What Was REALLY In The Briefcase?

One of the most immortal questions among cinephiles is what’s really in the Pulp Fiction briefcase. Viewers of the 1994 crime classic have speculated for years about what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, but director Quentin Tarantino has suggested that there’s no concrete answer. The briefcase functions as a “MacGuffin,” a plot device used to push the story forward. But for those who know their movie history, it’s clear that Tarantino references a film noir classic with the briefcase. When Jules (frequent Tarantino collaborator Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) first recover the Pulp Fiction briefcase, a glowing light can be seen, though the camera never shows the contents.

Vincent appears to have a spiritual experience, and the briefcase later has the same effect on the robber named Pumpkin (Tim Roth), who describes the glowing contents as “beautiful.” The story in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction famously jumps back and forth in time to create a cinematic puzzle, and the briefcase represents one of the most oddly-shaped pieces in that puzzle. While Tarantino clearly left what’s in the case a mystery on purpose — whenever it’s opened, the scene is always shot as to hide whatever is inside — that hasn’t stopped decades of speculating about what the Pulp Fiction briefcase contains. Some theories have far more evidence than others, but here are a few interpretations to consider (or dismiss).

Related: Pulp Fiction In Chronological Order

What’s In The Pulp Fiction Briefcase – Best Theories

Online, among the most popular Pulp Fiction theories about what was in the case in Pulp Fiction is it contains Marsellus Wallace’s soul. This would mean the gangster sold said soul to the devil and decides that he wants it back. But (according to the theory) it comes with a price —evidenced by the bloodbath that is Pulp Fiction. Many people have noted that the briefcase’s lock code is 666, a number associated with the Devil.

To support the “soul” theory, many have suggested that the bandage on the back of Marsellus Wallace’s head correlates with a biblical text that reveals how the Devil takes one’s soul. Considering Jules’ monologue about “divine intervention” after miraculously surviving a shoot-out, the “soul” theory is indeed intriguing. Even without adding an explicitly supernatural element to the world of Pulp Fiction, the briefcase could still symbolically represent the possibility of Marsellus’s redemption.

Some Pulp Fiction aficionados have suggested that the Pulp Fiction briefcase holds the diamonds from Reservoir Dogs. There’s not much evidence to support this argument, aside from the gangster aspects and character connections. In Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Blonde a.k.a. Vic Vega (Michael Madsen) goes on a killing rampage after a carefully planned diamond heist, thus upsetting Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), who later escapes with the loot (Reservoir Dogs’ final audio implies that Mr. Pink was captured by police).

In Pulp Fiction, Mr. Blonde’s brother — Vincent Vega (implied, later confirmed by Tarantino) — is the first person to see the briefcase’s contents. It’s worth noting that Tarantino created Pulp Fiction’s story with Roger Avary, who once revealed that the Pulp Fiction briefcase originally contained diamonds, but that the concept was ultimately deemed “too boring and predictable.”

The Pulp Fiction Briefcase Scene Was Possibly Inspired By A 1955 Film Noir

The beauty of the Pulp Fiction briefcase is that it allows for endless interpretations. Most likely, the glowing light is simply an homage to the 1955 film noir classic Kiss Me Deadly, which includes a sequence featuring a cryptic box — one that’s connected to “the gates of hell” and glows upon being opened. This is one of the most plausible explanations as it feeds into Quentin Tarantino’s well-known love of movies, and also lends the film an air of mystery that has kept its fans guessing for decades about what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.

Perhaps the real purpose of the Pulp Fiction briefcase is simply to fuel speculation among Pulp Fiction fans. Tarantino has not made a secret of his own theories and subtle ideologies behind his own films (he even admitted that he considers some of his films movies-within-movies as part of a broader Tarantino universe), so perhaps it was just Tarantino’s way of giving fans the scope to fill in the blanks on their own. Either way, the question of what’s in the case in Pulp Fiction briefcase remains one of the most interesting movie mysteries of all time.

Quentin Tarantino Still Hasn’t Revealed What’s In The Pulp Fiction Briefcase

It’s been almost three decades since Pulp Fiction was released, and the Pulp Fiction briefcase mystery still lives on. For whatever reason, Quentin Tarantino has kept the contents of the briefcase hush-hush, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be spilling the beans anytime soon. In the past, Tarantino has discussed the film, and the only light he’s shed on the mystery is that he enjoys keeping certain things a secret to make his movies more engaging.

Ultimately, what’s important about the briefcase is not its contents but that the criminals in the story will do anything to get it. At this point, revealing a concrete answer to what was in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction would risk the sense of anticlimax or over-literalism. Knowing the notoriously stubborn Tarantino, it’s likely that there’ll never be an answer for what’s in the Pulp Fiction briefcase, and its contents will have to remain up to the imagination.