Jason Duncan's List: Pulp Fiction Briefcase

• Tarantino himself has said he doesn’t know what the contents are, and he likes it that way
• 1. The combination to open the case is ’666′.
  2. Marcellus has a band-aid on the back of his neck, and the Bible says that is the place where Satan extracts one’s soul.
  3. The men Jules and Vincent kill to get the case back are actually servants of the devil. Something went awry in the deal between Marcellus and the Satan, and it was “divine intervention” when all those shots miss the two hit men.
  4. It glows
• Another theory claims that the case contains the diamonds from Tarantino’s first movie, Reservoir Dogs
• The truth is that (Quentin Tarantino has admitted this publicly) there is nothing inside of the briefcase, only a gold painted light bulb. This was done because they needed to have something of high importance inside of the case but Tarantino couldn’t think of the perfect thing for the job. So it was intentionally left ambiguous. Left up to the viewer
• “Macguffin

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• The most obvious ones are sensible, material objects that gangster criminal types would be lugging about with them.  Wads of cash, a vast stash of drugs, a cache of gold bricks (to explain the glow, but not how it’s so easy to carry around…
• nsist that Quentin Tarantino is the only bloke who ‘truly’ knows what’s in the briefcase
• That he never had any intention of explaining an actual content for the cas
• he doesn’t know
• McGuffi
• that useful phrase coined by Alfred Hitchcock to describe a diversionary plot device. That is, an object which functions as a helpful catalyst for the action, a focal point for the activity of the characters, a site of idle speculation for the fans, but which in the end has no real significance. Think the Maltese falcon, or Kane’s rosebud
• But the most popular and intriguing theory of all is that the briefcase contains Marsellus Wallace’s soul; he sold his soul to the devil, and is currently completing negotiations (as evidenced by the plot) for either delivering it, or buying it back
• traditionally, the devil removed one’s soul from the back of the neck, just about where actor Ving Rhames sports a band-aid throughout the film
• the sticking plaster was to cover up the actor’s prominent scar, which it was feared would be too distracting for the audience (they had no idea…)
• So, what do I think is in the briefcase? Nothing

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