Butch Coolidge

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Butch Coolidge is a character in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction, portrayed by Bruce Willis.

Butch was born in Tennessee, and lost his father in the Vietnam War. One of his earliest memories was of receiving his father's gold watch from one of the elder Coolidge's army buddies (Christopher Walken), who told him to always treasure it, as his father had suffered greatly to keep it safe for his son.

As an adult, he settles in Los Angeles. He is a tough boxer, but is nearing the end of his career, and is coerced into taking a bribe from mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) to throw the fight. Butch accepts the bribe, however, he double crosses Marsellus by betting the money on himself, and proceeds to win the fight (killing his opponent). He hides out with his girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), in a motel planning to leave the next morning for Tennessee to collect his money. When Fabienne forgets his father's watch while transferring their goods from their apartment to their motel, Butch storms to his apartment to retrieve it. There, he kills Vincent Vega (John Travolta), a hitman working for Marsellus Wallace. He then flees with his watch, but happens upon Wallace on his way back to the hotel. Panicked, he runs Wallace over, and flees into a nearby pawn shop, where he and the mob boss get into a brutal fight. The pawn shop's owner pulls a gun on them, and knocks them both unconscious.

The pawn shop's owner, Maynard (Duane Whitaker), calls his friend Zed (Peter Greene) over to the shop; the two turn out to be serial killers who get sadistic pleasure out of raping and murdering men. They kidnap Butch and Wallace, and take the latter into their back room to brutalize. Butch escapes, but is overcome with pity as he hears Wallace's screams of pain, and goes back to save him, armed with a kendo sword. Butch kills Maynard, and allows Wallace shoot Zed, grievously wounding him. Wallace then calls off the contract on Butch's life, as long as he leaves L.A. and doesn't come back. Butch and Fabienne flee to Tennessee on Zed's motorbike.