Pulp Fiction

EXT. JACKRABBIT SLIM'S – NIGHT

In the past six years, 50's diners have sprung up all over L.A., giving Thai restaurants a run for their money. They're all basically the same. Decor out of an "Archie" comic book, Golden Oldies constantly emanating from a bubbly Wurlitzer, saucy waitresses in bobby socks, menus with items like the Fats Domino Cheeseburger, or the Wolfman Jack Omelette, and over prices that pay for all this bullshit.

But then there's JACKRABBIT SLIM'S, the big mama of 50's diners. Either the best or the worst, depending on your point of view.

Vincent's Malibu pulls up to the restaurant. A big sign with a neon figure of a cartoon surly cool cat jackrabbit in a red windbreaker towers over the establishment. Underneath the cartoon is the name: JACKRABBIT SLIM'S. Underneath that is the slogan:"Next best thing to a time machine."

VINCENT

What the fuck is this place?

MIA

This is Jackrabbit Slim's. An Elvis man should love it.

VINCENT

Come on, Mia, let's go get a steak.

MIA

You can get a steak here, daddy-o. Don't be a...

Mia draws a square with her hands. Dotted lines appear on the screen, forming a square. The lines disperse.

VINCENT

After you, kitty-cat.

INT. JACKRABBIT SLIM'S – NIGHT

Compared to the interior, the exterior was that of a quaint English pub. Posters from 50's A.I.P. movies are all over the wall ("Rock All Night," "High School Confidential," "Attack Of The Crab Monster," and "Machine Gun Kelly"). The booths that the patrons sit in are made out of the cut up bodies of 50s cars.

In the middle of the restaurant in a dance floor. A big sign on the wall states, "No shoes allowed. "So wannabe beboppers (actually Melrose-types), do the twist in their socks or barefeet.

The picture windows don't look out the street, but instead, B & W movies of 50's street scenes play behind them. The WAITRESSES and WAITERS are made up as replicas of 50's icons: MARILYN MONROE, ZORRO, JAMES DEAN, DONNA REED, MARTIN and LEWIS, and THE PHILIP MORRIS MIDGET, wait on tables wearing appropriate costumes.

Vincent and Mia study the menu in a booth made out of a red '59 Edsel. BUDDY HOLLY (their waiter), comes over, sporting a big button on his chest that says: "Hi I'm Buddy, pleasing you please me."

BUDDY

Hi I'm Buddy, what can I get'cha?

VINCENT

I'll have the Douglas Sirk steak.

BUDDY

How d'ya want it, burnt to a crisp, or bloody as hell?

VINCENT

Bloody as hell. And to drink, a vanilla coke.

BUDDY

How 'bout you, Peggy Sue?

MIA

I'll have the Durwood Kirby burger – bloody – and a five-dollar shake.

BUDDY

How d'ya want that shake, Martin and Lewis, or Amos and Andy?

MIA

Martin and Lewis.

VINCENT

Did you just order a five-dollar shake?

MIA

Sure did.

VINCENT

A shake? Milk and ice cream?

MIA

Uh-huh.

VINCENT

It costs five dollars?

BUDDY

Yep.

VINCENT

You don't put bourbon in it or anything?

BUDDY

Nope.

VINCENT

Just checking.

Buddy exits.

Vincent takes a look around the place. The YUPPIES are dancing, the DINERS are biting into big, juicy hamburgers, and the icons are playing their parts. Marilyn is squealing, The Midget is paging Philip Morris, Donna Reed is making her customers drink their milk, and Dean and Jerry are acting a fool.

MIA

Whaddya think?

VINCENT

It's like a wax museum with a pulse rate.

Vincent takes out his pouch of tobacco and begins rolling himself a smoke.

After a second of watching him –

MIA

What are you doing?

VINCENT

Rollin' a smoke.

MIA

Here?

VINCENT

It's just tobacco.

MIA

Oh. Well in that case, will you roll me one, cowboy?

As he finishes licking it –

VINCENT

You can have his one, cowgirl.

He hands her the rolled smoke. She takes it, putting it to her lips. Out of nowhere appears a Zippo lighter in Vincent's hand. He lights it.

MIA

Thanks.

VINCENT

Think nothing of it.

He begins rolling one for himself.

As this time, the SOUND of a subway car fills the diner, making everything SHAKE and RATTLE. Marilyn Monroe runs to a square vent in the floor. An imaginary subway train BLOWS the skirt of her white dress around her ears as she lets out a squeal. The entire restaurant applauds.

Back to Mia and Vincent.

MIA

Marsellus said you just got back from Amsterdam.

VINCENT

Sure did. I heard you did a pilot.

MIA

That was my fifteen minutes.

VINCENT

What was it?

MIA

It was show about a team of female secret agents called "Fox Force Five."

VINCENT

What?

