The dude was a big Samoan with weight problem, after all…
It would be SOP to use a burner car untraceable to you when you went out on a hit like this. That way if something started going wrong, you could ditch the car and not worry about it being traced back to you (ignoring fingerprint problems, etc.).
OTOH, real life crooks tend to be amazingly dumb. Vincent doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb (just ask Marvin) but Jules (the driver) appears plenty smart.
Hitmen aren’t trained like soldiers or special forces. Basically any guy who can walk up to you and then blast away. They’re also not trained in escape and evasion too much, being expendable.
It’s important to bear in mind that the universe in which Tarantino sets his movies is deliberately and openly not at all the same one he personally lives in, a fact he freely admits (note how the Bride brings her sword on the plane with her in Kill Bill; asked about that, Tarantino simply replied that in that universe, people can carry swords on planes.) Hit men in the Tarantino universe aren’t necessarily the same kind of thugs who actually do this sort of thing in the universe we live in. They’re the kind of thugs Quentin Tarantino needs them to be.
The Tarantino universe is, for one thing, one in which there is basically no police presence; the hit on Brett & Friends involves enough gunfire to draw 911 calls even in the worst part of LA, but they don’t rush away at all. The standoff in the diner - a BUSY diner - lasts ten minutes in a busy area of town and no one notices. Since Tarantino openly makes his movies happen in a world he’d made up the rules to, he can do basically anything he wants, including altering the Second World War.
Yes, his underworld is much more surreal than, say, Vito’s or Michael’s. But the scenes and behavior are plausible in that universe.
My favorite part of that scene is that there’s another sword in the foreground. So, they can carry them on planes, and it looks like everybody’s doing it.
If you look closely, there are sword holders built into all the seats.
Apparently, that’s what First Class looks like on Japanese airlines.
Well, Kill Bill clearly contains extremely well trained assassins. And Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction are in the same shared universe. And not just Red Apple cigarettes. (Although some might argue that Kill Bill takes place in the universe of Mia’s failed pilot.)
So presuming that Jules and Vincent are typical street losers is unwarranted. Remember that Vincent’s brother was quite well respected in the business.
Wolfe: “Ok you both been to the slammer, you know how this goes: strip!”
That’s what I’ve always thought. Isn’t there a craps table or roulette wheel visible in the background?
I don’t know where it is/was, but definitely a funeral home.
I’m going to have to watch this again. It never crossed my mind that Marcellus was getting coffee for himself and Vincent. I also never noticed the whole “Vincent going to the bathroom always ends in trouble” thing.
Nitpick: “County,” not “the slammer.” IIRC.
It’s a really, really high-class brothel that offers gambling as well as carnal pleasure. :o
Why else would he be in that particular neighborhood at that particular time? :dubious: 
He was definitely getting stuff for someone - he had a large pink pastry box with 2 large cups of coffee on top of it. Unless 2 large coffees and a box of crullers was his normal breakfast.
Based on the true crime accounts I’ve read, GOOD hitmen, the ones worth paying high prices for, aren’t that stupid and rarely get caught. If they are caught, it’s usually because they’re involved in other sorts of money-making activity and get fingered by a snitch. They’re seldom convicted of murder and are back on the streets in a few years.
Or, if you want to look at it the other way, it’s an illegal gambling establishment that provides female companionship as well as games of chance. Either way, it’s a high-class brothel. 
To side with davidm, I never thought about it either. Or rather I never necessarily connected the whole incident as being immediately near Butch’s place. I just saw it as something that happened on the way over.
I mean, it makes total sense to see it spelled out and it’s a “Oh, hey, yeah…” moment but I don’t think it ever affected my enjoyment of the movie if it happened a mile away or a block away.
That’s the thing: the movie is full of little connections that you pick up on the second or third or tenth time you see it. Like Vincent walking toward the can in the background in the first thirty seconds or so of the film.
When I was an EFL teacher, I’d show the movie to my students at least once a year and we’d analyze the hell out of it. I noticed something new each time we watched it.
That would be an interesting parallel to his speech to Butch about pride earlier. If pride was the only reason Marcellus was there then that backfired on him bad.