Pulp Fiction

 

 

 

Stories by                                    Quentin Tarantino

                                                   Roger Avary

 

Screenplay by                              Quentin Tarantino

                                                   Roger Avary

 

Produced by                                Lawrence Bender

 

Directed by                                 Quentin Tarantino

 

 

 

Cast List:

 

John Travolta                            Vincent Vega

Samuel Jackson                                    Jules Winnfield

Bruce Willis                              Butch Coolidge

Uma Thurman                           Mia Wallace

Harvey Keitel                           The Wolf

Tim Roth                                   Pumpkin

Amanda Plummer                      Honey Bunny

Maria de Medeiros                   Fabienne

Ving Rhames                             Marsellus Wallace

Eric Stoltz                                  Lance

Rosanna Arquette                     Jody

Christopher Walken                 Captain Koons

Quentin Tarantino                     Jimmie

Steve Buscemi                          Surly Buddy Holly Waitor

Frank Whaley                            Brett

 

 

PULP [pulp] n.

 

1. A soft, moist, shapeless

mass or matter.

 

2. A magazine or book containing lurid

subject matter and being characteristically

printed on rough, unfinished paper.

 

American Heritage Dictionary: New College Edition

 

 

 

INT. COFFEE SHOP – MORNING

 

A normal Denny's, Spires-like coffee shop in Los Angeles. It's about 9:00 in the morning. While the place isn't jammed, there's a healthy number of people drinking coffee, munching on bacon and eating eggs.

 

Two of these people are a YOUNG MAN and a YOUNG WOMAN. The Young Man has a slight working-class English accent and, like his fellow countryman, smokes cigarettes like they're going out of style.

 

It is impossible to tell where the Young Woman is from or how old she is; everything she does contradicts something she did. The boy and girl sit in a booth. Their dialogue is to be said in a rapid-pace "His Girl Friday" fashion.

 

YOUNG MAN

No, forget it, it's too risky. I'm through doin' that shit.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

You always say that, the same thing every time: never again, I'm through, too dangerous.

 

YOUNG MAN

I know that's what I always say. I'm always right too, but –

 

YOUNG WOMAN

– but you forget about it in a day or two –

 

YOUNG MAN

– yeah, well, the days of me forgittin' are over, and the days of me rememberin' have just begun.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

When you go on like this, you know what you sound like?

 

YOUNG MAN

I sound like a sensible fucking man, is what I sound like.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

You sound like a duck.

(imitates a duck)

Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack...

 

YOUNG MAN

Well take heart, 'cause you're never gonna hafta hear it again. Because since I'm never gonna do it again, you're never gonna hafta hear me quack about how I'm never gonna do it again.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

After tonight.

 

The boy and girl laugh, their laughter putting a pause in there, back and forth.

 

YOUNG MAN

(with a smile)

Correct. I got all tonight to quack.

 

A WAITRESS comes by with a pot of coffee.

 

WAITRESS

Can I get anybody anymore coffee?

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Oh yes, thank you.

 

The Waitress pours the Young Woman's coffee. The Young Man lights up another cigarette.

 

YOUNG MAN

I'm doin' fine.

 

The Waitress leaves. The Young Man takes a drag off of his smoke. The Young Woman pours a ton of cream and sugar into her coffee.

 

The Young Man goes right back into it.

 

YOUNG MAN

I mean the way it is now, you're takin' the same fuckin' risk as when you rob a bank. You take more of a risk. Banks are easier! Federal banks aren't supposed to stop you anyway, during a robbery. They're insured, why should they care? You don't even need a gun in a federal bank. I heard about this guy, walked into a federal bank with a portable phone, handed the phone to the teller, the guy on the other end of the phone said: "We got this guy's little girl, and if you don't give him all your money, we're gonna kill 'er."

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Did it work?

 

YOUNG MAN

Fuckin' A it worked, that's what I'm talkin' about! Knucklehead walks in a bank with a telephone, not a pistol, not a shotgun, but a fuckin' phone, cleans the place out, and they don't lift a fuckin' finger.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Did they hurt the little girl?

 

YOUNG MAN

I don't know. There probably never was a little girl – the point of the story isn't the little girl. The point of the story is they robbed the bank with a telephone.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

You wanna rob banks?

 

YOUNG MAN

I'm not sayin' I wanna rob banks, I'm just illustrating that if we did, it would be easier than what we been doin'.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

So you don't want to be a bank robber?

