Reservoir Dogs. However, his big break arrived in 1994 with Pulp Fiction, another crime movie but with the particularity of being told in a non-linear narrative and with different protagonists.
Pulp Fiction follows different characters in different segments that together form a cohesive story, and where these characters cross paths at some point. The characters leading the segments are hitmen Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), their boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), his wife Mia (Uma Thurman), and boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), and all of them are connected through Marsellus, either by marriage, working for him, or making deals with him. Even though these characters star in at least one segment, the marketing of the movie focused more on Vincent, Jules, and Mia, making them the protagonists to the eyes of the audience, and Vincent and Mia are at the center of a fan theory that explains Mia’s role in the story.
During the first half of Pulp Fiction, viewers meet Jules and Vincent and learn that the latter has been tasked with keeping Marsellus’ wife Mia company and taking her out for the night. Vincent, having recently returned from Amsterdam, didn’t know Mia, so it’s implied Marsellus and Mia got married while Vincent was on the other side of the world, and Vincent was very nervous about having to take her out. Jules made sure Vincent knew what he was getting himself into, and told him what happened to the last guy who had to keep her company: Tony Rocky Horror, who dared to give Mia a foot massage and was thrown off a balcony by Marsellus for it. This incident has made some fans believe that going out with Mia was a test by Marsellus, and poor Tony Rocky Horror didn’t .
A theory posted on Mia was an actress, and she would have known when to put those skills to good use, so she most likely pretended to be offended by the story of the foot massage when in reality she knew well why everything happened the way it did.
Now, other fans have questioned the theory by asking why would Marsellus put one of his supposedly most trusted men through the “Mia test”, with the author of the theory explaining that, as mentioned above, Vincent had just returned from Amsterdam and Mia and Marsellus met and got married while Vincent was traveling, and as they worked in a business full of betrayals, Vincent had to undergo the test as soon as he came back. Another viewer added that a deleted scene showed Mia interviewing Vincent with a video camera, which could have been part of the test so Marsellus could also see how things went. This theory fits with the events in Pulp Fiction, and it’s up to every viewer to decide if it works with the rest of the movie or not.
