Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he co-created alongside Roger Avery, this is one of the most famous motion pictures ever put to the silver screen. Films fans around the world are familiar with Pulp Fiction (1994) to some extent, whether they’ve seen it a million times and can recite its fast-paced and iconic dialogue from start to finish, or they know of its existence and avoid at all costs its scenes of aestheticized violence. Either way, its name value is undeniable.

Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, and Bruce Willis, it tells the story of four intertwining, nonlinear narratives. So, not only is Tarantino forcing his viewers to balance multiple storylines, but also disparate timelines. And the result is one of the most well-paced, entertaining, and overall unique moviegoing experiences of modern Hollywood.
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And within its perfect package comes individually wrapped presents, specific scenes that have nearly transcended the medium by virtue of their renown. Take the apartment scene where Jules (played by Jackson) recites the fictional bible verse, for instance, or the sequence with Harvey Keitel’s character The Wolf and Quentin Tarantino’s character Jimmy. Then, there’s the dance contest at Jack Rabbit Slims.

Setting the Scene at Jack Rabbit Slims
Miramax Films

Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield, Travolta and Jackson respectively, are hitmen working for a gangster named Marsellus Wallace. Upon receiving an order from Marsellus to take his wife Mia on date, to show her a good time around the town, Vincent brings her to a restaurant called Jack Rabbit Slims, themed with elements of American culture from the fifties.

Servers in the restaurant are dressed to resemble icons from the fifties such as James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. But the waiter who served Vincent and Mia was dressed to look like Buddy Holly, and of course, that character was played by Steve Buscemi. It’s a famous cameo, and it would’ve been the most iconic moment from the Jack Rabbit Slims set if not for the dance routine at hand.

The Dance Routine Itself
Miramax Films

Upon hearing the announcement that a dance competition will momentarily be held in the very restaurant in which they sit, Mia shows immediate interest. However reluctant at first, Vincent eventually agrees, and the two submit their names to take part in the competition. Their song of choice for their routine: “Nobody Can Tell” by Chuck Berry.

What unfolds is simply iconic, with Travolta and Thurman sharing tremendous on-screen chemistry during alluring steps of though-out choreography. Behind-the-scenes stories of this scene are nearly as well-known as Pulp Fiction itself, with the director Tarantino dancing alongside the actors on the other side of the camera to keep them in beat, remind them of the movements. He held the scene very close to his filmmaking heart, as some of Tarantino’s favorite films ever made were influences to one degree or another on the famous scene at hand.

Inspiration for the Scene
Les Films Impéria

With a specific vision in mind for the scene, Tarantino saw everything come into perfect fruition, perhaps better than he ever could’ve expected given the renown of the sequence at hand. But in spite of his rock-solid script and direction with which to steer the events, he did let John Travolta improvise a few of his dance moves. That famous actor did have a background in choreographed dance routines, after all, given his history in films like Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Grease (1978).

But for the most part, Tarantino modeled the routine after one of his preferred animated features from Disney. Of course, that would be The Aristocats (1970), which features a dance scene that the director wanted Thurman’s character Mia to replicate. And most would agree that she performed wonderfully. But there’s one other film worth noting with regard to the inspiration for the sequence at hand: Bande à part (1964), also known as Band of Outsiders in America.

Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, it’s a seminal release of the French New Wave film movement, and it goes down as one of Tarantino’s favorite movies ever made. The scene in which its three protagonists burst into a sequence known as “the Madison dance” remains nearly as iconic as the film at hand from thirty years down the line. But let’s just say that, whether they legitimately stole it or not, Vincent and Mia in the end deserved their trophy for that dance routine.