48 Fun Facts About Jackie Brown

What do the agents find in Jackie's bag besides $50,000 in cash?

Cocaine: besides the $50,000, Nicolette and Dargus find a small bag of cocaine in Jackie's flight bag, which gives them a drug charge to hold over her.

What is Jackie's job in the film?

Flight attendant: Jackie works for Cabo Air, a small Mexican airline, and uses her runs between Cabo San Lucas and Los Angeles to carry Ordell's cash through customs.

Samuel L. Jackson plays which character?

Ordell Robbie is Jackson's character, a Los Angeles gun runner who uses Jackie to bring his cash in from Mexico; the performance won Jackson a Best Actor prize at a 1998 festival.

Which character does Forster play in the film?

Bail bondsman Max Cherry is Forster's role: Cherry posts Jackie's bond, falls for her and quietly helps her keep the money, reviving a career that began with Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967).

Which actor plays Louis Gara, Ordell's recently released former cellmate?

Robert De Niro plays Louis Gara, a slow, burnt-out ex-con fresh out of prison; the mumbling, understated part came two years after his showy lead in Casino.

Bridget Fonda plays Melanie Ralston, who is what to Ordell?

One of his mistresses: Melanie is the blonde beach bunny Ordell keeps in his beach apartment, one of several women he supports around Los Angeles.

Michael Keaton plays Ray Nicolette, an agent of which federal agency?

ATF: Nicolette is an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, paired with LAPD detective Mark Dargus to build a gun-running case against Ordell.

Keaton played Ray Nicolette again, uncredited, in which 1998 Elmore Leonard adaptation?

Out of Sight, Steven Soderbergh's 1998 adaptation of Leonard's novel, has Keaton reprise Ray Nicolette uncredited, the same character carried into another studio's film.

How does Ordell kill his bagman Beaumont Livingston?

He lures him into a car trunk and shoots him: Ordell talks Beaumont into hiding in the trunk for a fake job, drives to an empty lot and fires into it.

When Ordell comes to Jackie's apartment to kill her, she pulls a gun she stole from where?

Max Cherry's glovebox: on the drive home from jail Jackie quietly lifts Max's pistol from the glove compartment, and it turns Ordell's visit into a negotiation.

How much of Ordell's money is still to be smuggled in when Jackie strikes her deal with him?

$550,000 is the whole stash: Jackie tells the ATF the delivery is $50,000 and tells Ordell she will bring everything, planning to keep the other half million herself.

What cut does Jackie offer Max Cherry for helping her keep the money?

10 percent: Jackie offers Max the same cut a bondsman takes on a bond, ten percent of the money she keeps, for collecting the bag she leaves behind.

Where does the money swap take place?

A department store dressing room: Jackie tries on a suit at Billingsley's in the Del Amo mall, leaves one bag behind for Max to collect and hands the other to Melanie.

During the test run, Jackie swaps $10,000 with which of Ordell's girlfriends?

Sheronda, the young woman Ordell keeps at his house, meets Jackie in the mall food court for the $10,000 practice exchange of identical shopping bags.

Why does Ordell reluctantly send Melanie to do the final swap?

Simone has left town with the $10,000 from the practice run, so Ordell, short of a woman he trusts, sends Melanie into the store with Louis watching her.

How much money is actually in the bag Jackie hands to Melanie?

$40,000 is all Jackie leaves for Melanie; when Ray counts it he finds ten thousand short of the fifty Jackie told him about, and she blames Melanie for skimming.

Why does Louis shoot Melanie in the parking lot?

She mocks him for forgetting where they parked: Melanie keeps needling Louis as they search the lot, he warns her to stop, then shoots her twice and leaves her there.

Where is Ordell finally shot dead?

In Max Cherry's office: Jackie lures Ordell there to collect his money, shouts that he has a gun, and Ray Nicolette, waiting in the dark, shoots him dead.

At the end of the film, Jackie plans a trip to which city?

Madrid: Jackie invites Max to join her in Spain, he declines, and she drives away singing along to the song that opened the film.

Under what name does the heroine appear in Elmore Leonard's source novel?

Jackie Burke is the white heroine of Leonard's novel; Tarantino made her Black and renamed her, and Leonard called the film his favourite adaptation of his own work.

Which two other Leonard novels did Tarantino acquire the rights to after Pulp Fiction?

Freaky Deaky and Killshot came in the same deal; Tarantino filmed neither, and Killshot finally reached cinemas in 2008, produced by Lawrence Bender.

Jackie Brown borrows posters and quotes from which two 1970s Pam Grier films?

Coffy and Foxy Brown, Grier's 1973 and 1974 blaxploitation hits, are the films whose poster art and title lettering Jackie Brown quotes.

The opening sequence of Jackie gliding through LAX recreates the opening of which 1967 film?

The Graduate opens with Dustin Hoffman riding an airport moving walkway to 'The Sound of Silence'; Jackie Brown restages the shot with Grier at LAX.

Which Bobby Womack song plays over the opening credits?

