Pulp Fiction Flirtation

BY: PROVOKR Staff

Quentin Tarantino’s dialogues have no equal. And this scene from his breakthrough hit, Pulp Fiction (1994), is certainly a case in point. In it, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) is taking Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), the wife of Vincent’s boss, drug kingpin Marsellus (Ving Rhames), out to dinner at Marsellus’s request. The only problem is: Vincent has heard from a fellow gangster, Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), that Marsellus is potentially very jealous of Mia’s interactions with other men—specifically, that Marsellus had ordered a man who gave Mia a foot massage thrown off of a fourth-floor balcony. That hypes up the tension during dinner significantly. Though Vincent needs to treat Mia well, he can’t allow himself to be compromised in any way. Easier said than done.

EXT. JACKRABBIT SLIM’S – NIGHT

In the past six years, ’50s diners have sprung up all over LA, giving Thai restaurants a run for their money. They’re all basically the same. Decor out of an “Archie” comic book, Golden Oldies constantly emanating from a bubbly Wurlitzer, saucy waitresses in bobby socks, menus with items like the Fats Domino Cheeseburger, or the Wolfman Jack Omelette, and over-prices that pay for all this bullshit.

But then there’s JACKRABBIT SLIM’S, the big mama of ’50s diners. Either the best or the worst, depending on your point of view.

Vincent’s Malibu pulls up to the restaurant. A big sign with a neon figure of a cartoon surly cool cat jackrabbit in a red windbreaker towers over the establishment. Underneath the cartoon is the name: JACKRABBIT SLIM’S. Underneath that is the slogan: “Next best thing to a time machine.”

INT. JACKRABBIT SLIM’S – NIGHT

Compared to the interior, the exterior was that of a quaint English pub. Posters from ’50s A.I.P. movies are all over the wall (Rock All Night, High School Confidential, Attack of the Crab Monster, and Machine Gun Kelly). The booths that the patrons sit in are made out of the cut up bodies of ’50s cars.

In the middle of the restaurant is a dance floor. A big sign on the wall states, “No shoes allowed.” So wannabe beboppers (actually, Melrose-types) do the twist in their socks or bare feet.

The picture windows don’t look out the street, but instead, B & W movies of ’50s street scenes play behind them. The WAITRESSES and WAITERS are made up as replicas of ’50s icons: MARILYN MONROE, ZORRO, JAMES DEAN, DONNA REED, MARTIN and LEWIS, and THE PHILIP MORRIS MIDGET wait on tables wearing appropriate costumes.

Vincent and Mia study the menu in a booth made out of a red ’59 Edsel.

BUDDY HOLLY (their waiter) comes over, sporting a big button on his chest that says: “Hi, I’m Buddy, pleasing you pleases me.”

BUDDY
Hi, I’m Buddy, what can I get’cha?

VINCENT
I’ll have the Douglas Sirk steak.

BUDDY
How d’ya want it, burnt to a crisp, or bloody as hell?

VINCENT
Bloody as hell. And to drink, a vanilla coke.

BUDDY
How ’bout you, Peggy Sue?

MIA
I’ll have the Durwood Kirby burger — bloody — and a five-dollar shake.

BUDDY
How d’ya want that shake, Martin and Lewis, or Amos and Andy?

MIA
Martin and Lewis.

VINCENT
Did you just order a five-dollar shake?

MIA
Sure did.

VINCENT
A shake? Milk and ice cream?

MIA
Uh-huh.

VINCENT
It costs five dollars?

BUDDY
Yep.

VINCENT
You don’t put bourbon in it or anything?

BUDDY
Nope.

VINCENT
Just checking.

Buddy exits.

Vincent takes a look around the place. The Yuppies are dancing, the Diners are biting into big, juicy hamburgers, and the icons are playing their parts. Marilyn is squealing, the Midget is paging Philip Morris, Donna Reed is making her customers drink their milk, and Dean and Jerry are acting a fool.

MIA
Whaddya think?

VINCENT
It’s like a wax museum with a pulse rate.

Vincent takes out his pouch of tobacco and begins rolling himself a smoke.

After a second of watching him —

MIA
What are you doing?

VINCENT
Rollin’ a smoke.

MIA
Here?

VINCENT
It’s just tobacco.

MIA
Oh. Well, in that case, will you roll me one, cowboy?