MIA

"Fox Force Five."Fox, as in we're a bunch of foxy chicks. Force, as in we're a force to be reckoned with. Five, as in there's one... two ... three... four... five of us. There was a blonde one, Sommerset O'Neal from that show "Baton Rouge," she was the leader. A Japanese one, a black one, a French one and a brunette one, me. We all had special skills. Sommerset had a photographic memory, the Japanese fox was a kung fu master, the black girl was a demolition expert, the French fox' specialty was sex...

VINCENT

What was your specialty?

MIA

Knives. The character I played, Raven McCoy, her background was she was raised by circus performers. So she grew up doing a knife act. According to the show, she was the deadliest woman in the world with a knife. But because she grew up in a circus, she was also something of an acrobat. She could do illusions, she was a trapeze artist – when you're keeping the world safe from evil, you never know when being a trapeze artist's gonna come in handy. And she knew a zillion old jokes her grandfather, an old vaudevillian, taught her. If we woulda got picked up, they woulda worked in a gimmick where every episode I woulda told and ol joke.

VINCENT

Do you remember any of the jokes?

MIA

Well I only got the chance to say one, 'cause we only did one show.

VINCENT

Tell me.

MIA

No. It's really corny.

VINCENT

C'mon, don't be that way.

MIA

No. You won't like it and I'll be embarrassed.

VINCENT

You told it in front of fifty million people and you can't tell it to me? I promise I won't laugh.

MIA

(laughing)

That's what I'm afraid of.

VINCENT

That's not what I meant and you know it.

MIA

You're quite the silver tongue devil, aren't you?

VINCENT

I meant I wouldn't laugh at you.

MIA

That's not what you said Vince. Well now I'm definitely not gonna tell ya, 'cause it's been built up too much.

VINCENT

What a gyp.

Buddy comes back with the drinks. Mia wraps her lips around the straw of her shake.

MIA

Yummy!

VINCENT

Can I have a sip of that? I'd like to know what a five-dollar shake tastes like.

MIA

Be my guest.

She slides the shake over to him.

MIA

You can use my straw, I don't have kooties.

Vincent smiles.

VINCENT

Yeah, but maybe I do.

MIA

Kooties I can handle.

He takes a sip.

VINCENT

Goddamn! That's a pretty fuckin' good milk shake.

MIA

Told ya.

VINCENT

I don't know if it's worth five dollars, but it's pretty fuckin' good.

He slides the shake back.

Then the first of an uncomfortable silence happens.

MIA

Don't you hate that?

VINCENT

What?

MIA

Uncomfortable silences. Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?

VINCENT

I don't know.

MIA

That's when you know you found somebody special. When you can just shit the fuck up for a minute, and comfortably share silence.

VINCENT

I don't think we're there yet. But don't feel bad, we just met each other.

MIA

Well I'll tell you what, I'll go to the bathroom and powder my nose, while you sit here and think of something to say.

VINCENT

I'll do that.

INT. JACKRABBIT SLIM'S (LADIES ROOM) – NIGHT

Mia powders her nose by doing a big line of coke off the bathroom sink. Her head jerks up from the rush.

MIA

(imitating Steppenwolf)

I said goddamn!

INT. JACKRABBIT SLIM'S (DINING AREA) – NIGHT

Vincent digs into his Douglas Sirk steak. As he chews, his eyes scan the Hellsapopinish restaurant.

Mia comes back to the table.

MIA

Don't you love it when you go to the bathroom and you come back to find your food waiting for you?

VINCENT

We're lucky we got it at all. Buddy Holly doesn't seem to be much of a waiter. We shoulda sat in Marilyn Monroe's section.

MIA

Which one, there's two Marilyn Monroes.

VINCENT

No there's not.

Pointing at Marilyn in the white dress serving a table.

VINCENT

That's Marilyn Monroe...

Then, pointing at a BLONDE WAITRESS in a tight sweater and capri pants, taking an order from a bunch of FILM GEEKS –

VINCENT

... and that's Mamie Van Doren. I don't see Jayne Mansfield, so it must be her night off.

MIA

Pretty smart.

VINCENT

I have moments.

MIA

Did ya think of something to say?

VINCENT

Actually, there's something I've wanted to ask you about, but you seem like a nice person, and I didn't want to offend you.

MIA

Oooohhhh, this doesn't sound like mindless, boring, getting-to-know-you chit-chat. This sounds like you actually have something to say.

VINCENT

Only if you promise not to get offended.

MIA

You can't promise something like that. I have no idea what you're gonna ask. You could ask me what you're gonna ask me, and my natural response could be to be offended. Then, through no fault of my own, I woulda broken my promise.

VINCENT

Then let's just forget it.

MIA

That is an impossibility. Trying to forget anything as intriguing as this would be an exercise in futility.

VINCENT

Is that a fact?

Mia nods her head: "Yes."

MIA

Besides, it's more exciting when you don't have permission.

VINCENT

What do you think about what happened to Antwan?