10 Fan Theories About Tarantino Movies That Make Perfect Sense

By Helen Jones / June 19, 2018

It’s a well-known fact amongst discerning film fans that the movies of Quentin Tarantino are often sneakily interlinked. Collectively dubbed the Tarantino-verse, his multi-layered and self-referential films are full of little Easter eggs like recurring characters or fictional brands and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nods to each other.

The Tarantino-verse goes deeper than most cinematic universes, however. In fact, the director himself has confirmed that the wider universe can be divided into two sub-universes. Firstly, there’s the Realer Than Real Universe which includes films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs and takes place in Tarantino’s version of the real world.

Secondly, we have the Movie Movie Universe made up of his often more outlandish and hyper-violent films like From Dusk till Dawn, Grindhouse and Kill Bill which are the kind of movies characters from his Realer Than Real Universe would go see at the cinema.

Given how interconnected Tarantino’s films and universes are, it’s no wonder they’re such rich pickings for fan theories. Coming up are some of the best theories about the Tarantino-verse the internet has to offer, from the mysterious contents of the Pulp Fiction briefcase to why there are a baffling amount of close-up foot shots in Tarantino films.

10. The Briefcase Contained Marsellus Wallace's Soul

The mysterious contents of Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase are the driving plot device behind Pulp Fiction but we never actually learn what they are. Naturally, the McGuffin-like nature of the briefcase has had movie fans speculating wildly as to its contents. Could it be a nuclear weapon? The diamonds from Tarantino’s first film Reservoir Dogs? Or perhaps even the Holy Grail?

The most plausible and popular theory, however, is that the briefcase contains Marsellus’ soul which he previously sold to Satan himself in exchange for his wealth and criminal prowess. Having bought it back from the Devil, it falls into the wrong hands – that is, Brett and his mates – and he employs Jules and Vincent to retrieve and safely deliver it back to him.

This apparently helps explain a number of small details in Pulp Fiction like the band-aid on the back of Marsellus’ neck, which according to some is where the devil extracts souls from, and why the briefcase’s combination is 666.

It also explains how Jules and Vincent were able to survive being showered with a hail of bullets – God was protecting them because they were doing important holy work in getting a soul back to its rightful owner – and why the case emits an ethereal glow that prompts people to remark on its contents’ beauty. Because souls are all shiny and beautiful and sh*t.