Pulp Fiction Question

[vintageonevinyl]

What was in the suitcase at the end of the movie? Inquiring minds want to know. :D

[reechie]

Mal Evans' lost Beatles tapes? :D

Sorry, couldn't resist...

[Steve Hoffman]

Heh, that's funny.

I thought it was plutonium or the script to KILL BILL.

[Ed Bishop]

Probably an early draft of JACKIE BROWN. Given how the movie turned out, it probably needed more work....:D

:ed:

[GregM]

Just a cheap, cinematic ploy (Tarantino movies are nothing but a string of cheap cinematic ploys), in this case a transparent symbol of honor.

As in, honor among thieves.

[poweragemk]

A gold-plated thread crap. :)

[dcooper]

I've always been in the camp that thought the suitcase contained Marcellus Wallace's soul. Remember the band-aid at the base of Wallace's skull? That is the spot where according to the Bible the Devil removes souls. Wallace sent Vincent & Jules to the apartment to retrieve it from the Devil's henchmen (maybe he bought it back, maybe the henchmen stole it?) and the reason they are not killed by the gunman in the bathroom is because God is protecting them while they "save" Marcellus' soul.

This (http://pulp.linuxroot.org/case.shtml) site contains a bunch of theories, including more on the "soul" theory.

[Ryan]

It was a McGuffin.

[Steve-oh]

I've always been in the camp that thought the suitcase contained Marcellus Wallace's soul. Remember the band-aid at the base of Wallace's skull? That is the spot where according to the Bible the Devil removes souls. Wallace sent Vincent & Jules to the apartment to retrieve it from the Devil's henchmen (maybe he bought it back, maybe the henchmen stole it?) and the reason they are not killed by the gunman in the bathroom is because God is protecting them while they "save" Marcellus' soul.

This (http://pulp.linuxroot.org/case.shtml) site contains a bunch of theories, including more on the "soul" theory.

This is the theory I heard too.

[Phenomenal Cat]

What was in the suitcase at the end of the movie? Inquiring minds want to know. :D

Samuel L. Jackson looked in the case and stated positively that the case contained....










Two lights and some batteries.



(I know, this isn't helping..... :shake: )

[vintageonevinyl]

[/QUOTE]This (http://pulp.linuxroot.org/case.shtml) site contains a bunch of theories, including more on the "soul" theory.[/QUOTE]

Thanks. Great site. I love trivial pursuit!

[Ed Bishop]

It was a McGuffin.

Of course; and like all McGuffins, is there to help the plot move forward, but otherwise doesn't mean a damn thing....ain't supposed to!

:ed:

[dcooper]

It was a McGuffin.

:laugh: No way, man! I didn't sit through film analysis 201 in college to assume the briefcase was a McGuffin...of course, you're probably right!

[fyrfytrhoges]

jackie brown was an awesome movie and i too think it was his soul, but some others have said it could have been something from another movie that i cant think of at the moment, i believe it was something in the movie that was stolen???

great link, tarantino seems to have some obsession with adding little things in the movies he makes to keep people think about subplots, it seems to make the whole of the story more interesting, i enjoy all the speculation. kind of like pink floyd and the publius enigma...

[Michael]

...a perfect ending that will forever be a topic of discussion!:laugh:

[jjhunsecker]

You'll notice that a light shines when the case is opened . This is a homage to Robert Aldrich's 'Kiss Me Deadly", where the characters are all after a case full of radioactive materials (in the end, the villainess opens up the case fully and is consumed in flames )

[Ryan]

It's the glow from my avatar...

In his 1966 interview with director-film critic, Francois Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock said:

It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train.

One man says "What's that package up there in the baggage rack?"

And the other answers, "O that's a McGuffin."

The first one asks "What's a McGuffin?"

"Well" the other man says, "Its an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands."

The first man says, "But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands," and the other one answers "Well then that's no McGuffin!"

So you see a McGuffin is nothing at all.

[b&w]

Just a cheap, cinematic ploy (Tarantino movies are nothing but a string of cheap cinematic ploys), in this case a transparent symbol of honor.

As in, honor among thieves.

Could you define exactly what you mean by 'ploy'?

[Ed Bishop]

The finale to Aldrich's film must have been really scary to some back in those 'Atomic Cafe' days of the mid-50s, though it seems all rather silly today(not the nukes, the briefcase and what that radioactivity would do to someone, and the fact it consumes a human but not the briefcase!)...

Still, I believe the mark of the great directors are all the little things they either calculatedly sneak in, or throw in on the fly along the way to make things a bit zippier and fun to watch upon repeated viewings. This is so rare nowadays you'd think a guy like QT would receive more praise than he does....

:ed:

[Jimbo]

I like Egg McGuffins for breakfast. :D

[Cheepnik]

The case contains a tribute to Kiss Me Deadly, and a second-hand one at that -- 1984's Repo Man contains a similar tip of the cap, except the deadly glowing stuff is in a car trunk instead of a briefcase.

Kiss Me Deadly also contains the most gut-churning torture scene this side of Mr. Blonde. The victim is a young Cloris Leachman.

[Ed Bishop]

Agreed..brilliantly shot, you can't really see anything, except that it's nasty and she's naked, that much is implied...the screams and sounds are what get to you...worthy of Hitchcock, though he was rarely that crass. One hell of a movie, though, Aldrich's best, IMO....



:ed:

[Tony Caldwell]

I think that maybe it was the only remaining cdr copy of Elvis' 24 Karat Hits volume two as remastered by SH.

Who wouldn't kill for that!

[Ed Bishop]

Nah, more important: the only existing copy of ALL THINGS MUST PASS....:eek:


:ed:

[RickHunter]

I heard it from Quentin himself that the case contained William Shatner's head.