Summary

• Quentin Tarantino revealed The Gimp's dark origin story as a hitchhiker trained to be a "perfect victim."
• The Gimp is played by Stephen Hibbert, known for roles in The Cat in the Hat and Just Shoot Me!
• The Gimp symbolizes the possible fate of Marsellus, showing Butch's decision to do the right thing in Pulp Fiction.

The Gimp is one of the most mysterious (and disturbing) characters in Pulp Fiction, but in a 2020 interview, Quentin Tarantino revealed his dark origin story. Despite having an unsettling pitch-black comedic sensibility, Pulp Fiction broke out as a mainstream hit, with blockbuster box office receipts and impressive awards success. Tarantino’s debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, had already made him an exciting new voice in filmmaking, but his sophomore effort Pulp Fiction made him a household name and solidified his legendary status. He’s the guy who can get audiences around the world to laugh at the plight of The Gimp.

There are a lot of unanswered questions from Pulp Fiction. What was in the glowing briefcase? Was the Buddy Holly waiter at Jack Rabbit Slim’s really Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. Pink in hiding? Did Jules manage to break free of the criminal underworld and wander the Earth like he planned? One of the biggest – and scariest – mysteries from the film is exactly who or what is The Gimp? When Butch Coolidge and Marsellus Wallace are tied up in the pawnshop basement, they’re introduced to The Gimp, a man who wears BDSM gear and lives in a box. Who is he!?

The Gimp Was Originally A Hitchhiker Before Pulp Fiction

Tarantino revealed The Gimp's backstory in a 2020 interview

In a 2020 interview, Tarantino revealed The Gimp’s dark origin story. Tarantino explained that The Gimp was a hitchhiker that Zed and Maynard picked up several years before the events of the movie. By the time Butch meets him in that pawnshop basement, The Gimp has been trained by his captors to be “the perfect victim.” Pulp Fiction’s Gimp scene was already one of the darkest moments in Tarantino’s filmography, but the revelation that he’s been trapped down there in servitude of sinister sadists for a few long years makes it even darker.

Tarantino also revealed that The Gimp is dead following his on-screen tenure in Pulp Fiction. After Butch escapes from being tied to a chair and The Gimp is laughing hysterically at him, Butch knocks him out cold with a single punch. The director itted that it doesn’t really play as a death in the final film, but as he wrote the movie, he felt that The Gimp died after being knocked out by Butch. The knockout didn’t kill him, but when he ed out with a rope tied around his neck, he unwittingly hanged himself. So, that clears that up.

Tarantino won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Pulp Fiction.

Who Played The Gimp In Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction's Gimp is played by Stephen Hibbert

The Gimp is played by Stephen Hibbert in the cast of Pulp Fiction. Hibbert is also known for playing Jim McFinnigan in The Cat in the Hat, Carl in Just Shoot Me! season 4, episode 14, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” and an unnamed guard monitoring a jail cell in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Although he has a handful of acting credits to his name, Hibbert primarily works as a writer. He’s written for Boy Meets World, Darkwing Duck, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Late Night with David Letterman.

He also co-wrote the SNL movie It’s Pat alongside Julia Sweeney, Jim Emerson, and an uncredited Tarantino. This is likely how Tarantino and Hibbert met, and probably led to his Pulp Fiction casting. Sweeney also has a small role in Pulp Fiction as the junkyard owner’s daughter, Raquel, a friend of The Wolf’s. In many ways, It’s Pat is a companion piece to Pulp Fiction, although the critics found one to be vastly superior to the other (It’s Pat has a rare 0% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

What The Gimp Really Means In Pulp Fiction

The Gimp represents the grim fate that could befall Marsellus

The Gimp’s role in Pulp Fiction solidifies the pitch-black comedic tone of the movie. It was already a twisted comedy at that point, with disturbing gags about heroin use and adrenaline needles, but the scene in the pawnshop basement with Zed, Maynard, and The Gimp cements Pulp Fiction as one of the darkest comedies ever made. But The Gimp also serves a symbolic purpose in the storytelling. The Gimp represents the grim fate that could befall Marsellus if Butch leaves him behind in that basement. Marsellus could become Gimp 2.0 if Butch doesn’t save him.

When he’s on his way out of the pawnshop, and Butch hears Marsellus’ distressed cries, he can’t bring himself to abandon Marsellus – even though he’s his mortal enemy who, just a few hours earlier, was trying to kill him. So, Butch grabs a katana and returns to the basement to free Marsellus. Butch’s decision to do the right thing earns him the only happy ending in Pulp Fiction. None of the other characters get a happy ending, but Butch gets to evade the mobsters and skip town with Fabienne because, unlike the other characters, he did the right thing.