Synopsis

Jackie Brown, a flight attendant caught smuggling cash for arms dealer Ordell Robbie, is arrested by federal agents and pressured to help bring him down. With the help of bail bondsman Max Cherry, she devises a risky scheme to deceive both the authorities and the criminals, hoping to escape with enough money to finally secure her freedom.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel Rum Punch. It is the only feature directed by Quentin Tarantino based on previously published material.

• Tarantino changed the heroine from the white Jackie Burke in the novel to the Black Jackie Brown, reshaping the part with Pam Grier in mind. The character's new surname also recalls Grier's blaxploitation film Foxy Brown.

• The movie was designed as both a crime story and a tribute to 1970s blaxploitation cinema, particularly Grier's Coffy and Foxy Brown. Sid Haig's appearance also reunites him with Grier after their earlier exploitation films together.

• Although the novel is set around Miami, the film relocates the action to Los Angeles' South Bay. Its locations include the communities and industrial areas surrounding Torrance, Hawthorne, Carson, Wilmington, Long Beach, San Pedro, and Marina del Rey.

• Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and Tarantino looked to the 1977 crime film Straight Time for inspiration while developing the movie's gritty, naturalistic visual style.

• Michael Keaton's character, Ray Nicolette, is also an Elmore Leonard character in Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (1998), creating a rare connection between two separate Leonard adaptations.

• Robert Forster received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The recognition helped restore him to prominent feature-film work after a long period in less visible roles.

• The soundtrack combines soul, funk, and older pop recordings, including Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street," whose use connects the film to the visual and musical language of classic blaxploitation movies.