue as being shot in one long take." "Quentin says, "I shot maybe 13 or 14 takes of the basic shot, the kid's point of view." ""Then I did five or six takes of him doing it in close-up, and then I had the little kid." ""He's telling a three-part story about the First World War, the Second World War, and then Vietnam." ""I used the more humorous take on the First World War," ""and then on the second war story, which is more tragic, I took his darkest take, and then, for the Vietnam story, I took his most irreverent take."" "Christopher's real name is Ronald Walken." "At the age of ten, Christopher Walken met Jerry Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour when Lewis  Martin were the guest hosts." "Jerry encouraged Christopher to pursue a career in show business." "Christopher had a successful career as a child actor, singer and dancer on stage and television." "Christopher worked briefly as a lion tamer in a circus at age 15." "Christopher won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Deer Hunter." "To date, he is the only Oscar-winning actor to portray a Bond villain (in A View to a Kill)." "Captain Koons refers to an airman named Winocki, who transported the watch back to safety." "Winocki is the name of John Garfield's character in Air Force, a film directed by Howard Hawks, one of Quentin's favorite directors." "Christopher gets typecast in films a lot, portraying psychologically unstable characters." "In reality, he has a stable life, and has been married to the same woman for over 30 years." "Christopher was George Lucas's second choice for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars" "This scene leaves viewers with a feeling they have completely departed from the movie's story." "Only later will we understand how this scene connects to Butch's story." "There's more violent scenes coming up later." "The perception of Quentin as a violent filmmaker dates back to Reservoir Dogs." "Many people thought that it was an extremely violent film just because of one infamous scene." "In reality, the notorious "ear scene" which everyone thought was so violent occurs off-camera." "Quentin says, "The thing is, the film got a lot of remarks because of the violence in it." ""And in a way, I always kind of took it as a big compliment because I know the film isn't that violent." ""They thought it was far more violent than it was, all right?" ""De Palma has said that, 'when you do violence, you actually get penalized for doing it well.'" ""Hacks don't get penalized for, you know, showing anything because it doesn't mean anything, all right?" ""So in a way, they're saying, 'Good filmmaking.'" ""All right, especially since the movie [Reservoir Dogs] is a talking heads movie." ""It's these people talking to each other for the entire 90 minutes with, like, three acts of violence in the movie." "The most notorious one you don't even see on screen." "All right, so it's like, 'Well, thanks [for the compliment]'."" "Roger Avary originally wrote a story called Pandemonium Reigns about a boxer who refuses to throw a fight." "Quentin took Roger's story, adapted it into the "Gold Watch" story, and incorporated it into the rest of the movie." "The voices of the two boxing announcers heard on the radio are played by Bob Ruth and Rich Turner." "Bob Ruth is the cop shot by Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs, as well as a patron in the Pulp Fiction coffee shop." "Rich Turner appeared in Quentin's unfinished early film My Best Friend s Birthday, as well as playing the sheriff in Reservoir Dogs and an ugly American tourist in Killing Zoe" "The marquee on the boxing arena advertises the following fights..."Coolidge vs. Wilson" and "Vossler vs. Martinez."" "Besides being the last names of Butch and his opponent, "Coolidge vs. Wilson" also refers to two U.S. Presidents..." "Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) and Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)." ""Vossler vs. Martinez" is a reference to Russ Vossler and Jerry Martinez, two friends who worked with Quentin at Video Archives." "Vossler and Martinez used to live together, and their constant fighting was the butt of jokes around the store." "Notice that we still cannot see Marsellus's face." "This maintains his aura of mystery and power." "Behind Butch you can see another process shot." "Quentin is using this effect to evoke classic film noir movies, which Butch's story emulates." "Esmarelda the cab driver is played by Angela Jones." "While writing Pulp Fiction, Quentin attended a film festival in Italy, where he saw a short film called Curdled" "It was about a young woman who develops a morbid fascination with violence and death when she has to clean up after murders." "Quentin was impressed enough to approach the filmmakers about using the lead actress Angela Jones to play a similar character in Pulp Fiction" "Curdled also inspired him to write "The Bonnie Situation," about a post-homicide clean-up." "Quentin helped the producers of Curdled make it into a full-length feature film, which he executive-produced." "The feature film version of Curdled also includes an appearance by The Gecko Brothers as fugitives on a crime TV show." "The Gecko Brothers became the lead characters in From Dusk Till Dawn" "John Travolta's wife Kelly Preston appears as a television reporter in both Curdled and From Dusk Till Dawn" "Bruce Willis's nickname is "Bruno." He recorded a music album called The Return of Bruno" "His left shoulder is injured from his days of high school wrestling." "Wrestling also gave him the stocky build and thick neck he has now." "There was originally a longer version of this scene, but Quentin decided to shorten it to keep the pace of the movie moving quickly." "Bruce's children were friends with Harvey Keitel's children, so Harvey introduced Bruce to Quentin." "Bruce volunteered to appear in Pulp Fiction for a small fraction of his usual salary." "In 1980, Bruce was working as a bartender in New York when a casting director liked his personality and cast him as a bartender in a small movie role." "This led to other small movie roles, which led to the television show Moonlighting, which made him a star, which led to bigger feature films." "Die Hard made Bruce into an international action star, and he now commands over $20 million per picture." "So far, Bruce has been in six movies with numbers in the title..." "The First Deadly Sin, Twelve Monkeys, Four Rooms, The Fifth Element, The Sixth Sense and The W hole Nine Yards" "After Pulp Fiction, Bruce went on to work with Sam Jackson in Die Hard with a Vengeance (a.k.a. Die Hard 3)." "Instead of placing one big bet with one bookie, Butch spread several small bets with several bookies to avoid attracting attention and possibly leading Marsellus to him." "Butch is supposed to meet his connection in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is where his great-grandfather bought the gold watch." "Knoxville is also Quentin Tarantino's birthplace." "The taxicab is from the 1940s, another echo of classic films noir." "Esmarelda's cab belongs to Big Jerry's Cab Co." ""Big Jerry" was a nickname Quentin gave to Gerald Martinez when they worked at Video Archives." "Quentin's friend Russ Vossler designed the logo for the side of the cab." "Butch's girlfriend Fabienne is played by Maria de Medeiros." "While Fabienne is from France, Maria is from Portugal." "Quentin met Maria while touring European film festivals with Reservoir Dogs" "In 1990, Maria co-starred with Uma Thurman in a film called Henry and June" "Uma played Henry Miller's wife June while Maria played erotic author Anais Nin, who has an affair with Henry (and June)." "The release of Henry and June was controversial because it was the first film to receive the "NC-17" film rating (which means no children under 17 permitted)." "Some people think it's ironic that Henry and June received an "NC-17" rating for a little bit of sex while Pulp Fiction s profanity, drugs and violence received only an "R" rating." "Another person who has challenged sexual limits in pop culture is Madonna." "Fabienne mentions Madonna, who was discussed at length in Reservoir Dogs." "This scene is reminiscent of films from the French New Wave." "Pulp Fiction got its start in 1989, when Quentin's script for True Romance was stuck in development." "Quentin and his then-cowriter Roger Avary talked about diverting their creative energies into a new project... an anthology of three connected short films." "The original inspiration came from a film called Black Sabbath" "The 1963 Italian anthology was a stylish collection of three horror stories directed by Mario Bava." "As an appreciation to Bava, Quentin named one of the heroin types after the director." "Quentin and Roger tentatively titled the project The Black Mask, in tribute to the legendary pulp crime magazine." "Black Mask was a fiction magazine that was the birthplace of hard-boiled fiction and the career launch pad for more great crime writers than any other." "Many now -legendary writers and their star creations were featured in Black Mask" "Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade), Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe), Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason)," "John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee) and many more classic crime tales were published in the pages of this legendary magazine between 1921 and 1951." "Launched originally by H.L. Mencken and a partner to help provide funding for another of their (more respectable) magazines," "Black Mask eventually became the most famous pulp magazine." "When crime fiction aficionados use the term "pulp fiction,"" "the publication they usually have in mind is Black Mask" "Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary discussed the possibility of having each of the three stories directed by a different person." "Quentin later went on to execute this idea in the anthology film Four Rooms" "After their initial development, they suspended work on the project." "A couple years later, after the success of Reservoir Dogs, Jersey Films offered Quentin a $900,000 advance for his next film." "Quentin decided to revive the Black Mask material." "In March of 1992, Quentin decided to use some of this money to rent an apartment in Amsterdam and concentrate on writing his next script." "Over the next ten months, he toured European film festivals promoting Reservoir Dogs and rewrote the Black Mask material into a new script called Pulp Fiction." "The term "pulp fiction" existed long before Quentin made this film." "The title was an homage to a tradition of paperback writing that traced back to the 1930s." "The genre included mostly horror and crime novels intended to be read and discarded." "Some of the writers of pulp fiction who most influenced Quentin were Jim Thompson (The Grifters, After Dark, My Sweet)," "Cornell Woolrich (The Bride Wore Black, Rear Window), Fredric Brown (Screaming Mimi, Crack-Up)," "Charles Willeford (Miami Blues, Cockfighter) and Elmore Leonard (310 to Yuma, 52 Pick-Up)" "Many of these classic pulp writers have had their books adapted into movies." "Quentin's movie brought the term "pulp fiction" into widespread public consciousness and made it synonymous with the genre of hard-boiled crime fiction." "Looking through the door into the bathroom, it's a forced perspective." "This gives the viewer the sense they are eavesdropping on a private conversation." "Butch tells Fabienne that she does not speak "Bora-Boran," which is not a real language." "Bora Bora was a French colony, and Fabienne speaks French, so in a way she does speak "Bora-Boran."" "Fabienne starts to tell Butch something, then stops." "Many wonder what she was going to say." "Some people think that because they were just talking about time, she was about to tell Butch that she forgot the watch." "The film playing in the motel room is The Losers, about five Hell's Angels sent to Cambodia by the CIA to rescue a presidential adviser who has been captured by communists." "The noises from this war movie wake up Butch with a reminder that he is in a war like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were." "The footage of the motorcycle foreshadows Butch's getaway on a motorcycle." "Some people wonder why Fabienne is brushing her teeth a second time." "While there's nothing wrong with good hygiene, it is odd to see her doing it twice in quick succession." "The timing of the brushings isn't as close as you think." "The first time she brushes is right before she goes to bed." "The second time is after she wakes up." "Because the brushings are right after each other, Butch feels like he just closed his eyes." "The camera starts pushing in slowly." "This creates tension by letting the viewer know that something bad is about to happen." "Fabienne says, "Any time of day is a good time for pie."" "Alabama also says this in True Romance" "Ralph Meeker's portrayal of Mike Hammer was an inspiration for the character of Butch." "Quentin says, "I wanted him to be a bully and a jerk." "I basically wanted him to be like Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly"" "In the original script, Butch stops on the way to his apartment, gets out of the car and debates with himself about retrieving the watch." "He decides his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all made sure the watch survived a war, and he has to make sure the watch survives his war with Marsellus." "When Butch sneaks past the apartment building, he can hear a radio advertising Jack Rabbit Slim's." "Here is another fictitious brand..." "Sam's Toaster Pastries." "Guns or danger occurring outside of bathrooms is a common theme in Quentin's films." "In True Romance, something bad happens to Clarence in the hotel bathroom, and in From Dusk Till Dawn, the Ranger who uses the gas station bathroom gets killed." "In this film, every time Vincent goes to the bathroom, something bad happens." "The first time he goes to the bathroom in Pulp Fiction, Mia overdoses, the second time, he gets shot by Butch and the third time, Honey Bunny and Pumpkin start their robbery at the diner." "The beeping noise is the sound of the smoke alarm." "Look at the book that Vince was reading on the toilet." "It's Modesty Blaise, a "pulp" novel which is very much in the spirit of this film's inspiration." "The novel Modesty Blaise was written by Peter O'Donnell in 1965 and featured the story of a female criminal mastermind who becomes a secret agent." "A Modesty Blaise film was made in 1966 starring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde." "After Pulp Fiction, Miramax bought the rights to the Modesty Blaise series, hoping to turn it into a new series of films directed by Quentin and starring Uma Thurman." "Many wonder why a professional such as Vince left his gun on the counter when he went to the bathroom." "Vince didn't leave his gun on the counter because the gun wasn't his." "It belonged to Marsellus." "Jules had given up "the life" by this point so Marsellus came along with Vincent." "Besides, Marsellus had a personal interest in carrying out this job." "Because Vince was with somebody else at the apartment, he didn't react when Butch came in (he thought he knew who it was)." "For further evidence, look at the scene where Butch runs Marsellus over... the crime boss is carrying two cups of coffee, one for him and one for Vince." "The song "Flowers on the Wall" is performed by The Statler Brothers." "This was their biggest hit." "The Statler Brothers took their name from a manufacturer of tissues." "As an homage to Pulp Fiction, Bruce Willis's character in Die Hard with a Vengeance quotes the song "Flowers on the Wall."" "Note that right as Butch stops talking, the song reaches the lyric "Captain Kangaroo,"" "reminding us of the kangaroo where the watch was hanging." "Note that right as the song reaches the lyric, "It's good to see you,"" "Butch sees Marsellus walking in front of him." "This is the first time we see Marsellus's face." "When Marsellus walks in front of Butch's car at a stoplight, it's just like the scene in Hitchcock's film Psycho when Marion's boss crosses the street in front of her car." "The woman who thinks Marsellus is dead is played by Karen Maruyama." "Karen was also a member of The Groundlings." "The bystander who offers to be a witness is played by Kathy Griffin." "Kathy also played Betty in the anthology film Four Rooms" "Kathy was also a member of The Groundlings comedy troupe" "The innocent bystander shot by Marsellus Wallace ("Shot Woman") is played by Linda Kaye, who has appeared in some of Quentin's other films." "Linda is pulled out of her car by Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs ("Shocked Woman")." "Linda also appeared in Quentin's uncompleted early film My Best Friend s Birthday" "This is the Mason-Dixon Pawn Shop." "The original Mason-Dixon Line was surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in 1763-1767" "From 1820 onward, the name Mason-Dixon Line came to be an expression meaning the boundary between the free states and the slave states." "Nowadays, the name Mason-Dixon Line is used colloquially to mean the boundary between the Northern and Southern states, or between the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War." ""Mason-Dixon" is used here to let viewers know that these are redneck hillbillies." "Any violence that occurs in Quentin's films is just a small part of the story, but that doesn't stop some critics from concentrating on it." "Critics who focus on the violence miss the point that it is just one of the many tools that Quentin uses to tell a story." "Quentin says, "One of the analogies I've always used is that I have no more problem with violence in my movies" ""than I do with musical sequences in Vincente Minnelli movies." ""It's simply one of the things that you can do in cinema that's interesting to watch." ""And I feel totally great and fine in saying that in real life I have a major problem with violence." "I do think our society is too violent, but I have no problem going to a film and seeing violence on the screen."" "Most of the politicians and religious groups who condemned the film as violent and offensive never saw the film, and completely missed the positive messages in the film." "Amongst the positive and politically correct messages in the film..." "Pulp Fiction celebrates interracial friendship and cultural diversity." "There is no violence directed against women." "Both drugs and violence are shown to have dangerous consequences." "The film avoids stereotypes of gender, race and class, and is filled with strong women and strong black men and people of all classes." "There is no nudity." "The only sex is when a crime boss gets raped, and the only essentially "evil" people in the film are two sadistic hillbillies straight out of Deliverance who do the raping." "Any violence that occurs is integral to the plot and usually occurs off-camera." "All of these qualities are in sharp contrast to the standard Hollywood big-budget action film that is filled with gratuitous violence, sex, nudity, class and racial stereotypes." "Some of Quentin's other films have characters who are tied up and tortured..." "Marvin Nash in Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Worley in True Romance, Gloria the teller in From Dusk Till Dawn" "Zed is played by Peter Greene." "You may recognize him from The Usual Suspects and The Mask" "Note that you can see Butch and Marsellus in the foreground as Maynard releases The Gimp in the background." "Quentin is showing us the victims of violence (Butch and Marsellus) as well as the perpetrator of violence (The Gimp)." "Allowing us to see them in the same shot builds tension for the violence that's about to come." ""Eeny-meenie-miney-mo" was also used by Mallory in Natural Born Killers to choose a victim in the opening scene." "All the clocks in the pawn shop are set to 4:20." "4-20 is the police code for the smoking of marijuana." "The Gimp is played by Stephen Hibbert." "Stephen was married to Julia Sweeney at the time of Pulp Fiction." "Stephen was also a writer and composer." "The song "Comanche" was written and performed by The Revels." "The rape scene is reminiscent of Deliverance, a John Boorman film that Quentin is a big fan of." "The nightmare of scary hillbillies also reminds some viewers of the frighteningly fiendish family in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another favorite film of Quentin's." "Sodomy was discussed by Nice Guy Eddie and Vic in Reservoir Dogs, and was also described by Dimes and Nichols to Elliot in True Romance" "If you look fast, when Butch first comes up from the basement, we see a quick shot of Zed's key ring with a "Z."" "Then, if you look quickly, there is a neon sign in the back for "Killian's Red." The only letters that are still lit spell "Kill... ed."" "Put it together and we are left with the subliminal message "Kill Zed."" "When Butch goes to leave the pawn shop after freeing himself, he pauses for a moment to think." "Right behind Butch is a Tennessee license plate." "Butch can either go to Tennessee and collect his money or go back to help Marsellus Wallace." "Butch's conscience tells him go back and save Marsellus." "While Butch is unconscious of this, his rescue of Marsellus will redeem him for the murder of Wilson in the previous night's boxing match." "Redemption has always been a powerful cinematic theme, and no more so than throughout Pulp Fiction... for instance, when Jules keeps Vincent from killing Honey Bunny and Pumpkin in the diner." "Even though the film is filled with drug dealers, hit men and other criminally minded "lowlifes," they are all portrayed as basically good people." "The closest we ever get to a law enforcement character in this film is the "Security Officer" Zed." "He is a very bad person." "As Butch runs through his choice of weapons for his heroic deed, he brings to mind a variety of cinematic precedents." "The baseball bat recalls Joe Don Baker in Walking Tall, the chainsaw recalls Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the samurai sword recalls Sonny Chiba in Shadow Warriors" "Butch's choice of the samurai sword is most likely a reference to Tarantino's admiration of Asian action films, where honor and respect are always important, even to criminals." "Butch's decision to return and save Marsellus is a perfect example of the 'Honor Among Thieves' theme that Quentin loves in classic Hong Kong action movies." "After Butch kills Maynard, Marsellus Wallace says that he's going to call some friends" ""to go to work on 'homes' here with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch."" "In the film Charley Varrick, a character named Maynard warns a bank manager that some mobsters "will go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch."" "Marsellus also promised to "get medieval on your ass." This was another one of the most-quoted lines from the film." "Ving Rhames was born in New York City." "He attended Julliard Drama School." "He has appeared in such films as Rosewood, Out of Sight, and Bringing Out the Dead." "He also appeared in Casualties of War, one of Quentin's favorite films." "He won a Golden Globe for his performance as Don King in Only in America." "The motorcycle has the name "Grace" written on it." "The name has multiple meanings." "He is also literally delivered from evil by the motorcycle Grace." "Now that Butch has redeemed himself by saving Marsellus, he is metaphorically delivered from evil by the grace of God." "Grace was also the name of Quentin's long-time girlfriend when he made the film." "The guy in the bathroom (only known as The Fourth Man) is played by Alexis Arquette." "The Fourth Man is sometimes referred to as "Seinfeld" because of his resemblance to the popular comedian." "The gun he is holding is a.357 magnum." "The gun was made famous by appearances in the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry films, of which Quentin is a big fan." "Once again, Quentin introduces a character while he is listening to someone off-screen." "This allows us to focus on the character's reaction to what is being said." "Alexis is the brother of Rosanna, Patricia and David Arquette." "Rosanna Arquette is in Pulp Fiction, and Patricia Arquette starred in True Romance" "The father of the Arquette siblings is Lewis Arquette, who is also an actor and has appeared in dozens of films, from Chopper Chicks in Zombietown to Waiting For Guffman" "There are bullet holes clearly visible in the wall behind Jules and Vince before The Fourth Man fires his gun at them." "There are a lot of theories about this." "Some say it's an editing error, but it's too obvious to not have been done on purpose." "Some say that the holes were there because it was a dumpy, run-down apartment." "Some say they're there to prove it wasn't a "miracle."" "The only man they don't kill in the apartment is Marvin." "That's because Marvin also works for Marsellus." "Marvin is also the name of the cop in Reservoir Dogs (Marvin Nash), as well as a minor character in True Romance (one of Coccotti's goons)." "This conversation is shot with the characters in profile." "This reinforces how the characters are in opposition to each other." "Two of the scenes that Roger Avary contributed to this film were originally in the script that was written for True Romance but were cut out of that film." "The first is the emergence from the bathroom of a hidden gunman who fires off a torrent of shots but completely misses his target." "The second was this scene... the accidental firing of a gun inside a car, leading to a bloody death." "Marvin's "head" was blown up with an air mortar, which is sort of like a scuba tank that blasts air into the dummy head." "The fake head was filled with oatmeal, chunks of latex, and fake blood, which explode all over the inside of the car." "Some people wonder how Marvin's head could be blown apart from just one bullet." "In the original script, Marvin was still alive after being shot in the throat." "Vincent then shoots him a second time to put Marvin out of his misery." "During filming, Quentin decided to make it a single-bullet killing because he thought it would be funnier." "While most viewers did think it was funny, some people were horrified by this scene and pointed it out as reason for condemning the film." "When the WB network aired a version of Pulp Fiction on broadcast television, they removed (in addition to many others) the scene where John Travolta shoots Marvin by accident." "Instead they replaced it with a black screen over Vincent saying, "Oh, man, I just shot Marvin."" "Many viewers wonder how a guy like Jimmie Dimmick knows a gangster like Jules." "Jimmie used to work for Marsellus (as Jules's partner), but when he married Bonnie, she made him quit the business, and Jules respects that." "The partnership of Jules and his friend Jimmie is a reference to François Truffaut's film Jules et Jim" "Jimmie is played by Quentin Tarantino." "Quentin also played Mr. Brown in Reservoir Dogs," "Chester Rush in Four Rooms and Ritchie Gecko in From Dusk Till Dawn" "He also acted in an episode of the sitcom All-American Girl, which starred his friend Margaret Cho." "The episode was a parody of Pulp Fiction and was called "Pulp Sitcom."" "Quentin is wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of Orby, the mascot for Orbit magazine, a local alternative newspaper in Metro Detroit." "Orbit writer Paul Zimmerman interviewed Quentin about Reservoir Dogs when it first came out and gave him an Orby T-shirt, which Quentin said he'd wear in his next film." "Jimmie's wife is a nurse named Bonnie." "In Reservoir Dogs, Nice Guy Eddie refers to a nurse named Bonnie." "Bonnie was also a colleague of Lee in True Romance" "Quentin is also a big fan of the film Coffy, which stars Pam Grier as a night nurse." "This is The Wolf (also known as Winston Wolf), who is played by Harvey Keitel." "Quentin specifically wrote The Wolf character for Harvey Keitel." "Some viewers wonder why Winston Wolf was dressed in a tuxedo at 8:30 in the morning." "From the people and surroundings, it seems to be an all-night private gambling party." "This time subtitle demonstrates how good the Wolf is at what he does (not to mention it reinforces the film's humor)." "The Wolf's mustache is evocative of other dapper and sophisticated movie stars like Errol Flynn and Clark Gable." "The Wolf's elegant tuxedo is an ironic contrast to the bloody work he performs." "Harvey Keitel played a similar character (Victor the Cleaner) in Point of No Return, which was a remake of La Femme Nikita" "Point Of No Return also starred Bridget Fonda, who went on to co-star in Tarantino's next feature, Jackie Brown" "Harvey Keitel also played the preacher Jacob in From Dusk Till Dawn and Mr. White (a.k.a. Larry) in Quentin's film Reservoir Dogs" "According to Quentin, "Harvey had been my favorite actor since I was 16 years old." "I'd seen him in Mean Streets and Taxi Driver and other stuff."" "Harvey was the first actor cast in Reservoir Dogs and played an important role in getting Quentin's first film made." "Producer Lawrence Bender gave the Dogs script to his acting tutor, who gave it to his wife, who gave it to Harvey Keitel, who agreed to appear in the film." "Harvey's commitment to the film was a critical turning point in getting Reservoir Dogs made and launching Quentin's career." "Harvey has always been enthusiastic about working with first-time directors, from Martin Scorsese (Who s that Knocking at My Door?" "in 1968) to Ridley Scott (The Duelists in 1977) to Alan Rudolph (Welcome to L A in 1977), Paul Schrader (Blue Collar in 1978), James Toback (Fingers in 1978) and Tony Bui (Three Seasons in 1999)." "Harvey makes a lot of films." "In the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000, Harvey appeared in 64 films, an average of over 3 films a year." "During the same period of time, Marlon Brando only made eight films." "Keitel was a juvenile delinquent until the age of 16, when he was sent to Lebanon with the Marine Corps." "Harvey has had some other interesting jobs." "He worked as a women's shoe salesman and was a court stenographer in NYC for about ten years." "In 1995, Empire magazine chose Harvey as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history." "In 1997, they ranked him #37 their list of The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time." "Given that Vince has "risen from the dead," now is a good time to talk about the film's unique structure." "A great deal has been made about how Quentin's story jumps around." "Some critics unfairly felt that because Quentin used a non-linear structure in both of his first two films, it has become a "gimmick" for him." "Quentin says, "If I had a film that worked dramatically better from the beginning, middle and end perspective, then I would tell it that way."" "Quentin wrote the film in the order you see it happen." "He did not write it in chronological sequence and then rearrange it." "Quentin says, "I'm a storyteller." "I really like experimenting with a kind of cinema that you're not used to seeing." "Or taking the form and stretching it and twisting it and doing things that you're not used to seeing all the time."" "Pulp Fiction switches back and forth between the different stories, playing with time and place." "While this storytelling device may seem completely new to young filmgoers, this alternative structure has been used in many other films." "The fragmented storytelling structure has been employed throughout film's history in such diverse films as Citizen Kane," "Rashomon, Last Year at Marienbad, The Killing, La Jetée, Four Times That Night and Go" "Quentin's inspiration for the structure is less from films and more from novels." "Quentin feels strongly that filmmakers should be free to structure stories with the same freedom that a novelist does." "Quentin really liked "the idea of doing something that novelists get a chance to do but filmmakers don't... telling three separate stories, having characters float in and out with different weights depending on the story."" "Quentin says, "One thing that's cool is that by breaking up the linear structure, when I watch the films with an audience, it does break [the audience's] alpha state." ""It's like, all of a sudden, 'I gotta watch this..." "I gotta pay attention.' You can almost feel everybody moving in their seats." ""It's actually fun to watch an audience in some ways chase after a movie." ""The truth of the matter is if I had written Pulp Fiction as a novel, you would never even remotely bring up the structure of it." "You would never bring it up, all right, because it's like, a novel can do that, no problem."" "Quentin emphasizes the novel-like storytelling style by using literary devices to tell his story." "In both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Quentin insists that the title cards are not intended to signal flashbacks but merely to indicate chapters." "Playing with alternative story structure can be tricky if not handled correctly." "Quentin says, "I know for me, when I'm an audience member, if I'm confused, emotionally I check out," ""because 90% of the time, if I'm confused, I wasn't meant to be confused." "But if I'm not sure exactly what's going on but I feel I'm in good hands, that's a whole different experience."" "Vincent Vega's name is good example of how Quentin regularly cross-references his films against his other films." "Quentin's use of the same names in different movies creates a familiar universe, where viewers have already heard of all the characters." "In Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, Michael Madsen played a character named Vic Vega (a.k.a. Mr. Blonde)." "Quentin originally thought that