I have heard before all of the theories mentioned in the mailbag answer, and I am willing to accept that QT left the ultimate answer to our imaginations.
But I can’t help bringing up another possible not-yet-mentioned solution…
Before I reveal it, consider the following pieces of possible evidence: Mia Wallace was a wannabe actress; Marcellus could’ve/would’ve gotten her just about anything she wanted; it had a golden glow; people recognized it instantly; the movie takes place in L.A. (remember, they end up in “the valley”)…
So what was it?
Just maybe, it was an Oscar Statue that Mia never would gotten otherwise. Interesting, no?
Not claiming it’s true, just throwing it out there…
Please, if the first person posting a topic would provide a link to the Mailbag Answer under discussion, it will save us all wasted time.
One bit to add to Alfred Hitchcock’s description of a MacGuffin: Hitchcock later described the MacGuffin as “the thing that the characters are very concerned about, but the audience don’t care about at all.” The stolen spy papers, the secret formula, the hidden uranium, the microfilm,…
IMO, it is better than the Marcellus’ soul theory. When I first saw the film, I assumed that it contained gold of some sort. I’m more concerned with the idea of a helpless MacGuffin locked in the briefcase.
This has been passed around so long that it’s become gospel (pun), but I was just curious: WHERE in the Bible does it say that the devil takes your soul from the nape of the neck? Any one able to cite chapter and verse?
Movie buff that I am, I can’t believe I had never heard of a MacGuffin! But I agree with the above: to have the briefcase light up seriously diminished the effect they apprently intended – to leave it to our imaginations. Yet the supernatural element works, too, in light of the bullets that missed them.
The above link seems to be a pretty thorough list of biblical references to Satan (and all other “devilish” pseudonyms). Not one of them alludes to the method by which he “removes” a soul from a body (or indeed, that he even does so at all). It seems to me that Satan wouldn’t (or more probably, couldn’t) take of the soul of a living, walking person. I’m no expert, but when one sells one’s soul to the Dark Lord, doesn’t one have to be dead before His Evilness can stake his claim?
(Not that I’m trying to debunk the P.F. Suitcase Soul Theory in order to bolster my own Oscar Statue Theory, but…)
Seems more likely to me that if the “Satan removes soul through the nape of the neck” idea actually is a part of Satanic mythology (is it? or could it have been invented soloely for the convenience of the P.F. Suitcase Soul Theory!?!), it probably came into existence much later than the New Testament, possibly even in relatively recent times (like aspects the Wicca religion, which is thought by its adherents to be ancient, but we who read TSD know better).
I’ve never seen a specific reference of any kind (even to recent books by the likes of Alistair Crowley!) regarding nape=exit mentioned by anyone forwarding the P.F. Briefcase theory. That always makes me wonder if there is anything to it…
Maybe in the briefcase was the Oscar Q.T. assumed he’d win…
Ok, to completely refute the Oscar theory, why in the world would Vincent, Honey Bunny et al. be so excited to see one? I mean, sure, its gold, but to command instant respect and awe is not something an Oscar possesses.
And just because they’re in LA doesn’t mean that everyone there is so incredibly excited about the movie industry. Hell, Vincent had been to Europe, and even seen MAYONNAISE put on french fries!
Slight hijack from the OP. In the column, Dogster ends with the advice:
Shouldn’t that say “…don’t snort cocaine that isn’t yours”? I mean, I know it was heroin that she actually snorted, but the point was she thought she was snorting coke. Thus the mistake was assuming the powder someone else had was coke, which she decided to snort. Oops, it’s heroin, which isn’t supposed to be snorted (like snorting coke is a good idea), and thus the whole near-death thing.
When I first heard the soul-in-the-briefcase theory, the explanation was that it was the ancient Egyptians who believed the soul could be extracted that way.
The way this was explained to me (by a friend of mine more knowledgeable than me in the drug trade):
When the drug dealer (portrayed by Eric Stoltz) sells Vincent Vega (portrayed by John Travolta) some heroin, he mentions how he only has baggies and so has to package the heroin that way. Traditionally, cocaine comes in baggies, which is why Marcellus Wallace’s wife (portrayed by Uma Thurman) thinks it’s cocaine.
The first one is on topic, so I’ll say that first -
For an interesting comparison, the movie “I’ve Heard The Mermaids Singing” features a painting done by one of the characters, but we, as the audience, see just a picture frame with light glowing out of it. It’s a cute movie if you happen to see it. Oh, and it predates “Pulp Fiction,” too.
Pesonally I find it hard to believe Quentin didn’t make the connection with “Kiss Me Deadly” right off the bat, since that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the movie.
