Pulp Fiction, 1994
Director
Cast
- John Travolta
- Samuel L Jackson
- Bruce Willis
- Uma Thurman
- Tim Roth
- Harvey Keitel
- Amanda Plummer
- Ving Rhames
- Christopher Walken
- Rosanna Arquette
- Eric Stoltz
- Steve Buscemi
visit the film locations
Los Angeles: Flights: Los
Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Trivia
The historic Raymond Theatre was used for concert scenes in This Is Spinal Tap
For more of Quentin Tarantino's Los Angeles, see Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown and True Romance
Pulp Fiction filming location: Honey-Bunny and Pumpkin in the diner: Hawthorne Grill (now demolished), 13763 Hawthorne Boulevard, Hawthorne, Los Angeles
It can only be Quentin Tarantino. The director’s cool and flashy homage to pop culture was, naturally, filmed around Los Angeles.
The sad news is that a good many of the film's locations have now gone.
The diner held up by Pumpkin and Honey-Bunny (Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer) was the Hawthorne Grill, 13763 Hawthorne Boulevard at 137th Street, Hawthorne, south of Los Angeles Airport. The grill stood empty for a while, and has now been demolished.
Also vanished without trace is the motel where Butch (Bruce Willis) hides out after unwisely winning the Battle of the Titans. It was the River Glen Motel, which stood at 2934 Riverside Drive off Los Feliz Boulevard, just to the west of the Golden State Freeway southeast of Griffith Park.
Pulp Fiction filming location: The Battle of the Titans: Raymond Theatre, North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, Los Angeles
After hanging on for years, the fight to preserve the site of the Battle of the Titans was finally lost, in 2009 when the historic Raymond Theatre, 129 North Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, was gutted to provide condominiums. Concerts scenes for This Is Spinal Tap were also filmed here. Although the theatre’s frontage has been preserved, another great Los Angeles location lost forever.
Butch escapes into an alleyway, which isn’t the rear of the Raymond at all, but across the road in Kendall Alley.
Thinking he’s got away, Butch sees Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) crossing Fletcher Drive, up toward Glendale, alongside the Glendale Freeway, (in a sly homage to Marion Crane glimpsing her boss in Psycho) outside Foster’s Freeze, 2760 Fletcher Drive at Atwater Avenue.
Pulp Fiction filming location: Thinking he's got away, Butch sees Marcellus crossing Fletcher Drive, Glendale, Los Angeles
The apartment block where Vince and Jules (John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson) sample Big Kahuna burgers before wiping out the guys who crossed Marsellus, is on Van Ness Avenue just north of Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood.
There never was a ‘Jack Rabbit Slim’, which was no more than a huge set built in the film company’s warehouse in Culver City. The raised dancefloor in the center of the diner is shaped, in case you hadn’t noticed, as a tachometer, as an homage to Howard Hawks’ Red Line 7000 and Elvis Presley’s Speedway. The dining areas are six vintage convertibles. The exterior was a disused bowling alley.
The idea, though it’s a long, long way away, was supposedly based on either architect John Lautner’s diners or Ed Debevic’s fifties-themed diner, 134 North La Cienega Boulevard near Beverly Hills.
Marsellus’ place is in Beverly Hills, the home of druggies Lance and Jody (Eric Stoltz and Rosanna Arquette) is in Echo Park.