-
1. Who directed Pulp Fiction?
Quentin Tarantino
It was Tarantino's second feature, after Reservoir Dogs, and it made him famous overnight. He also appears in it as Jimmie, the friend in the bathrobe who doesn't want a dead body in his garage.
-
2. What do the French call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, according to Vincent?
A Royale with Cheese
Because of the metric system, as Vincent explains to Jules on the way to work. Le Big Mac, he adds, is still Le Big Mac, and he never found out what they call a Whopper because he didn't go into Burger King.
-
3. Who plays Vincent Vega?
John Travolta
The part revived Travolta's career and earned him an Oscar nomination. Michael Madsen, who had played Vic Vega in Reservoir Dogs, was offered the role first and chose Wyatt Earp instead.
-
4. Which Bible passage does Jules recite before a killing?
Ezekiel 25:17
Only the last lines are close to the real verse; most of the speech was written for the film, borrowing from the opening of a Sonny Chiba karate series. Samuel L. Jackson's delivery earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
-
5. Where do Vincent and Mia go for dinner?
Jack Rabbit Slim's
A 1950s theme restaurant where the waiters are dressed as dead movie stars and the booths are made from old cars. The place was built inside a warehouse in Culver City; nothing like it existed.
-
6. What do Vincent and Mia win at the restaurant?
The twist contest
They dance to Chuck Berry's 'You Never Can Tell' and bring the trophy home. Travolta has said the two of them worked out the moves themselves, with Tarantino calling out dances from the sidelines.
-
7. What does Mia accidentally take, thinking it's cocaine?
Heroin
She finds it in Vincent's coat pocket and snorts it. What follows is the adrenaline shot to the heart in Lance's living room, with Eric Stoltz as the dealer reading the instructions out of a medical book.
-
8. Which actor plays the boxer, Butch Coolidge?
Bruce Willis
Willis took a large pay cut for the part, and the film's success restored his standing after a run of flops. Tarantino wanted him to look like the boxers in old photographs, which is where the haircut came from.
-
9. What does Butch go back to his apartment to fetch?
His father's gold watch
The watch has a long history, delivered in a monologue by Christopher Walken as Captain Koons, who carried it through a prison camp in a place no watch should go. Butch's girlfriend Fabienne forgot to pack it.
-
10. The Wolf, called in to clean up a mess, is played by...
Harvey Keitel
Winston Wolfe arrives in a tuxedo at eight in the morning: 'thirty minutes away, I'll be there in ten.' Keitel had played a very similar cleaner in Point of No Return the year before.
-
11. What's in the briefcase that Vincent and Jules collect?
The film never says
It glows when opened and the combination is 666, which has fed theories for thirty years, the most popular being that it holds Marsellus's soul. Tarantino has said it's whatever the viewer wants it to be.
-
12. Pumpkin and Honey Bunny decide to rob what?
A diner
They talk themselves into it over breakfast, in the scene that opens the film and, from another angle, closes it. Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer had asked Tarantino to write them something to play together.
-
13. Which surf-rock track opens the film?
"Misirlou" by Dick Dale
The 1962 recording comes crashing in over the title card, and the soundtrack album went on to sell millions. Tarantino has said he chooses the music for his opening credits before he writes anything else.
-
14. What did the film win at the Cannes Film Festival?
The Palme d'Or
The jury was chaired by Clint Eastwood, and the prize announced Tarantino to the world months before the film opened in America. It went on to win one Academy Award, for its screenplay, out of seven nominations.
-
15. How much did the film cost to make?
About $8 million
It took in more than two hundred million dollars worldwide, the first independent film to pass a hundred million in America. A good part of the budget went on the cast, who took far less than their usual fees.
