110 Fun Facts About Pulp Fiction

What does Jules decide to do after bullets fired at point-blank range all miss him?

Quit and walk the earth is his plan: Jules calls the misses divine intervention and tells Vincent he will wander 'like Caine in Kung Fu' until God puts him where he should be.

Which other film went on wide US release on 14 October 1994, the same day as Pulp Fiction?

The Shawshank Redemption expanded nationwide the day Pulp Fiction opened and was buried: it finished ninth that weekend with $2.4 million, while Pulp Fiction took first place with $9.3 million.

Who plays hitman Vincent Vega?

John Travolta plays Vincent Vega; he took a heavily reduced fee for the part, which brought him a Best Actor Oscar nomination and revived his career.

Who plays Jules Winnfield?

Samuel L. Jackson plays Jules Winnfield; he won the part at a second audition, performing while eating a takeout burger, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Who plays Mia Wallace?

Uma Thurman plays Mia Wallace; Miramax had favoured Holly Hunter or Meg Ryan, but Tarantino wanted Thurman after their first meeting, and the role earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Which actor plays the boxer Butch Coolidge?

Bruce Willis plays Butch Coolidge, the ageing boxer who double-crosses Marsellus Wallace by winning the fight he was paid to throw.

Who plays crime boss Marsellus Wallace?

Ving Rhames plays crime boss Marsellus Wallace; Max Julien, star of the 1973 film The Mack, was approached first but turned the part down.

Harvey Keitel plays a 'cleaner' with what name?

Winston Wolfe introduces himself with 'I solve problems'; Harvey Keitel had solved one for Tarantino, his backing having helped get Reservoir Dogs financed.

By what names does Jules address the diner robbers who call each other Pumpkin and Honey Bunny?

Ringo and Yolanda are what Jules calls the pair in the standoff; rather than shoot them, he hands over about $1,500 of his own cash and lets them leave.

Who plays Captain Koons, the veteran who delivers young Butch's heirloom?

Christopher Walken plays Captain Koons, who tells young Butch he hid the heirloom for two years as a prisoner so that he could one day hand it over.

Which small role does Tarantino himself play?

Jimmie, whose house is used for the clean-up, is Tarantino's part; he had also weighed playing Lance, the dealer, a role that went to a friend instead.

Who plays Vincent's drug dealer Lance?

Eric Stoltz plays Lance, the bathrobe-wearing dealer who helps revive Mia with an adrenaline shot to the heart; Stoltz had earlier starred in Mask (1985).

Steve Buscemi's cameo at the 1950s restaurant is as a waiter dressed as whom?

Buddy Holly is the 1950s star Steve Buscemi's waiter impersonates; Vincent is unimpressed, grumbling that he isn't much of a waiter and that they should have sat in Marilyn Monroe's section.

Which comedian appears in Pulp Fiction as herself, at the scene of Butch's car crash?

Kathy Griffin appears as herself, a bystander who offers to be Marsellus's witness and points out Butch, so the dazed gangster starts shooting at him in the street.

Which actor turned down the role of Jules Winnfield?

Laurence Fishburne turned down Jules; he said years later that he passed because he felt the film glamorised heroin use.

Which Reservoir Dogs actor's decision to make Wyatt Earp instead freed up the role of Vincent Vega?

Michael Madsen had played Vic Vega in Reservoir Dogs and was Tarantino's pick for Vincent, Vic's brother; a 'Vega Brothers' film uniting the two was mooted for years but never made.

Which Oscar-winner did Harvey Weinstein push for as Vincent?

Daniel Day-Lewis, an Oscar winner for My Left Foot, was Harvey Weinstein's choice for Vincent Vega, but Tarantino held out for his own pick and got his way.

What hairstyle did the script call for Jules, before a Jheri-curl wig arrived by mistake?

A giant afro was what the script called for; the wig bought for the actor turned out to be a Jheri curl, he liked the mistake, and Tarantino kept it.

What Bible passage does Jules recite before executing someone?

