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Pulp Fiction


Kate1969

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Pulp Fiction is probably my favourite movies of all time, that being said I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a few questions I had:

1) What exactly is in the briefcase that Vincent and Jules pick up? Did I miss something?

2) The Band-aid on the back of Marsellus' head, again did I miss something?

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Kate, to the best of my knowledge the band-aid is where Marcelus shoots his heroin (rather than his arm)...and what's in the briefcase? From some interview I watched with Quinton,it was supposed to be Marcelus's SOUL or something like that...can't quite remember how to explain it so it makes sense. :laughing:

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The bandaid on Marsellus Wallace's neck was there because actor Ving Rhames has a scar there that the makeup people felt would be too distracting during that scene. I think the bandaid was more distracting than what the scar probably was. :P

There are various rumours circulating that this was a deliberate reference to the removal of Marsellus' "soul" (which supposedly is in the briefcase that Jules and Vincent collect) but there has never been official confirmation of this. It makes sense to me though.

There are many subliminal messages throughout the movie but the most interesting one to me was when Butch goes to leave the pawn shop after freeing himself, he pauses for a moment- he can either go to Tennessee and collect his money, or go back to help Marsellus Wallace. Near to where he pauses are a Tennessee license plate, and a neon sign for "Killians Red" on a shelf. The only letters that are still lit spell "Kill ed". We are then shown a shot of Zed's keyring with the "Z" trinket: we are left with the subliminal message "Kill Zed", which is exactly what Butch proceeds to do.

Damn cool how they did that.

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Glad to be of service. I've got all kinds of tidbits on the Pulp.

Everytime Vincent goes to the bathroom something bad happens.

The Big Kahuna Burger was also eaten in Dusk to Dawn and Reservoir Dogs, both by Tarantino.

Phil LaMarr, who plays Marvin (the black guy, who gets shot in his face) is actually a member of the MadTV cast. Once MadTV had a skit called Gump Fiction, a crossover of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction - you gotta see this skit. Very funny. :laughing: In this skit he also plays Marvin, fearfully cowering like in the movie.

The scene where Uma Thurman traces a square in the air with her fingers is taken directly from an episode of The Flintstones (the same episode in which Pebbles and Bam-Bam sing "Let the Sun Shine In").

Harvey Keitel practically repeats his role as Victor the Cleaner, in 1993's, Point of No Return.

Tarantino originally wrote the role of Jules specifically for Samuel L. Jackson, however it was almost given to Paul Calderon after a great audition. When Jackson heard this, he flew to LA and re-auditioned, getting back the part he was supposed to play. Calderon ended up with a cameo as Paul, the bartender.

All the clocks are perpetually stuck on 4:20, a reference to marijuana.

Jules' character was originally written to have a gigantic afro. The wig failed to appear the day filming began, so Samuel L. Jackson's hair was then gerry-curled. :afro:

When Vincent and Lance are attempting to give Mia the adrenaline injection, the board games Operation and Life are visible in the background.

Many more but that's all I can think of at the moment. :P

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I thought it was money in the briefcase. The band-aid, I didn't even notice. The girl who said, "I was in complete amazement at this film. I still don't know exactly why" has a point. Exactly being the key word. My first thought was of course the dialogue. No one writes it better than Tarrintino. In Jackie Brown, it appears to me at times like the plot exists just to explain why these people are talking to each other. But there is so much more to the movie. The contrasting images are put together so well you don't even notice how a man is being tortured while "Stuck in the Middle" plays in the background, wrong movie but same writer. Or you find yourself thinking about quarter pounders and the metric system while two hitmen kill everyone in an apartment. Jackson eating Brad's last meal was a nice touch. First I'm going to eat your lunch then I'm going to kill you. Being worried about getting your wife's linens dirty while you have a bloody dead guy in a car in your backyard. Foot massage compared to shoving a needle in someones chest. Bruce Willis's most prized possession came out of his father's, well you know where it came from. The imagry of things like Travolta going to the bathroom. Is it cause and effect, of course not but it does leave you wondering. It reminded me of an old Clint Eastwood movie where everytime something bad was about to happen, his brother would turn his hat around backwards. Whether you love it or hate it, the violence in the film has always seemed secondary to me. For some, that might be the main reason they enjoyed the film. So why 'exactly' the movie was liked is hard to say.