 

YOUNG MAN

Naw, all those guys are goin' down the same road, either dead or servin' twenty.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

And no more liquor stores?

 

YOUNG MAN

What have we been talking about? Yeah, no-more-liquor-stores. Besides, it ain't the giggle it usta be. Too many foreigners own liquor stores. Vietnamese, Koreans, they can't fuckin' speak English. You tell 'em: "Empty out the register," and they don't know what it fuckin' means. They make it too personal. We keep on, one of those gook motherfuckers' gonna make us kill 'em.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

I'm not gonna kill anybody.

 

YOUNG MAN

I don't wanna kill anybody either. But they'll probably put us in a situation where it's us of them. And if it's not the gooks, it these old Jews who've owned the store for fifteen fuckin' generations. Ya got Grandpa Irving sittin' behind the counter with a fuckin' Magnum. Try walkin' into one of those stores with nothin' but a telephone, see how far it gets you. Fuck it, forget it, we're out of it.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Well, what else is there, day jobs?

 

YOUNG MAN

(laughing)

Not this life.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Well what then?

 

He calls to the Waitress.

 

YOUNG MAN

Garcon! Coffee!

 

Then looks to his girl.

 

YOUNG MAN

This place.

 

The Waitress comes by, pouring him some more.

 

WAITRESS

(snotty)

"Garcon" means boy.

 

She splits.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Here? It's a coffee shop.

 

YOUNG MAN

What's wrong with that? People never rob restaurants, why not? Bars, liquor stores, gas stations, you get your head blown off stickin' up one of them. Restaurants, on the other hand, you catch with their pants down. They're not expecting to get robbed, or not as expecting.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

(taking to idea)

I bet in places like this you couldcut down on the hero factor.

 

YOUNG MAN

Correct. Just like banks, these places are insured. The managers don't give a fuck, they're just tryin' to get ya out the door before you start pluggin' diners. Waitresses, forget it, they ain't takin' a bullet for the register. Busboys, some wetback gettin' paid a dollar fifty a hour gonna really give a fuck you're stealin' from the owner. Customers are sittin' there with food in their mouths, they don't know what's goin' on. One minute they're havin' a Denver omelette, next minute somebody's stickin' a gun in their face.

 

The Young Woman visibly takes in the idea. The Young Man continues in a low voice.

 

YOUNG MAN

See, I got the idea last liquor store we stuck up. 'Member all those customers kept comin' in?

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Yeah.

 

YOUNG MAN

They you got the idea to take everybody's wallet.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Uh-huh.

 

YOUNG MAN

That was a good idea.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Thanks.

 

YOUNG MAN

We made more from the wallets then we did the register.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Yes we did.

 

YOUNG MAN

A lot of people go to restaurants.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

A lot of wallets.

 

YOUNG MAN

Pretty smart, huh?

 

The Young Woman scans the restaurant with this new information. She sees all the PATRONS eating, lost in conversations. The tires WAITRESS, taking orders. The BUSBOYS going through the motions, collecting dishes. The MANAGER complaining to the COOK about something. A smiles breaks out on the Young Woman's face.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Pretty smart.

(into it)

I'm ready, let's go, right here, right now.

 

YOUNG MAN

Remember, same as before, you're crowd control, I handle the employees.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

Got it.

 

They both take out their .32-caliber pistols and lay them on the table. He looks at her and she back at him.

 

YOUNG WOMAN

I love you, Pumpkin.

 

YOUNG MAN

I love you, Honey Bunny.

 

And with that, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny grab their weapons, stand up and rob the restaurant. Pumpkin's robbery persona is that of the in-control professional. Honey Bunny's is that of the psychopathic, hair-triggered, loose cannon.

 

PUMPKIN

(yelling to all)

Everybody be cool this is a robbery!

 

HONEY BUNNY

Any of you fuckin' pricks move and I'll execute every one of you motherfuckers! Got that?

 

CUT TO:

 

 

CREDIT SEQUENCE:

 

"PULP FICTION"

 

 

INT. '74 CHEVY (MOVING) – MORNING

 

An old gas guzzling, dirty, white 1974 Chevy Nova BARRELS down a homeless-ridden street in Hollywood. In the front seat are two young fellas – one white, one black – both wearing cheap black suits with thin black ties under long green dusters. Their names are VINCENT VEGA (white) and JULES WINNFIELD (black). Jules is behind the wheel.

