10 Movies That Dedicated Incredible Sequences To Their Actors
2. Pulp Fiction - John Travolta
And for our final Quentin Tarantino entry, we have Pulp Fiction, which built one of its most famous sequences around star John Travolta.
The scene in which Vincent Vega (Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) head to the 50s-style diner named Jack Rabbit Slims is ultimately a reflection of Travolta's career highs and lows, before serving him up the ultimate comeback.
Between the restaurant's 50s throwback style and Mia Wallace making a reference to catching "cooties", the parallels to Travolta's own 50s-set Grease are undeniable.
As a result, the diner feels like a summation of Travolta's biggest career success, even as he's struggled to move past it in the decades since - hence that "wax museum with a pulse" line as Vincent observes all the legendary Hollywood icons scattered around the restaurant.
There are also many references to Travolta's other early successes scattered throughout the scene.
For starters, Mia's character on "Fox Force Five" telling a joke at the end of every episode is a clear nod to the Travolta-starring hit TV show Welcome Back, Kotter, where Travolta's character would tell an old-timey joke in each episode. And Mia referring to Vincent as a "cowboy", is similarly tipping the hat to him playing the lead role in the hit 1980 movie Urban Cowboy.
This is all topped off by the climactic dance sequence, where Vincent and Mia strut their stuff and get a trophy for their efforts.
This is clearly a callback to Travolta commanding the dance floor in Saturday Night Fever, and the nostalgia-fuelled dance-off almost single-handedly helped revive the actor's flagging mid-90s career.
Presenting audiences with all this wistful pining for the actor's glory days before literally handing him the opportunity to charm his way back into fans' hearts was a masterstroke on Tarantino's part.
Given that the set cost a staggering $150,000 to build - by far the most expensive for the film - clearly it meant a lot to the director.