In honour of the cult classic's 20th anniversary, we look at the top theories of what that faint golden glow could be

Text Carmen Gray

What the hell's in the case? That's just one of the questions that's been hotly debated on the net (along with others, like, does a foot massage mean shit?) since Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction hit screens 20 years ago, and became one of the most iconic films of the 90s. The follow-up to his indie debut hit, Reservoir Dogs, it brought that movie's raw violence and pop-culture banter to a whole new level, with a complex and exuberant weave of mobsters and two-bit crims created in comic, bloody homage to hardboiled crime novels and the movies he'd grown up on. It starts and ends with a chaotic diner hold-up in which the possessions demanded from patrons by small-crime messes Pumpkin and Honeybunny include a briefcase carried by off-duty henchmen Jules and Vincent. Ordered to be collected by kingpin Marsellus Wallace, the mysterious case drives the action throughout the movie – though we never see what's inside. As Pulp Fiction's 20th anniversary nears, we look at the top theories of what it might be. DIAMONDS Co-writer Roger Avary has said diamonds were mooted when they were penning the script, but that was rejected as too predictable (Tarantino had just used that idea in Reservoir Dogs, after all). Besides, in a gangster world in which a case of diamonds is ho-hum or at least par for the course, seasoned hitman Vincent seems mighty awed at the sight of the spoils. Plus, the case emits a golden glow. Gold bars? Too heavy for this easily toted prize.

ELVIS'S GOLD SUIT Okay, now that would drop jaws. Tarantino's reign as the king of pop-culture pastiche with a penchant for referencing other films and in-jokes for cineastes has led some to bet that inside must be the gold lamé Elvis suit from True Romance. Why would it be coveted by Marsellus Wallace? It would certainly impress his wife Mia, regular at 50s-themed diner Jack Rabbit Slim's. At least, more than an accidental massive line of heroin. A SMALL NUKE It could also be nuclear, in homage to Robert Aldrich's classic 50s noir Kiss Me Deadly, in which a Los Angeles private eye searches for a glowing case filled with radioactive material. THE SOUL OF MARSELLUS WALLACE The most persistent and ingenious theory is that what is inside the case is nothing short of the soul of gang kingpin Marsellus Wallace, who sold it to Satan and is trying to get it back. The imposing mob boss wears a Band-Aid on the back of his neck, reportedly because actor Ving Rhames has a scar there he wanted to hide for the iconic over-the-shoulder shot, but it's also been argued that when the devil takes your soul he takes it from the back of your neck. This neat esoteric factoid doesn't seem to be in the Bible, as messageboard amateur sleuths claim, or in some vague version of "Chinese mythology" (correct us if Google has served us poorly), but we like this theory's style. It would also explain why bullets miraculously miss Vincent and Jules in an apartment shooting – divine intervention is surely more likely to help your ass when you're on soul-saving business. And the briefcase combination? What else but 666.

THE HOLY GRAIL At any rate, the orange light bulb shoved in the case on-set last-minute creates a luminous glow that seems supernatural – and if it's been taken back out of storage from the Indiana Jones franchise, it could even be the Holy Grail inside. It's a symbol of divine grace – so Jules and Vincent's lucky escape also fits with this theory. Anyone who casts eyes on the Grail is said to become, like Pumpkin, dumbstruck (though, granted, that mess of a hold-up artist seems mentally unequipped to be blasé in even the most banal of situations).