As he finishes licking it —

VINCENT
You can have his one, cowgirl.

He hands her the rolled smoke. She takes it, putting it to her lips. Out of nowhere appears a Zippo lighter in Vincent’s hand. He lights it.

MIA
Thanks.

VINCENT
Think nothing of it.

He begins rolling one for himself.

At this time, the SOUND of a subway car fills the diner, making everything SHAKE and RATTLE. Marilyn Monroe runs to a square vent in the floor. An imaginary subway train BLOWS the skirt of her white dress around her ears as she lets out a squeal. The entire restaurant applauds.

Back to Mia and Vincent.

MIA
Marsellus said you just got back from Amsterdam.

VINCENT
Sure did. I heard you did a pilot.

MIA
That was my fifteen minutes.

VINCENT
What was it?

MIA
It was show about a team of female secret agents called “Fox Force Five.”

VINCENT
What?

MIA
“Fox Force Five.” “Fox,” as in we’re a bunch of foxy chicks. “Force,” as in we’re a force to be reckoned with. “Five,” as in there’s one… two… three… four… five of us. There was a blonde one, Sommerset O’Neal, from that show “Baton Rouge,” she was the leader. A Japanese one, a black one, a French one and a brunette one, me. We all had special skills. Sommerset had a photographic memory, the Japanese fox was a kung fu master, the black girl was a demolition expert, the French fox’s specialty was sex…

VINCENT
What was your specialty?

MIA
Knives. The character I played, Raven McCoy, her background was she was raised by circus performers. So she grew up doing a knife act. According to the show, she was the deadliest woman in the world with a knife. But because she grew up in a circus, she was also something of an acrobat. She could do illusions, she was a trapeze artist — when you’re keeping the world safe from evil, you never know when being a trapeze artist’s gonna come in handy. And she knew a zillion old jokes her grandfather, an old vaudevillian, taught her. If we woulda got picked up, they woulda worked in a gimmick where every episode I woulda told an old joke.

VINCENT
Do you remember any of the jokes?

MIA
Well I only got the chance to say one, ’cause we only did one show.

VINCENT
Tell me.

MIA
No. It’s really corny.

VINCENT
C’mon, don’t be that way.

MIA
No. You won’t like it and I’ll be embarrassed.

VINCENT
You told it in front of 50 million people and you can’t tell it to me? I promise I won’t laugh.

MIA
(laughing) That’s what I’m afraid of.

VINCENT
That’s not what I meant and you know it.

MIA
You’re quite the silver-tongued devil, aren’t you?

VINCENT
I meant I wouldn’t laugh at you.

MIA
That’s not what you said, Vince. Well, now I’m definitely not gonna tell ya, ’cause it’s been built up too much.

VINCENT
What a gyp.

Buddy comes back with the drinks. Mia wraps her lips around the straw of her shake.

MIA
Yummy!

VINCENT
Can I have a sip of that? I’d like to know what a five-dollar shake tastes like.

MIA
Be my guest.

She slides the shake over to him.

MIA
You can use my straw, I don’t have kooties.

Vincent smiles.

VINCENT
Yeah, but maybe I do.

MIA
Kooties I can handle.

He takes a sip.

VINCENT
Goddamn! That’s a pretty fuckin’ good milk shake.

MIA
Told ya.

VINCENT
I don’t know if it’s worth five dollars, but it’s pretty fuckin’ good.

He slides the shake back.

Then the first uncomfortable silence happens.

MIA
Don’t you hate that?

VINCENT
What?

MIA
Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it’s necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?

VINCENT
I don’t know.

MIA
That’s when you know you found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute, and comfortably share silence.

VINCENT
I don’t think we’re there yet. But don’t feel bad, we just met each other.

MIA
Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ll go to the bathroom and powder my nose, while you sit here and think of something to say.

VINCENT
I’ll do that.

INT. JACKRABBIT SLIM’S (LADIES ROOM) — NIGHT

Mia powders her nose by doing a big line of coke off the bathroom sink. Her head jerks up from the rush.

MIA
(imitating Steppenwolf) I said, Goddamn!

INT. JACKRABBIT SLIM’S (DINING AREA) — NIGHT

Vincent digs into his Douglas Sirk steak. As he chews, his eyes scan the Hellsapopinish restaurant.

Mia comes back to the table.

MIA
Don’t you love it when you go to the bathroom and you come back to find your food waiting for you?