Jules recites 'Ezekiel 25:17', though only its closing lines resemble the real verse; most of the speech was borrowed from a 1970s martial-arts film's opening crawl.

Jules's 'biblical' speech is taken almost word for word from a film starring which martial-arts actor?

Sonny Chiba starred in The Bodyguard, the English-language release of his film Karate Kiba, whose opening scroll carries the creed; Tarantino later cast Chiba as swordsmith Hattori Hanzō in Kill Bill.

Which fast-food topic do Vincent and Jules discuss in the car?

What a Quarter Pounder is called in Paris is the topic: a 'Royale with Cheese', Vincent explains, because the metric system means the French wouldn't know what a quarter pound is.

Which made-up fast-food brand from Pulp Fiction has recurred in later Tarantino movies?

Big Kahuna Burger is the Hawaiian chain whose burger Jules helps himself to before shooting Brett; Tarantino invented it, like Red Apple cigarettes, to use across his films in place of real brands.

What is the name of the 1950s-themed restaurant where Vincent takes Mia?

Jack Rabbit Slim's is the 1950s-themed restaurant where Mia orders the five-dollar milkshake that astonishes Vincent; its booths are cut from vintage car bodies.

What competition do Vincent and Mia enter at the restaurant?

A twist contest is what the Ed Sullivan lookalike announces; Mia wants the trophy and drags a reluctant Vincent to the floor, reminding him her husband told him to do whatever she wanted.

Which Godard film does Tarantino cite as the inspiration for the dance scene?

Bande à part (1964) is the film Tarantino cites; its Madison dance, with Anna Karina and her two would-be crook companions, is the model, and his company A Band Apart takes its name from it.

Mia overdoses after mistaking Vincent's heroin for what?

Cocaine is what Mia assumes the white powder in Vincent's coat pocket is; she snorts the heroin and overdoses, sending Vincent racing to his dealer's house.

Pulp Fiction's adrenaline-shot scene was inspired by a story told in American Boy, a documentary by which director?

Martin Scorsese filmed his friend Steven Prince, Taxi Driver's gun dealer, recalling how he revived an overdosed woman with an adrenaline shot to the heart, guided by a medical dictionary and a marker pen.

Butch's father died as a prisoner of war in which conflict?

The Vietnam War claimed Butch's father, who died of dysentery in a Hanoi POW camp after hiding the heirloom for five years; Koons hid it two more to bring it home.

Why does Butch go back to his apartment, where he finds Vincent?

Fabienne forgot to pack the gold watch, which Butch values above everything; after retrieving it he spots Marsellus crossing the street, a moment that echoes Marion Crane meeting her boss's eye in Psycho.

What weapon does Butch choose to rescue Marsellus in the pawnshop basement?

A katana is Butch's final choice from the pawnshop's wares; he picks up and rejects a hammer, a baseball bat and a chainsaw before settling on the samurai sword.

Whose motorcycle does Butch ride away on with Fabienne?

Zed's chopper is the bike; asked who Zed is, Butch says 'Zed's dead, baby', though he has just left Zed alive in the basement to face Marsellus's revenge.

What is the name of the taxi driver who helps Butch escape after the fight?

Esmarelda Villa Lobos is the Colombian cabbie played by Angela Jones, who asks Butch what it feels like to kill a man; Tarantino cast her after seeing the short film Curdled.

Whom does Vincent accidentally shoot in the head in the back of the car?

Marvin, the inside man at Brett's apartment, is shot in the face when Vincent's gun goes off as he turns round to ask Marvin's opinion, and the mess has to be cleaned up fast.

What is the name of Jimmie's wife, due home from her night shift?

Bonnie is Jimmie's wife, due back from the graveyard shift at a hospital; the segment takes its title, 'The Bonnie Situation', from the panic over her coming home to a corpse.

During filming, what produced the glow inside Pulp Fiction's mysterious briefcase?

A hidden orange bulb made the glow; the case was first meant to hold diamonds, an idea dropped as too predictable, so its contents were left to each viewer's imagination.

What pulp-style novel is Vincent reading in the bathroom scenes?

