Quentin Tarantino’s film universe is connected in two levels, with most films including references to other Tarantino works, but did Reservoir Dogs, and while it was a success among critics and fans, his big break came in 1994 with Pulp Fiction, a crime film with several interconnected stories told in a non-linear manner. The film starred Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace, John Travolta as Vincent Vega, and Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield.
Pulp Fiction was followed by Tarantino’s homage to blaxploitation films, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, both starring Uma Thurman. Although the Kill Bill films are the only Tarantino films directly connected, there’s a scene in Pulp Fiction with Uma Thurman’s character that seems to predict a part of the Kill Bill duology.
When Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega are having dinner at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, Mia tells him about her failed acting experience in a TV pilot titled Fox Force Five, a show about a team of female secret agents. In it, Mia played the role of Raven McCoy, the “deadliest woman in the world with a knife” who was raised by circus performers and knew a “zillion” old jokes that her grandfather, an old vaudevillian, taught her. The other of the team were Somerset O’Neil, the blonde and leader of the group; a Japanese kung-fu master; a black girl, who was the demolition expert; and a French girl, whose specialty was sex. These descriptions match the female characters in Kill Bill, but with a couple of differences.
Although the Deadly Vipers do have a blonde character, a Japanese, and a black woman, the rest of their descriptions don’t actually fit. The blonde one, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), wasn’t the leader of the squad; O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) only showcased barehanded fighting skills when she kicked Beatrix (Uma Thurman) in the face, but it’s not enough to call her a “kung-fu” master; and Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) wasn’t a demolition expert. The French woman is believed to be Sofie Fatale, O-Ren Ishii’s second-in-command and best friend. Sofie is French-Japanese and wasn’t part of the Deadly Vipers squad – and her specialty definitely wasn’t sex.
Because the Tarantino connected universe is divided in two - the “real world” and the films and shows that the characters watch in that world - many believe that Mia Wallace was referencing what would later become Kill Bill, a film that she would watch in her world. Tarantino and Thurman came up with the character of Beatrix/The Bride during production of Pulp Fiction, so the Fox Force Five dialogue is more of a hint to what was in development than a full prediction, hence why the differences between the pilot and the Deadly Vipers squad.
