Reservoir Dogs movie references guide

From The Quentin Tarantino Archives

• The French film Au Revoir Les Enfants(1987) was one of the inspirations for the movie's title. Same as Straw Dogs by Sam Peckinpah

• The Ringo Lam movie City On Fire (1987) was the main inspiration for the plot.

• The concept of color names as aliases (Mr Pink etc) given to the gang by Joe Cabot was originally used by the robbers in the 1974 heist film The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3. (1974)

• The black suits worn by the Dogs are a tribute to the John Woo action vehicle "A Better Tomorrow II". (1986)

• Mr. Brown mentions Charles Bronson and The Great Escape (1963) during his Like A Virgin speech in the opening sequence.

• During the opening diner sequence, Mr. White jokingly says - "You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologise." - to Mr. Blonde. A similar line was uttered in the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing, which came out just three years earlier. Both quotes come from Muhammad Ali who said: "If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize".

• Mr. Orange mentions the Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys (1987) during a scene in which he is speaking to his fellow cop. This could be an allusion to the main villain in the film who owns a California coastal video store. QT worked at the Manhattan Beach Video Archives.