While not as vast as, say, Stephen King’s interconnected web of stories or Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse, the films of Quentin Tarantino contain enough threads to reveal that they exist in the same universe. Take the Vega Brothers, Vic and Vincent, who were played, respectively, by Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. They never meet, but Tarantino has confirmed that, yes, they are brothers and that his idea for a Pulp Fiction sequel was to tell a prequel story about their adventures in Amsterdam (where they call it a Royale With Cheese, et cetera, et cetera).
We’ve already written about why that film won’t ever happen—Madsen and Travolta are too old, basically—but that hasn’t stopped Tarantino obsessives from considering the possibilities. One intrepid fan even went so far as to make a trailer for the film about the brothers. They’re not in Amsterdam, but the plot is surprisingly layered regardless, with Vic and Vincent botching a hit, pissing off Chris Penn’s Nice Guy Eddie, and bringing down the wrath of a Con Air-era Ving Rhames.
“Using a number of films from the era, I set out to make a trailer that would add to Vic and Vincent’s backstory,” editor Tyler Hopkins explains. “It’s my attempt to show how they arrive at the point we meet them in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, respectively.”
Hopkins culled his footage from bargain bin flicks like Chains Of Gold, Kill Me Again, and Trouble Bound (all films Travolta and Madsen would like you to forget, probably), and rendered it all in the cheap, scratchy style of VHS action trailers. Not only is the sludgy voiceover perfect, but so are the taglines: “It was supposed to be a simple hit,” the narrator intones, “but now it’s hit the road.”
Watch it above, and feel nostalgia for something that never even existed.