48 Fun Facts About Reservoir Dogs

What is the crew's target in the Reservoir Dogs heist?

A jewelry store holding a shipment of diamonds is the target, yet the robbery never appears on screen. Tarantino said that began partly as a budget saving, and he kept it because he liked the idea of never seeing the heist.

Which color alias belongs to the undercover police officer in Reservoir Dogs?

Mr. Orange is shot in the gut by a woman whose car he and Mr. White take during the getaway. He bleeds on the warehouse floor for most of the film and confesses to White that he is a cop only at the very end.

Who played Mr. White in Reservoir Dogs?

Harvey Keitel liked the script so much that he signed on as co-producer, which helped the film find its money, and he paid for Tarantino and Lawrence Bender to fly to New York and audition actors there.

Tarantino has said Mr. Blonde of Reservoir Dogs is the brother of which Pulp Fiction character?

Vincent Vega shares a surname with Mr. Blonde, whose real name is Vic Vega. Tarantino talked of filming the pair as 'The Vega Brothers', a prequel because both men die on screen, but it never came to fruition.

The opening diner scene of Reservoir Dogs features a crude theory about which Madonna song?

Like a Virgin is the song the crew argue over before the heist. Madonna later told Tarantino his script had it wrong and signed an album for him with the message that the song is about love.

Which member of the Reservoir Dogs film crew plays the woman shot in the getaway?

The dialect coach, hired to give Englishman Tim Roth an American accent, plays the driver who shoots his character in the gut and is shot in return when her car is taken.

Which character does Quentin Tarantino himself play in Reservoir Dogs?

Mr. Brown is the crew's getaway driver, and Tarantino gives himself an early exit: Brown is shot dead in the car as the robbery falls apart, before the warehouse story really begins.

In the opening diner scene of Reservoir Dogs, what does one of the crew refuse to do on principle?

Tip the waitress: one crook says he never does, until Joe Cabot makes him throw in his dollar. Tarantino said the speech was his own credo for years, from when he earned minimum wage in a job nobody tipped.

What is the nickname of Joe Cabot's son, played by Chris Penn in Reservoir Dogs?

Nice Guy Eddie draws on Mr. White to protect his father in the final three-way standoff, and all three go down firing. Chris Penn, Sean Penn's younger brother, died in 2006 at 40.

Mr. Blue is played by which real-life ex-convict turned novelist?

Edward Bunker was San Quentin's youngest inmate at 17 and learned to write behind bars. He was still in prison when his first novel came out, after five that went unpublished.

Which song plays on the radio while Mr. Blonde tortures the captive policeman in Reservoir Dogs?

Stuck in the Middle with You was picked as a cheerful counterpoint. Tarantino said viewers tap a toe to the song and enjoy the dance, so that by the time the blade comes out they feel like co-conspirators.

What is the name of the kidnapped police officer who loses an ear in Reservoir Dogs?

Marvin Nash has met one of the robbers before and knows he is an undercover cop, yet he never gives him away, even while losing an ear.

Which band recorded the song heard during the ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs?

Stealers Wheel had already lost Gerry Rafferty, their co-founder and the song's co-writer, by the time their debut album came out. Once the record was selling well, he was persuaded to return.

The song in the Reservoir Dogs ear-cutting scene was written as a parody of which singer's style?

Bob Dylan was the target: Gerry Rafferty wrote the song as little more than a joke, sending up Dylan's paranoia with a sneer at a music-industry party. To his disbelief, the joke sold more than a million copies.

Who provides the deadpan voice of the K-Billy radio DJ in Reservoir Dogs?

Steven Wright had a friend in the cutting room: the film's editor, Sally Menke, was married to Dean Parisot, who directed the short film that won Wright an Oscar. The comedian is heard but never seen.

Where was Quentin Tarantino working when he wrote Reservoir Dogs?

A video rental store, Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, gave him the idea. Tarantino said he filled a display shelf there with heist films, took one home every night and decided the genre was ripe to redo.

