Stanley Kubrick as a Look magazine photographer in 1949. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Stanley Kubrick' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
In part 17 of the analysis we observed that the black briefcase in Pulp Fiction corresponds to the black monolith from Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another connection between Pulp Fiction and 2001, is that they both have a theme of enlightenment-death-rebirth. We have already discussed Pulp Fiction's enlightenment theme, and we know that Mia is depicted as 'dying' and then being 're-born': Mia 'dies' when she mistakenly inhales heroin, then she is 'reborn' when given an adrenaline injection.
Above left: Mia appears to be dead after having accidentally inhaled heroin. Here she is shown being driven by Vincent to Lance's house. Above right: At Lance's, Mia is revived with an adrenaline injection to the heart.
The enlightenment-death-rebirth 'theme' in Pulp Fiction, is meant by Tarantino as a hint that this is also one of the themes of A Space Odyssey.
In Kubrick's movie, the fact that astronaut David Bowman points to the monolith in the ending 'hotel room' scene (above left), indicates that he's reached a kind of enlightenment. Just after this, he dies, then he is reborn, as indicated by the fetus inside an orb of light (above right).