Modesty Blaise, Peter O'Donnell's spy adventure, is the book Vincent takes to the toilet; he is still holding it when he steps out to find Butch pointing a gun at him.

Which studio paid Tarantino to write Pulp Fiction, then put the script into turnaround?

TriStar had backed the script's development, then put it into turnaround; its chairman Mike Medavoy later said he liked it but feared a backlash over its most violent scene.

Roughly what did Pulp Fiction cost to make?

$8 million was the final budget, after $500,000 of the planned $8.5 million was handed back; the film went on to gross about $214 million worldwide, over twenty-five times its cost.

Which prize did Pulp Fiction win at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival?

The Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, was announced by jury president Clint Eastwood; Miramax had flown cast members to France, and they joined Tarantino on stage.

Which Academy Award did Pulp Fiction win?

Best Original Screenplay was the film's only Oscar from seven nominations; Tarantino shared it with Roger Avary, who appears on screen only under a 'story by' credit.

Nominated for seven Oscars, Pulp Fiction lost Best Picture to which film?

Forrest Gump took Best Picture, though the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association had both named Pulp Fiction the best film of the year.

Which Hollywood giant owned Miramax when the studio released Pulp Fiction?

Disney owned Miramax, which sold Pulp Fiction's rights abroad for more than the film's whole budget, all but guaranteeing a profit before it reached cinemas.

Which song plays over Pulp Fiction's opening credits?

Dick Dale's 'Misirlou', a 1962 surf-guitar take on an Eastern Mediterranean folk tune, opens the credits; there is no composed score, only the records Tarantino picked.

Which power-pop song was originally intended for the pawnshop rape scene?

'My Sharona' by The Knack was the original choice for the scene; it was dropped, and The Revels' surf instrumental 'Comanche' plays instead.

Which band's cover of a Neil Diamond song was the soundtrack's single?

Urge Overkill's cover of Neil Diamond's 'Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon', which Mia dances to just before her overdose, was released as the soundtrack's single.

In which city did Tarantino start writing the Pulp Fiction script?

Amsterdam is where Tarantino began the script in 1992; Vincent, too, turns up in the film fresh from Amsterdam, explaining its hash bars to Jules.

What does the camera linger on at the back of Marsellus Wallace's neck in his first scene?

A Band-Aid, reportedly covering a shaving cut on the actor's head, fed a fan theory that Marsellus's soul had been taken out through his neck and locked in the briefcase.

Jules says Marsellus had a man thrown off a balcony for doing what to his wife, Mia?

Giving her a foot massage is the rumour Jules passes on; Mia later tells Vincent it never happened, saying the man only ever shook her hand, at her wedding.

Which 2014 Marvel film puts Jules's Bible verse on a gravestone in a nod to Pulp Fiction?

Captain America: The Winter Soldier ends with Nick Fury, played by Jules's own actor, standing at his faked headstone, which is engraved with the verse's line about 'the path of the righteous man'.

Roger Avary's script 'Pandemonium Reigns' became the basis of which storyline?

The one about Butch and his heirloom grew from Avary's script; he then accepted a 'story by' credit so the film could carry a sole 'written and directed by' line.

Mia tells Vincent she once starred in a failed TV pilot about female secret agents called what?

Fox Force Five never got past its pilot, in which Mia's knife-expert character told an old joke; after surviving her overdose she finally tells Vincent that joke, about a family of tomatoes.

Where does Butch find the gun he uses to kill Vincent?

On his own kitchen counter: Butch slips back to his apartment and spots the weapon lying there while Vincent, sent to wait for him, is in the bathroom; Vincent steps out to find it aimed at him.

Who plays the diner robber nicknamed Pumpkin, opposite Amanda Plummer's Honey Bunny?

Tim Roth plays Pumpkin in his own London accent, having faked an American one as Mr. Orange in Reservoir Dogs; Roth also introduced Amanda Plummer to Tarantino.

Which actor was Tarantino's first choice for the boxer Butch Coolidge?

Matt Dillon was the actor Tarantino wrote Butch for; by the account of Tarantino's agent, Dillon asked to sleep on the offer and the director withdrew it at once.

