Jackie Brown is a 1997 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Pam Grier in the title role. The film is an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel Rum Punch. It is the only feature-length film that Tarantino has adapted from a previous work. The film pays homage to 1970s blaxploitation films, particularly the films Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), both of which also starred Grier in the title roles.
Grier and Forster were both veteran actors but neither had performed a leading role in many years; this film revitalized their careers. The film garnered Forster a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award nominations for Jackson and Grier.
In 1995, Jackie Brown, a flight attendant for the fictional Mexican airline Cabo Air, makes ends meet by smuggling money from Mexico into the United States for Ordell Robbie, a gun runner living in Los Angeles. Ordell is under surveillance by the ATF, so he uses couriers to move contraband. When another courier, Beaumont Livingston, is arrested, Ordell assumes he will become an informant to avoid jail time. Ordell arranges for $10,000 bail with bondsman Max Cherry, then lures Livingston into a car trunk and kills him.
Acting on information Livingston had already shared, ATF agent Ray Nicolette and LAPD detective Mark Dargus intercept Jackie as she returns to the United States with Ordell's cash and a bag of cocaine (though Jackie was unaware the cocaine was stashed in her luggage). She is sent to a county jail, which alerts Ordell that she might become an informant. Having been paid by Ordell, Max retrieves Jackie from the jail and becomes attracted to her. Ordell arrives at Jackie's house to kill her, but having anticipated this, she pulls a gun on him that she has taken from Max's car. She negotiates a deal with Ordell whereby she pretends to help the authorities while smuggling in $550,000 of Ordell's money, enough for him to retire.
For this plan, Ordell brings in Louis Gara, a former cellmate and Sheronda, one of Ordell's women. Unaware of Jackie and Ordell's plan to smuggle in $550,000, Nicolette and Dargus devise a sting to catch Ordell during a transfer of $50,000. Unbeknownst to all, Jackie plans to double-cross everyone and keep $500,000 for herself. She recruits Max to assist and offers him a cut. During the test run Jackie, with Nicolette and Dargus aware, smuggles in $10,000 of Ordell's money to swap with Sheronda at the mall food court. After Jackie leaves, Max, monitoring from afar, observes an unknown woman swap bags with Sheronda. Max informs Jackie and she confronts Ordell, who states that he used Simone, another one of his women, to secure his money as backup.
On the day of the transfer Ordell discovers that Simone has left town with the $10,000 and reluctantly recruits Melanie to perform the swap. Jackie enters a dressing room in a department store to try on a suit. She has told Ordell she will swap bags there with Melanie, supposedly passing off the $550,000 under the nose of Nicolette, who has been told the exchange will take place in the food court. Instead, the bag she gives Melanie contains only $50,000, and she leaves the rest behind in the dressing room for Max to pick up. Jackie feigns despair to Nicolette and Dargus, claiming that Melanie burst into the dressing room and stole the money.
In the parking lot, Melanie taunts Louis so much that he loses his temper and shoots and kills her. Louis confesses this to Ordell, who becomes livid upon discovering most of the money is missing and then realizes Jackie is the culprit. When Louis and Ordell argue about Louis seeing Max in the store but thinking nothing of it, Ordell kills Louis and leaves with the bag, then turns his anger toward Max, who tells him Jackie is frightened for her life and is waiting in Max's office to hand over the money. Ordell holds Max at gunpoint as they enter the darkened office. On Jackie's cue, Nicolette jumps out from his hiding place and kills Ordell.
Because some of the bills Nicolette marked were found on Melanie's body and Louis' body near the mall, it is concluded that Ordell killed them for attempting to steal his money. The ATF drops the criminal charges against Jackie for her cooperation. Now owning Ordell's remaining money and his car, Jackie plans a trip to Madrid. After Max declines Jackie's invitation to join her, they kiss goodbye, and she leaves as he takes a phone call, which he cuts short as Jackie drives away.
Casting
- Pam Grier as Jackie Brown
- Samuel L. Jackson as Ordell Robbie
- Robert Forster as Max Cherry
- Bridget Fonda as Melanie Ralston
- Michael Keaton as Ray Nicolette
- Robert De Niro as Louis Gara
- Michael Bowen as Det. Mark Dargus
- Chris Tucker as Beaumont Livingston
- LisaGay Hamilton as Sheronda
- Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr. as Winston
- Hattie Winston as Simone
- Sid Haig as Judge
- Aimee Graham as Amy
- Diana Uribe as Anita Lopez
- Gillian Iliana Waters as Mossberg 500 Tammy Jo
- Quentin Tarantino as Voice on Answering Machine
