All Quentin Tarantino films are part of the same universe in two levels, which has made fans believe that some characters have appeared in more than one film, such as Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. Pink in Pulp Fiction. Tarantino’s filmmaking career as the world knows it began in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs, a crime film that followed six diamond thieves whose planned heist for a jewelry store went terribly wrong. Reservoir Dogs established Tarantino’s narrative and visual style, and featured actors that would go on to become some of his frequent collaborators.
However, his big break came two years later with Pulp Fiction. Also a crime film, it tells several interconnected stories in a non-linear manner, for which Tarantino has been praised. Pulp Fiction is regarded as Tarantino’s masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made, and connects to other Tarantino works in different ways: John Travolta’s character, Vincent Vega, is the brother of Michael Madsen’s character in Reservoir Dogs, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) “predicted” Kill Bill, and Tarantino’s character in Pulp Fiction is related to Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. White (Harvey Keitel). However, there’s another detail that some fans believe further connects Tarantino’s first two films.
One of the thieves in Reservoir Dogs was Mr. Pink, played by Steve Buscemi, who also had a cameo role in Pulp Fiction as a waiter at Jack Rabbit Slim’s. This has prompted two different theories that connect both films through Buscemi’s characters, who might actually be the same.
Mr. Pink Used To Work At Jack Rabbit Slim’s
This theory can go two ways thanks to Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction not having a specific time setting, so it’s assumed they take place around the time they were released. With this in mind, Reservoir Dogs would then happen first, meaning that Mr. Pink managed to survive and escape from the police. Things obviously didn’t go well after that, with Mr. Pink on the run and unemployed, so he had to take a job that would allow him to keep a low-profile – and what better than one where you have to wear a disguise all day. Ironically, Mr. Pink was now being forced to work the job he criticized so much, and now he had to deal with non-tippers. Life is a roller-coaster, they say.
The other side of the theory says that Pulp Fiction happened first, thus giving Mr. Pink a different, more dramatic story. Mr. Pink was a waiter at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, which closed (for whatever reason) and left him unemployed. Unable to get another job and with bills piling up, Mr. Pink turned to a life of crime and started working for Joe Cabot. Some fans have pointed out that Mr. Pink is the only one that looked nervous (aside from Mr. Orange, but that’s because he was the mole), possibly because that was his first heist... and it went wrong. Finally, the reason why he doesn’t believing in tipping is because he already went through that, and knows that not everyone does it and that most of the time tips don’t make a difference.
Mr. Pink’s fate in Reservoir Dogs was left somewhat ambiguous, with some believing he was either arrested or shot by the police right outside the warehouse and others convinced he was the only one that successfully escaped, so both theories could work. Whatever you choose to believe, you might want to keep them in mind next time you watch Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and see which one fits best.