Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction Summary

In a diner, a man and a woman who call each other Pumpkin and Honey Bunny eat breakfast in a booth. Honey Bunny teases Pumpkin for not wanting to commit armed robberies anymore, and Pumpkin explains that robbing the diner would be better than robbing convenience stores or banks. She agrees, and the two leap to their feet and draw their weapons, before the opening credits roll.

Across town, two men in suits named Vincent and Jules ride in a car discussing Europe and fast food. Jules tells Vincent that Marsellus, their boss, allegedly had a man thrown off a balcony for massaging his wife Mia's feet, who Vincent has been instructed to take out to dinner. They argue about the implications of foot massages, before storming an apartment with three men inside. Jules kills one, and recites Ezekiel 25:17 before killing another, named Brett. Vincent retrieves a briefcase, the contents of which glow, from a kitchen cabinet.

In a bar, Marsellus gives an envelope full of cash to a boxer named Butch, bribing him to throw his next match. Vincent and Jules, now wearing tee shirts, enter the bar, and Butch has a brief exchange with Vincent on his way out.

In the following scene, Vincent buys heroin from his drug dealer, named Lance, and talks briefly to his girlfriend Jody. After buying three grams of heroin, Vincent shoots up and heads to Mia's house. Mia does cocaine in the bathroom while Vincent fixes himself a drink. They head to a restaurant named Jackrabbit Slim's, where they talk about Mia's failed television pilot and the foot massage rumor, which Mia denies. Mia forces Vincent to participate in a twist contest, which they win.

Back at Mia's house, while Vincent uses the bathroom, Mia mistakes his heroin for cocaine and snorts it, falling unconscious. A panicked Vincent rushes her to Lance's house, although Lance is reluctant to help. Vincent is able to successfully revive her with an adrenaline shot straight to the heart. At the end of the night, Mia tells Vincent a joke from her television pilot, which she previously refused to divulge, and the two agree to keep the night's events a secret.

A man named Captain Koons visits Butch as a child, giving him a gold watch that is a family heirloom. As an adult, Butch kills his opponent in a boxing match, rather than purposely lose as Marsellus wanted. Butch escapes in a cab driven by a woman named Esmeralda, and calls a bookie named Scottie who plans to collect Butch's earnings. Meanwhile, Marsellus orders that Butch be killed. At a nearby motel, Butch's girlfriend Fabienne waits for him, and the two talk and have sex. The next morning, Butch realizes his gold watch is missing, and angrily leaves the motel in search of it.

Butch cautiously returns to his apartment, and initially finds no one there. He retrieves the watch and notices a gun on the counter. He hears the toilet flush, and kills the man who emerges from the bathroom, which turns out to be Vincent. Butch leaves and is spotted by Marsellus at a stoplight. Butch rams him with his car, and an injured Marsellus chases an injured Butch until both men are subdued inside a nearby pawn shop by the owner, named Maynard.

Butch and Marsellus awaken in the pawn shop basement, where Maynard has bound and gagged them. A man named Zed shows up, who orders Maynard to get "the Gimp," a man in a full-body bondage suit who sleeps in a trunk. Zed drags Marsellus into another room to be raped while Maynard watches, and Butch manages to break free. Butch is about to flee when he hears Marsellus's cries and instead retrieves a katana sword and ambushes the men, killing Maynard. Now freed, Marsellus shoots Zed in the crotch, and tells Butch that the men are even, as long as Butch leaves town and never tells anyone about the incident. Butch rides Zed's chopper motorcycle back to the motel, and he and Fabienne ride away together.

The film flashes back to the scene where Jules recites Ezekiel 25:17, this time from the perspective of an armed man hiding in the bathroom. After Jules kills Brett, the man runs out and fires wildly, miraculously missing Jules and Vincent with his entire clip. Jules and Vincent kill him, and Jules calls the event an act of "divine intervention." The two take Marvin, the only surviving man in the apartment, with them, and leave. In the car, the men continue debating "divine intervention," and Jules pledges to give up his life of crime. Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin in the face, killing him. Jules calls a nearby friend named Jimmie, and they head to his house to deal with the cleanup.

At Jimmie's house, Jules calls Marsellus for help, who arranges for a man named Winston Wolfe to come over and help fix the situation. Jimmie tells the men they have ninety minutes before his wife Bonnie arrives home. Wolfe arrives ten minutes later and instructs Jules and Vincent to wipe down the car upholstery. They place Jimmie's blankets over the seat, and Wolfe hoses a naked Jules and Vincent down in the backyard, before giving them old tee shirts to wear. They follow Wolfe to a nearby auto shop, where the car is destroyed. Wolfe introduces Jules and Vincent to his girlfriend Raquel on his way out of the auto shop, and then leaves.

Jules and Vincent decide to get breakfast at the same diner that Pumpkin and Honey Bunny are about to rob in the first scene. Vincent goes to the bathroom just before Pumpkin and Honey Bunny draw their guns. When Pumpkin demands Jules's wallet and the briefcase, Jules draws his weapon, and explains to Pumpkin that he now understands the true meaning of Ezekiel 25:17, and wants to find a non-violent solution. Vincent emerges from the bathroom, resulting in a Mexican standoff. Jules successfully de-escalates the situation, and he and Vincent leave the diner with the briefcase in hand.