Pulp Fiction

"You won’t know the facts until you’ve seen the fiction."

1994 2h 34m EN

🙌

8.5

BANGER

🔥

92%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

8.8

IMDB

★8.5TMDB · 31,048🍅92%Rotten Tomatoes●95Metacritic★8.8IMDB · 2,431,656

ThrillerCrimeComedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.

“You won’t know the facts until you’ve seen the fiction.”

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Cast

John Travolta
Vincent Vega
Samuel L. Jackson
Jules Winnfield
Uma Thurman
Mia Wallace
Bruce Willis
Butch Coolidge
Ving Rhames
Marsellus Wallace
Harvey Keitel
The Wolf
Eric Stoltz
Lance
Tim Roth
Pumpkin

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writers: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino
Languages: English, Spanish, French
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 154 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $214M — a 26.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

32 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Spanish, French.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Quentin Tarantino, shot by Andrzej Sekula. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sally Menke shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

AWARDS

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "You won’t know the facts until you’ve seen the fiction.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Quentin Tarantino directs. Andrzej Sekula behind the camera. Sally Menke cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Spanish, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 154 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Grossed $214M — a 26.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
332 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Spanish, French.
5Directed by Quentin Tarantino, shot by Andrzej Sekula. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Editor Sally Menke shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "You won’t know the facts until you’ve seen the fiction.".
9IMDB entry: tt0110912 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1031,048 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
11Classified under 15 themes, including "drug dealer", "drug crime", "gangster", "dark comedy".
12Released under 45 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Andrzej Sekula
Editing: Sally Menke
Production design: David Wasco
Costume design: Betsy Heimann
Makeup / hair: Audrey Futterman-Stern
Stunt coordinator: Ken Lesco
Runtime: 154 min · 2h 34m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $8,000,000
Box office: $213,928,762
Return: 2674% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Pulp Fiction (1994)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 95/100
IMDB rating: 8.8/10 · 2,431,656 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 69 wins & 72 nominations total

National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film
MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence
David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor
Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director
Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Film
Independent Spirit Award for Best Director

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Quentin Tarantino

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2018-07-21
★ 9/10
The cream of the crop of quirky crime thrillers RELEASED IN 1994 and written & directed by Quentin Tarantino, "Pulp Fiction" is a drama/thriller/black comedy about two hit men in Los Angeles (John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson), their mob boss & his wife (Ving Rhames and Uma Thurman) and a champion boxer who incurs the wrath of the boss (Bruce Willis). The lurid, droll tale is told in a non-linear fashion, but it's easy to follow and the final act ties everything up nicely. The dialogue's witty and the story maintains your attention, despite its 2 hour and 34 minutes runtime. The film's stylish and pulsates with energy and innovation; it understandably influenced many 90's films and beyond. I put off seeing this iconic picture until almost twenty years after its release because the protagonists are all big city gangsters or somehow involved with 'em. These are lawless people who would kill a person without batting an eye. Their god is money or hedonism. Let ’em shoot each other to smithereens for all I care. But if you can look beyond this and the constant profanities, the film's worth your time. What redeems it for me, besides the all-around entertaining movie-making, is that it's a tale of redemption and the high price of stubborn folly: The wise person recognizes God’s grace and responds accordingly while the fool doesn’t and blithely goes on his (doomed) way. Once a person receives grace they naturally extend it to others. There are additional gems spiced throughout. Both Travolta and Jackson shine here. There are several other celebrities on hand, like Harvey Keitel, with many in cameos, e.g. Christopher Walken; not to mention several formidable females, like curvy Julia Sweeney (Raquel), cutie Maria de Medeiros (Fabienne), Angela Jones (Esmarelda) and voluptuous Susan Griffiths (Marilyn Monroe). BOTTOM LINE: If you're in the mood for a quirky crime drama/thriller you can't go wrong with "Pulp Fiction." It's top-of-the-line in every way, including the subtext. THE FILM WAS SHOT in the Greater Los Angeles area. ADDITIONAL WRITER: Roger Avary. GRADE: A
Erick Cabral2020-06-20
★ 10/10
Insane movie! One of the bests(if not the best) Tarantino's movies!
CinemaSerf2022-06-29
★ 7/10
Ving Rhames ("Wallace") is the kingpin who provides the loosest of templates for a couple of inter-twining tales that are amusing, bizarre and sometimes down right dangerous before we get a sort of alignment at the conclusion. "Winnfield" (Samuel L. Jackson) and "Vincent Vega" (John Travolta) are a pair of dapper enforcers, despatched to retrieve a stolen briefcase. Though their manner may be precise, the execution of their tasks are usually more hit and miss, definitely messy - and frequently requiring of the specialist clean-up services of "Mr. Wolf" (Harvey Keitel). "Vega" is also charged by his boss with looking after his cocaine-loving wife "Mia" (Uma Thurman) and that flirts with dancing and disaster too. Meantime, ageing boxer "Butch" (Bruce Willis) is supposed to help the boss by taking an early dive in a fight. Instead he manages to kill his opponent! Soon he is intent on fleeing town, well at least he tries before he and "Wallace" end up being the playthings of some interesting characters who keep their own leather-clad gimp locked in a box... It's really difficult to make sense of the narrative in writing. It flows really well, but at differing speeds and in several different directions at once. The stories are violent but delivered in an almost tongue-in cheek way. The dance between "Mia" and "Vega" has become the stuff of cinema legend; there is loads of chemistry - especially between Travolta and an on form Jackson who really does deliver his biblical verses with a puritanical - an lethal - zeal; Willis is as good here as he ever was and you cannot but feel sorry for poor old "Pumpkin" (Tim Roth) and his pal "Honey Bunny" (Amanda Plummer) whose habit of committing petty robberies when they realise that nobody ever thinks to hit a restaurant, all goes awry. The dialogue is cleverly targeted, with wit and pith but also used sparingly when the first rate soundtrack is allowed to let everyone come up for air. Tarantino himself features towards the end as just about everybody gets their just desserts. This is a classy and sharp piece of enigmatic and enjoyable cinema held together well by a creative and visionary director who appreciates how to get the best of a cast that know how to entertain!