Vincent Vega mentions in Pulp Fiction that he spent some time in Amsterdam, but why was he there in the first place? Quentin Tarantino’s career as a filmmaker began in 1992 with the crime film Reservoir Dogs, and though it was praised by critics and viewers, his big break came two years later with Pulp Fiction. Widely regarded as his masterpiece, Pulp Fiction established the style (visual and narrative) of Tarantino’s films and made him a widely-known name, and is often regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.
Pulp Fiction tells various interconnected stories in a non-linear style, with the criminal underworld of Los Angeles as the main setting. The main characters are hitmen Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson), their boss Marsellus Wallace (Wing Rhames), his wife Mia (Uma Thurman), and boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis). Vincent was at the front and center of more than one segment, and was part of many of the film’s most iconic scenes, of which one has left a big question: what was he doing in Amsterdam, prior to the events of the film?
During the now-classic “royale with cheese” conversation with Jules, Vincent starts talking about his time in Amsterdam, having just returned after spending three years there. However, the film doesn’t go back to that and never explains what he was doing there – but Tarantino did. As it turns out, Vincent’s time in Amsterdam was going to be explored in a movie starring him and another character from Tarantino’s movie universe. Though it was his second film, Tarantino established a connection between Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs through Vincent and Mr. Blonde/Vic (Michael Madsen), who turned out to be siblings and were going to star in their own movie, titled Double V Vega.
Speaking to CinemaBlend, Tarantino explained that Double V Vega would have seen Vincent and Vic in Amsterdam, where Vincent had been running a club for Marsellus. Vic would have showed up to visit, and they would have obviously gotten into some trouble, though exactly what would have happened is something not even Tarantino knows. The Vega brothers movie didn’t go past a concept, as by the time Tarantino came up with the idea for it, Travolta and Madsen had aged out of the characters and were busy working on other projects. Of course, this wasn’t a big loss for Tarantino, who went on to create more stories and even experimented with some genres (as seen with Kill Bill) and explored alternate versions of history (with Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood).
Judging by his conversation with Jules, Vincent surely had a good time in Amsterdam and Europe in general, as he got to travel around – hence way he knew it’s called “royale with chesse”. Exactly what he did while running that club in Amsterdam was probably not that relevant if Tarantino didn’t feel like expanding on that in Pulp Fiction and didn’t worry much about not making the Vega brothers film.