By skyforbes Loose connection of main events
The story is structured like loosely connected events that have a passive connection to each other throughout the story. Each story has its own tone, setup, and payoff. In addition to this, dialogue is often unconnected to anything related to the story itself. Like in the scene where Vincent and Jules collect the suitcase and Jules says his bible verse quote for the first time, before arriving there they had talked exclusively about what quarter pounders are called in other countries and what the french call french fries. Dialogue has nothing to do with the current scene, like they aren’t acting and it’s all done on the fly.
The loose dialogue reflects that the characters are not fully thinking about what they’re doing as they’re doing it in the film, they’re more reactionary than in most films. This is a recurring theme, like with the robbery in the first scene of the film, they’re eating and discussing their other robberies, then they makeout, then decide right there that they’re going to rob the restaurant. The characters have a spontaneity that is seemingly unplanned.
Characters Reset Emotionally Between Scenes
Perhaps the most obvious example of Pulp Fiction strongly resembling improv is the reset of characters emotions between scenes, going from one traumatic experience to another with there being little said about what happened beforehand and emotions are as if previous events didn’t even happen. Some would call this lazy acting, I call it genius storytelling. The disconnected emotions leave more open to interpretation for the viewer to feel instead of being told what to feel by the filmmaker.
The Film Prioritizes Moment-to-Moment Creativity
Critics often say the movie feels “alive,” “playful,” or “self-aware.” That’s close to the spontaneity of improv. Scenes linger on dialogue riffs, detours, and stylized beats rather than plot efficiency. This energy of the film focuses more on specific scene interactions than connecting it all to an overlapping narrative, this is something that’s often done in horror stories to leave viewers connecting the dots for themselves, making this a unique approach to this type of movie.
For a movie that isn’t a horror film and isn’t scary to incorporate this kind of a script logic is pretty absurd if you think about it, the reason that it works in horror is by using curiosity against you, in pulp fiction they use it for showing the qualities of the characters, like having characters in a video game that always have the same qualities but get into different unconnected situations.
Nonlinear Structure Encourages a Scene-First Mindset
Instead of a traditional narrative arc, the movie emphasizes set pieces—accidental shootings, the Jack Rabbit Slim’s date, the pawn shop, the wolf cleanup.
Conclusion
Pulp Fiction has done something I haven’t seen repeated by any other film, having semi-static characters whose emotions reset be part of an interconnected series of events that have little to do with each other and seem to be not be planned out is something I haven’t seen anyone replicate.
If I’m on the pipe let me know. I got fired today so I’m a little drunk trying to cope, this seemed like a good escape route for me. A week before they were giving out bonuses they fired me and someone else to save on the bottom line, a co-founder is divesting as well since the CEO is getting more aggressive. It feels like my life if falling apart.
Rewatching a movie I’ve seen at least 50 times and sharing thoughts I’ve always had but never shared has been enjoyable, let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments.