Tarantino's twisty classic from 1994 relaunched John Travolta's flagging career and gave him arguably the best role of his career. We follow his laidback hitman Vincent Vega through a couple of the film's "Chapters" and he's the closest thing the film has to a conventional lead. Then the narrative switches to the perspective of Bruce Willis' Butch, a boxer on the run from a crime boss. When he realises he's left behind a treasured gold watch at home Butch makes the risky decision to return for it. He sneaks in, retrieves the watch and seeing no sign of trouble decides to stop and have a pop tart. I mean why not, right? But as he slots them into the toaster he notices a machine gun lying on the kitchen counter. As he inspects it he hears a toilet flush and turns, gun raised. As the door opens it's none other than Vega. There's a tense beat as the two men stare at one another when the pop tarts suddenly spring up and startle Butch, who instinctively pulls the trigger and peppers Vega with bullets. It's such a unexpected jolt that it takes a moment to register that its even happened, but as Butch inspects the lifeless body it's kind of hard to deny that the film has very casually killed off a key character. But unlike the other characters on this list the film's time bending narrative allows Vega a somewhat happy ending, as he walks out of the restaurant at the end of the film with his partner Jules, blissfully unaware that he's not long for this world. And the most tragic part of it all? Butch didn't even eat the f***ing pop tarts!