he would have Michael Madsen reprise the role of Vic Vega in Pulp Fiction" "Michael was unable to take the role, however, due to a prior commitment to do the film Wyatt Earp" "Quentin decided to change the character to Vic's brother, Vincent Vega." "Tarantino, Travolta and Madsen have discussed making The Vega Brothers, which would be a prequel to both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction" "Any further adventures of Vince and Vic Vega would have to be a prequel since they both met with violent deaths at the end of their respective pictures." "Tarantino admired writers like J.D. Salinger and Charles Willeford who created a community of characters that would appear in a number of stories." "Tarantino wanted to do the same thing with his film." "Quentin had characters who were peripheral in one story become the focal point of the next one, creating the impression that all of them belonged in the same shared universe." "That's why you'll also see characters from one of his films show up in another." "Jules's T-shirt features an old cartoon character called "Krazy Kat."" "Vincent's T-shirt features the banana slug mascot for University of California at Santa Cruz." "While it didn't make it into the final film, the original screenplay included a scene where Jimmie decides to take a picture of his three unexpected guests." "If you look at the CD booklet of the soundtrack album, you'll see a photo of Jules, Vincent and The Wolf posed together, getting their picture taken." "The name of the wrecking yard is Monster Joe's Truck And Tow." "There was a pair of scenes here that were cut out of the final film." "Quentin says the Monster Joe scenes are probably the only deleted scenes he had doubts about taking out." "In the scenes we meet Monster Joe and his daughter Raquel." "Monster Joe is played by Dick Miller, a legendary character actor best remembered for a variety of roles in low -budget drive-in pictures cranked out during the 1950s and '60s, particularly those produced by Roger Corman." "His work includes everything from such early 'B' movies as Sorority Girl, Not of This Earth and Man with the X-Ray Eyes to modern big studio movies like Gremlins, The Terminator and Small Soldiers" "He has appeared in many films directed by Joe Dante, which often featured monsters of one type or another." "Hence, Monster Joe's Wrecking Yard." "This is Joe's daughter Raquel, who is played by Julia Sweeney." "More about her in a moment." "When they originally filmed the junk yard departure, Harvey Keitel grabbed John Travolta's hand and did an impromptu impersonation of Christopher Walken from The Dead Z one" "In that film, Walken's character gains psychic powers." "While the impersonation was deleted, some of the dialogue from it remains... "It's your future..." "I see... a cab ride!"" "Back to Julia Sweeney." "She used to be on Saturday Night Live, where she became famous playing an androgynous character named Pat." "The skit was eventually adapted into a feature film, It s Pat Quentin did an uncredited rewrite of the script." "Quentin also executive produced Julia's film God Said, Ha!" "Julia Sweeney also belonged to the comedy troupe The Groundlings." "Many famous comedians came from The Groundlings, including Laraine Newman, Paul Reubens, Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell and more." "This line was changed from "sausage" in the original script to "bacon" in the filmed version." "All the diner scenes were shot at the Hawthorne Grill." "Quentin used to hang out at this coffee shop, which is located in Hawthorne, California." "Unfortunately, it has since been closed and demolished." "Hoyle is a book of official rules for card games." "The expression "according to Hoyle" referred to settling technical disagreements by checking the official authority." "This same expression was said by Holdaway in the original script of Reservoir Dogs and by Wayne Gale in the original script of Natural Born Killers" "Kung Fu was a television series that ran from 1972 to 1975." "Kung Fu starred David Carradine, who is now starring in Quentin's latest movie, Kill Bill." "Once again, notice that this conversation is shot in profile to demonstrate how the characters are in opposition to each other." "When we hear Pumpkin call out, "Garçon," we realize that we're right back where the movie started." "You'll notice that when Honey Bunny says her line about "pricks," it is slightly different from the beginning of the movie." "If you look closely, you'll see one of the diner patrons who gets down on the floor is played by Lawrence Bender, who has produced all of Quentin's films." "After graduating as a civil engineer, Lawrence went on to become a dancer." "A series of injuries led him to abandon that career for acting." "When he grew unhappy with his acting career, Lawrence segued into producing." "The coffee shop manager is credited as "Coffee Shop" because he is cut off as he speaks..." ""I am not a hero, I'm just a coffee shop..."" "In addition to producing all of Quentin's films, Lawrence has produced films such as The Mexican," "Anna and the King, Good Will Hunting, White Man s Burden and Fresh" "He has had cameos in several of the films he's produced." "For instance, Lawrence played the part of the Young Cop in Reservoir Dogs and Long Hair Yuppy Scum in Four Rooms" "Vincent is still reading his book Modesty Blaise, by Peter O'Donnell." "In that book, a killer indulges in a Biblical rant very similar to that of Samuel L. Jackson's character." "Some feel that the briefcase is a "McGuffin."" "Hitchcock coined the term "McGuffin" to refer to a red herring that misleads the audience." "It's usually a prop or other physical item that seems to motivate the characters but ultimately means little or nothing to the story." "Fans of Pulp Fiction weren't so willing to accept this convenient answer and have spent a lot of time proposing what Marsellus Wallace's "dirty laundry" really is." "One suggestion is that it contains the diamonds that were stolen in Quentin's film Reservoir Dogs" "Another suggestion is that the briefcase contains the gold Elvis suit worn by Val Kilmer in the Quentin-scripted movie True Romance" "A popular hypothesis is that the briefcase contains the soul of Marsellus." "Legend has it that when the devil steals your soul, he takes it out through the back of your head." "Since Marsellus is seen with a Band-Aid on the back of his head, this means his soul has been stolen and is now in the briefcase." "This theory is further supported when Jules and Vincent experience "Divine Intervention" (or maybe not-so-divine intervention) in getting the briefcase back." "Additional proof is that the combination of the case is "666," considered to be the sign of the devil." "Another speculation is that the briefcase contains a bunch of solid gold bricks." "This would make sense of Pumpkin's reaction ("Is that what I think it is?" and "It's beautiful")." "Some film fans think the case contains some of the mysterious stash from the movie Repo Man" "The climax of that film involves the repossession of a Chevy Malibu with top-secret glowing cargo in the trunk." "Some say it's an Oscar statue." "They weigh only about eight pounds, making it easy to carry in a briefcase." "This would also connect with Pumpkin's reaction." "Another speculation on the contents of the briefcase is that it was homage to Robert Aldrich's great pulp thriller Kiss Me Deadly, which includes a hijacked briefcase full of nuclear material." "Fonzie was a character in a popular sitcom, Happy Days" "One of the most popular sitcoms of its time, Happy Days ran on ABC from 1974 to 1984." "Happy Days featured Henry Winkler as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, who quickly became the star of the show." "The character was recognized on the show as the absolute ultimate in "cool" and was endlessly imitated by fans." "One of Fonzie's trademark expressions was, "Correctamundo."" ""Ringo" isn't really his name." "It's just a nickname Jules made up because he's English." ""Ringo" refers to Ringo Starr of the Beatles." "Quentin loves this classic confrontation, which is known as the "Mexican standoff."" "He used one between Joe, Mr. White and Eddie in Reservoir Dogs as well as between Lee's men, cops and the Mafia in True Romance, and between cops, Mickey and Scagnetti in Natural Born Killers" "The bad motherfucker wallet actually belonged to Quentin." "As Jules is lecturing Ringo, he refers to his gun as "Mr. 9mm," when what he has in his hand is a.45 caliber gun." "The closing credit song is "Surf Rider," written by Bob Bogle, Nole Edwards and Don Wilson, and performed by The Lively Ones." ""I always hope that if one million people see my movie, they see one million different movies."" " Quentin Tarantino." "This film is made up of three stories, organized into five different chapters." "This first chapter is usually just referred to as "The Prologue."" "Quentin prefers to start most of his films with a scene before the main titles." "The movie starts "cold," without any titles or credits." "Quentin's script only refers to these characters as "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny."" "We don't learn Honey Bunny's real name until the end of the movie." "The first scene of the movie was shot on the first day of production." "Quentin specifically wrote these parts for Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer after seeing them perform together in a short film called Monkey Park" "The first close-up shot of the movie is the waitress, played by Laura Lovelace." "Laura was also one of the film's music consultants." "Laura reprised her waitress character in Quentin's next film, Jackie Brown" "Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer worked together again in the Wim Wenders film The Million Dollar Hotel" "Tim also played Mr. Orange in Quentin Tarantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs" "At one point, Quentin considered Tim for the lead role of Vincent Vega, but he really wanted Tim to play Pumpkin." "Tim also played Ted the Bellhop in the anthology film Four Rooms" "The movie consisted of four short films directed by four different directors, including Quentin." "Tim was the only actor to appear in all four segments of the film." "Pumpkin's line about "gooks" is a reference to the book No Beast So Fierce, written by Eddie Bunker." "Eddie was a real-life hood who became a writer when he was in jail." "Tim Roth also appeared in a film called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with his good friend Gary Oldman." "Amanda Plummer also appeared in The World According to Garp and The Fisher King, which was directed by Terry Gilliam." "Terry was one of the directors that helped Quentin develop Reservoir Dogs at the Sundance Institute." "Amanda's father is the actor Christopher Plummer, who appeared in such classic films as The Sound of Music, The Man Who Would Be King and Twelve Monkeys (which was also directed by Terry Gilliam)." "Amanda has won a Tony Award and an Emmy Award." "This isn't the first time Quentin has featured a crime-troubled couple that is intensely in love." "The script for True Romance featured the star-crossed lovers Clarence and Alabama, and his script for Natural Born Killers featured serial killers Mickey and Mallory, who were as crazy-in-love as they were just plain crazy." "Quentin often uses coffee shops and diners in his films." "During his youth, Quentin spent endless hours hanging out with his buddies in them, talking about movies." "All of the stories in the film are interlinked." "During one story, you can see elements of the other stories." "For instance, in the background you can hear Jules talking about quitting his career." "While first-time viewers are unaware of things like this, the film is rich with details like this that viewers will appreciate on repeat viewing." "Another example of foreshadowing... if you look carefully in the background, you can see the Vincent walking to the bathroom (watch for his shorts, t-shirt and book)." "Eddie Bunker (quoted earlier) also wrote one of the best crime films of the 1970s, Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman, which was a big influence on Quentin and this film." "Eddie eventually became an actor, appearing in films such as The Long Riders and Miracle Mile" "He also co-starred in Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, as Mr. Blue." "Tim Roth told Quentin, "I want to work with Amanda in one of your films, but she has to have a really big gun."" "Quentin was happy to oblige, as you'll see in a moment." "A couple scenes in the film are seen twice when the movie backtracks and overlaps." "In these scenes, there are some minor but intentional discrepancies." "For instance, when we see the hold-up at the end of the movie, the line about "pricks" is slightly different." "Intentional discrepancies such as this are sometimes incorrectly regarded as "mistakes."" "They are done on purpose to show different perceptions of events." "The freeze frame at the end of the opening scene is reminiscent of the opening of Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch, which was a big influence on Quentin." "This opening scene is abruptly interrupted by a blast of music as Dick Dale rips into the opening riffs of "Misirlou."" "The name of Quentin's company is taken from one of his favorite films..." "Jean-Luc Godard's Bande a parte" "Jersey Films is the name of the production company owned by Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg and Stacy Sher." "They have produced many films, including Reality Bites, Gattaca, Man in the Moon and Erin Brockovich" "Quentin's use of music in this film was so distinctive that old songs were instantly re-invented as an integral part of this film and became known as "that song" from Pulp Fiction" "For instance, despite being around for decades before this film, this song would instantly and forever become known merely as "the Pulp Fiction theme."" "This song's real title is "Misirlou." It was written by Fred Wise, Milton Leeds, S.K. Russell and Nicholas Roubanis, and performed by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones." "Quentin told Dick Dale, "I've been a fan for years." "Your song "Misirlou" is a masterpiece." "It's like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly It's like Ben" " Hur It's very heraldic."" "Music is very important to Quentin and his filmmaking process." "The music helps him find the rhythm for the movie and set the tone." "According to Quentin, he picks about 60% of his music before he even writes his script, 20% while he's writing and 20% after the script is done." "Chuck Kelley and Laura Lovelace were music consultants for Pulp Fiction" "They suggested songs to Quentin and helped create the film's soundtrack." "The music changes (like a radio) just as the credit for Music Supervisor appears on the screen." "Karyn Rachtman also supervised the music for the Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs and Four Rooms" "Her brother Riki Rachtman was an MTV veejay and actor and had a cameo in the film Plump Fiction, which was a parody of Pulp Fiction" "David Wasco has been the production designer on all of Quentin's films." "Sally Menke has edited all of Quentin's films to date." "She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Pulp Fiction" "She wasn't the only one to get an Oscar nomination for this film." "The film received a total of seven Academy Award nominations." "Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary won an Oscar for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen." "Lawrence Bender has produced all of Quentin's films to date." "He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture for Pulp Fiction." "The Oscar for Best Picture went to Forrest Gump." "Quentin Tarantino was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director." "After receiving his Academy Award for co-writing, Roger Avary said, "I have to go pee."" "Some people weren't sure if he was making a crude joke or really had to go to the bathroom." "Actually, Roger was just quoting a line from Forrest Gump, which won six Oscars that night." "The song Jungle Boogie is performed by Kool  The Gang, and was their second big hit when it was released in 1974." "Twenty years later, Pulp Fiction made the song a hit all over again with a whole new generation." "Kool  The Gang also had a song on the soundtrack to Travolta's previously most successful movie, Saturday Night Fever" "This scene became an instant classic." "Within a few years of the film's release, the scene became one of the most-quoted, best-loved and most-parodied scenes in movie history." "Quentin says, "They are on their way to blow away a couple of guys." "But the thing is, they're just going to work." "So they're having, like, a carpool conversation that you might have on your way to work."" "Dialogue