Did Pete Hegseth just quote “Pulp Fiction” during a Pentagon worship service?
Did Pete Hegseth just quote “Pulp Fiction” during a Pentagon worship service?
Marina WattsThu, April 16, 2026 at 5:23 PM UTC
0
Samuel L. Jackson in 'Pulp Fiction'; U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on April 16, 2026Credit: Miramax; Alex Wong/GettyKey Points -
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth seemed to quote Samuel L. Jackson's character in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction at a recent Pentagon worship service.
When the secretary of war read from Ezekiel 25:17, the verse sounded very similar to the Bible verse Jackson's Jules Winnfield recites in the movie.
Hegseth's prayer echoed Jackson's character's monologue before his character executes another.
Pulp Fiction fans might have recognized a Bible verse that Pete Hegseth quoted at a recent worship service.
When the secretary of war read from Ezekiel 25:17 on Wednesday, his words sounded eerily similar to the Bible verse Samuel L. Jackson's Jules Winnfield recites in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino classic.
"The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men," Hegseth read during the service, referring to a prayer the lead planner of the Combat Search and Rescue operation shared with him after its mission rescued a U.S. Air Force airman who was trapped in Iran earlier this month.
"Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherd the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children," Hegseth continued. "And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother. And you will know my call sign is Sandy One when I lay my vengeance upon thee. And amen."
Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta in 1994's 'Pulp Fiction'Credit: Linda R. Chen/Miramax
Hegseth's prayer may sound biblical, but only part of it is actually from Ezekiel 25:17. "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them," the actual verse reads. However, the secretary of war swapped out "I am the Lord" for "my call sign is Sandy One."
Advertisement
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
The remainder of the prayer echoed the monologue Jackson's character delivers in Pulp Fiction before his character executes another, so in his recitation, Hegseth seemed to call upon another greater power — Tarantino, savior to cinephiles everywhere.
"There's a passage I got memorized. Seems appropriate for this situation: Ezekiel 25:17," Jackson's character says in the movie. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."
Though Hegseth didn't quote the Tarantino monologue verbatim while paraphrasing the Holy Scripture, fans were quick to pick up on the similarities between the two.
Representatives for the Department of War did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment.
Pete Hegseth speaks at the Pentagon on April 16, 2026Credit: Alex Wong/Getty
Jackson said his role in Pulp Fiction changed his life "drastically" at the 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in April 2024. "This was the particular role that all of a sudden people started thinking I was the coolest motherf---er on the planet," he said. "So, I'm happy with that."
"Watching a lot of films, you realize at a certain point that an actor only talks one-third of the film," Jackson added. "The rest of the film is people doing s--. So when I read that script, I was like, 'This is amazing.' I immediately flipped it back over and read it again to be sure I wasn't making myself crazy and [that] I wanted to be in this movie so bad that I was making up that it was that good."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