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  • 3 weeks later...

....Phil LaMarr, who plays Marvin (the black guy, who gets shot in his face) is actually a member of the MadTV cast. Once MadTV had a skit called Gump Fiction, a crossover of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction - you gotta see this skit. Very funny. In this skit he also plays Marvin, fearfully cowering like in the movie.

Hey Marcus, thanks for the lead on GUMP FICTION. I googled it and found a site that you can download it on HERE. I would have posted this earlier but every time I downloaded it Windows Media Player found an error with it. Well, I originally thought the file was corrupt, but in the past week critical updates were released for MS Windows Media Player. Anyway, the file plays without a problem now. The bad thing is... its an 11 mb file, so if your on dial up plan on spending eternity to download it.

That clip is funny as H3ll by the way! ::

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  • 2 weeks later...

HMMMMM -

I do beleive I read that it was Marsalis' soul in the breifcase ealier in the post -

But, the band-aid thing is wrong -

When Marsalis apparently "sold his soul to the devil"

the back of his head (where the band-aid is) was where they "extracted" his soul.

He paid his debt off, and he sent the guys to collect his soul back.

How's that?

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That's about how a lot of people perceive the bandaid and what's in the briefcase.

It's a rumor even though there are many sites distributing it as facts.

Tarantino has said in interviews that he has left what is in the briefcase to the audience's imagination.

If anything, the diamonds from Resevoir Dogs is the most logical assumption keeping in mind how Tarantino likes to keep certain messages going from movie to movie.

Who knows? It could be Salma Hayek. Many men have sold their souls for lust.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i beleave that in the movie, the contents of the breifcase was marsellus'soul, I have been led to beleave this as i have a little bible knowlege, for example, the band-aid on the back of marsellus' head, when the devil extracts a soul from a person's body, he does it from the back of their head, when jules and vincent enter the apartment with the three kids in it, they were possibly there to represent satan's 3 helpers, and when he is looking for the breifcase in the cupboards, he initially looks in the top cupboard, meaning to represent heaven before he is told to look in the cupboard by his feet, representing hell, where marsellus' soul belongs. Also, did you catch the combonation for the breifcase? 666, the number of the devil. And when the kid comes out of the bathroom with the hand-cannon, my views are similar to those of jules, where the bullets were fired at them and were stopped, or redirected by some sort of divine intervention, also there are little things, like where butch rescues marsellus' from the pawn shop after marsellus is raped, he rides out on a motorcycle named 'grace', which may be the name of the bike, or it may be meaning to make a referance to 'the grace of god', which butch rides out of LA (the city of angels) on. I hope this answered some questions to the film. and helped you understand that bit more

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i beleave that in the movie, the contents of the breifcase was marsellus'soul, I have been led to beleave this as i have a little bible knowlege, for example, the band-aid on the back of marsellus' head, when the devil extracts a soul from a person's body, he does it from the back of their head...

Please, tell me where in the Bible you read this? As far as I know the only mention of the beast's mark location is on the forehead.

But, I'm always willing to learn something new.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The contents of the breifcase serve no real purpose but to motivate the characters advance the plot.This is called a Macguffin, a term invented by Alfred Hitchcock, since he used such devices in his films extensively.

The plot is woven around what happens because of the briefcase, and has nothing to do with it's contents.

another example of a macguffin is in the movie North by Northwest.

In this movie, the MacGuffin is the character of "George Kaplan", who is being chased by the enemy spies. Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant)is mistaken for Kaplan by the spies, and so they chase him instead. Thornhill spends the course of the movie trying to find George Kaplan himself without realizing that George Kaplan does not even exist. Both the hero and the villains of the movie are chasing nothing more than a puff of hot air, making this a true MacGuffin.

Interesting, isn't it?

I came across this article ages ago, and had to google to find it again, so that i could get the definition of a 'Macguffin' right.

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