History Trivia / ReservoirDogs

* Actor Allusion: Eddie Bunker appears as Mr. Blue. Bunker was a former criminal who wrote a semi-autobiographical crime book titled ''Little Boy Blue''. After the film, he wrote a follow-up titled ''Mr. Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade''.

* {{Actor Allusion}}:
** Eddie Bunker appears as Mr. Blue. Bunker was a former criminal who wrote a semi-autobiographical crime book titled ''Little Boy Blue''. After the film, he wrote a follow-up titled ''Mr. Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade''.

** Michael Madsen had difficulty filming the torture scene, but when the actor playing the cop ad-libbed the line about having a child, he flat-out refused to continue until the next day. This moment actually crosses over into the film itself; on some DVD releases, after the line is spoken, Madsen can clearly be heard breaking character and murmuring "Oh no, no," from off-screen.
** Buscemi requested that the Mr. Pink "Reservoir Dogs" doll not be carrying a gun because he thought about kids playing with it.
* NoBudget: Originally planned to be shot for just $30,000 until Harvey Kietel saw the script and came on as Mr. White & the executive producer, which increased the budget to $1.2 million.

* StarMakingRole: Creator/SteveBuscemi had some good performances under his belt, but this was the point where most people learned who he was.
* ThrowItIn: Everything after Mr. Blonde cuts off the ear was ad-libbed by Michael Madsen.
** In his ''Film/HotFuzz'' commentary with Edgar Wright, Tarantino reveals the gesture Mr. Brown makes at the end of the opening scene is not from the character at all, but Tarantino the director, telling everyone to just leave after ''finally'' getting a good take out of Lawrence Tierney.

** Tarantino was originally just going to write and act in the film -- the person he actually wanted to direct was Monte Hellman, who had directed some cult films way back in the '60s and '70s, but was '''way''' past the best of his career by that stage - his last film had been the abysmally poor ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNightIIIBetterWatchOut'', for perspective. A Hellman-directed version of ''Reservoir Dogs'' might not have been a total disaster, but it's hard to see it being anywhere near as good as what we ended up with. Fortunately, Tarantino eventually summoned up the courage to direct the film himself.

** Tarantino wanted JamesWoods to act in the film, but Woods' agent turned it down... without consulting Woods himself, for which he was fired. It's not clear which role Tarantino had in mind, though most fans suspect it was Mr. Orange.

* WordOfGod: Tarantino says that the briefcase from ''Film/PulpFiction'' was originally supposed to have contained a cache of diamonds before Tarantino decided that keeping the contents of the briefcase ambiguous made it more interesting. Since ''Pulp Fiction'' and ''Reservoir Dogs'' take place in the same universe (Vic and Vincent Vega, major characters in both films, are brothers), it's been theorized that the briefcases in both films are actually the same briefcase, which would mean that ''someone'' in the criminal underworld sold the diamonds to Brett and his gang before the police could return them to their rightful owners.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Comedian StevenWright provides the voice of the super-bored radio DJ.

* ActorInspiredElement: The woman Mr. Orange shoots is TimRoth's dialect coach Suzanne Celeste. Roth insisted that she take the role, as she was very hard on him.

* RealitySubtext: Note in the opening scene when the gang are discussing {{Madonna}}, Nice Guy Eddie keeps out of the discussion. His actor, Chris Penn, deferred from saying anything on screen about his former sister-in-law.

** Creator/SamuelLJackson auditioned for the role of Mr. White -- being cast as [[Film/PulpFiction Jules Winfield]] was a favor for not getting the part. One would expect that the naming scene would have included some objections over a black man getting the name Mr. White.
** Tarantino wanted James Woods to act in the film, but Woods' agent turned it down... without consulting Woods himself, for which he was fired. It's not clear which role Tarantino had in mind, though most fans suspect it was Mr. Orange.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Comedian Steven Wright provides the voice of the radio DJ.

** In his ''HotFuzz'' commentary with Edgar Wright, Tarantino reveals the gesture Mr. Brown makes at the end of the opening scene is not from the character at all, but Tarantino the director, telling everyone to just leave after ''finally'' getting a good take out of Lawrence Tierney.

* RealLife/MeanCharacterNiceActor: Michael Madsen had difficulty filming the torture scene, but when the actor playing the cop ad-libbed the line about having a child, he flat-out refused to continue until the next day. This moment actually crosses over into the film itself; on some DVD releases, after the line is spoken, Madsen can clearly be heard breaking character and murmuring "Oh no, no," from off-screen.

** SamuelLJackson auditioned for the role of Mr. White -- being cast as [[Film/PulpFiction Jules Winfield]] was a favor for not getting the part. One would expect that the naming scene would have included some objections over a black man getting the name Mr. White.

** In his ''HotFuzz'' commentary with Edgar Wright, Tarantino reveals the gesture Brown makes at the end of the opening scene is not from the character at all, but Tarantino the director, telling everyone to just leave after ''finally'' getting a good take out of Lawrence Tierney.

** [[JackieBrown Robert Forster]] auditioned for the role of Joe.

** SamuelLJackson auditioned for the role of Mr. White -- being cast as [[PulpFiction Jules Winfield]] was a favor for not getting the part. One would expect that the naming scene would have included some objections over a black man getting the name Mr. White.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Michael Madsen had difficulty filming the torture scene, but when the actor playing the cop ad-libbed the line about having a child, he flat-out refused to continue until the next day. This moment actually crosses over into the film itself; on some DVD releases, after the line is spoken, Madsen can clearly be heard breaking character and murmuring "Oh no, no," from off-screen.

* ShoutOut:
** Pretty much the entire plot is lifted from a HeroicBloodshed film called ''City on Fire''. The code names are lifted from ''TheTakingOfPelhamOneTwoThree''.
** In the film, Joe Cabot mentions that Mr. Blue is "dead as Dillinger", and in the video game it is revealed that he was gunned down in a movie theater (a reference to how John Dillinger was gunned down near a movie theater).
*** Also an ActorAllusion, as Lawrence Tierney (Joe) had played Dillinger in a film by the same name in 1945.

* ThrowItIn: Everything after Mr. Blonde cuts off the ear was ad-libbed by Michael Madsen.

*** Also an ActorAllusion, as Lawrence Tierney (Joe) had played Dillinger in a film by the same name in 1945.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[PulpFiction The Wolf]], [[TheBigLebowski Donny]], [[FreeWilly Jesse's foster dad]], and [[Film/TheIncredibleHulk The Abomination]] all try to pull a heist under the behest of [[{{Seinfeld}} Elaine's dad]].