Pulp Fiction: Deconstructing the Timeline
Instead of using my vast synaptic resources to create a utopian society, I've opted to settle one of the burning questions of our time: How much time passes during the events in the movie
Pulp Fiction?
Well, the first step in this process is to establish a timeline sequesnce. Here is the chapter list as presented in the film:
1. PROLOGUE
2. VINCENT VEGA & MARSELLUS WALLACE'S WIFE
3. THE GOLD WATCH
4. JULES, VINCENT, JIMMIE & THE WOLF
5. EPILOGUE
Clearly, Tarantino jumps around. With very little effort from my supercharged cranial unit, we can get the chronological sequence:
2. VINCENT VEGA & MARSELLUS WALLACE'S WIFE
4. JULES, VINCENT, JIMMIE & THE WOLF
1. PROLOGUE
5. EPILOGUE
3. THE GOLD WATCH
You might be saying, "Whoa! How do you figure that?" Or, you might also be saying, "I can't believe I'm wasting my time reading this when there is PORN all over the internet!" Or, you might not be saying anything, but silently passing judgement on my obvious lack of social skills. In any event, I shall endeavor to explan.
In scene 2 (VINCENT VEGA & MARSELLUS WALLACE'S WIFE), after Vega and Jules have the conversation about mayonnaise and Royale with Cheese, they grab their guns out of the trunk and go up into the apartment building. When they reach the door to Brad's apartment, Jules asked Vega what time it is. Vega replies "7:22 AM". As this is the first chronologically in the movie, we can establish that the film begins, approximately, at 7 AM on Day One.
Chronologically, the next scene is 4 (JULES, VINCENT, JIMMIE & THE WOLF). This occurs immediately after scene 2. The entire sequence happens during the same morning, and concludes at Marcellus' bar. When Vince and Jules arrive (clad in Banana Slugs gear), the bartender says to Vince: "I hear you're taking Mia out tomorrow." From that we can say that the date and the drug OD sequence happen the following night (about 36 hours from that point), and concludes early the next morning.
The last sequence is scene 3 (THE GOLD WATCH). After Butch's fight, in the locker room, Marcellus is on the phone giving orders to find Butch. Mia and Vince are in the foreground. Mia thanks him for "last night", saying she had fun. Therefore, the fight night is the night after the OD night, 1 day later. Butch wakes up the next morning and goes to retrieve his watch, and the Zed incident ensues. After escaping Zed's pleasure factory and jumping on Zed's bike ("Grace"), Butch checks his father's watch. It says: 10:30. He immediately goes to pick up his chick and vamoose. That is chronologically the last scene of the film, ending at approximately 11 AM.
Therefore we can say that the film starts at @7 AM on Day One and ends at @ 11 AM on Day 4 for a duration of 76 hours, plus or minus a few minutes.
Of course, if you are really a rooster-prick, you can say 76 hours + about 35 years if you include the Christopher Walken's flashback. I'd advise not. Rooster-pricks are far too abudant these days.
