Line #6 Trivia/ReservoirDogs


1	* ActorInspiredElement:
2	** The woman Mr. Orange shoots is Creator/TimRoth's dialect coach, Suzanne Celeste. Roth insisted that she take the role, as she was very hard on him.
3	** The suit Creator/HarveyKeitel wore was his own. It had been a specially-made gift from French Designer Agnès B.
4	** Supposedly, the "I need you to be cool" dialogue was something Tarantino said to one of the actors after yet another fight with Lawrence Tierney.
5	* BannedInChina: It's illegal to own a copy of the movie and/or import the licensed video game in New Zealand. Australia also banned it.
6	* BreakthroughHit: For Creator/QuentinTarantino.
7	* CastTheExpert: Mr. Blue, a member of the gang who only shows up in two scenes, is played by Eddie Bunker, a real life former criminal and convicted felon before he went into acting and writing crime fiction. Despite his criminal impulses remaining into his twilight years, he was able to retire from a life of crime based solely on the profits he made in crime fiction.
8	* CastTheRunnerUp:
9	** Creator/SteveBuscemi auditioned for Mr. White and Nice Guy Eddie. He was also offered Mr. Orange.
10	** Creator/QuentinTarantino originally wrote the role of Mr. Pink for himself. He took the smaller role of Mr. Brown.
11	** Creator/HarveyKeitel, Creator/MichaelMadsen, and Creator/TimRoth all considered playing Mr. Pink. Keitel and Roth were also considered for Mr. Blonde. Madsen said in an interview that he initially sought out the role of Mr. Pink versus the iconic role he ended up being cast as because Mr. Pink is the film's sole survivor.
12	* CompletelyDifferentTitle: A case where the title actually makes more sense than the very [[NonIndicativeName non-indicative original]]: in Portuguese, it was ''Rental Dogs'' (presumably confusing "reservoir" with "reserve") in Brazil and ''Damn Dogs'' in Portugal, both of which serve as a decent description of the career criminal protagonists.
13	** In Russia it's commonly known as ''Rabid Dogs''. The translation by Creator/DmitryPuchkov goes for ''Farewell, Dogs'', referencing Tarantino's own answer as to the origin of the name.
14	* CreatorBacklash: Downplayed. Eddie Bunker (Mr. Blue's actor) said in an interview that the heist crew eating in a public diner wearing the suits they intend ''to wear while carrying out a robbery'' and working with people you don't know and are unable to trust were bad ideas -- and since Bunker was a career criminal before going into acting, [[DoWrongRight he was probably speaking from experience]]. Bunker didn't seem to hate the film overall, however, as he named his autobiography after his character.
15	* DeletedScene:
16	** Two alternate angles of the ear-slicing scene, one of which is more graphic.
17	** A lengthy sequence concerning a background check on Mr. White (whose full name is revealed to be Lawrence Dimick). This sequence also features a female speaking part (there are none in the theatrical release) played by Nina Siemaszko.
18	** A car scene featuring Mr. White, Mr. Pink, and Nice Guy Eddie after they leave Mr. Blonde with the cop and Mr. Orange.
19	** Freddie (Mr. Orange) and his partner discuss in more detail the semantics of the undercover operation.
20	* DescendedCreator: Creator/QuentinTarantino was an aspiring actor and originally intended to play the role of Mr. Pink himself. He ultimately took the smaller role of Mr. Brown. The film set the trend of Tarantino casting himself in small roles in all of his films, some smaller than others.
21	* EnforcedMethodActing: While shooting the torture scene, Quentin Tarantino told Kirk Baltz to tell Michael Madsen something that would make him stop torturing him. Baltz knew that Madsen had just had a baby son, so he ad-libbed the line "Stop, I have a son!" Madsen was so shaken that he broke character for a moment and glanced at Tarantino. The moment is still in the film.
22	* FakeAmerican: The very British Creator/TimRoth plays an American.
23	* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/LawrenceTierney didn't make any friends onset due to his difficult personality. He would often provoke Creator/QuentinTarantino and his younger castmembers, and almost into a fight with Creator/MichaelMadsen. According to Creator/SteveBuscemi in a podcast interview, everyone had a difficult time with Tierney because he was easily distracted and kept forgetting his lines. Tarantino and everyone else were so upset with him that he fired Lawrence on the third day of filming.
24	* MethodActing: According to an interview on the DVD, Creator/MichaelMadsen says that Kirk Baltz asked to ride in his trunk to experience what it was really like. Madsen agreed, but decided as he went along that this was time for his own character development. So he drove down a long alley with potholes, and then a Taco Bell drive-through, before taking Baltz back to the parking lot and letting him out. The soda he ordered at said drive-through is the same one he can be seen drinking during his character's first appearance in the warehouse. In a separate interview, Baltz denied this happened, but....
25	** All that fake blood that Creator/TimRoth is covered in would actually dry and paste him to the floor, requiring him to be hosed down so the blood could be softened and he could move. Roth said in an interview that he was privately glad when another blood covered actor (presumably Creator/MichaelMadsen) had to get the same treatment to get off the floor, as he was tired of going through it alone.
