Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
apartment of Three Young Guys "obviously in over their heads." T h e y have some
thing which Marsellus Wallace wants, and apparently they have tried to stiff him
in a deal for the contents of a mysterious briefcase. Jules, menacingly standing over
the leader, Brett, intimidates him by eating his fast food and questioning him about
what restaurant he bought it from. It s not a Wendy's or McDonald's hamburger, it's
a Big Kahuna burger. Kahuna is Hawaiian magic, so it suggests big magic coming.
Certainly there is magic in the briefcase, whose glowing contents hypnotize Vincent
when he opens it to check on them. W h a t ' s in the briefcase? It doesn't matter because
it's just a MacGuffin, and in keeping with the Hitchcock tradition, Tarantino never
bothers to say what it really is. It's enough that it's something of importance to the
characters, something worth the risk of dying for. It's a H o l y Grail or a Golden
annaabi.ee 