VINCENT
We’re lucky we got it at all. Buddy Holly doesn’t seem to be much of a waiter. We shoulda sat in Marilyn Monroe’s section.

MIA
Which one? There’s two Marilyn Monroes.

VINCENT
No, there’s not.

Pointing at Marilyn in the white dress serving a table.

VINCENT
That’s Marilyn Monroe…

Then, pointing at a BLONDE WAITRESS in a tight sweater and capri pants, taking an order from a bunch of FILM GEEKS —

VINCENT
…and that’s Mamie Van Doren. I don’t see Jayne Mansfield, so it must be her night off.

MIA
Pretty smart.

VINCENT
I have moments.

MIA
Did ya think of something to say?

VINCENT
Actually, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you about, but you seem like a nice person, and I didn’t want to offend you.

MIA
Oooohhhh, this doesn’t sound like mindless, boring, getting-to-know-you chit-chat. This sounds like you actually have something to say.

VINCENT
Only if you promise not to get offended.

MIA
You can’t promise something like that. I have no idea what you’re gonna ask. You could ask me what you’re gonna ask me, and my natural response could be to be offended. Then, through no fault of my own, I woulda broken my promise.

VINCENT
Then let’s just forget it.

MIA
That is an impossibility. Trying to forget anything as intriguing as this would be an exercise in futility.

VINCENT
Is that a fact?

Mia nods her head: “Yes.”

MIA
Besides, it’s more exciting when you don’t have permission.

VINCENT
What do you think about what happened to Antwan?

MIA
Who’s Antwan?

VINCENT
Tony Rocky Horror.

MIA
He fell out of a window.

VINCENT
That’s one way to say it. Another way is, he was thrown out. Another way is, he was thrown out by Marsellus. And even another way is, he was thrown out of a window by Marsellus because of you.

MIA
Is that a fact?

VINCENT
No it’s not, it’s just what I heard.

MIA
Who told you this?

VINCENT
They.

Mia and Vincent smile.

MIA
They talk a lot, don’t they?

VINCENT
They certainly do.

MIA
Well don’t be shy, Vincent, what exactly did they say?

Vincent is slow to answer.

MIA
Let me help you, Bashful, did it involve the F-word?

VINCENT
No. They just said Rocky Horror gave you a foot massage.

MIA
And…?

VINCENT
No and. That’s it.

MIA
You heard Marsellus threw Rocky Horror out of a four-story window because he massaged my feet?

VINCENT
Yeah.

MIA
And you believed that?

VINCENT
At the time I was told, it seemed reasonable.

MIA
Marsellus throwing Tony out of a four-story window for giving me a foot massage seemed reasonable?

VINCENT
No, it seemed excessive. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I heard Marsellus is very protective of you.

MIA
A husband being protective of his wife is one thing. A husband almost killing another man for touching his wife’s feet is something else.

VINCENT
But did it happen?

MIA
The only thing Antwan ever touched of mine was my hand, when he shook it. I met Anwan once — at my wedding — then never again. The truth is, nobody knows why Marsellus tossed Tony Rocky Horror out of that window except Marsellus and Tony Rocky Horror. But when you scamps get together, you’re worse than a sewing circle.

VINCENT
Are you mad?

MIA
Not at all. Being the subject of back-fence gossip goes with the right, I guess.

She takes a sip of her five-dollar shake, and says:

MIA
Thanks.

VINCENT
What for?

MIA
Asking my side.

At that moment, a great oldie-but-goodie BLASTS from the jukebox.

MIA
I wanna dance.

VINCENT
I’m not much of a dancer.

MIA
Now I’m the one gettin’ gyped. I do believe Marsellus told you to take me out and do whatever I wanted. Well, now I want to dance.

Vincent smiles and begins taking off his boots. Mia triumphantly casts hers off. He takes her hand, escorting her to the dance floor. The two face each other for that brief moment before you begin to dance, then they both break into a devilish twist. Mia’s version of the twist is that of a sexy cat. Vincent is pure Mr. Cool as he gets into a hip-swiveling rhythm that would make Mr. Checker proud.

The OTHER DANCERS on the floor are trying to do the same thing, but Vincent and Mia seem to be strangely shaking their asses in sync. The two definitely share a rhythm and share smiles as they SING ALONG with the last verse of the Golden Oldie.