The surprising ‘Pulp Fiction’ reference in ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance’
Bruce Willis rose to movie star status when he took on the leading role of John McClane in the 1988 action flick Die Hard. After earning even greater success with Die Hard 2, Willis’ career took a slight incline. Multiple movies he starred in during the early 1990s were box-office flops, such as Color of Night, The Bonfire of the Vanities and Hudson Hawk.
However, a role in 1995’s Pulp Fiction helped revitalise his career. The Quentin Tarantino-directed crime film was hugely successful, winning Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, alongside seven other nominations. Willis played Butch Coolidge, an ageing boxer on the run from Ving Rhames’ crime boss character Marsellus Wallace. Despite the success of Tarantino’s debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction – an independent picture – was still a risk for such a mainstream star to attach his name to.
According to American film journalist Peter Bart, Willis accepting the role “meant lowering his salary and risking his star status, but the strategy paid off royally: Pulp Fiction not only brought Willis new respect as an actor, but also earned him several million dollars.” For Tarantino, “Bruce has the look of a ’50s actor. I can’t think of any other star that has that look.”
Willis modelled Butch’s look on Aldo Ray in the 1956 film Nightfall and his demeanour on Ralph Meeker in Kiss Me Deadly. The actor was part of a vast ensemble cast which included John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel. The following year, Willis and Jackson starred alongside each other in the third Die Hard film, Die Hard with a Vengeance. The film became the highest-grossing film of 1995 and is now widely regarded as the best sequel of the franchise, which culminated in 2013 with A Good Day to Die Hard.
In Die Hard with a Vengeance, a tiny easter egg is placed in the film for the most attentive of movie-goers. When asked by Jackson’s character Zeus, what he’s been up to since he got suspended from the force, Willis’ John replies, “smokin’ cigarettes and watchin’ Captain Kangaroo.” Although this sounds like a throwaway statement, this is actually a direct reference to Pulp Fiction.
In Tarantino’s classic, Butch kills Travolta’s Vincent Vega by shooting him in the chest. To celebrate his kill, he gets in the car and drives away, singing The Statler Brothers’ ‘Flowers on the Wall’. The lyrics he sings are “Smokin’ cigarettes and watchin’ Captain Kangaroo.”
Watch comparison clips from both films below.