The other two things are that heroin does come in bags and you can snort it. I don’t know this from personal experience, but I’ve read numerous things about heroin being of higher quality these days and that’s how come models can snort it and not harm their pretty little itsy bitsy arms. As for the bags, some chick in “Party Monster” (the Michael Alig documentary) talks about “bags of heroin” so I’d guess it wouldn’t be too odd to find it that way.
What the heck are you going to put it in, otherwise? It’s a powder, ain’t it?
Davis, I have deleted your duplicate post. Please, you only need to hit SUBMIT REPLY once. It may take a long time, it may sign out in the middle, but it HAS been submitted, trust the program.
General advice: if you are doing international travel, and you are standing in line about to go through customs, and the little old lady standing behind you asks you if you would please hold her zip-lock baggie filled with nutrasweet for her… Don’t do it.
Back off a bit, Connor, I was just submitting an interesting idea, I didn’t claim to have the ultimate solution (I even said I accept QT’s notion of leaving to us). But having said that, you fell somewhat short of “completely refuting” the theory - here are my refutations of your refutation.
First of all, using "why would"s as negative evidence is worse than circumstantial, worse than anecdotal - it’s specious at best. You don’t hear Cecil saying things like “Creation must be false - why would God create us, and let us kill each other and not do anything about it?”, and expecting us to buy it as legitimate evidence (he may do so in a humorous light, but doesn’t expect to be taken seriously.) So to completely refute the theory, you’d have to do better than that. Besides, I didn’t mention LA to suggest that everyone there would excited about Oscar Statues - just that LA is where it all happens (I don’t know for a fact if they’re made there, but it is the center of “moviedom”.)
Worse than that, though, is your assumption that “everyone was excited to see it”. Vince WASN’T particularly excited/awed; he just made sure it was there (after all, it was his & Jules’ job to retrieve it), and didn’t seem terribly thrilled. You mention “Honeybunny et al” - there is no “al” (=everyone else)! No one else saw it except for “honeybunny”/“Ringo” - and he as a thief would know its potential worth. The fact that he says it’s beautiful - well, I’ve never seen an oscar statue up close, but they must be quite impressive.
Again, I’m not saying it’s the answer, but I am saying that your refutation wasn’t quite complete. If you simply don’t buy the theory, that’s fair enough.
Anyone have any leads on Alphagene’s suggestion that ancient Egyptians believed the devil pulled souls out the back of the neck? (did they even believe in a single Satan?) I know they pulled brains out the nose…
Davis McDavis wrote: “… but I’ve read numerous things about heroin being of higher quality these days and that’s how come models can snort it and not harm their pretty little itsy bitsy arms.”
You can snort heroin - a lot of people start out that way, so they can get used to it before moving on to mainlining - but you don’t snort gigantic lines of it. The heroin that Vincent bought was so much more expensive than the other stuff Eric Stoltz was selling because it was a lot purer, so when Mia snorted those big ol’ lines of hers, she inhaled a much larger portion of the drug than she would have ever taken in by shooting up. [If you ever watch someone shooting up, you will see that they don’t put much in the spoon.] It’s the same thing as when someone is smuggling and the balloon breaks in their stomach. It doesn’t matter if the stuff in the balloon has been cut a lot; the fact that they took so much into their bloodstream at once is what kills them almost instantaneously.
I was talkin’ to Quentin Tarantino, and he said,
“Frickin A!
You want to know the real story?”
Of course I said yes.
“Understand, the film’s called Pulp Fiction.
But what genre of classic pulp fiction is–
UNREPRESENTED–in the movie?
You got it: SCI-FI.
The briefcase was originally supposed to–get this–
HOLD AN ALIEN POWER SOURCE.
It harnessed the power of an entire galaxy.
Since the rest of the movie is very noir–
it’s just crime stuff; no space opera–
very wild, occasionally out there, but
EARTHBOUND, you see?
Anyway, we decided:
Better knock out the sci-fi device.
Really, it wasn’t important, just a minor touch.
It is, as a plot device, what–
DePalma? no, Hitchcock–called a
“Guffin,” I think. That means, well…
Ever notice that the characters in films get–
they get worked up over strange things–
only you’re supposed to identify with them– supposed to–but you wouldn’t care,
EVER, about this thing, you only do,
like, care about what happens to, say, the
LOOT, because they do, and you only even
care about the characters because they
have this problem, which derives from it, you see?
Every movie that grabs you with its characters–
AND THE THING THEY WANT, by this trick.”
–Philip Wilson, reporting for SDMB
