A set design mistake in Reservoir Dogs. The movie was a critical success and introduced the audience to Tarantino’s peculiar narrative style and trademark doses of violence, but his big break arrived two years later with another crime movie, told in a non-linear manner: Pulp Fiction.
Pulp Fiction follows different characters in different segments told out of order, but together, they form a cohesive story where different characters cross paths at some point. These characters are hitmen Mia (Uma Thurman), and boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), all of them starring in at least one segment. Still, Vincent and Jules could be considered as the leads of the movie, and in their first segment together (chronologically, at least), they visit one of Marsellus’ business partners, Brett (Frank Whaley), who tried to trick their boss, so they had to take care of the situation.
Once there, Jules intimidates Brett and kills one of his associates, and after Brett tells them where Marsellus’ briefcase was, Jules declaims a age from the Bible (which, by the way, isn’t a real age) and he and Vincent kill Brett for trying to double-cross their boss. However, there was another associate of Brett (played by Alexis Arquette) hiding in the bathroom with a gun, and when Jules and Vincent are done shooting Brett, he jumps out of the bathroom, shooting at them – but he misses, and Jules and Vincent end up killing him. Jules then attributes this to “divine intervention” because they should have been dead, but “God came down from heaven” and stopped the bullets – but there’s one detail in the background that invalidates Jules’ belief.
A famous mistake in Pulp Fiction involves the bullet holes behind Jules and Vincent at Brett’s apartment. These should be the ones from when the other man shoots at them, but they actually appear before he jumps out of the bathroom. This has been attributed to a set design mistake, but some fans believe it wasn’t a mistake at all, and they were added on purpose. A theory suggests that Brett’s associate actually had a fake gun but didn’t know it, which explains why he “missed” all his shots and why the revolver on the gun didn’t move when he shot – plus, he was too close to Jules and Vincent to completely miss them. Some fans add that the bullet holes are there to show he shot blanks, while others believe they were unrelated to this particular shooting and were there to add more confusion to the scene.
Brett’s associate using a fake gun and the bullet holes being the result of something else invalidates the “divine intervention” Jules thought had happened, which along with his partly fake Bible age only makes this part of Pulp Fiction more ambiguous. The bullet holes are surely no more than a set design mistake, but it has made way for some interesting interpretations that might be worth keeping in mind next time you watch the movie.
