Once Upon a Time in Pulp Fiction
Marsellus Wallace, an ambitious young hoodlum who had sold his soul to the devil for a time machine, through shrewd use of this device quickly ascended to the upper echelons of gangsterdom. But he soon found that the deal he had struck was not without its fish hooks and that the most frequent reason he had for utilising his infernal asset wasn’t to advance his career but rather to undo the ignominious situations he kept getting pitchforked into. After an especially vicious prod – discovering that the Tuesday evening origami classes his girlfriend had been going to were actually foot-massage orgies – he turned the dial back to the night of what would then become the Manson Family’s most infamous murders.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood shows the course of events before Marsellus resorted to his gadget: how Rick Dalton, film star of uncertain wattage, had been blending up some frozen margaritas when Manson’s minions drove up to reconnoitre the Polanski/Tate residence; how Rick went out and berated them for their mufflerless automobile; how this led to them making his dwelling the target when they returned; how this turned out to be an error of judgement, with them finding themselves comprehensively out-psychopathed.
Rick though had not been using the blender in the manner approved by the manufacturer i.e. leaving it to get on with its business. Clasping it in his hands he had been willing it on, even at times lifting it from the bench. And his hands were slick with ice from breaking up the margaritas. Nor were the margaritas first in line amongst alcoholic beverages to be consumed that evening.
And so when Marsellus snapped the world back in time, the tremor in the cosmos, though tiny, was enough to cause (so it seemed to Rick) the blender to leap from his hands and splatter its contents over floor, walls and ceiling, as well as the fittings and furnishings thereon. The mess was in the same ballpark as that caused by Vincent blowing Marvin’s head off. And agitating Rick even more was his thwarted expectation of imminent margarita consumption. For some minutes he was in such a state that he completely failed to notice the vehicular racket. Scouting mission complete the car departed and when its occupants walked back up the hill they this time followed Manson’s instructions and targeted the adjacent property.
And so Rick never got to star with Tate in the Polanski western which upended the genre. And never got to not manage to find time next day to visit Cliff in hospital bearing bagels.
15 September, 2025