Across 110th Street, Womack's 1972 title song for the Harlem crime film starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto, plays as Jackie glides through the airport.

Instead of commissioning a new score, Tarantino used Roy Ayers's funk score from which film?

Coffy, Grier's 1973 vigilante hit, has a Roy Ayers score, and Tarantino lifted several of its cues for Jackie Brown rather than commissioning new music.

Which vocal group's 'Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)' links Jackie and Max?

The Delfonics' 1970 hit is the song Max hears at Jackie's apartment and buys on cassette; their 'La-La Means I Love You' also appears on the soundtrack.

Which Johnny Cash song appears on the soundtrack?

Tennessee Stud, Cash's version recorded live at the Viper Room for his 1994 album American Recordings, plays in the film and appears on the soundtrack album.

The soundtrack includes 'Long Time Woman', sung by Pam Grier herself, from which of her 1971 films?

The Big Doll House, Jack Hill's 1971 women-in-prison film shot in the Philippines for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, has Grier singing the song on its soundtrack.

Grier had earlier read for which Pulp Fiction role that Tarantino decided against giving her?

Jody, the wife of Eric Stoltz's dealer Lance, was the part Grier read for; Tarantino decided audiences would not believe Stoltz yelling at her.

When Grier arrived to read for the film, what did she find in Tarantino's office?

Posters of her own films were already on Tarantino's walls; he told Grier he had meant to take them down so it would not look like he was trying to impress her.

Which action star later claimed he turned down the role of Louis Gara?

Sylvester Stallone later said he had passed on playing Louis; the mumbling ex-con went instead to an Oscar winner playing against type.

Which of these was NOT one of the three veterans Tarantino considered for Max Cherry?

Forster's Oscar-nominated turn revived a career that had drifted into B-movies since Medium Cool.

The film was released in the United States on which date in 1997?

December 25, 1997, Christmas Day, was the US opening, timed so the film could qualify for that year's awards season.

Jackie Brown grossed roughly how much worldwide on a budget of about $12m?

$74.7 million worldwide, of which about $39.7 million came from the US and Canada, made the film a modest hit against its $12 million budget.

Which cast member received the film's only Academy Award nomination?

Robert Forster earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination, the only one of his career; Grier and Jackson had to settle for Golden Globe nominations.

Samuel L. Jackson won the Silver Bear for Best Actor for the film at which festival?

Berlin: at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival in February 1998 Jackson took the Silver Bear for Best Actor, with the film screening in competition.

Which filmmaker publicly criticised Jackie Brown's repeated use of a racial slur, complaining to Harvey Weinstein?

Spike Lee objected to the slur's 38 uses in the script and took his complaint to Harvey Weinstein; Tarantino replied that no word deserves that much power.

Which BBC film critic has called Jackie Brown his favourite Tarantino film?

Mark Kermode has repeatedly called Jackie Brown his favourite Tarantino film, praising its restraint and the Forster-Grier romance over the director's flashier work.

Life of Crime (2013) adapts which Elmore Leonard novel that first introduced Ordell and Louis?

The Switch, Leonard's 1978 novel, introduced Ordell and Louis; Life of Crime cast Yasiin Bey and John Hawkes in the parts.

Which company released Jackie Brown in cinemas?

Miramax Films, the Weinstein brothers' company that had backed Pulp Fiction, distributed Jackie Brown through its 1997 release.

What rating did Roger Ebert give Jackie Brown in the Chicago Sun-Times?

Four stars out of four was Ebert's verdict; he praised the film's patience with its characters and placed it among his ten best films of 1997.

Where did Jackie Brown finish at the US box office on its $9.3 million opening weekend?

Fifth is where the $9.3 million opening weekend landed; the film ended its US run near $39.7 million, a modest result beside Pulp Fiction's $107 million.

Which Bill Withers song is heard in Jackie Brown?

Who Is He (And What Is He to You?) is the Withers cut, a 1972 track heard in the film and included on the soundtrack album.

Which film, shot in summer 1997, did Jackie Brown's studio rush out the same December?

Scream 2 was filmed from June to August 1997 and opened in mid-December, a turnaround of about four months that left both films racing through post-production.

Which in-film video is included in its entirety on the 2002 Special Edition DVD?

Chicks Who Love Guns, the bikini-and-firearms sales tape Ordell shows Louis, runs complete as a DVD extra alongside deleted scenes and a making-of documentary.

Who plays Ray Nicolette's LAPD partner, detective Mark Dargus?

Michael Bowen plays LAPD detective Mark Dargus, Ray Nicolette's partner; Bowen later returned for Tarantino as Buck in Kill Bill.

Which funk instrumental by The Meters appears in the film but was left off the soundtrack album?

Cissy Strut, the Meters' 1969 New Orleans funk instrumental, was a top-five R&B hit for the Art Neville-led band.

Grier and Jackson's Golden Globe nominations for Jackie Brown came in which category?

Musical or Comedy was the Globe section that took the film: Grier for Best Actress and Jackson for Best Actor, both losing to the stars of As Good as It Gets.