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Description
Quentin Tarantino's films have single-handedly revived and redefined American noir, bringing to Hollywood a new energy, irony, and cool. Tarantino has won awards and accolades around the world, earned a devoted following among critics, actors, and audiences, and paved the way for a new... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Summary
The film opens to eight men eating breakfast at a diner. Six of them wear matching suits and are using aliases: Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker), Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel). Among them is Los... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters
- : * Harvey Keitel as Mr. White: A professional criminal and thief. His real name is revealed to be Larry Dimmick.<3> Mr. White is portrayed in the movie as a criminal who does not hesitate to kill but has enough compassion to care about innocent bystanders, as is evident by his line, "The choice between doing ten years and killing some stupid motherfucker ain't no choice at all, but I ain't no madman either." He blindly believes in Mr. Orange and takes a bullet for him in the final Mexican standoff. After Mr. Orange reveals his true identity, Mr. White, in a state of rage and grief, shoots him in the head. He is then shot in turn by the police, who had just arrived to the scene. * Tim Roth as Mr. Orange: An undercover police officer, his real name is revealed to be Freddy Newandyke. Later scenes reveal the story of how he went undercover, including the fake "commode story" he told the robbers to gain status and trust. He is shot in the abdomen by a woman trying to defend herself and spends the majority of the film bleeding on the warehouse floor. He takes a second bullet during the Mexican standoff and is shot dead by Mr. White after he reveals to him that he is a police officer. * Steve Buscemi as Mr. Pink: The only major character whose real name is never revealed, also the only major character whose fate is unknown. Mr. Pink often reminds the other robbers to be "professionals" and is possibly the only character to have survived the film's events. His final fate is left ambiguous, however after he leaves the warehouse the sounds of a car stalling, police sirens and gunshots are heard. According to Quentin Tarantino, Mr. Pink does in fact survive. You can verify this by increasing the volume of the background sounds: When Mr. Pink runs out of the building with the diamonds, police officers can be heard shouting at him to put his hands on the ground. Gunshots can be heard, then Mr. Pink shouts that he has been shot. You can then hear the officers talking to each other as Pink is arrested. * Michael Madsen as Mr. Blonde: His real name is Vic Vega, also known as Toothpick Vic.<4> He is a soft-spoken, sadistic psychopath who indiscriminately shot several civilians during the robbery, which angered Mr. White and Mr. Pink. He also gleefully tortures a policeman for his own pleasure—slashing the young officer's face, cutting off his ear and dousing him with gasoline—only to be stopped from burning him alive by Mr. Orange, when he fatally shoots Mr. Blonde six times. Vic Vega is the brother of Vincent Vega from Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction. * Chris Penn as "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot: The son of Joe Cabot. Eddie does not participate in the heist; he is also the only one who does not initially believe the heist was a police setup. He shoots Mr. White in the Mexican standoff between Eddie, Mr. White, and Joe Cabot, and Mr. White in turn shoots and kills Eddie and his father Joe. * Lawrence Tierney as Joe Cabot: The mastermind of the heist and father of "Nice Guy" Eddie Cabot, Joe is killed by Mr. White during the final standoff. Mr. Orange, during his meeting with fellow cop Holdaway, compares Joe to The Thing from the Fantastic Four. * Quentin Tarantino as Mr. Brown: Tarantino plays a small role as he often does in his films; Mr. Brown's real name is also not revealed. He had the opening lines of the film in Mr. Brown's insight that "Like a Virgin" is a "metaphor for big dicks". He is shot in the head by the cops and dies later. * Eddie Bunker as Mr. Blue: A small role played by ex-criminal Eddie Bunker. Despite not having much screen time, he is often referenced by the other characters since nobody saw what happened to him after the heist. Near the end of the film, Joe reveals that Mr. Blue was killed by the police. * Randy Brooks as Holdaway: A police officer and a friend of Mr. Orange. He is shown helping Mr. Orange prepare for his mission and presenting the "commode story" to him. * Kirk Baltz as Marvin Nash: The police officer who is kidnapped by Mr. Blonde after the heist and tortured during the ear-cutting scene. He is shot to death in a fit of rage by "Nice Guy" Eddie. * Steven Wright as the voice of K-Billy DJ: The voice of comedian Steven Wright moves in and out of the film as the voice of the DJ of "K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies", the radio station referenced several times throughout the film.<5>
First Sentence
Eight men dressed in BLACK SUITS, sit around a table at a breakfast cafe.
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