Who plays Butch's girlfriend Fabienne?

Maria de Medeiros plays Fabienne, who is waiting at the motel when Butch returns from the fight; Tarantino met the Portuguese actress on the festival circuit with Reservoir Dogs.

Who plays Jody, the wife of drug dealer Lance?

Rosanna Arquette plays Jody; her sibling Alexis Arquette is the 'Fourth Man' who bursts from the bathroom and misses with every shot, the escape Jules takes as divine intervention.

Which blaxploitation star auditioned for Jody, the dealer's wife, but was passed over?

Pam Grier read for Jody, but Tarantino felt audiences would never believe Lance could yell at her; he cast her three years later as the lead in Jackie Brown.

Which Sylvester Stallone film did Pulp Fiction officially edge out at the US box office on its opening weekend?

The Specialist was in its second weekend and showing in nearly twice as many theaters, yet Miramax reported about $9.3 million for Pulp Fiction's wide opening to its $9 million.

Miramax sued Tarantino in November 2021 over his plan to sell what based on Pulp Fiction?

Seven NFTs of unseen scenes, built from pages of his handwritten script, were the plan; he sold the first for a reported $1.1 million, called off the other six, and settled with Miramax in 2022.

Why was Pulp Fiction shot on slow 50 ASA film stock?

It gives a nearly grain-free, lustrous image, which Tarantino called the closest thing to 1950s Technicolor; he wanted his modestly budgeted film to look like a far costlier epic.

Which street artist painted a London mural of Pulp Fiction's hitmen aiming bananas instead of guns?

Banksy's mural was painted over in April 2007 by Transport for London, which argued that graffiti creates an atmosphere of neglect that encourages crime.

What was the future Jules of Pulp Fiction angrily waving at the second audition that won him the role?

A hamburger he had just bought became a prop: annoyed at being called back, he read his lines while waving it, and that sealed the job.

Which future talk-show host read for the part of Jody, the drug dealer's wife, in Pulp Fiction?

Ellen DeGeneres was among those who read for Jody, a small part with one big scene: the frantic effort to revive Mia.

In Pulp Fiction, Jules nicknames a young man after which 1980s band because of his haircut?

A Flock of Seagulls were as well known for their singer's back-combed hair as for their hits; he was a hairdresser before he formed the band.

What three-digit combination opens the lock on the mysterious briefcase in Pulp Fiction?

666, the biblical Number of the Beast, is the combination, one reason viewers have spent decades guessing at what glows inside the case.

Besides songs, what does the original Pulp Fiction soundtrack album include on several of its tracks?

Excerpts of dialogue fill seven of its sixteen tracks, four leading into a song and three standing alone.

Jules invokes which Happy Days character during the diner standoff in Pulp Fiction?

Fonzie, the unflappable greaser played by Henry Winkler, is one of many TV touchstones critics have counted in the film, from The Brady Bunch to Kung Fu.

In Pulp Fiction, what does the crime boss Marsellus pay the boxer Butch to do in his next fight?

Lose on purpose was the deal, but Butch double-crosses Marsellus, kills his opponent in the ring and has to flee Los Angeles.

Which early-1960s style of rock did Tarantino choose as the basic sound of Pulp Fiction's soundtrack?

Surf music appealed to Tarantino for a reason that had nothing to do with beaches: to him it sounded like rock and roll spaghetti Western music.

Pulp Fiction writers Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary first worked together in what kind of shop?

A video store called Video Archives employed them both in the late 1980s; when it closed in 1995, Tarantino bought its stock and rebuilt the shop at home.

A fan theory popular since the mid-1990s says the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction holds what?

Its owner's soul is the theory, with Marsellus as the owner; Tarantino says the case is a pure plot device with no explanation at all.

In Pulp Fiction, which young man has the briefcase that Jules and Vincent are sent to collect?

Brett is a business partner who crossed Marsellus; Frank Whaley got the part after befriending Tarantino at the Sundance lab for Reservoir Dogs.