is one of the things everyone loves most about Pulp Fiction" "Even though the film is 21/2 hours long, nobody complains that it's a slow movie." "That's because Quentin's dialogue gives the film energy and momentum." "The guy on the left is Vincent Vega and the guy on the right is Jules Winnfield." "One of Pulp Fiction s executive producers, Danny DeVito, starred in the film Twins The twins were named Vincent and Julius... almost the same names as these characters." "Jules and Vincent are driving a Chevy Nova." "A Chevy Nova was also the car stolen by the thieves in Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs" "The trunk shot is one of Quentin's favorite camera angles." "This point-of-view shot was also used in Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown" "Robert Rodriguez also used it in the Quentin-scripted, Quentin-starring From Dusk Till Dawn" "When Vincent says "our guy," he is referring to Marvin, the "inside man" in the apartment." "Jules is played by Samuel L. Jackson." "Samuel L. Jackson also played Big Don in True Romance, which was written by Quentin Tarantino." "Unfortunately, most of his performance in that film was edited out." "Samuel L. Jackson also played Ordell Robbie in Quentin's next film, Jackie Brown" "Sam Jackson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Pulp Fiction" "Martin Landau received the Oscar that year for his performance in Ed Wood" "Jules's character was originally supposed to have a gigantic Afro hairdo." "Since Sam Jackson normally wears his hair very short or completely shaved, a wig was required." "The crew member that was sent for Afro wigs also brought in a Jheri-curled wig." "Quentin and Sam loved it and used that instead of the Afro." "Sam attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, the same university attended by Spike Lee." "Spike Lee directed Jungle Fever, the first film to bring Sam widespread international acclaim." "Spike also directed Quentin in the film Girl 6" "Quentin played a film director called "Q.T."" "In this sequence, Quentin uses wide shots or two-shots instead of close-up shots." "This creates a rhythm that builds tension for the violence that is about to come." "Some people think Sam Jackson is a workaholic." "In the 10-year period from 1990 to 2000, Sam appeared in 49 films, an average of almost 5 films a year." "During the same period of time, Eddie Murphy only made 12 films." "Just like his filmmaking hero Brian De Palma, Quentin likes to use long Steadicam shots." "Note how long this next shot is going to be." "John Travolta plays Vincent in a role that is widely acknowledged as single-handedly reviving his acting career." "By 1980, Travolta was one of the most popular and successful movie stars in the world." "But by 1990, a series of unsuccessful films left him with fewer career choices for less money." "Quentin says, "Travolta is one of the best American film actors around." "He was awesome in De Palma's film Blow Out" ""I used to watch that film over and over and wonder why other directors weren't using him." ""No director's really used John to that effect since [De Palma] did in Blow Out, and before I worked with him, I felt he was like the secret weapon that nobody's using."" "Pulp Fiction changed Travolta's life." "He was nominated for an Academy Award and was deluged with acting offers." "While he was paid only $100,000 for appearing in Pulp Fiction, he now commands over $20 million per picture." "During casting, Quentin invited John to his L.A. apartment to discuss the film." "It turned out to be the very same apartment Travolta once lived in as a struggling Hollywood newcomer." "John was reluctant to take the role at first because he thought that Vincent was a negative role model." "Travolta's performance made the character so charming, likeable and cool that everyone loved him." "Some people wonder about the source of Vincent Vega's name." "The Vega brothers were not named after the Chevy Vega." "During the 1990s, Suzanne Vega was one of Quentin's favorite singer/songwriters." "In one of the deleted scenes, Vincent tells Mia Suzanne Vega is his cousin." "In a moment, Vincent and Jules walk down the hallway to kill some time, and the camera stays by the apartment door." "The camera doesn't follow them, almost as if it wants to remind the characters that the apartment is their priority." "Touches like this are reminiscent of French New Wave films like those of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut." "Godard's films would often parody cinematic conventions by calling attention to them." "The protagonists in Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, also wore black suits with black ties." "Quentin says, "When Jean-Pierre Melville was making his crime films, he talked about how it was very important that his characters have a 'suit of armor.'" ""[Melville had] the snap-brim fedora and Bogart-like trench coat. [Sergio] Leone had the duster, [Clint] Eastwood the poncho." ""I've always said the mark of any good action film is that when you get through seeing it, you want to dress like the character." ""That's totally the case, for instance, with Chow Yun-Fat's wardrobe in A Better Tomorrow." "The black suits in Pulp Fiction, that's my suit of armor."" "As the movie goes on, the suits gradually go from clean and crisp to dirty and mussed up, until Jules and Vince are finally forced to strip them off and dress in the exact opposite of cool: shorts and t-shirts." "Notice that we are just now coming to the end of the long Steadicam shot." "It's been one continuous shot for over 21/2 minutes." "This long, uninterrupted shot helps build the tension for the coming violence." "Pulp Fiction is infused with Quentin Tarantino's love of films." "From story lines to camera angles, from dialogue to hairdos, from characters to weapons, the film is filled with references to and inspirations from films around the world and throughout history." "Inspirations for this film include everything from 1950s teen flicks to 1970s Blaxploitation, from 1940s film noir to 1970s kung fu." "Combining old movie stories with modern movie style, Quentin fuses everything together to create a film entirely his own." "One of the enjoyable things about this film is that it reminds you of so many other great movies." "Hopefully by learning about some of Pulp Fiction s many cinematic references, you will be inspired to watch some of the movies that have inspired Quentin." "The door was opened by Marvin, the "inside man." He is standing in the corner by the door." "This is Brett." "He's played by Frank Whaley." "Frank has been in such films as Swimming With Sharks, Field of Dreams and A Midnight Clear." "Note that the earlier wide shots and long takes have now been replaced with tighter shots and lots of edits." "This changes the rhythm of the film and increases the tension for what's about to happen." "Note the framing of this shot." "Brett is seated, while Jules is standing." "This puts Jules in a position of power." "You can see Jules in front of Brett and Vincent behind Brett, creating the feeling that Brett is trapped between the two gunmen." "Big Kahuna Burgers are first mentioned in Quentin's film Reservoir Dogs A Big Kahuna Burger was also eaten by Seth in the movie From Dusk Till Dawn" "Five years after executive-producing Pulp Fiction, Danny DeVito acted in a film called The Big Kahuna" "If you pay attention, you'll see the amount of Brett's burger that has been eaten changes when Jules picks it up." "Jules and Vincent are here to get Marsellus's briefcase." "There has been a great deal of discussion in the media, on the Internet and in academic circles about what is in the briefcase." "Quentin has said he won't reveal the contents of the briefcase, preferring for viewers to decide on their own." "Later on in the movie we'll discuss some of the theories that viewers have about the briefcase contents." "You never see Vincent close up during this scene." "He is a threat that is hovering in the background, out of Brett's sight." "Marvin is played by Phil LaMarr." "He also played the stage manager in the film It s Pat, which starred Quentin's friend Julia Sweeney, who is also in Pulp Fiction" "Phil and Julia were members of the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings." "Phil was also a cast member on the sketch television show Mad TV" "Notice that while Jules is drinking, there is no cutaway to Brett." "Because the viewer expects to see Brett, the lack of edit builds tension even more." "When Jules refers to the guy on the couch as "Flock of Seagulls," he is referring to his stupid haircut." "Flock of Seagulls was an English band from the early 1980s whose biggest hit was I Ran (So Far Away)" "The band's singer had a strange haircut that fell into his eyes." "Singer Mike Score and his band-mate Frank Maudsley were former hairdressers." "Despite the success of the band's hit song, they are best known today for Mike's stupid haircut." "About the briefcase, Quentin says to fans, "I love the mythology that's in the movie and grown up around it." "So you think you want me to tell you [what's in the briefcase], but you don't."" "While some critics accuse Quentin of shocking viewers with gratuitous violence, in reality this film has very little on-screen violence, and what little there is, is balanced out with a lot of positive values." "The movie is not as violent as some people think it is (certainly not by the standards of modern action movies)." "It SEEMS more violent than it is because of how Quentin tells his story." "Most of the violence is off-screen." "When the guys in the apartment are shot, the camera is on Jules or Vincent, not on the victims." "When the hypodermic needle goes into Mia's chest, the camera cuts away to a reaction shot of Rosanna Arquette." "Marvin is shot in the car off-screen." "Zed and Maynard's assault of Marsellus (in the pawn shop basement) mostly occurs off-screen, except when Butch comes to rescue him." "The film only shows viewers six major deaths..." "Brett, Roger and the Fourth Man (all from the apartment): plus Vincent, Marvin and Maynard." "There are also three unseen or implied deaths..." "Floyd Wilson, the dead boxer:" "The Gimp, who we assume is dead from a broken neck: and Zed, who we assume will be dead when Marsellus is through with him." "Balancing out this body count are the lives of several people who are saved in the movie." "Mia is brought back from the dead after an overdose, Marsellus is saved by Butch in the basement and many potential victims in the coffee shop are saved after Jules talks Honey Bunny and Pumpkin into calling off their robbery." "And, of course, the lives of Jules and Vincent are saved when a volley of shots in the apartment misses them." "Jules chooses to call this a miracle, a sign from God, and retires from crime." "Vincent shrugs it off, and pays the price." "Jules's upcoming Ezekiel speech is reminiscent of Preacher Harry Powell, the murderous man of God played by Robert Mitchum in the classic film The Night of the Hunter" "Quentin was more inspired by Sonny Chiba's television series Kage No Gunda, or Shadow Warriors" "In the series, the villain would hear a lengthy morality lecture from Chiba about how the world must be rid of evil before finally being killed." "Quentin met Sonny in Japan while promoting Reservoir Dogs Quentin invited Sonny to visit the set of Pulp Fiction during filming." "Coincidentally, he arrived on the same day that Sam Jackson was delivering his Ezekiel speech in the apartment." "Quentin told Sonny how he was the inspiration for the scene." "Sam Jackson was excited about meeting the legendary action star because he is a huge fan of Sonny's martial arts films." "The Ezekiel speech was originally written for the character of Jacob (Harvey Keitel) to keep the vampires away in Quentin's script for From Dusk Till Dawn" "The actual text of Ezekiel is, "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes:" "and they shall know that I am the LQRD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them."" "The original text has been changed for his own dramatic purposes." "Quentin says, "I re-wrote it a little bit." "Typical writer... 'It doesn't work that well." "I gotta make that a little better.' Bible quotes are hard to re-write."" "When Jules finishes shooting the yuppie kids, his gun is locked back in the open position, indicating he is out of bullets." "When this scene replays later, the slide is forward and the gun remains loaded after firing, allowing him to blow away the hidden gunman who comes out of the bathroom." ""Let's Stay Together" was written by Al Green, Al Jackson Jr., Willie Mitchell, and performed by Al Green." "According to Al Green, the use of his song in this film brought him renewed recognition and led him to release his first secular album in 17 years (after years of recording only gospel albums)." "Although you never see it, the name of this bar is Sally Le Roy's." "Note the sharp line of a shadow on the bottom half of Butch's face, dividing it into light and dark." "Some think this represents his choice between good and evil." "Butch Coolidge is played by Bruce Willis." "Bruce Willis also made an uncredited appearance as Leo in Quentin's segment for the anthology film Four Rooms" "Halfway through the production of Pulp Fiction, the cinematographer Andrzej Sekula shattered his leg in a car accident." "He completed the film working in a wheelchair." "The man you can't see is Marsellus Wallace, the man Vincent and Jules work for." "From when he first wrote the script, Quentin knew that he would keep Marsellus off-camera during this scene." "Not showing Marsellus's face makes him seem like a more powerful, mysterious figure, and builds tension in the scene." "Marsellus is played by Ving Rhames." "Ving Rhames's real name is Irving Rhames." "He was given the nickname "Ving" by the actor Stanley Tucci, his one-time roommate in college." "In Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, Joe Cabot mentions an underworld figure who's away on a long stretch named Marsellus Spivey." "Floyd Wilson is the name of the fighter to whom Butch is supposed to lose." "Wilson was also the name of the fighter against whom Terry Malloy took a dive in On the Waterfront, probably the most famous boxer-takes-a-dive movie." "Many people wonder why there is a Band-Aid on Marsellus's neck." "Some think this proves that the devil has stolen Marsellus's soul (through an incision on the back of his head)." "The real reason is that Ving Rhames had a scar on the back of his neck." "The makeup artist covered it with a Band-Aid so that the scar wouldn't distract the audience." "In the original script, Vince arrives at Sally Le Roy's and parks right next to Butch's white Honda despite the fact the parking lot is almost empty." "This information about the parking will help you connect the next Butch scene with a later Vincent scene." "The ensemble cast meant that different stars came in to work at different times." "The crew described it as shooting three separate movies, each with its own set of stars." "The bartender refers to himself as "Paul."" "In the script, the character is described as "English Dave." "Dave isn't really English." "He's a young black man from Baldwin Park."" "When Quentin worked at Video Archives, he used to have a roommate known as "Dave the British Guy."" "In the diner scene at the end of the film, Jules refers to the character as "English Bob."" "Paul is played by Paul Calderon." "He also plays Norman in Quentin's anthology film Four Rooms" "Paul was a New York stage actor who almost got the part of Jules." "Sam Jackson had already been promised the role of Jules." "Paul auditioned for the part of Jules." "He really impressed everyone and almost took the part away from Sam." "Harvey Weinstein convinced Sam to come back in for a second audition." "Sam performed the final diner scene, blew everyone away and secured the role that made him a star." "In a moment, Butch will buy some Red Apple cigarettes." "They're a brand that Quentin made up." "Red Apple is also the brand of cigarettes smoked by Tim Roth's character in Four Rooms" "Red Apple cigarettes can also be seen on a billboard in Romy and Michele s High School Reunion" "That film had the same art director as From Dusk Till Dawn" "Vincent calls Butch "Palooka," a reference to a boxer named Joe Palooka who was supposed to lose a fight, but didn't." "Many people consider the term to be synonymous with a losing boxer." "Butch is angry at Vincent, but he doesn't want to pick a fight because he can see that Vincent is good friends with Marsellus." "You'll realize later that he found another way to get back at Vincent." "Instead of yelling "Cut" at the end of scenes, Quentin would sometimes just yell, "We're loving it!"" "This scene takes place in Echo Park, a suburb of Los Angeles." "This character with all the piercing is