 

JULES

– Okay now, tell me about the hash bars?

 

VINCENT

What so you want to know?

 

JULES

Well, hash is legal there, right?

 

VINCENT

Yeah, it's legal, but is ain't a hundred percent legal. I mean you can't walk into a restaurant, roll a joint, and start puffin' away. You're only supposed to smoke in your home or certain designated places.

 

JULES

Those are hash bars?

 

VINCENT

Yeah, it breaks down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it and, if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's legal to carry it, which doesn't really matter 'cause – get a load of this – if the cops stop you, it's illegal for this to search you. Searching you is a right that the cops in Amsterdam don't have.

 

JULES

That did it, man – I'm fuckin' goin', that's all there is to it.

 

VINCENT

You'll dig it the most. But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?

 

JULES

What?

 

VINCENT

It's the little differences. A lotta the same shit we got here, they got there, but there they're a little different.

 

JULES

Examples?

 

VINCENT

Well, in Amsterdam, you can buy beer in a movie theatre. And I don't mean in a paper cup either. They give you a glass of beer, like in a bar. In Paris, you can buy beer at MacDonald's. Also, you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?

 

JULES

They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

 

VINCENT

No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.

 

JULES

What'd they call it?

 

VINCENT

Royale with Cheese.

 

JULES

(repeating)

Royale with Cheese. What'd they call a Big Mac?

 

VINCENT

Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.

 

JULES

Le Big Mac. What do they call a Whopper?

 

VINCENT

I dunno, I didn't go into a Burger King. But you know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?

 

JULES

What?

 

VINCENT

Mayonnaise.

 

JULES

Goddamn!

 

VINCENT

I seen 'em do it. And I don't mean a little bit on the side of the plate, they fuckin' drown 'em in it.

 

JULES

Uuccch!

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. CHEVY (TRUNK) – MORNING

 

The trunk of the Chevy OPENS UP, Jules and Vincent reach inside, taking out two .45 Automatics, loading and cocking them.

 

JULES

We should have shotguns for this kind of deal.

 

VINCENT

How many up there?

 

JULES

Three or four.

 

VINCENT

Counting our guy?

 

JULES

I'm not sure.

 

VINCENT

So there could be five guys up there?

 

JULES

It's possible.

 

VINCENT

We should have fuckin' shotguns.

 

They CLOSE the trunk.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING COURTYARD – MORNING

 

Vincent and Jules, their long matching overcoats practically dragging on the ground, walk through the courtyard of what looks like a hacienda-style Hollywood apartment building.

 

We TRACK alongside.

 

VINCENT

What's her name?

 

JULES

Mia.

 

VINCENT

How did Marsellus and her meet?

 

JULES

I dunno, however people meet people. She usta be an actress.

 

VINCENT

She ever do anything I woulda saw?

 

JULES

I think her biggest deal was she starred in a pilot.

 

VINCENT

What's a pilot?

 

JULES

Well, you know the shows on TV?

 

VINCENT

I don't watch TV.

 

JULES

Yes, but you're aware that there's an invention called television, and on that invention they show shows?

 

VINCENT

Yeah.

 

JULES

Well, the way they pick the shows on TV is they make one show, and that show's called a pilot. And they show that one show to the people who pick the shows, and on the strength of that one show, they decide if they want to make more shows. Some get accepted and become TV programs, and some don't, and become nothing. She starred in one of the ones that became nothing.

 

They enter the apartment building.

 

 

INT. RECEPTION AREA (APARTMENT BUILDING) – MORNING

 

Vincent and Jules walk through the reception area and wait for the elevator.

 

JULES

You remember Antwan Rockamora? Half-black, half-Samoan, usta call him Tony Rocky Horror.

 

VINCENT

Yeah maybe, fat right?

 

JULES

I wouldn't go so far as to call the brother fat. He's got a weight problem. What's the nigger gonna do, he's Samoan.

 

VINCENT

I think I know who you mean, what about him?

 

JULES

Well, Marsellus fucked his ass up good. And word around the campfire, it was on account of Marsellus Wallace's wife.

 

The elevator arrives, the men step inside.

 

 

INT. ELEVATOR – MORNING

 

VINCENT

What'd he do, fuck her?