Which of these does Butch pick up and reject before settling on a weapon in Pulp Fiction's pawnshop?

A chainsaw and a baseball bat are among the things weighed and put back, and critics read each one as a nod to a different violent movie.

What was Pulp Fiction's briefcase going to contain before the idea was judged too mundane?

Diamonds were dropped as too ordinary, so the contents are never shown, and Tarantino insists there is no answer to find.

Pulp Fiction's Vincent Vega is the brother of Vic Vega, who goes by which alias in Reservoir Dogs?

Mr. Blonde is Vic Vega, and in 2004 Tarantino floated a Vega Brothers film uniting the two characters, though it never got made.

Which Republican presidential hopeful accused Pulp Fiction of glamorizing heroin without seeing it?

Bob Dole made the charge in September 1996, the year after a widely covered speech attacking Hollywood for peddling nightmares of depravity.

Which Hollywood star was president of the Cannes jury that gave Pulp Fiction the festival's top prize?

Clint Eastwood chaired the jury in May 1994; the film had been unveiled at a midnight screening and caused a sensation.

Which funk band enjoyed a resurgence after Jungle Boogie appeared on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack?

Kool & the Gang first took the track to number four as a single in the 1970s, and the film sent a new generation back to it.

Which British singer's Son of a Preacher Man found a new audience through the Pulp Fiction soundtrack?

Dusty Springfield's recording mattered so much to Tarantino that he said he probably would not have filmed its scene without the rights to it.

At which ceremony for low-budget American films did Pulp Fiction win four prizes, including Best Feature?

The Independent Spirit Awards handed it four prizes in March 1995, at a ceremony held under a tent in a beach parking lot in Santa Monica.

Which critic called Pulp Fiction the most influential film of the decade seven years after its release?

Roger Ebert said so in 2001 when adding it to his Great Movies, having called it well written in a scruffy, fanzine way back in 1994.

Which Pulp Fiction tie-in became a top-ten bestseller in Britain, a record for its kind?

The script, sold in book form, became the most successful of its kind in UK publishing history after the film opened there a week behind the US.

Which credit did Roger Avary accept on Pulp Fiction after giving up his co-writing credit?

Story by was the trade-off, struck before the premiere, so that the adverts and the screen could say written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Two Pulp Fiction scenes, one with a gunman whose shots all miss, were first written for which other film?

True Romance lost both scenes, the miraculous missed shots and the accidental shooting in the back seat, and Roger Avary had written each of them.

Tarantino, like Jean-Pierre Melville, saw the clothes worn in Pulp Fiction as symbolic what?

Suits of armor was Melville's idea of what his characters wore; costume designer Betsy Heimann had also dressed Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.

Tarantino based the attitude of Pulp Fiction's Butch on which hard-boiled private eye of 1950s film noir?

Mike Hammer, as Ralph Meeker played him in Kiss Me Deadly, was the template: Tarantino wanted Butch to be a bully and a jerk.

Which monster cereal, discontinued in the early 1980s, appears in both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction?

Fruit Brute was discontinued by 1982, a decade before Tarantino began slipping the box into his films as a visual Easter egg.

Tarantino first wrote Pulp Fiction's drug dealer Lance for which star of 1980s teen comedies?

John Cusack was the first idea for Lance, and Tarantino himself nearly took the part before choosing a different cameo.

Which actor, who left films in 1991 to box professionally, turned down Butch in Pulp Fiction?

Mickey Rourke declined to play a boxer while he was boxing for real, a detour that left his face needing reconstructive surgery.

Marsellus spotting Butch from a crosswalk in Pulp Fiction echoes which Alfred Hitchcock thriller?

Psycho has the same jolt: Marion Crane, driving out of town with stolen cash, is seen at a crossing by her own boss.

The pawnshop captors in Pulp Fiction are widely read as an allusion to which 1972 backwoods thriller?

Deliverance follows four Atlanta businessmen whose canoe trip through the Georgia wilderness turns into a fight for survival against the locals.

In Pulp Fiction, what is the name of the pawnshop owner who captures Butch and Marsellus at gunpoint?