Jody, who is played by Rosanna Arquette." "Rosanna's brother Alexis Arquette plays The Fourth Man at the end of the movie, and her sister Patricia Arquette played the character of Alabama in True Romance" "Quentin asked Pam Grier to audition for the part of Jody but didn't think it would be believable for Eric to yell at her." "He finally got to work with Pam when he cast her in the lead role of Jackie Brown" "Jody's friend Trudy is played by Bronagh Gallagher, who was also in The Commitments and The Phantom Menace" "The drug dealer Lance is played by Eric Stoltz." "Lance was also the name of Clarence's boss in True Romance" "Both characters are named after Quentin's boss at Video Archives, Lance Lawson." "The second type of heroin is called "Bava" as a tribute to Mario Bava, the director of Black Sabbath, one of the inspirations for Pulp Fiction" "Eric appeared with Tim Roth in the film Bodies, Rest  Motion" "He was promoting the film at the Sundance Film Festival when Tim Roth introduced him to Quentin." "Quentin later agreed to appear in a film that Eric was producing called Sleep with Me" "Sleep with Me featured Quentin delivering an unforgettable monologue about the homosexual subtext of Top Gun" "The music in the background is "'Bustin' Surfboards" by the Tornadoes." "The Tornadoes were a California band formed by the Sanders brothers with a cousin and a friend." "They are unrelated to the other three bands called the Tornadoes." "There were bands called the Tornadoes in the Midwest, in Washington, and in England." "Lance is out of balloons, the traditional way to package and transport heroin." "Instead he uses a regular kitchen baggie." "This will become a problem later on." "When Vincent complains about his keyed car, we realize how Butch found a way to get back at Vincent." "Quentin originally had a monologue here with Lance complaining about a guy who intentionally gave him wrong directions." "Quentin took it out because he felt the movie needed to get to the date with Mia sooner." "You can see Lance's monologue in the deleted scenes section of the DVD." "The heroin scene determined the fate of this film." "Jersey Films had a distribution deal with TriStar Films, but TriStar did not want to release a film that featured a heroin user." "Miramax stepped in and signed a deal to take over the film, beginning a long and fruitful relationship with Quentin." "They have released all of Quentin's movies since then." "John Travolta was very hesitant about playing a heroin addict." "Quentin had to talk him into taking this role." "Vincent Vega drives a Chevelle Malibu convertible." "The Malibu driven by John Travolta in the film actually belonged to Quentin Tarantino." "It was later stolen." "In a moment, you will see footage of a city street projected behind Vincent's car." "This is called a "process shot" and was used in older films." "This is another example of Quentin calling attention to cinematic conventions, like Godard did." "The song playing in the background is "Bullwinkle, Part Il" by the Centurions." ""Son Of A Preacher Man" was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, and performed by Dusty Springfield." "According to Quentin, this song was always part of the scene." "Quentin says, "That sequence in the movie where a guy goes to a house to pick up a date and he's waiting for her, and there's all this tension..." ""That whole idea for a story I've had in my head for six or seven years, and it always was scored to 'Son of a Preacher Man.'" ""The key to the sequence was 'Son of a Preacher Man.' I can't even imagine it without 'Son of a Preacher Man.'" "I probably would have cut [the scene] out if I couldn't get 'Son of a Preacher Man."'" "Mia Wallace is played by Uma Thurman." "Uma was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Pulp Fiction" "Uma Thurman uses the word "disco" as an affirmation (like "bingo")." "Coincidentally, John Travolta starred in the most famous disco movie of all time, Saturday Night Fever" "The story of Vincent and Mia is reminiscent of the film Out of the Past, in which Robert Mitchum falls for a bad guy's girl." "Once again, Quentin is introducing a character without letting the viewer see their face." "As before, this builds tension about who we are about to meet." "The picture of Uma Thurman hanging on the wall was painted by Steve Martinez, the brother of Jerry Martinez, the chief graphic designer on Pulp Fiction" "Jerry has known Quentin since their days working together at the Video Archives video store." "In a scene that was deleted from the final movie, Mia first appears behind a camcorder, using it to interview Vincent and find out more about him." "In the deleted scene, Mia says the world can be divided into two types of people..." "Elvis people and Beatles people." "She decides Vincent is an Elvis man." "When Mia says, "An Elvis man should love it," she's referring to the earlier deleted interview scene." "The drawing effect is another homage to the unexpected anti-cinematic conventions of the French New Wave." "In the deleted scene, Mia also asks Vincent if he has ever fantasized about being beaten up by a girl." "He replies, "Sure." "Emma Peel on The Avengers" "Three years later, Uma Thurman played Emma Peel in a film version of The Avengers" "The Jack Rabbit Slim's bunny logo was designed by Russell Vossler and Gerald Martinez, two of Quentin's colleagues from Video Archives." "As they walk through the restaurant, you can see people imitating various pop culture icons of the 1950s and '60s." "The restaurant host is imitating Ed Sullivan, who hosted a very popular television variety show from 1948 to 1971." "Sullivan's show was an old-fashioned variety show, featuring a combination of every act imaginable... everything from Chinese acrobats to Broadway shows, from opera singers to sports figures, from plate spinners to rock bands." "The Ed Sullivan Show was so popular that his show was a Sunday night institution for Americans throughout the 1950s and '60s." "Some of the people who appeared on Ed Sullivan's show are the personalities you'll see in this restaurant:" "Ricky Nelson, Marilyn Monroe, Mamie van Doren, James Dean, and Martin  Lewis." "While most of the film was shot on existing locations, Jack Rabbit Slim's was built especially for this movie." "An ad for Jack Rabbit Slim's can also be heard during the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs." "In the background, you can hear two guys imitating the comedy/singing team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis." "Jerry Lewis was an actor who became a director (like Quentin)." "To help him direct, he invented the video assist, which is used by almost all filmmakers today." "The waiter dressed as Zorro is the film's producer, Lawrence Bender." "The restaurant is decorated with posters for the classic "B" movies that Quentin loves, such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Motorcycle Gang and The Young Racers" "The decor was inspired by such classic racing pictures as the Howard Hawks film Red Line 7000 and the Elvis Presley vehicle Speedway" "You can't see it until the dance scene, but the dance stage looks like a tachometer." "The Buddy Holly waiter is played by Steve Buscemi." "His schedule prevented him from having a major role in Pulp Fiction, but he agreed to play this cameo role." "In Reservoir Dogs, Buscemi played Mr. Pink, who refused to tip waitresses." "The character was based on Quentin, who in his early days was notorious among his friends for not tipping." "Buscemi thought Vincent and Mia should refuse to tip the Buddy Holly waiter." "Like all 1950s diners, the food here is named after '50s icons, but Quentin picked some a little more off-beat." "The "Douglas Sirk steak" refers to the great director of such films as Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels and Magnificent Obsession" "The steak can be prepared "burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell," a reference to the director's more melodramatic films." "Sirk's film Magnificent Obsession was remade by one of Quentin's favorite directors, John Woo, as The Killer" "Mia's burger is named after Durward Kirby, the announcer/co-host/performer on a number of 1950s variety shows." ""Amos 'n' Andy" refers to a radio and television show featuring black characters, while "Martin  Lewis" was a white stage and screen team." "This is the waiter's way of asking if she wants her milkshake chocolate or vanilla." "Note that Mia also smokes Red Apple cigarettes, the same brand that Butch smokes." "Mia calls Vincent "cowboy." Vincent calls Mia "cowgirl" in return." "John Travolta starred in the film Urban Cowboy, which was a massive box office success." "Uma Thurman starred in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which was a massive box office failure." "Later on, Winston Wolf asks Vincent, "How 'bout you, Lash LaRue?" "Can you keep your spurs from jingling and jangling?"" "Lash LaRue was an actor who came to fame in a series of Western movies in the late 1940s." "A lot of dialogue was cut out of this scene to emphasize the "uncomfortable silences" that go with a first date." "In the Deleted Scenes section of the DVD, you can see a longer, slower-paced version of this scene." "Uma refers to her "15 minutes." This is a reference to a very famous quote by Andy Warhol, a pop artist who claimed that "in the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes."" "Uma Thurman talks about the pilot she did for a show called Fox Force Five" "This is not the only fictitious movie or show created by Quentin." "True Romance mentions The Return of T J Hooker and Coming Home in a Body Bag" "The character Mia describes playing in Fox Force Five bears some resemblance to the sexy spy Modesty Blaise." "For the rest of the movie, we will notice Vincent reading the book Modesty Blaise" "Quentin deleted the camcorder interview scene because he felt the cinematic device of the camcorder interview was becoming clichéd in films at the time." "Generally, Quentin doesn't have a lot of scenes that get cut out of the final film." "He does his editing during the writing period." "What's in the script is usually pretty close to the finished film." "Quentin did some tests transferring the camcorder scene from video to film." "At the time, Quentin says, he realized that you could shoot a feature on video and transfer it to film." "Before the end of the decade, this had become common practice." "In behind-the-scenes footage shot during the making of Pulp Fiction," "Bruce Willis points to a camcorder and says, "Someday, some kid will use one of these to make a feature film."" "Six years later, a film shot on a camcorder (The Blair Witch Project) became one of the highest-grossing movies of the year." "Tarantino says he loved working with Uma Thurman." ""After we worked on Pulp Fiction, we've always kind of felt she was my actress and I was her director." "So we just wanted to work together again."" "In the year 2002, the Pulp Fiction star and director are working on their next film together, tentatively titled Kill Bill" "According to Quentin, it was "an idea that I had on the set of Pulp Fiction" "I wrote the first 30 pages of it right after Pulp Fiction, then put it away."" "Seven years later, he pulled out Kill Bill and finished the script, which Quentin describes as a "balls-to-the-wall, violent revenge movie."" "Uma's hairdo is reminiscent of a score of cinematic vixens, from Louise Brooks in G.W. Pabst's film Pandora s Box (1928) to Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard's A Woman is a Woman (1961)" "to Melanie Griffith in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986)." "Mia's character contains a little bit of each of those other characters." "Like all those other women, she can lead a man to trouble." "Jack Rabbit Slim's is a parody of the 1950s "theme" restaurants that seemed to take over America in the 1980s and '90s." "In Quentin's script, he refers to this as "either the best or worst of these places, depending on your point of view."" "The production notes refer to this as "a theme diner on heroin."" "In this part of the scene, Quentin uses an unusual framing to reflect how the characters are uncomfortable with each other." "Uma Thurman has a very interesting family." "Her father, Robert A. F. Thurman, is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University School of Religion." "He was the first westerner to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk." "He named Uma for a Hindu goddess." "Her mother Nena was a Swedish model who became a psychotherapist." "At 16, Nena was discovered in Stockholm by photographer Norman Parkinson." "Salvador Dali introduced Uma's mother Nena to her first husband, Timothy Leary." "Uma's grandmother, Brigit Holmquist, has a nude statue of her standing in the port town of Trelleborg." "Uma once described herself as "Tall, sandy blonde, with sort of blue eyes, skinny in places, fat in others." "An average gal."" "Empire magazine didn't think she was average when they chose her as one of the Sexiest Stars in film history (#20 on the list)." "From 1990 to 1992, Uma was married to Gary Oldman, a close friend of Tim Roth." "Uma once said, "It is better to have a relationship with someone who cheats on you than with someone who does not flush the toilet."" "We don't know if she was talking about Gary." "The framing of the scene is now more conventional, to reflect how the characters are more comfortable with each other." "After Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, brought him international acclaim and attention, the world was anxiously awaiting the follow -up from this exciting new filmmaker." "Pulp Fiction did not disappoint." "If you weren't around at the time, it's hard to appreciate the incredible impact Pulp Fiction had when it was released." "Around the world, it received glowing reviews from ecstatic film critics as a masterpiece of an original talent." "So great was the impact and influence of Pulp Fiction that even though it was only Quentin's second film, the adjective "Tarantino-esque" instantly became widely accepted around the world." "You couldn't go anywhere that year where people weren't talking about the film, and Pulp Fiction references and parodies were all over the airwaves." "Pulp Fiction went on to become one of the most successful movies of the year, earning over $200 million worldwide and picking up seven Academy Award nominations." "Despite the fact that Forrest Gump swept the next year's Academy Awards, Pulp Fiction was THE film of 1994, and... many people say... the most important film of the decade." "It's worth noting that even though it made almost as much money as Forrest Gump, it was produced for a small fraction of Gump s budget." "It's important to Quentin to make films for reasonable prices so that financiers will get their money back and everyone can be happy and he'll be able to make more films." "Quentin says, "I always want to make sure I put the money on the screen." ""On Reservoir Dogs, we shot the movie for 1.5 million, but I wanted it to look like an eight-million-dollar movie." ""With Pulp, we had $8 million." "I wanted it to look like a $20-25 million movie." "I wanted it to look like an epic." "It's an epic in everything... in invention, in ambition, in length, in scope, in everything except the price tag."" "Pulp Fiction firmly established Tarantino as an influential filmmaking talent and a major Hollywood player." "The reason Mia says Vincent's name funny is because she is imitating Elvis Presley (remember, he's "an Elvis man")." "The song they dance to is You Never Can Tell, written and performed by Chuck Berry." "Many people felt that the dancing scene was an homage to Saturday Night Fever, which featured John Travolta doing a lot of disco dancing." "Quentin says, "Everybody thinks that I wrote this scene just to have John Travolta dancing." ""But the scene existed before John Travolta was cast." "But once he was cast, it was like, 'Great." "We get to see John dance." "All the better."'" "The dance competition is actually inspired by an earlier film, Jean-Luc Godard's Bande à parte" "Quentin says, "My favorite musical sequences have always been in Godard [films]," ""because they just come out of nowhere." "It's so infectious, so friendly." "And the fact that it's not a musical, but he's stopping the movie to have a musical sequence, makes it all the more sweet."" "Quentin explained some general moves to the two actors and showed them their basic moves, but otherwise they did not have any professional choreography help." "Quentin showed the actors the scene from Bande á parte to show them what he was looking for in the scene." "Quentin said some of Mia's dance moves were inspired by the dancing of Duchess in the Disney animated feature The Aristocats" "Quentin stood to the side and called out dance moves for John and Uma to