P U L P F I C T I O N written & directed by Quentin Tarantino stories by Quentin Tarantino & Roger Roberts Avery THREE STORIES... ABOUT ONE STORY... May 1993 last draft ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PULP (pulp) n. 1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass or matter. 2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter and being characteristically printed on rough, unfinished paper. American Heritage Dictionary New College Edition ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. PROLOGUE 2. VINCENT VEGA & MARSELLUS WALLACE'S WIFE 3. THE GOLD WATCH 4. JULES, VINCENT, JIMMIE & THE WOLF 5. EPILOGUE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. INT. COFFEE SHOP - MORNING 1. A normal Denny's, Spires-like coffee shop in Los Angeles. It's about 9:00 in the morning. While the place isn't jammed, there's a healthy number of people drinking coffee, munching on bacon and eating eggs. Two of these people are a YOUNG MAN and a YOUNG WOMAN. The Young Man has a slight working-class English accent and, like his fellow countryman, smokes cigarettes like they're going out of style. It is impossible to tell where the Young Woman is from or how old she is; everything she does contradicts something she did. The boy and girl sit in a booth. Their dialogue is to be said in a rapid-pace "HIS GIRL FRIDAY" fashion. YOUNG MAN No, forget it, it's too risky. I'm through doin' that shit. YOUNG WOMAN You always say that, the same thing every time: never again, I'm through, too dangerous. YOUNG MAN I know that's what I always say. I'm always right too, but -- YOUNG WOMAN -- but you forget about it in a day or two -- YOUNG MAN -- yeah, well, the days of me forgittin' are over, and the days of me rememberin' have just begun. YOUNG WOMAN When you go on like this, you know what you sound like? YOUNG MAN I sound like a sensible fucking man, is what I sound like. YOUNG WOMAN You sound like a duck. (imitates a duck) Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack... YOUNG MAN Well take heart, 'cause you're never gonna hafta hear it again. Because since I'm never gonna do it again, you're never gonna hafta hear me quack about how I'm never gonna do it again. YOUNG WOMAN After tonight. The boy and girl laugh, their laughter putting a pause in there, back and forth. YOUNG MAN (with a smile) Correct. I got all tonight to quack. A WAITRESS comes by with a pot of coffee. WAITRESS Can I get anybody anymore coffee? YOUNG WOMAN Oh yes, thank you. The Waitress pours the Young Woman's coffee. The Young Man lights up another cigarette. YOUNG MAN I'm doin' fine. The Waitress leaves. The Young Man takes a drag off of his smoke. The Young Woman pours a ton of cream and sugar into her coffee. The Young Man goes right back into it. YOUNG MAN I mean the way it is now, you're takin' the same fuckin' risk as when you rob a bank. You take more of a risk. Banks are easier! Federal banks aren't supposed to stop you anyway, during a robbery. They're insured, why should they care? You don't even need a gun in a federal bank. I heard about this guy, walked into a federal bank with a portable phone, handed the phone to the teller, the guy on the other end of the phone said: "We got this guy's little girl, and if you don't give him all your money, we're gonna kill 'er." YOUNG WOMAN Did it work? YOUNG MAN Fuckin' A it worked, that's what I'm talkin' about! Knucklehead walks in a bank with a telephone, not a pistol, not a shotgun, but a fuckin' phone, cleans the place out, and they don't lift a fuckin' finger. YOUNG WOMAN Did they hurt the little girl? YOUNG MAN I don't know. There probably never was a little girl -- the point of the story isn't the little girl. The point of the story is they robbed the bank with a telephone. YOUNG WOMAN You wanna rob banks? YOUNG MAN I'm not sayin' I wanna rob banks, I'm just illustrating that if we did, it would be easier than what we been doin'. YOUNG WOMAN So you don't want to be a bank robber? YOUNG MAN Naw, all those guys are goin' down the same road, either dead or servin' twenty. YOUNG WOMAN And no more liquor stores? YOUNG MAN What have we been talking about? Yeah, no-more-liquor-stores. Besides, it ain't the giggle it usta be. Too many foreigners own liquor stores. Vietnamese, Koreans, they can't fuckin' speak English. You tell 'em: "Empty out the register," and they don't know what it fuckin' means. They make it too personal. We keep on, one of those gook motherfuckers' gonna make us kill 'em. YOUNG WOMAN I'm not gonna kill anybody. YOUNG MAN I don't wanna kill anybody either. But they'll probably put us in a situation where it's us of them. And if it's not the gooks, it these old Jews who've owned the store for fifteen fuckin' generations. Ya got Grandpa Irving sittin' behind the counter with a fuckin' Magnum. Try walkin' into one of those stores with nothin' but a telephone, see how far it gets you. Fuck it, forget it, we're out of it. YOUNG WOMAN Well, what else is there, day jobs? YOUNG MAN (laughing) Not this life. YOUNG WOMAN Well what then? He calls to the Waitress. YOUNG MAN Garcon! Coffee! Th...
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