What now? Let me tell you what now. I'ma call a coupla hard, pipe-hittin'
n*****,
who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch.
You hear me talkin', hillbilly boy? I ain't through with you by a damn sight.
I'ma get medieval on your ass.
This film keeps with director Tarantino's trademark of
non-linear storytelling, and as such the narrative is presented
out of sequence. Pulp Fiction is centered around three distinct
but inter related stories - mob hitman Vincent Vega, prizefighter
Butch Coolidge and Vincent's fellow contract killer Jules Winnfield.
Although each storyline focuses on a different
series of incidents, they connect and intersect in various ways.
The film starts
out with a diner hold-up staged by "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny," then picks up
the stories of Vincent, Jules, Butch, and several other important characters,
including mob kingpin Marsellus Wallace, his wife, Mia, and underworld
problem-solver Winston Wolf. It finally returns to where it began, in the diner,
where Vincent and Jules have stopped for a bite; they foil the hold-up and set
the robbers on a more righteous path. There are a total of seven narrative
sequences—the three primary storylines are preceded by identifying intertitles
on a black screen:
- Prologue—The Diner (i)
- Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
- "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
- Prelude to "The Gold Watch" (a—flashback, b—present)
- "The Gold Watch"
- "The Bonnie Situation"
- Epilogue—The Diner (ii)
- "Pumpkin" and "Honey
Bunny" are having breakfast in a diner. They decide to rob it after
realizing they could make money off not just the business but the customers as
well, as occurred unplanned during their previous heist of a liquor store.
Moments after they initiate the hold-up, the scene breaks off and the title
credits roll.
- As Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) drives, Vincent Vega (John
Travolta), riding
shotgun, reports on his experiences in Europe, from which he's just returned—the
hash bars in Amsterdam; the French McDonald's and its "Royale with Cheese." The
dress-suited pair are on their way to retrieve a briefcase from Brett (Frank
Whaley), who has
transgressed against their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace. Jules tells Vincent
how Marsellus had someone thrown off a fourth-floor balcony for giving his wife
a foot massage. Vincent says that Marsellus has asked him to escort his wife
while Marsellus is out of town. They Brett in dramatic fashion after
Jules recites a baleful "biblical" pronouncement.
- We then move onto Vincent vega and Mia
wallace (Marsellus's wife) meeting up and doing the twist at
Jack Rabbit Slim's.
- Meanwhile at an empty coctail lounge
aging prizefighter Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) accepts a large
sum of money from Marsellus (Ving Rhames), agreeing to lose in the fifth round of his upcoming
match. Butch and Vincent briefly cross paths as Vincent and Jules—now
inexplicably dressed in T-shirts and shorts—come to Marsellus's lounge to
deliver the briefcase. The next day, Vincent drops by the house of Lance and Jody to
score some high-grade heroin. He shoots up before driving over to meet Mrs. Mia
Wallace and
take her out. They head to Jack Rabbit Slim's, a slick 1950s-themed restaurants
staffed by lookalikes of the decade's pop icons.
- After participating in a twist contest, they return to the Wallace
house with the trophy. While Vincent is in the bathroom convincing himself not
to act on his growing attraction to his boss's wife, Mia finds Vincent's stash
of heroin in the pocket of his coat. Mistaking it for cocaine, she snorts it and
overdoses. Vincent finds her and fearfully rushes her to Lance's house for help.
Together, they administer an adrenaline shot to Mia's heart, reviving her.
Before the two part ways, Mia and Vincent agree not to tell Marsellus of the
incident, fearing what he might do to them.
- Television time for young Butch (Chandler Lindauer) is interrupted by the
arrival of Vietnam veteran Captain Koons. Koons explains that he
has brought a gold watch, passed down through generations of Coolidge men since
World War I. Butch's father died in a POW camp, and at his dying request Koons
hid the watch in his rectum for two years in order to deliver it to Butch. A
bell rings, startling the adult Butch out of this reverie. He is in his boxing
colors—it's time for the fight that he's been paid to throw...hwoever the plan
doesn't quite come off.....
Butch flees the arena, having won the bout. Making
his getaway by taxi, he learns from the death-obsessed driver, Esmeralda
VillaLobos,
that he killed the opposing fighter. Butch has intentionally double-crossed
Marsellus, betting his payoff on himself at very favorable odds. The next
morning at the motel where they're laying low, Butch discovers that his
girlfriend, Fabienne, has forgotten to pack the
irreplaceable watch. He returns to his apartment to retrieve it, although
Marsellus's men are almost certainly looking for him. Butch finds the watch
quickly, but thinking he's alone, pauses for a snack. Only then does he
notice a machine gun on the kitchen counter. Hearing the toilet flush, Butch readies the gun
in time to kill a startled Vincent Vega exiting the bathroom......
- Driving back from the apartment, Butch encounters Marsellus by chance. Butch
rams him with the car, then is almost immediately involved in a collision. A
chase on foot ensues, and the two men land in a pawnshop. Butch is about to
shoot Marsellus, when the shopowner, Maynard, captures them at gunpoint.
Maynard and his accomplice, Zed, take Marsellus into the back room
and rape him,
leaving a silent masked figure referred to as "the gimp" to watch a tied-up
Butch. Butch breaks loose and knocks out the gimp. He is about to flee when he
decides to save Marsellus. As Zed is raping Marsellus, Butch kills
Maynard. Marsellus
retrieves Maynard's shotgun, shooting Zed in the groin. Marsellus informs Butch
that they are even with respect to the botched fight fix, so long as he never
tells anyone about the rape and departs Los Angeles forever. Butch agrees and
leaves......
The story then returns to Vincent and Jules at
Brett's. After they execute him, another man bursts out of the bathroom and shoots wildly at them, missing every time before
an astonished Jules and Vincent can return fire. Jules decides this is a miracle
and a sign from God for him to retire as a hit man. Vincent disagrees. They
drive off with one of Brett's associates, Marvin, their informant. Vincent asks Marvin
for his opinion about the "miracle," accidentally shooting him in the head while
carelessly waving his gun.
- Forced to remove their bloodied car from the road, Jules calls upon the house
of his friend Jimmy (Tarantino). Jimmy's wife, Bonnie, is
due back from work soon and he is very anxious that she not encounter the scene.
At Jules's request, Marsellus arranges for the help of Winston Wolf. Wolf takes
charge of the situation, ordering Jules and Vincent to clean the car, hide the
body in the trunk, dispose of their bloody clothes, and change into T-shirts and
shorts provided by Jimmy. He also pays Jimmy for his linens, used to cover the
bloody seats while they drive to a junkyard where Wolf's girlfriend, Raquel, works. Wolf
and Raquel leave for breakfast, and Jules and Vincent decide to do the
same.
- Jules and Vincent eat, and the discussion returns to Jules's decision to
retire. In a brief cutaway, we see "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny" shortly before
they initiate the hold-up from the movie's first scene. While Vincent is in the
bathroom, the hold-up commences. "Pumpkin" demands all of the patrons'
valuables, including Jules's mysterious case. Jules surprises "Pumpkin," holding
him at gunpoint. "Honey Bunny," hysterical, trains her gun on Jules. Vincent
emerges from the restroom with his gun trained on her, creating a stand off.
Jules explains his ambivalence toward his life of crime and as his first act of
redemption convinces the two robbers to take the cash they've gathered and go,
pondering how they were spared and leaving the briefcase to be returned to its
rightful owner.
Copyright(c) 2007
- 2025. All rights reserved.
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