do." "The dancing became one of the most iconic scenes of the film." "Some think that Mia and Vincent did not win the dance contest, but in fact stole the trophy to make it look like they had won." "The exchange about too much information was one Quentin used to have with his friends." "So far we've seen Mia with a record player and a reel-to-reel tape player." "Apparently she does not have a CD player." "The song "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" was originally written and performed by Neil Diamond, who scored a Top 20 hit with the song in 1967" "This version is performed by Urge Qverkill, who recorded it for their Stull E.P." "Quentin says, "I've always loved Neil Diamond's version of that song, but I like their version even better." ""Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was the song Mia had to dance to by herself." "It was one of those things where I was in love with four or five [other] songs, then I found my true love."" "The bathroom mirror is an effective metaphor for the character's self-reflection." "Quentin likes using bathrooms for these moments of reflection." "Quentin says, "It's small, it's private and you have a mirror in front of you." "What more could you want?"" "Other Quentin characters that talk to themselves in the mirror include Freddie in Reservoir Dogs and Clarence in True Romance" "Remember how Lance was out of balloons?" "Because of the baggie, Mia thinks that Vince's extremely pure heroin is just cocaine." "The idea for this scene has its roots in Quentin's aborted attempt at a first film, My Best Friend s Birthday, when his character of Clarence snorts itching powder that he believes to be cocaine." "The media focused a lot of attention on the casting of John Travolta in this film." "Some people feel that Quentin plays an important role giving second chances to actors that are forgotten by everyone else." "Quentin says he's happy to help out actors, but his motivation is to make movies the best way he can, and that's by casting actors that are as adventurous as his writing and directing." "Quentin says, "I think there is far less artistry in the casting of most mainstream movies than there should be." ""The biggest problem is that most of the mainstream movies are working from the same list, so in a given year, you see the same character actor who happens to be hot at the moment."" "Quentin has always stressed that his priority is casting the best actor for the part, no matter who the actor is." "Quentin's motto is, "Treat actors like they're movie stars, and treat movie stars like they're actors."" "From Dusk Till Dawn star George Clooney says, "Quentin's in a great position in that he can get films made with those people." "It's the great advantage of being Quentin, and he's taking full advantage, which is not just admirable but smart on his part."" "This shot reflects a couple conventions of classic film noir movies." "First, the streets are wet, which allows the lights to reflect off the pavement." "Second, the hero is driving a convertible." "Besides making him cool, it also makes it easier to see the action inside the car." "Lance is watching The Three Stooges" "The line about love birds is delivered by Emil Sitka, who received credit as "Hold Hands, You Love Birds!"" "A character actor for over 50 years, Emil claimed to have appeared in 450 movies." "He's most famous for his appearances in 35 short films with The Three Stooges." "He has the distinction of having worked with all six of the men who played Stooges." "He has also been in such feature films as Who Done It?" "The Well and Blackboard Jungle" "When Vincent calls Lance, Lance is eating a bowl of Fruit Brute cereal." "This cereal was made by General Mills from 1975 to 1983." "Fruit Brute was from the "monster" family of cereals, along with Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry and Yummy Mummy." "Fruit Brute was the first of these cereals to be discontinued." "Quentin passionately loves cereal and has held onto this box for years, which he drops into his movies from time to time." "It previously appeared in Reservoir Dogs, where it can be seen in Freddie's apartment." "Quentin diffuses a lot of the violence in his films with humor, just like one of his biggest filmmaking influences, Brian De Palma, did." "Quentin says, "De Palma was a big influence to me." ""And one of the things about De Palma that people never talk about is that I think De Palma is probably the greatest black-satirist of the last 20 years in cinema." ""I mean, his films are hysterical, biting black comedies." ""I mean, you know, no one has his wit, at all." ""His wit is just fantastic, even though he never makes official comedies." "But like, you know, Scorsese, he's just daring."" "This scene is shot with a handheld camera to make the action feel more "real."" "You see one car drive past the front door." "When Lance gets outside, a second car has already been placed in the crash position." "The documentary style of this scene makes it feel more immediate and energetic." "When Vincent and Lance are preparing to give Mia the adrenaline injection, the board games Operation and Life are visible on a stool in the living room." "The fact that you can't see in the room increases the tension." "The brand name of the adrenaline (Wasco Med) is named after the production designer, David Wasco." "Before shooting the film, Quentin Tarantino couldn't decide if he was going to play the character of Lance or Jimmie." "He ended up choosing Jimmie because he wanted to be behind the camera during this scene." "Reality Check:" "Don't try this at home, because it wouldn't work." "Stabbing a thin and long needle into the sternum would most likely cause the needle to break, no matter how sharp the point is." "Also, adrenaline would have no effect on a patient with life-threatening levels of heroin in his/her system." "Drugs for a heroin overdose (for example, Narcan) are normally injected intravenously since any attempt to send it directly to the heart would not be absorbed fast enough to be effective." "When this film screened for the first time in the U.S. at the New York Film Festival, somebody fainted during this scene and the movie had to be stopped." "The shot of Vincent plunging the syringe into Mia's chest was filmed by having John Travolta pull the needle out, then running the film backwards." "If John had slammed it into Uma's chest as hard as it looks, he could have broken her ribs." "Note that Quentin does not use a process shot during this scene." "The cartoon is Clutch Cargo, a very strange children's show from 1959." "It was an action show made up of still pictures." "For the dialogue, moving human lips were superimposed onto the mouths of drawings." "Butch's mother is played by Brenda Hillhouse, who also played the hostage Gloria in From Dusk Till Dawn" "In that film, her character is raped and murdered by Quentin's character." "This is Captain Koons." "Koons was also the name of Vic Vega's parole officer in the original script of Reservoir Dogs" "Captain Koons is played by Christopher Walken." "Christopher Walken also played Vincent Coccotti in True Romance." "This monologue about life in a P.Q.W. camp is inspired by his Academy Award-winning performance as a P.Q.W. in the Vietnam war movie The Deer Hunter." "This scene was filmed on the very last day of shooting." "Quentin says, "I felt it was if we made three separate movies, and then shot this little short film on the last day."" "Because Christopher was working on another film at the time, he didn't really have time to rehearse the scene with Quentin ahead of time." "They scouted the location together, but that was it." "According to Quentin, Christopher showed up on the day of shooting and totally nailed the scene." "Quentin says, "He knew the monologue word for word, perfectly."" "Between takes, Christopher would drink Tabasco sauce." "Lawrence Bender assumed that drinking Tabasco was some sort of method acting technique to get him into the pain of the character." "Christopher said the real reason was much more practical." "The hot sauce produced saliva, which helped keep his mouth lubricated during the very long speech." "Many people incorrectly remember this monologue as being shot in one long take." "Quentin says, "I shot maybe 13 or 14 takes of the basic shot, the kid's point of view." ""Then I did five or six takes of him doing it in close-up, and then I had the little kid." ""He's telling a three-part story about the First World War, the Second World War, and then Vietnam." ""I used the more humorous take on the First World War," ""and then on the second war story, which is more tragic, I took his darkest take, and then, for the Vietnam story, I took his most irreverent take."" "Christopher's real name is Ronald Walken." "At the age of ten, Christopher Walken met Jerry Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour when Lewis  Martin were the guest hosts." "Jerry encouraged Christopher to pursue a career in show business." "Christopher had a successful career as a child actor, singer and dancer on stage and television." "Christopher worked briefly as a lion tamer in a circus at age 15." "Christopher won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Deer Hunter." "To date, he is the only Oscar-winning actor to portray a Bond villain (in A View to a Kill)." "Captain Koons refers to an airman named Winocki, who transported the watch back to safety." "Winocki is the name of John Garfield's character in Air Force, a film directed by Howard Hawks, one of Quentin's favorite directors." "Christopher gets typecast in films a lot, portraying psychologically unstable characters." "In reality, he has a stable life, and has been married to the same woman for over 30 years." "Christopher was George Lucas's second choice for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars" "This scene leaves viewers with a feeling they have completely departed from the movie's story." "Only later will we understand how this scene connects to Butch's story." "There's more violent scenes coming up later." "The perception of Quentin as a violent filmmaker dates back to Reservoir Dogs." "Many people thought that it was an extremely violent film just because of one infamous scene." "In reality, the notorious "ear scene" which everyone thought was so violent occurs off-camera." "Quentin says, "The thing is, the film got a lot of remarks because of the violence in it." ""And in a way, I always kind of took it as a big compliment because I know the film isn't that violent." ""They thought it was far more violent than it was, all right?" ""De Palma has said that, 'when you do violence, you actually get penalized for doing it well.'" ""Hacks don't get penalized for, you know, showing anything because it doesn't mean anything, all right?" ""So in a way, they're saying, 'Good filmmaking.'" ""All right, especially since the movie [Reservoir Dogs] is a talking heads movie." ""It's these people talking to each other for the entire 90 minutes with, like, three acts of violence in the movie." "The most notorious one you don't even see on screen." "All right, so it's like, 'Well, thanks [for the compliment]'."" "Roger Avary originally wrote a story called Pandemonium Reigns about a boxer who refuses to throw a fight." "Quentin took Roger's story, adapted it into the "Gold Watch" story, and incorporated it into the rest of the movie." "The voices of the two boxing announcers heard on the radio are played by Bob Ruth and Rich Turner." "Bob Ruth is the cop shot by Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs, as well as a patron in the Pulp Fiction coffee shop." "Rich Turner appeared in Quentin's unfinished early film My Best Friend s Birthday, as well as playing the sheriff in Reservoir Dogs and an ugly American tourist in Killing Zoe" "The marquee on the boxing arena advertises the following fights..."Coolidge vs. Wilson" and "Vossler vs. Martinez."" "Besides being the last names of Butch and his opponent, "Coolidge vs. Wilson" also refers to two U.S. Presidents..." "Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) and Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)." ""Vossler vs. Martinez" is a reference to Russ Vossler and Jerry Martinez, two friends who worked with Quentin at Video Archives." "Vossler and Martinez used to live together, and their constant fighting was the butt of jokes around the store." "Notice that we still cannot see Marsellus's face." "This maintains his aura of mystery and power." "Behind Butch you can see another process shot." "Quentin is using this effect to evoke classic film noir movies, which Butch's story emulates." "Esmarelda the cab driver is played by Angela Jones." "While writing Pulp Fiction, Quentin attended a film festival in Italy, where he saw a short film called Curdled" "It was about a young woman who develops a morbid fascination with violence and death when she has to clean up after murders." "Quentin was impressed enough to approach the filmmakers about using the lead actress Angela Jones to play a similar character in Pulp Fiction" "Curdled also inspired him to write "The Bonnie Situation," about a post-homicide clean-up." "Quentin helped the producers of Curdled make it into a full-length feature film, which he executive-produced." "The feature film version of Curdled also includes an appearance by The Gecko Brothers as fugitives on a crime TV show." "The Gecko Brothers became the lead characters in From Dusk Till Dawn" "John Travolta's wife Kelly Preston appears as a television reporter in both Curdled and From Dusk Till Dawn" "Bruce Willis's nickname is "Bruno." He recorded a music album called The Return of Bruno" "His left shoulder is injured from his days of high school wrestling." "Wrestling also gave him the stocky build and thick neck he has now." "There was originally a longer version of this scene, but Quentin decided to shorten it to keep the pace of the movie moving quickly." "Bruce's children were friends with Harvey Keitel's children, so Harvey introduced Bruce to Quentin." "Bruce volunteered to appear in Pulp Fiction for a small fraction of his usual salary." "In 1980, Bruce was working as a bartender in New York when a casting director liked his personality and cast him as a bartender in a small movie role." "This led to other small movie roles, which led to the television show Moonlighting, which made him a star, which led to bigger feature films." "Die Hard made Bruce into an international action star, and he now commands over $20 million per picture." "So far, Bruce has been in six movies with numbers in the title..." "The First Deadly Sin, Twelve Monkeys, Four Rooms, The Fifth Element, The Sixth Sense and The W hole Nine Yards" "After Pulp Fiction, Bruce went on to work with Sam Jackson in Die Hard with a Vengeance (a.k.a. Die Hard 3)." "Instead of placing one big bet with one bookie, Butch spread several small bets with several bookies to avoid attracting attention and possibly leading Marsellus to him." "Butch is supposed to meet his connection in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is where his great-grandfather bought the gold watch." "Knoxville is also Quentin Tarantino's birthplace." "The taxicab is from the 1940s, another echo of classic films noir." "Esmarelda's cab belongs to Big Jerry's Cab Co." ""Big Jerry" was a nickname Quentin gave to Gerald Martinez when they worked at Video Archives." "Quentin's friend Russ Vossler designed the logo for the side of the cab." "Butch's girlfriend Fabienne is played by Maria de Medeiros." "While Fabienne is from France, Maria is from Portugal." "Quentin met Maria while touring European film festivals with Reservoir Dogs" "In 1990, Maria co-starred with Uma Thurman in a film called Henry and June" "Uma played Henry Miller's wife June while Maria played erotic author Anais Nin, who has an affair with Henry (and June)." "The release of Henry and June was controversial because it was the first film to receive the "NC-17" film rating (which means no children under 17 permitted)." "Some people think it's ironic that Henry and June received an "NC-17" rating for a little bit of sex while Pulp Fiction s profanity, drugs and violence received only an "R" rating." "Another person who has challenged sexual limits in pop culture is Madonna." "Fabienne mentions Madonna, who was discussed at length in Reservoir Dogs." "This scene is reminiscent of films from the French New Wave." "Pulp Fiction got its start in 1989, when Quentin's script for True Romance was stuck in development." "Quentin and his then-cowriter Roger Avary talked about diverting their creative energies into a new project... an anthology of three connected short films." "The original inspiration came from a film called Black Sabbath" "The 1963 Italian anthology was a stylish collection of three horror stories directed by Mario Bava." "As an appreciation to