10 times Quentin Tarantino made a movie cameo
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(Credit: Miramax)
Steve Buscemi’s believable theory on ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. Pink
1992’s Reservoir Dogs is one of Quentin Tarantino’s most celebrated outings. The nonlinear storyline, marvellous acting of the all-star cast, stylised violence and numerous pop culture references made it one of the standout movies of the ’90s, and a film that Tarantino’s other subsequent efforts would be consistently compared to.
One of the standout performances in Reservoir Dogs, is without a doubt, Steve Buscemi’s utterly loathable Mr. Pink. The complete opposite to his other standout role, the honourable and pure Donny, in 1998’s The Big Lebowski, Mr. Pink is a total rat and he’s not ashamed of it.
The end scene, where we see him escaping with the booty has long been one of the most confounding in the whole of cinema. For nearly 30 years, it has been the most pressing question in the whole of the Tarantino universe, just what the hell happened to Mr. Pink?
The realists would say that he eventually met the same fate that befell his crew at the hands of the police, and others will argue that he got away, owing to hidden plot points. Back in June, 2021, Buscemi appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden and lent some of his own sage thoughts about the fate of Mr. Pink.
Naturally, at one point during the interview, he was asked by the host about his work with the Reservoir Dogs auteur, and Buscemi’s subsequent revelation was like a bomb drop.
What Buscemi said about Mr. Pink, had some fans buoyantly claiming they’d been right all along. He said: “I don’t know if anyone else thinks about this, but because my character of Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs was such a cheapskate, and he didn’t like to tip, I thought it was poetic justice that my next film with Quentin, I play a waiter. I even like to think that maybe Mr. Pink got away somehow in Reservoir Dogs and he’s hiding out as the Buddy Holly waiter. And he probably gets tipped terribly. That’s his fate.”
If you quickly jog your memory and cast your mind back to 1994’s Pulp Fiction, you’ll remember the scene where Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace go to the ’50s themed diner, Jack Rabbit Slim’s. All the staff are dressed up as the biggest stars of the day, and after Vega and Wallace sit down at their booth, Buscemi’s waiter appears. He’s clearly said his Buddy Holly shtick many times and looks pretty downbeat.
If the theory is true, it would be quite something. There’s long been rumours that have abounded on the internet about Tarantino’s films all being part of the same expansive universe. Whether it be Mia Wallace explaining the plot of a TV pilot she was in, which sounds eerily like Kill Bill, or the fact that Vic Vega from Reservoir Dogs is Vincent Vega’s brother, there’s many common threads shared by Tarantino’s films.
Much like The Pixar Theory, the claim that Tarantino’s films are all part of the same universe seems to grow stronger with each passing day, and every film that he releases. We wonder what his next film will add to the debate?
Watch Buscemi appear as the waiter in Pulp Fiction below.