26	* NoBudget:
27	** The film was originally planned to be shot for just $30,000, until Creator/HarveyKeitel saw the script and came on as Mr. White and the executive producer, which increased the budget to $1.2 million.
28	** The film's budget was so low that many of the actors simply used their own clothing for their wardrobe, most notably Chris Penn's track jacket. The signature black suits were provided for free by the designer, based on her love for the American crime film genre. Creator/SteveBuscemi wore his own black jeans instead of suit pants.
29	** The budget didn't stretch to obtaining police assistance for traffic control, so in the scene where Mr. Pink forces a woman out of her car and drives off in it, they had to wait until the traffic lights were green each time.
30	** Mr. Blonde's Cadillac Coupe de Ville actually belonged to Creator/MichaelMadsen, because the budget wasn't big enough to buy a car for the character.
31	* RealitySubtext: Note that in the opening scene when the gang are discussing {{Music/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.
32	* RoleReprise: Micheal Madsen returned to play Mr. Blonde in [[VideoGame/ReservoirDogs the video game]], and was the only one of the original cast to do so.
33	* StarMakingRole: Creator/SteveBuscemi had some good performances under his belt prior, but this was the point where most people learned who he was. Ditto for Creator/TimRoth and Creator/MichaelMadsen.
34	* ThrowItIn:
35	** Everything after Mr. Blonde cuts off the ear was ad-libbed by Creator/MichaelMadsen.
36	** In his ''Film/HotFuzz'' commentary with Creator/EdgarWright, 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.
37	** Chris Penn’s squib was accidentally triggered early in the MexicanStandoff, and so he dropped at the same time as the other two. Tarantino liked the effect and kept it in, despite it not really making much sense.
38	* WagTheDirector: In the original script, Mr. Orange's response to Marvin's cry of "I'm fuckin' deformed" was a calm "And I'm dying." Tim Roth argued that he should say the line in a screaming FreakOut to show how much pain and fear Mr. Orange was trying to keep under control.
39	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
40	** Creator/QuentinTarantino was originally just going to write and act in the film -- the person he actually wanted to direct, and did initially agree to take on the job, was Monte Hellman, who had a long career as an independent film director going back to the 1960s. During the development process, Tarantino decided he wanted to direct it himself, and Hellman gave him his blessing to take over the director's chair, staying on as executive producer and advising Tarantino during the shoot.
41	** Creator/SamuelLJackson auditioned for the role of Mr. White, and then for Freddy's contact/handler -- being cast as [[Film/PulpFiction Jules Winnfield]] was a favor for not getting either part. One would expect that the naming scene would have included some objections over a black man getting the name Mr. White.
42	** Tarantino wanted Creator/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.
43	** Creator/DavidDuchovny auditioned for Mr. Orange as well. According to Duchovny, Tarantino told him "I like what you do, I just don't know if I want you to do it in my movie."
44	** Creator/GeorgeClooney read for the role of Mr. Blonde/Vic Vega but was turned down. Creator/MattDillon and Creator/ChristopherWalken refused the same role.
45	** Tarantino was considering using "Ballroom Blitz" by Music/{{Sweet}} as an alternate song for the "ear" scene.
46	** The first draft script called for Music/PinkFloyd's "Money" where "Little Green Bag" is now. It was later changed because Tarantino heard "Little Green Bag" over the radio and became extremely nostalgic.
47	** In the script, it was Mr. White who doesn't tip, not Mr. Pink. Also, it was Mr. Pink who had the first lines about "Like a Virgin". This was when Tarantino still intended to play Mr. Pink himself.
48	** Creator/ViggoMortensen auditioned for a role. He read the part as a Hispanic character for a take where he was performing against Creator/HarveyKeitel. More than twenty years later, Quentin offered him a role in ''Film/TheHatefulEight'', but Viggo couldn't commit due to scheduling conflicts.
49	** Creator/DennisHopper was offered the role of Mr. Pink by Tarantino and Keitel, but he was unavailable. Creator/JonCryer was offered the role, but he turned it down. He admitted that he did not understand the script and would not have gotten the part. Creator/TomSizemore was also considered.
50	** Creator/NicolasCage was considered for Nice Guy Eddie.
51	** Creator/RobertForster was considered for Joe Cabot.
52	** Creator/VingRhames was considered for Holdaway.
53	** Creator/TomWaits auditioned. Tarantino had him read Mr. Brown's speech about Madonna "just so I could hear Tom Waits say those lines."
54	** In the script, the wounded Mr. Orange is laid down on a mattress, instead of on the wooden ramp in the warehouse.
55	** For basically his whole career, Tarantino intended to do a remake of this movie as his final film, demonstrating how all his experience changed how he told this story. It also would have had an all-black cast. But then he decided to retire after ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' due to feeling it was the best note he could go out on.
56	** According to Creator/MichaelMadsen, during the sequence where Mr. Orange shoots Mr. Blonde, there were going to be shots of Mr. Blonde taking bullets and being thrown into the hearse, pilars, etc. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to shoot anything that extensive, so he requested, and got, the final shot of Mr. Blonde, after taking numerous hits, holding himself up on the trashcan before the trashcan tips over and he finally succumbs to his wounds.
57	* WordOfGod: Creator/QuentinTarantino 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.

Context Trivia / ReservoirDogs