In Pulp FictIon why does Butch betray Marsellus Wallace?

R

rc444

Well-known member
Hello DVXusers,

I've often wondered why Butch betrays Marcellus in Pulp Fiction, choosing to win the fight and kill the other boxer.

Why does Butch do this? Why doesn't he just go out in the 5th round? Marcellus offers Butch a lot of money and is quite reasonable and business-like when he offers Butch the assignment, yet Butch betrays him -- is Butch worried the other boxer will kill him in the 5th round if he follows Marcellus' orders. The film never explains Butch's reason for double-crossing Marcellus

Cheers
Rc444
 
Have you never seen a boxing movie? As per the title, the old boxer who refuses to take a dive is a standard of the genre. He can't refuse Wallace to his face so he plans his post fight getaway.
 
Egg Born Son said:
Have you never seen a boxing movie? As per the title, the old boxer who refuses to take a dive is a standard of the genre. He can't refuse Wallace to his face so he plans his post fight getaway.
Click to expand...

There's slightly more to it than that. By Butch taking the payoff and saying he's going down in the fifth Marsellus is able to tell his people (watch the boxing scenes in Snatch to better explain the concept of fight rigging) that the fight is fixed. Then Marsellus and his people place a large amount of money on Butch to go down in the fifth. Because there are these large bets for Butch to go down in the fifth the odds for him to win go up (instead of being a 2:1 payoff, it becomes something like a 10:1 payoff). So Butch, knowing that he has no intention of going down in the fifth and in fact winning the fight, places a number of large bets on himself to win (at various different bookies - hence the phone booth scene where he's asking his friend if he was able to collect all the winnings) and in the process makes a **** load of money.

Also, if you pay attention to the post-fight taxi conversation, Butch didn't actually know the other fighter was dead until the cabbie told him. So it was never Butch's intention to kill the other fighter.

I think you should watch the movie again and keep an eye (and ear) out for the little nuances that Tarantino puts into his scripts. In fact I feel like watching it again now.
 
I have a very popular article that analyzes the whole story...

Violence and Pop Culture References: Pulp Fiction (1994)

The main reason is pride. The scene is all about Butch's pride. Then you have the featherweight title of the world, and a lifelong pursuit of success, and of course the money. Marcellus pays off Butch prior to the fight, and Butch bets it all on himself to win. These compounding factors lead inevitably to Butch rolling the dice and giving it everything he has.
 
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