Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino reveals the origins of The Gimp. Pulp Fiction is one of the most iconic films of the 1990s, a cult classic, and still screens in independent theaters. Fan interest remains persistent after almost 30 years, to the point that writer and director, Quentin Tarantino, regularly fields questions about the movie, his script inspiration, and character backstories.
In the 1994 crime film Pulp Fiction, The Gimp (Stephen Hibbert) is shrouded - literally and metaphorically - in mystery. He is Maynard’s (Duane Whitaker) leather-clad servant, and it’s clear that the pawnshop owner has had him for a long time. Maynard’s brother Zed (Peter Greene) is one of the movie's main antagonists. In Pulp Fiction, Maynard leaves the Gimp to guard the pawnshop basement and he gets knocked out when Butch (Bruce Willis) later escapes. Little is really known about the Gimp beyond his appearance in Pulp Fiction, but Tarantino has now revealed the backstory he had in mind for the unique character.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Tarantino discussed his whole body of work and shed light on a few canon classics. The director also revealed information about one of his more salacious characters, The Gimp. "In terms of backstory," Tarantino explained, "he was like a hitchhiker or somebody that they picked up seven years ago, and they trained him so he’s the perfect victim." He also clarified that The Gimp dies in the movie, saying, "It doesn’t quite play this way in the movie, but in my mind when I wrote it, the Gimp’s dead. Butch knocked him out and then when he passed out he hung himself."
Pulp Fiction was only Tarantino’s second film and the first to garner mass critical and audience attention. It’s impossible to deny that his sophomore work took his career to another level. Even now, audiences still enjoy revisiting its twisted tale and fans love learning any morsel of new information about the movie, especially for its secondary and overlooked characters. The Gimp is just such a character, having received little screen time and even less explanation for his BDSM getup, he's presented only as a satellite to other characters, Zed, Maynard and Butch.
However, thanks to what Tarantino is now sharing about The Gimp's backstory, he's grown a little beyond his connection to the main antagonists. This sort of new information can only enhance the rewatch experience for cult classics like Pulp Fiction, and it's refreshing to take the mask off characters like The Gimp. New information like this can also help fuel fan-theories, like those that suggest all of Tarantino’s movies exist in a shared universe, because any new detail could be the missing link. Who knows, maybe one day Quentin Tarantino will feature Pulp Fiction’s Gimp in another of his films.
Source: Empire