Maynard shares his name with a character in the 1973 crime drama Charley Varrick, whose ominous line Marsellus echoes at the end of the scene.

Which cartoon with real human lips is young Butch watching when Captain Koons arrives in Pulp Fiction?

Clutch Cargo plays on the television through the scene; its Syncro-Vox trick laid live-action mouths over almost motionless drawings.

Which early-1990s Saturday Night Live star plays the junkyard owner's daughter in Pulp Fiction?

Julia Sweeney, who played the androgynous Pat on the show, was then married to Stephen Hibbert, the man inside the mask of the Gimp.

Which Pulp Fiction filmmaker cameos as a diner hold-up victim credited as Long Hair Yuppie-Scum?

Lawrence Bender produced the film as well as appearing in it, and said that keeping the budget low let the producers keep control.

What does Pulp Fiction show on screen before its opening diner scene begins?

Two dictionary definitions of the word pulp open the film: a soft, shapeless mass of matter, and a magazine of lurid stories on cheap paper.

In strict chronological order, which of these events comes last in the plot of Pulp Fiction?

Butch rides off with Fabienne long before the film ends, yet nothing in the plot happens later; the diner scene that closes the film comes before it.

Harvey Keitel's cleaner in Pulp Fiction echoes his role in which 1993 thriller about an assassin?

Point of No Return sends in his character, Victor, to get rid of the bodies; Tarantino then wrote the Pulp Fiction part especially for him.

Which NBC sitcom threw a Pulp Fiction-themed birthday party in its episode Critical Film Studies?

Community dressed its study group as the film's characters for Abed's birthday, though the episode is really a homage to My Dinner with Andre.

Which rock and roll pioneer wrote and recorded the song that Vincent and Mia dance to in Pulp Fiction?

Chuck Berry released You Never Can Tell in 1964, and the scene made the song popular again three decades later.

The writer of the song Vincent and Mia dance to in Pulp Fiction composed it while he was where?

In federal prison in the early 1960s, serving time under the Mann Act, he wrote an upbeat tune about a teenage wedding and the couple's life afterward.

Many viewers took the dance in Pulp Fiction as a nod to which earlier film with the same leading man?

Saturday Night Fever was the natural guess, but the dance was written before its star was cast, and Tarantino credits a French New Wave film.

Which 2005 crime comedy put the two dancers from Pulp Fiction back on a dance floor together?

Be Cool, the sequel to Get Shorty, has Chili Palmer squeeze in a dance with Edie, the most open homage to the scene by its own stars.

Which DreamWorks animated film includes a parody of Vincent and Mia's dance from Pulp Fiction?

Antz gives its worker ant Z a dance with Princess Bala that borrows the moves, four years after the original scene.

Which 1970 animated feature is credited as one inspiration for the dance in Pulp Fiction?

The Aristocats gave Tarantino his picture of Mia's moves: he wanted her loose, feline twist to look like the dancing of the film's elegant mother cat, Duchess.

The fingers-across-the-eyes move in Pulp Fiction's dance scene was made famous by which 1960s TV hero?

Batman did it first: the Batusi, a go-go dance whose name puns on the Watusi, appeared in the very first episode of the 1960s series.

The largest single chunk of the Pulp Fiction budget went on what?

The 1950s restaurant set, where Vincent and Mia dance, cost $150,000 and was built in a Culver City warehouse beside the production offices.

Which TV variety host's impersonator works at the restaurant in Pulp Fiction's dance scene?

Ed Sullivan's double shares the room with staff made up as Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin, all part of the 1950s theme.

Which rock band's 2015 single, named after Mia's actress, celebrates the Pulp Fiction dance scene?

Fall Out Boy built the song on a riff sampled from The Munsters theme and performed it at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards with dancers dressed as Mia.

Which K-pop girl group recreated Vincent and Mia's dance from Pulp Fiction in the video for What Is Love?

Twice cast members Sana and Tzuyu as Mia and Vincent in a video that also restages Ghost, La La Land and Romeo + Juliet.