According to Tarantino, the title came from a video store customer mishearing which film's name?

Louis Malle's 1987 film became 'reservoir dogs' in a patron's ear. Tarantino also liked that the title sounded like something out of a Melville film.

Which actor's agent turned down a Reservoir Dogs role without telling him?

James Woods says the part that went to Steve Buscemi had been written for him, and that he fired the agent when he found out. Jon Cryer, by contrast, backed out of his own audition.

Where were the warehouse hideout scenes of Reservoir Dogs actually filmed?

An unused mortuary in Los Angeles stood in for the warehouse, and the low-budget shoot dressed another room in the same building as one robber's apartment.

At which festival did Reservoir Dogs premiere in January 1992?

Sundance gave it buzz of both kinds, with raves and walkouts at the same screenings. In 2024 a poll of more than 500 filmmakers and critics named it the festival's second-best film ever, behind only Whiplash.

Which Monty Python member coached Tarantino at a directors' lab weeks before he shot Reservoir Dogs?

Terry Gilliam calmed Tarantino's fear that he knew too little about the craft: a director, he said, need not light the shot or pick the fabrics himself, only hire the right people and tell them what is in his head.

Which 1987 Hong Kong film was Reservoir Dogs accused of plagiarizing, though Tarantino called it an influence?

City on Fire shares the undercover-cop plot and the closing standoff, and a 1995 short cut the two films together shot by shot to press the charge. Tarantino's reply: a really cool movie, and he 'got some stuff from it'.

Tarantino called Reservoir Dogs his own take on which early Stanley Kubrick film?

The Killing also tells a robbery story through flashbacks, and Tarantino said he thought of his film as 'my Killing, my take on that kind of heist movie'. One big difference: his own heist is never shown.

Reservoir Dogs took its color-coded criminal aliases from which 1970s thriller?

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three has four hijackers code-named Blue, Green, Grey and Brown seize a New York subway train. Joe Cabot hands out colors for a stated reason: no robber can then give up another's real name.

Which two horror-industry figures walked out of a Reservoir Dogs screening at the Sitges festival?

Wes Craven and Rick Baker were among some fifteen people who left during the torture scene. Tarantino relished it, since Craven had made The Last House on the Left, and Baker later told him to take it as a compliment.

What plea did Kirk Baltz reportedly ad-lib in the Reservoir Dogs torture scene?

'I've got a little kid at home' was not in the script, and it reportedly left his co-star struggling to finish the scene. Tarantino wanted it to hurt: walkouts at every screening, he said, only meant it worked.

Roughly how much did Reservoir Dogs take at US cinemas on its first release?

About $2.8 million was its whole first run in American cinemas. Its following came later, through midnight showings and the success of Pulp Fiction.

Which British film magazine named Reservoir Dogs the greatest independent film of all time?

Empire put it first of fifty, judging each film by how it came to be made, the quality of the result and its mark on the movie world. The magazine admitted that some would call it 'an easy, obvious choice'.

Why did the British video release of Reservoir Dogs wait until 1995?

The censor delayed its certificate for home viewing for two years. BBFC director James Ferman held it back amid the outcry over screen violence that followed the James Bulger murder, then passed it uncut.

Which critic gave Reservoir Dogs two and a half stars, faulting its screenplay?

Roger Ebert wrote that the part needing work 'didn't cost money': having created his characters, Tarantino did little with them 'except to let them talk too much'.

For its nonlinear storytelling, Reservoir Dogs has often been compared to which Kurosawa classic?

Rashomon retells one crime from clashing viewpoints, and Tarantino took the comparison only halfway: 'It's not exactly Rashomon', he said, but the robbers' stories do give each man's different view of what happened.

What was Steve Buscemi's job for four years before his acting career took off?

New York City firefighter Buscemi served with Engine 55 in Manhattan. The day after the September 11 attacks he took his old coat and helmet back to the firehouse and worked beside his former company at Ground Zero for days.

What did Steve Buscemi win for Reservoir Dogs?