Bava, Quentin named one of the heroin types after the director." "Quentin and Roger tentatively titled the project The Black Mask, in tribute to the legendary pulp crime magazine." "Black Mask was a fiction magazine that was the birthplace of hard-boiled fiction and the career launch pad for more great crime writers than any other." "Many now -legendary writers and their star creations were featured in Black Mask" "Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade), Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe), Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason)," "John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee) and many more classic crime tales were published in the pages of this legendary magazine between 1921 and 1951." "Launched originally by H.L. Mencken and a partner to help provide funding for another of their (more respectable) magazines," "Black Mask eventually became the most famous pulp magazine." "When crime fiction aficionados use the term "pulp fiction,"" "the publication they usually have in mind is Black Mask" "Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary discussed the possibility of having each of the three stories directed by a different person." "Quentin later went on to execute this idea in the anthology film Four Rooms" "After their initial development, they suspended work on the project." "A couple years later, after the success of Reservoir Dogs, Jersey Films offered Quentin a $900,000 advance for his next film." "Quentin decided to revive the Black Mask material." "In March of 1992, Quentin decided to use some of this money to rent an apartment in Amsterdam and concentrate on writing his next script." "Over the next ten months, he toured European film festivals promoting Reservoir Dogs and rewrote the Black Mask material into a new script called Pulp Fiction." "The term "pulp fiction" existed long before Quentin made this film." "The title was an homage to a tradition of paperback writing that traced back to the 1930s." "The genre included mostly horror and crime novels intended to be read and discarded." "Some of the writers of pulp fiction who most influenced Quentin were Jim Thompson (The Grifters, After Dark, My Sweet)," "Cornell Woolrich (The Bride Wore Black, Rear Window), Fredric Brown (Screaming Mimi, Crack-Up)," "Charles Willeford (Miami Blues, Cockfighter) and Elmore Leonard (310 to Yuma, 52 Pick-Up)" "Many of these classic pulp writers have had their books adapted into movies." "Quentin's movie brought the term "pulp fiction" into widespread public consciousness and made it synonymous with the genre of hard-boiled crime fiction." "Looking through the door into the bathroom, it's a forced perspective." "This gives the viewer the sense they are eavesdropping on a private conversation." "Butch tells Fabienne that she does not speak "Bora-Boran," which is not a real language." "Bora Bora was a French colony, and Fabienne speaks French, so in a way she does speak "Bora-Boran."" "Fabienne starts to tell Butch something, then stops." "Many wonder what she was going to say." "Some people think that because they were just talking about time, she was about to tell Butch that she forgot the watch." "The film playing in the motel room is The Losers, about five Hell's Angels sent to Cambodia by the CIA to rescue a presidential adviser who has been captured by communists." "The noises from this war movie wake up Butch with a reminder that he is in a war like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were." "The footage of the motorcycle foreshadows Butch's getaway on a motorcycle." "Some people wonder why Fabienne is brushing her teeth a second time." "While there's nothing wrong with good hygiene, it is odd to see her doing it twice in quick succession." "The timing of the brushings isn't as close as you think." "The first time she brushes is right before she goes to bed." "The second time is after she wakes up." "Because the brushings are right after each other, Butch feels like he just closed his eyes." "The camera starts pushing in slowly." "This creates tension by letting the viewer know that something bad is about to happen." "Fabienne says, "Any time of day is a good time for pie."" "Alabama also says this in True Romance" "Ralph Meeker's portrayal of Mike Hammer was an inspiration for the character of Butch." "Quentin says, "I wanted him to be a bully and a jerk." "I basically wanted him to be like Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly"" "In the original script, Butch stops on the way to his apartment, gets out of the car and debates with himself about retrieving the watch." "He decides his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all made sure the watch survived a war, and he has to make sure the watch survives his war with Marsellus." "When Butch sneaks past the apartment building, he can hear a radio advertising Jack Rabbit Slim's." "Here is another fictitious brand..." "Sam's Toaster Pastries." "Guns or danger occurring outside of bathrooms is a common theme in Quentin's films." "In True Romance, something bad happens to Clarence in the hotel bathroom, and in From Dusk Till Dawn, the Ranger who uses the gas station bathroom gets killed." "In this film, every time Vincent goes to the bathroom, something bad happens." "The first time he goes to the bathroom in Pulp Fiction, Mia overdoses, the second time, he gets shot by Butch and the third time, Honey Bunny and Pumpkin start their robbery at the diner." "The beeping noise is the sound of the smoke alarm." "Look at the book that Vince was reading on the toilet." "It's Modesty Blaise, a "pulp" novel which is very much in the spirit of this film's inspiration." "The novel Modesty Blaise was written by Peter O'Donnell in 1965 and featured the story of a female criminal mastermind who becomes a secret agent." "A Modesty Blaise film was made in 1966 starring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp and Dirk Bogarde." "After Pulp Fiction, Miramax bought the rights to the Modesty Blaise series, hoping to turn it into a new series of films directed by Quentin and starring Uma Thurman." "Many wonder why a professional such as Vince left his gun on the counter when he went to the bathroom." "Vince didn't leave his gun on the counter because the gun wasn't his." "It belonged to Marsellus." "Jules had given up "the life" by this point so Marsellus came along with Vincent." "Besides, Marsellus had a personal interest in carrying out this job." "Because Vince was with somebody else at the apartment, he didn't react when Butch came in (he thought he knew who it was)." "For further evidence, look at the scene where Butch runs Marsellus over... the crime boss is carrying two cups of coffee, one for him and one for Vince." "The song "Flowers on the Wall" is performed by The Statler Brothers." "This was their biggest hit." "The Statler Brothers took their name from a manufacturer of tissues." "As an homage to Pulp Fiction, Bruce Willis's character in Die Hard with a Vengeance quotes the song "Flowers on the Wall."" "Note that right as Butch stops talking, the song reaches the lyric "Captain Kangaroo,"" "reminding us of the kangaroo where the watch was hanging." "Note that right as the song reaches the lyric, "It's good to see you,"" "Butch sees Marsellus walking in front of him." "This is the first time we see Marsellus's face." "When Marsellus walks in front of Butch's car at a stoplight, it's just like the scene in Hitchcock's film Psycho when Marion's boss crosses the street in front of her car." "The woman who thinks Marsellus is dead is played by Karen Maruyama." "Karen was also a member of The Groundlings." "The bystander who offers to be a witness is played by Kathy Griffin." "Kathy also played Betty in the anthology film Four Rooms" "Kathy was also a member of The Groundlings comedy troupe" "The innocent bystander shot by Marsellus Wallace ("Shot Woman") is played by Linda Kaye, who has appeared in some of Quentin's other films." "Linda is pulled out of her car by Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs ("Shocked Woman")." "Linda also appeared in Quentin's uncompleted early film My Best Friend s Birthday" "This is the Mason-Dixon Pawn Shop." "The original Mason-Dixon Line was surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in 1763-1767" "From 1820 onward, the name Mason-Dixon Line came to be an expression meaning the boundary between the free states and the slave states." "Nowadays, the name Mason-Dixon Line is used colloquially to mean the boundary between the Northern and Southern states, or between the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War." ""Mason-Dixon" is used here to let viewers know that these are redneck hillbillies." "Any violence that occurs in Quentin's films is just a small part of the story, but that doesn't stop some critics from concentrating on it." "Critics who focus on the violence miss the point that it is just one of the many tools that Quentin uses to tell a story." "Quentin says, "One of the analogies I've always used is that I have no more problem with violence in my movies" ""than I do with musical sequences in Vincente Minnelli movies." ""It's simply one of the things that you can do in cinema that's interesting to watch." ""And I feel totally great and fine in saying that in real life I have a major problem with violence." "I do think our society is too violent, but I have no problem going to a film and seeing violence on the screen."" "Most of the politicians and religious groups who condemned the film as violent and offensive never saw the film, and completely missed the positive messages in the film." "Amongst the positive and politically correct messages in the film..." "Pulp Fiction celebrates interracial friendship and cultural diversity." "There is no violence directed against women." "Both drugs and violence are shown to have dangerous consequences." "The film avoids stereotypes of gender, race and class, and is filled with strong women and strong black men and people of all classes." "There is no nudity." "The only sex is when a crime boss gets raped, and the only essentially "evil" people in the film are two sadistic hillbillies straight out of Deliverance who do the raping." "Any violence that occurs is integral to the plot and usually occurs off-camera." "All of these qualities are in sharp contrast to the standard Hollywood big-budget action film that is filled with gratuitous violence, sex, nudity, class and racial stereotypes." "Some of Quentin's other films have characters who are tied up and tortured..." "Marvin Nash in Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Worley in True Romance, Gloria the teller in From Dusk Till Dawn" "Zed is played by Peter Greene." "You may recognize him from The Usual Suspects and The Mask" "Note that you can see Butch and Marsellus in the foreground as Maynard releases The Gimp in the background." "Quentin is showing us the victims of violence (Butch and Marsellus) as well as the perpetrator of violence (The Gimp)." "Allowing us to see them in the same shot builds tension for the violence that's about to come." ""Eeny-meenie-miney-mo" was also used by Mallory in Natural Born Killers to choose a victim in the opening scene." "All the clocks in the pawn shop are set to 4:20." "4-20 is the police code for the smoking of marijuana." "The Gimp is played by Stephen Hibbert." "Stephen was married to Julia Sweeney at the time of Pulp Fiction." "Stephen was also a writer and composer." "The song "Comanche" was written and performed by The Revels." "The rape scene is reminiscent of Deliverance, a John Boorman film that Quentin is a big fan of." "The nightmare of scary hillbillies also reminds some viewers of the frighteningly fiendish family in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another favorite film of Quentin's." "Sodomy was discussed by Nice Guy Eddie and Vic in Reservoir Dogs, and was also described by Dimes and Nichols to Elliot in True Romance" "If you look fast, when Butch first comes up from the basement, we see a quick shot of Zed's key ring with a "Z."" "Then, if you look quickly, there is a neon sign in the back for "Killian's Red." The only letters that are still lit spell "Kill... ed."" "Put it together and we are left with the subliminal message "Kill Zed."" "When Butch goes to leave the pawn shop after freeing himself, he pauses for a moment to think." "Right behind Butch is a Tennessee license plate." "Butch can either go to Tennessee and collect his money or go back to help Marsellus Wallace." "Butch's conscience tells him go back and save Marsellus." "While Butch is unconscious of this, his rescue of Marsellus will redeem him for the murder of Wilson in the previous night's boxing match." "Redemption has always been a powerful cinematic theme, and no more so than throughout Pulp Fiction... for instance, when Jules keeps Vincent from killing Honey Bunny and Pumpkin in the diner." "Even though the film is filled with drug dealers, hit men and other criminally minded "lowlifes," they are all portrayed as basically good people." "The closest we ever get to a law enforcement character in this film is the "Security Officer" Zed." "He is a very bad person." "As Butch runs through his choice of weapons for his heroic deed, he brings to mind a variety of cinematic precedents." "The baseball bat recalls Joe Don Baker in Walking Tall, the chainsaw recalls Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the samurai sword recalls Sonny Chiba in Shadow Warriors" "Butch's choice of the samurai sword is most likely a reference to Tarantino's admiration of Asian action films, where honor and respect are always important, even to criminals." "Butch's decision to return and save Marsellus is a perfect example of the 'Honor Among Thieves' theme that Quentin loves in classic Hong Kong action movies." "After Butch kills Maynard, Marsellus Wallace says that he's going to call some friends" ""to go to work on 'homes' here with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch."" "In the film Charley Varrick, a character named Maynard warns a bank manager that some mobsters "will go to work on you with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch."" "Marsellus also promised to "get medieval on your ass." This was another one of the most-quoted lines from the film." "Ving Rhames was born in New York City." "He attended Julliard Drama School." "He has appeared in such films as Rosewood, Out of Sight, and Bringing Out the Dead." "He also appeared in Casualties of War, one of Quentin's favorite films." "He won a Golden Globe for his performance as Don King in Only in America." "The motorcycle has the name "Grace" written on it." "The name has multiple meanings." "He is also literally delivered from evil by the motorcycle Grace." "Now that Butch has redeemed himself by saving Marsellus, he is metaphorically delivered from evil by the grace of God." "Grace was also the name of Quentin's long-time girlfriend when he made the film." "The guy in the bathroom (only known as The Fourth Man) is played by Alexis Arquette." "The Fourth Man is sometimes referred to as "Seinfeld" because of his resemblance to the popular comedian." "The gun he is holding is a.357 magnum." "The gun was made famous by appearances in the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry films, of which Quentin is a big fan." "Once again, Quentin introduces a character while he is listening to someone off-screen." "This allows us to focus on the character's reaction to what is being said." "Alexis is the brother of Rosanna, Patricia and David Arquette." "Rosanna Arquette is in Pulp Fiction, and Patricia Arquette starred in True Romance" "The father of the Arquette siblings is Lewis Arquette, who is also an actor and has appeared in dozens of films, from Chopper Chicks in Zombietown to Waiting For Guffman" "There are bullet holes clearly visible in the wall behind Jules and Vince before The Fourth Man fires his gun at them." "There are a lot of theories about this." "Some say it's an editing error, but it's too obvious to not have been done on purpose." "Some say that the holes were there because it was a dumpy, run-down apartment." "Some say they're there to prove it wasn't a "miracle."" "The only man they don't kill in the apartment is Marvin." "That's because Marvin also works for Marsellus." "Marvin is also the name of the cop in Reservoir Dogs (Marvin Nash), as well as a minor character in True Romance (one of Coccotti's goons)." "This conversation is shot with the characters in profile." "This reinforces how the characters are in opposition to each other." "Two of the scenes that Roger Avary contributed to this film were originally in the script that was written for True Romance but were cut out of that film." "The first is the emergence from the bathroom of a hidden gunman who fires off a torrent of shots but completely misses