Pulp Fiction is a masterpiece. Very few people would deny that. It’s one of those films you can return to time and time again and always unlock some new meaning. John Travolta’s portrayal of Vincent Vega is just one piece of Tarantino’s pulpy film that elevates it to masterpiece status.

Vincent Vega spends most of the film being entirely cool, going to the bathroom, and making mistakes. His character follows a typical gangster trope but Quentin does so in a unique way that allows Vincent to be both cool and reckless.

Vincent and Jules

Vincent Vega spends much of the film paired with another gangster hitman named Jules. Jules is just as cool as Vincent but also flawless at his job. In every situation Jules is in, whether it’s cleaning up bits of Marvin’s skull or talking down Pumpkin and Hunny Bunny, Jules is always in control. Vincent throughout the film plays everything cool but is constantly making mistakes. He’s sloppy. Using heroin before going out with the big man’s wife and leaving said drug unmarked in his jacket. He leaves a loaded gun on the counter while he uses the bathroom and he even backtalks the Wolf. The Wolf comes to save Vincent and Jules from the Bonnie situation. A situation Vincent got them into by being sloppy. And Vincent has the nerve to backtalk the man.

All this works in the film though because Vincent is so cool. He wears slick suits, bolo ties, and walks with swag before the term was even coined. Even when Vincent screws up, which is often, he does so with a bravado rarely seen in crime movies. It’s easy to miss how often Vincent fails because he looks so cool doing it and is respected by his peers. Tarantino uses Vincent and Jules in the classic cinema trope of the rookie and the veteran. The veteran that never makes mistakes and the rookie who always screws up. Vincent Vega is constantly going to the bathroom and shooting people in the face like a day one rook. Only we don’t get the sense that he’s a rookie because of one line he utters to Mia Wallace.

Three Years

At Jack Rabbit Slims, the restaurant of choice for Mia Wallace, the two talk about Amsterdam. Vincent has just gotten back and Mia mentions that she goes quite often. Once a year or so. When Mia asks Vincent how long he was there he matter-of-factly states “Three years.” It’s such an easy-to-miss line but it recontextualizes Vincent’s entire arc.

We knew from the beginning of the film that Vincent just got home from Amsterdam, but we didn’t know how long he was gone. It would be safe to assume it was just a week or maybe even a month’s vacation. But by telling Mia it’s been three years we learn some new things. Mainly, Vincent has been out of the game for a long time.

The Veteran and The Rookie

Vincent plays the role of the rookie throughout Pulp Fiction but he never feels like a rookie. He feels like a veteran because he’s been doing this for a long time. He has the respect of Marcellus Wallace. Enough that the big man trusts him to take his wife out to dinner. He walks around with an attitude like someone who’s been around the block because he has. People know him and he doesn’t just know how to be a gangster, but he looks cool being a gangster.

If Quentin had decided to make the character a rookie then Vincent never would have been a cool character. He would have been Ethan Hawke in Training Day or Jack Harlow in The Instigators. He would have been, as Tarantino himself says in the movie, a dork. But he isn’t a dork. He’s one of the coolest cats around. But a cool cat that constantly makes mistakes.

The Mistakes of Vincent Vega

It’s been noted by countless others how every time Vincent goes to the bathroom something bad happens. But it’s not just odd that something bad happens, it’s odd that he’s constantly going to the bathroom. Everyone has worked with someone like that. The new guy who’s always disappearing, going on smoke breaks, or reading in the bathroom. If Vincent was just a new guy this would come off as annoying. We would hate the character and be relieved when he died. But because he’s so cool we don’t notice as much. And he’s only able to be so cool because he’s not a rookie.

Pulp Fiction is a movie that takes every trope and turns it on its ear. The gangster taking out the big man’s wife is a classic cinema trope told in a sensationally new way here. The boxer who’s supposed to throw the fight but ends up screwing over the boss has been told a thousand times. That story usually ends with the boxer being killed but here it ends in a basement sex dungeon with a gimp and two rednecks straight out of Deliverance. Tarantino even takes MacGuffins to a whole new level with Butch’s Gold Watch.

Vincent making rookie mistakes but still being cool might not be the biggest genre flip in Pulp Fiction. But it is one small part in an incredibly deep and complex movie that adds more weight to the decisions we see onscreen. Tarantino figured out a way to make a bumbling rookie look cool and not make us question why a veteran would make so many mistakes. Vincent Vega spent three years in Amsterdam and had a blast. Unfortunately, he also forgot how to do his job.