An Independent Spirit Award for supporting male went to Buscemi for a part Tarantino had meant to play himself before the project grew. The film's two other nominations, for first feature and director, came to nothing.

The Reservoir Dogs actor who played Joe Cabot broke through in the 1940s playing which real gangster?

John Dillinger was the title role of a cheap film that Chicago at first banned, publicity that helped it make millions. In Reservoir Dogs the same actor reports that Mr. Blue is 'dead as Dillinger'.

What happened to the Joe Cabot actor during the making of Reservoir Dogs?

Arrested for shooting at his nephew at home in Hollywood, he landed in jail mid-production. Trouble was a habit: he once admitted he had thrown away 'about seven careers through drink'.

The ex-convict who plays Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs wrote the novel behind which Dustin Hoffman film?

Straight Time came from the novel No Beast So Fierce, written in prison. Dustin Hoffman bought the rights while its author was still inside, then gave him a small part in the film and a job as its technical adviser.

Which Reservoir Dogs cast member was the only one to return for the 2006 video game?

Michael Madsen alone came back to voice Mr. Blonde, in a game that lets players act out the robbery the film never shows. Australia and New Zealand banned it outright for its violence.

Which song plays over the slow-motion opening credits of Reservoir Dogs?

Little Green Bag got its name by accident: the Dutch group's 1969 single was meant to be 'Little Greenback', slang for a dollar bill, which would have suited a film about a robbery just as well.

Which Reservoir Dogs character is the only one to walk out of the warehouse uninjured?

Mr. Pink takes cover under a ramp while the others shoot it out, then emerges unhurt, grabs the loot and runs. All through the film he has been the one insisting that the job was a setup.

What practical reason did Tarantino give for dressing the Reservoir Dogs robbers in matching black suits?

Witnesses can't tell them apart, he argued: asked for a description, all they can say is 'a bunch of black suits'. The costume budget was so small that some of those suits were really black jeans under narrow jackets.

What was Tarantino's original plan for Reservoir Dogs before a star signed on?

A 16mm film with friends was the plan, in black and white for no more than $30,000, with Tarantino acting in it himself. One star's interest turned it into a production costing more than a million dollars.

The business robbed in Reservoir Dogs is called Karina's, after an actress once married to which director?

Godard directed Anna Karina, then his wife, in Bande à part. Tarantino took the name of his production company, A Band Apart, from the same film while Reservoir Dogs was still being finished.

Which Reservoir Dogs actor did Tarantino fire at the breakfast table for being 'completely insane' on set?

Lawrence Tierney fought his first-time director all through the first week, and the crew applauded when he was thrown off the set. Tarantino expected to be sacked himself until the film's biggest star calmed the financiers.

Which company picked up Reservoir Dogs for distribution after its festival premiere?

Miramax Films gave it only a small release, never more than a few dozen American screens. The company stayed with Tarantino, though, and two years later released Pulp Fiction.

Which fictional radio show supplies the 1970s songs heard in Reservoir Dogs?

K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies Weekend copies the themed weekends that Los Angeles oldies stations really ran. Tarantino picked sugary bubblegum hits on purpose, to lighten what he called a rude, rough movie.

In Reservoir Dogs, the undercover cop's rehearsed 'commode story' has him carrying drugs into a men's room full of what?

County sheriffs with a barking German shepherd fill the room in the story, which is pure invention. His handler has him rehearse it again and again, like lines in a play, until it sounds lived.

In Reservoir Dogs, the undercover cop's handler says he must act like which screen legend?

Marlon Brando is the standard set by Holdaway, played by Randy Brooks: an undercover cop has to be a great, naturalistic actor, because bad acting is no good in that job. The lesson comes with an anecdote to memorize like a scene.

Which actress do the Reservoir Dogs crew wrongly credit with playing TV's Christie Love?

Pam Grier is one robber's guess, and another points out she only made the movies that the 1970s cop show copied. Tarantino, long a fan of hers, later built Jackie Brown around her.