his target." "The second was this scene... the accidental firing of a gun inside a car, leading to a bloody death." "Marvin's "head" was blown up with an air mortar, which is sort of like a scuba tank that blasts air into the dummy head." "The fake head was filled with oatmeal, chunks of latex, and fake blood, which explode all over the inside of the car." "Some people wonder how Marvin's head could be blown apart from just one bullet." "In the original script, Marvin was still alive after being shot in the throat." "Vincent then shoots him a second time to put Marvin out of his misery." "During filming, Quentin decided to make it a single-bullet killing because he thought it would be funnier." "While most viewers did think it was funny, some people were horrified by this scene and pointed it out as reason for condemning the film." "When the WB network aired a version of Pulp Fiction on broadcast television, they removed (in addition to many others) the scene where John Travolta shoots Marvin by accident." "Instead they replaced it with a black screen over Vincent saying, "Oh, man, I just shot Marvin."" "Many viewers wonder how a guy like Jimmie Dimmick knows a gangster like Jules." "Jimmie used to work for Marsellus (as Jules's partner), but when he married Bonnie, she made him quit the business, and Jules respects that." "The partnership of Jules and his friend Jimmie is a reference to François Truffaut's film Jules et Jim" "Jimmie is played by Quentin Tarantino." "Quentin also played Mr. Brown in Reservoir Dogs," "Chester Rush in Four Rooms and Ritchie Gecko in From Dusk Till Dawn" "He also acted in an episode of the sitcom All-American Girl, which starred his friend Margaret Cho." "The episode was a parody of Pulp Fiction and was called "Pulp Sitcom."" "Quentin is wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of Orby, the mascot for Orbit magazine, a local alternative newspaper in Metro Detroit." "Orbit writer Paul Zimmerman interviewed Quentin about Reservoir Dogs when it first came out and gave him an Orby T-shirt, which Quentin said he'd wear in his next film." "Jimmie's wife is a nurse named Bonnie." "In Reservoir Dogs, Nice Guy Eddie refers to a nurse named Bonnie." "Bonnie was also a colleague of Lee in True Romance" "Quentin is also a big fan of the film Coffy, which stars Pam Grier as a night nurse." "This is The Wolf (also known as Winston Wolf), who is played by Harvey Keitel." "Quentin specifically wrote The Wolf character for Harvey Keitel." "Some viewers wonder why Winston Wolf was dressed in a tuxedo at 8:30 in the morning." "From the people and surroundings, it seems to be an all-night private gambling party." "This time subtitle demonstrates how good the Wolf is at what he does (not to mention it reinforces the film's humor)." "The Wolf's mustache is evocative of other dapper and sophisticated movie stars like Errol Flynn and Clark Gable." "The Wolf's elegant tuxedo is an ironic contrast to the bloody work he performs." "Harvey Keitel played a similar character (Victor the Cleaner) in Point of No Return, which was a remake of La Femme Nikita" "Point Of No Return also starred Bridget Fonda, who went on to co-star in Tarantino's next feature, Jackie Brown" "Harvey Keitel also played the preacher Jacob in From Dusk Till Dawn and Mr. White (a.k.a. Larry) in Quentin's film Reservoir Dogs" "According to Quentin, "Harvey had been my favorite actor since I was 16 years old." "I'd seen him in Mean Streets and Taxi Driver and other stuff."" "Harvey was the first actor cast in Reservoir Dogs and played an important role in getting Quentin's first film made." "Producer Lawrence Bender gave the Dogs script to his acting tutor, who gave it to his wife, who gave it to Harvey Keitel, who agreed to appear in the film." "Harvey's commitment to the film was a critical turning point in getting Reservoir Dogs made and launching Quentin's career." "Harvey has always been enthusiastic about working with first-time directors, from Martin Scorsese (Who s that Knocking at My Door?" "in 1968) to Ridley Scott (The Duelists in 1977) to Alan Rudolph (Welcome to L A in 1977), Paul Schrader (Blue Collar in 1978), James Toback (Fingers in 1978) and Tony Bui (Three Seasons in 1999)." "Harvey makes a lot of films." "In the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000, Harvey appeared in 64 films, an average of over 3 films a year." "During the same period of time, Marlon Brando only made eight films." "Keitel was a juvenile delinquent until the age of 16, when he was sent to Lebanon with the Marine Corps." "Harvey has had some other interesting jobs." "He worked as a women's shoe salesman and was a court stenographer in NYC for about ten years." "In 1995, Empire magazine chose Harvey as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history." "In 1997, they ranked him #37 their list of The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time." "Given that Vince has "risen from the dead," now is a good time to talk about the film's unique structure." "A great deal has been made about how Quentin's story jumps around." "Some critics unfairly felt that because Quentin used a non-linear structure in both of his first two films, it has become a "gimmick" for him." "Quentin says, "If I had a film that worked dramatically better from the beginning, middle and end perspective, then I would tell it that way."" "Quentin wrote the film in the order you see it happen." "He did not write it in chronological sequence and then rearrange it." "Quentin says, "I'm a storyteller." "I really like experimenting with a kind of cinema that you're not used to seeing." "Or taking the form and stretching it and twisting it and doing things that you're not used to seeing all the time."" "Pulp Fiction switches back and forth between the different stories, playing with time and place." "While this storytelling device may seem completely new to young filmgoers, this alternative structure has been used in many other films." "The fragmented storytelling structure has been employed throughout film's history in such diverse films as Citizen Kane," "Rashomon, Last Year at Marienbad, The Killing, La Jetée, Four Times That Night and Go" "Quentin's inspiration for the structure is less from films and more from novels." "Quentin feels strongly that filmmakers should be free to structure stories with the same freedom that a novelist does." "Quentin really liked "the idea of doing something that novelists get a chance to do but filmmakers don't... telling three separate stories, having characters float in and out with different weights depending on the story."" "Quentin says, "One thing that's cool is that by breaking up the linear structure, when I watch the films with an audience, it does break [the audience's] alpha state." ""It's like, all of a sudden, 'I gotta watch this..." "I gotta pay attention.' You can almost feel everybody moving in their seats." ""It's actually fun to watch an audience in some ways chase after a movie." ""The truth of the matter is if I had written Pulp Fiction as a novel, you would never even remotely bring up the structure of it." "You would never bring it up, all right, because it's like, a novel can do that, no problem."" "Quentin emphasizes the novel-like storytelling style by using literary devices to tell his story." "In both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Quentin insists that the title cards are not intended to signal flashbacks but merely to indicate chapters." "Playing with alternative story structure can be tricky if not handled correctly." "Quentin says, "I know for me, when I'm an audience member, if I'm confused, emotionally I check out," ""because 90% of the time, if I'm confused, I wasn't meant to be confused." "But if I'm not sure exactly what's going on but I feel I'm in good hands, that's a whole different experience."" "Vincent Vega's name is good example of how Quentin regularly cross-references his films against his other films." "Quentin's use of the same names in different movies creates a familiar universe, where viewers have already heard of all the characters." "In Quentin's first film, Reservoir Dogs, Michael Madsen played a character named Vic Vega (a.k.a. Mr. Blonde)." "Quentin originally thought that he would have Michael Madsen reprise the role of Vic Vega in Pulp Fiction" "Michael was unable to take the role, however, due to a prior commitment to do the film Wyatt Earp" "Quentin decided to change the character to Vic's brother, Vincent Vega." "Tarantino, Travolta and Madsen have discussed making The Vega Brothers, which would be a prequel to both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction" "Any further adventures of Vince and Vic Vega would have to be a prequel since they both met with violent deaths at the end of their respective pictures." "Tarantino admired writers like J.D. Salinger and Charles Willeford who created a community of characters that would appear in a number of stories." "Tarantino wanted to do the same thing with his film." "Quentin had characters who were peripheral in one story become the focal point of the next one, creating the impression that all of them belonged in the same shared universe." "That's why you'll also see characters from one of his films show up in another." "Jules's T-shirt features an old cartoon character called "Krazy Kat."" "Vincent's T-shirt features the banana slug mascot for University of California at Santa Cruz." "While it didn't make it into the final film, the original screenplay included a scene where Jimmie decides to take a picture of his three unexpected guests." "If you look at the CD booklet of the soundtrack album, you'll see a photo of Jules, Vincent and The Wolf posed together, getting their picture taken." "The name of the wrecking yard is Monster Joe's Truck And Tow." "There was a pair of scenes here that were cut out of the final film." "Quentin says the Monster Joe scenes are probably the only deleted scenes he had doubts about taking out." "In the scenes we meet Monster Joe and his daughter Raquel." "Monster Joe is played by Dick Miller, a legendary character actor best remembered for a variety of roles in low -budget drive-in pictures cranked out during the 1950s and '60s, particularly those produced by Roger Corman." "His work includes everything from such early 'B' movies as Sorority Girl, Not of This Earth and Man with the X-Ray Eyes to modern big studio movies like Gremlins, The Terminator and Small Soldiers" "He has appeared in many films directed by Joe Dante, which often featured monsters of one type or another." "Hence, Monster Joe's Wrecking Yard." "This is Joe's daughter Raquel, who is played by Julia Sweeney." "More about her in a moment." "When they originally filmed the junk yard departure, Harvey Keitel grabbed John Travolta's hand and did an impromptu impersonation of Christopher Walken from The Dead Z one" "In that film, Walken's character gains psychic powers." "While the impersonation was deleted, some of the dialogue from it remains... "It's your future..." "I see... a cab ride!"" "Back to Julia Sweeney." "She used to be on Saturday Night Live, where she became famous playing an androgynous character named Pat." "The skit was eventually adapted into a feature film, It s Pat Quentin did an uncredited rewrite of the script." "Quentin also executive produced Julia's film God Said, Ha!" "Julia Sweeney also belonged to the comedy troupe The Groundlings." "Many famous comedians came from The Groundlings, including Laraine Newman, Paul Reubens, Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell and more." "This line was changed from "sausage" in the original script to "bacon" in the filmed version." "All the diner scenes were shot at the Hawthorne Grill." "Quentin used to hang out at this coffee shop, which is located in Hawthorne, California." "Unfortunately, it has since been closed and demolished." "Hoyle is a book of official rules for card games." "The expression "according to Hoyle" referred to settling technical disagreements by checking the official authority." "This same expression was said by Holdaway in the original script of Reservoir Dogs and by Wayne Gale in the original script of Natural Born Killers" "Kung Fu was a television series that ran from 1972 to 1975." "Kung Fu starred David Carradine, who is now starring in Quentin's latest movie, Kill Bill." "Once again, notice that this conversation is shot in profile to demonstrate how the characters are in opposition to each other." "When we hear Pumpkin call out, "Garçon," we realize that we're right back where the movie started." "You'll notice that when Honey Bunny says her line about "pricks," it is slightly different from the beginning of the movie." "If you look closely, you'll see one of the diner patrons who gets down on the floor is played by Lawrence Bender, who has produced all of Quentin's films." "After graduating as a civil engineer, Lawrence went on to become a dancer." "A series of injuries led him to abandon that career for acting." "When he grew unhappy with his acting career, Lawrence segued into producing." "The coffee shop manager is credited as "Coffee Shop" because he is cut off as he speaks..." ""I am not a hero, I'm just a coffee shop..."" "In addition to producing all of Quentin's films, Lawrence has produced films such as The Mexican," "Anna and the King, Good Will Hunting, White Man s Burden and Fresh" "He has had cameos in several of the films he's produced." "For instance, Lawrence played the part of the Young Cop in Reservoir Dogs and Long Hair Yuppy Scum in Four Rooms" "Vincent is still reading his book Modesty Blaise, by Peter O'Donnell." "In that book, a killer indulges in a Biblical rant very similar to that of Samuel L. Jackson's character." "Some feel that the briefcase is a "McGuffin."" "Hitchcock coined the term "McGuffin" to refer to a red herring that misleads the audience." "It's usually a prop or other physical item that seems to motivate the characters but ultimately means little or nothing to the story." "Fans of Pulp Fiction weren't so willing to accept this convenient answer and have spent a lot of time proposing what Marsellus Wallace's "dirty laundry" really is." "One suggestion is that it contains the diamonds that were stolen in Quentin's film Reservoir Dogs" "Another suggestion is that the briefcase contains the gold Elvis suit worn by Val Kilmer in the Quentin-scripted movie True Romance" "A popular hypothesis is that the briefcase contains the soul of Marsellus." "Legend has it that when the devil steals your soul, he takes it out through the back of your head." "Since Marsellus is seen with a Band-Aid on the back of his head, this means his soul has been stolen and is now in the briefcase." "This theory is further supported when Jules and Vincent experience "Divine Intervention" (or maybe not-so-divine intervention) in getting the briefcase back." "Additional proof is that the combination of the case is "666," considered to be the sign of the devil." "Another speculation is that the briefcase contains a bunch of solid gold bricks." "This would make sense of Pumpkin's reaction ("Is that what I think it is?" and "It's beautiful")." "Some film fans think the case contains some of the mysterious stash from the movie Repo Man" "The climax of that film involves the repossession of a Chevy Malibu with top-secret glowing cargo in the trunk." "Some say it's an Oscar statue." "They weigh only about eight pounds, making it easy to carry in a briefcase." "This would also connect with Pumpkin's reaction." "Another speculation on the contents of the briefcase is that it was homage to Robert Aldrich's great pulp thriller Kiss Me Deadly, which includes a hijacked briefcase full of nuclear material." "Fonzie was a character in a popular sitcom, Happy Days" "One of the most popular sitcoms of its time, Happy Days ran on ABC from 1974 to 1984." "Happy Days featured Henry Winkler as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, who quickly became the star of the show." "The character was recognized on the show as the absolute ultimate in "cool" and was endlessly imitated by fans." "One of Fonzie's trademark expressions was, "Correctamundo."" ""Ringo" isn't really his name." "It's just a nickname Jules made up because he's English." ""Ringo" refers to Ringo Starr of the Beatles." "Quentin loves this classic confrontation, which is known as the "Mexican standoff."" "He used one between Joe, Mr. White and Eddie in Reservoir Dogs as well as between Lee's men, cops and the Mafia in True Romance, and between cops, Mickey and Scagnetti in Natural Born Killers" "The bad motherfucker wallet actually belonged to Quentin." "As Jules is lecturing Ringo, he refers to his gun as "Mr. 9mm," when what he has in his hand is a.45 caliber gun." "The closing credit song is "Surf Rider," written by Bob Bogle, Nole Edwards and Don Wilson, and performed by The Lively Ones."