Marsellus Wallace
In Pulp Fiction's gleefully fractured narrative, midlevel crook Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) is the sun around which many of the characters revolve. When we first hear of him, it is Vince (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) talking about Wallace's defenestration of a man on account of an ill-advised foot massage. Later, Vince takes Wallace's wife Mia (Uma Thurman) on a twist-dancing, adrenaline-needle-thrusting date. Then, finally, we see Marcellus himself, as he attempts to get small-time boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) to throw a fight. By the time Wallace has been raped by a pair of rednecks, fights back and vows to get "medieval on their ass," we've become familiar enough with the man to know that he means it. Whatever is in that glowing briefcase of his, we certainly don't want to know what it is.