Movies - TV
The Last Pulp Fiction Briefcase Explainer You’ll Ever Need To Read
By Valerie Ettenhofer
In “Pulp Fiction,” we have watched Vincent Vega (John Travolta) unlock the briefcase and gaze into a light for 30 years. Yet, there is no right or wrong answer as to the contents.
More than other props in the movie, the briefcase serves
as a litmus test, as it asks viewers to think of an answer independent of writer-director Quinton Tarantino’s intentions.
Tarantino said that the briefcase is meant to encourage personal interpretation. If three viewers gave their own theories,
he said, "those are three different movies you all saw."
Many have said that it contains jewels, hence the brightness, while others say cash. Others claim Marsellus Wallace's (Ving Rhames) soul is within, which he sold to the devil.
The briefcase also serves as a MacGuffin, an object that exists only to move the plot and tie together the film’s different plotlines. What’s in it is whatever you think it is.