“Lost”, a Homage to Quentin Taraninto’s “Jackie Brown”

Frank Ocean took to Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 classic Jackie Brown and Elmore Leonard’s 1992 novel “Rum Punch” to cultivate his most straightforward pop song, yet one with a rich and deep layer of substance. A tempestuous relationship between a dealer and his mule fuels a story which sees them submerged in the world of crime and lust. Lost hypnotizes the listener with its tropical lush beat as it magically infuses the dark twisted reality of life for a mule who can’t dig themsleves out of the underground world.

Jackie Brown on the other hand works for a low level Mexican airline as a flight attendant who smuggles illegal money, and cocaine for small-time boss Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) to Mexico. As she gets caught up in the heated life of crime, Jackie contemplates doing a last set of runs to finally get out.

Frank doesn’t state whether his mule is a flight attendant but it’s implied as he sings “A short plane ride / through the sky / You and I”

Jackie Brown is listed as one of the 100 movies Frank loves in his Boys Don’t Cry magazine The track opens up with Frank describing his female protagonist “(Double D /Big full breasts on my baby)” presenting her as someone who’s capable for the job.

It’s followed by an adlib “(Yo we going to Florida)” which is a direct reference to the novel “Rum Punch” which Quentin Tarantino adapted for his movie. Although the movie takes place in Los Angeles, Rum Punch is set in West Palm Beach and Miami which are later mentioned in the chorus. Miami was also once the cocaine capital of the world as in the 70′s and 80′s. It was also home to a series of drug wars between the DEA and the Medellin Cartel therefore Florida was a hot spot for Frank and his mule to visit.

Both the protagonists in Lost and Jackie Brown are working day jobs in which they’re not seeing the kind of money they wish to see. Jackie Brown is doing small flights to Mexico and Frank’s muel’s work is unkown but is implied she’s unhappy “(Boss ain’t working you like this / He can’t take care of you like this)”



As Lost progresses, Frank and his mule have been successful in smuggling all around the world (Miami, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Spain, Los Angeles, India) but as the mule begins to feel overwhelmed by the lifestyle, she pleads to live a normal life which Frank promises “(I promise she’ll be whipping meals up for a family of her own some day”). A promise which the mule uses as fuel to keep going, one more time. This is mirrored with Jackie Brown as she’s fed up and wants to live a normal life without the constant fear of death and lack of closure. Jackie promises herself this final job for Ordell is definitely her last.

Frank references the movie here once again when he sings “(Nothing wrong, with another short plane ride / through the sky”) The flight duration from Mexico to Los Angeles is roughly 3 Hours and 30 minutes which is the primary destination Jackie flies to in the movie.

The track ends on a open-ended note, as we hear channels flip, there’s a quick snippet of a man saying “Manos Ariba!” which translates to “hands up!” in Spanish. A common phrase used by police to suspects upon arrival of a crime scene, which may imply that Frank and his mule were finally caught. In the movie, Jackie Brown is caught smuggling money and cocaine by detective Mark Dargus and ends up serving time.