One of Reservoir Dogs‘ team members was involved in a real-life robbery and more, and he had some things to say about the movie’s accuracy. Reservoir Dogs established themes that would continue to be addressed in Quentin Tarantino’s subsequent movies as well as the tone for the rest of his work, which is mostly known for having high doses of blood and violence – and as Reservoir Dogs is all about a jewelry heist gone wrong, it had a generous dose of violence.
Reservoir Dogs saw a team of criminals assembled and led by crime boss Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son Eddie “Nice Guy” Cabot (Chris Penn) with the purpose of stealing thousands of dollars from a jewelry store. As the heist didn’t go as expected, the members of the team ended up showing their true colors in the aftermath of it – however, there was one who didn’t get to show much about himself. Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker) was only briefly seen in the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs and didn’t make it back to the safe house, but as it turns out, Bunker is the member of the team with the most interesting backstory.
Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. Blue Was A Real-Life Criminal
Edward Bunker had a troubled childhood, and when he was 11, he was placed in juvenile hall after assaulting his father. At age 17, he became the youngest-every inmate in San Quentin Prison State, but it was during his time there that he decided to become a writer. However, after more crimes, including orchestrating robberies and faking a suicide attempt to pretend to be insane, he was eventually declared criminally insane. In the early 1970s, Bunker was a criminal associate of two members of Charles Manson’s family (Sandra Good and Lynette Fromme), and he ran a drug racket in San Francisco. Bunker was caught again, but thanks to the solicitations of influential friends and a lenient judge, instead of a 20-year sentence, he got only five.
While in prison, Bunker continued writing and had his first novel, No Beast So Fierce, published in 1973, and as he was now earning a living from writing and acting, he felt he could stop being a criminal. Bunker’s first acting credit was in Straight Time, the adaptation of his first novel, and what followed were minor roles in a variety of movies, such as Runway Train and Animal Factory, and served as an adviser on Michael Mann’s Heat. Because of his extensive criminal past, Bunker wasn’t shy when calling out how improbable the heist in Reservoir Dogs was, labeling the opening scene at the diner as “ridiculous”. Bunker explained that having the team gathered together and dressed the same would never happen, as if you were about to rob a place, you would “want to be as inconspicuous as possible”.
Bunker also added that being given code names and working with “unreliable people like Mr. Blonde” wouldn’t happen either, and that the waitress at the diner would have recognized them after the robbery. However, he also admitted that once he watched the movie, he realized it wasn’t supposed to be real, and from this experience with Tarantino, he learned to be “looser with my dialogue, to throw in the off-beat stuff”.
What Happened To Edward Bunker After Reservoir Dogs
After Reservoir Dogs, Edward Bunker continued appearing in various movies in minor roles, and as mentioned above, he worked as an adviser on Heat. Bunker also assisted in the production of short films alongside director Sudz Sutherland, and wrote and directed a Molson Canadian Cold Shot commercial. Bunker also continued writing, and published three more books, with one published posthumously in 2010. Bunker passed away in 2005 following surgery to improve the circulation in his legs, as he was diabetic. As for Mr. Blue, Reservoir Dogs didn’t show what happened to him, but Joe mentions that he died during the police ambush of the heist. Blue’s fate was shown in the 2006 Reservoir Dogs video game, where Blue is hiding in a movie theater until he’s found and shot by the police.