Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Vol. 1
File:Kill Bill Volume 1 movie.jpg Kill Bill: Vol. 1 DVD cover (French Version)
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Character of The Bride: Uma Thurman Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Starring	Uma Thurman Lucy Liu Daryl Hannah Vivica A. Fox Julie Dreyfus Chiaki Kuriyama David Carradine
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Sally Menke
Music by	RZA
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	October 10, 2003
Running time	111 min.
Languages	English Japanese Cantonese French
Budget	$55 million USD(for both volumes)

Kill Bill is the fourth film by writer-director Quentin Tarantino. Originally conceived as one film, it was released in two separate "volumes" (in Fall 2003 and Spring 2004) due to its running time of approximately four hours. The movie is an ambitious, epic-length revenge drama, with homages to earlier film genres, such as Hong Kong martial arts movies and Italian Westerns; an extensive use of popular music and pop culture references; and deliberately over-the-top bloodletting. Its stars include Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Michael Parks, Sonny Chiba, and Gordon Liu.

Plot

Describing the narrative of either volume is complicated, because the sections of Kill Bill (called "chapters" in the film) are not presented in chronological order (see the Structure section below). Unlike Pulp Fiction, in which Tarantino included three separate but interrelated stories, Kill Bill is one story, but it is told with extensive use of flashbacks and flash-forwards, along with a few asides relating the backgrounds of secondary characters.

Template:Spoiler Taken as a whole, Kill Bill is the story of Beatrix Kiddo, a professional assassin in the employ of her lover, Bill. Discovering she is pregnant with Bill's child, and despairing of the life the little girl will lead if raised by her father, Beatrix arranges her own disappearance. Bill hunts her down, and on the day before she is to be married to an El Paso record-store owner, he directs the massacre of the entire wedding party. Bill shoots Beatrix in the head, but she survives, emerging from a coma four years later, her memory of the incident intact. She travels to Okinawa where she convinces a famous swordmaker to make her what turns out to be his finest sword. She then makes a numbered "death list" of the five wedding-party assassins, ending with the name "Bill".

Beatrix manages to kill the first two assassins on her list in a straightforward, if spectacular, manner. The third, Bill's brother Budd, bests her and buries her alive in a Barstow cemetery. He in turn is killed by a black mamba planted by Elle, the fourth name on the death list. Beatrix escapes from the grave and defeats Elle, leaving her blinded in Budd's trailer along with the black mamba. Only Bill's name remains on the list, but when Beatrix arrives at his hacienda, she is shocked to discover that her daughter, whom she assumed had died in the wedding massacre, was actually delivered while Beatrix was comatose, and is being raised by Bill. After a family evening together that is emotional yet tense, Bill and Beatrix fight, and Bill is killed. Beatrix takes her daughter, and they begin their new life together.

Structure

Kill Bill is divided into ten chapters, five chapters per volume. As is common in Tarantino films, they are not arranged in chronological order.

Cinematic order:

• Chapter One: (2)
• Chapter Two: The blood-splattered BRIDE
• Chapter Three: The Origin of O-Ren
• Chapter Four: The MAN From OKINAWA
• Chapter Five: Showdown at House of Blue Leaves
• Chapter Six: Massacre at Two Pines
• Chapter Seven: The lonely grave of Paula Schultz
• Chapter Eight: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei
• Chapter Nine: ELLE and I
• Last Chapter: Face to Face

Chronological order:

• Chapter Three: The Origin of O-Ren
• Chapter Eight: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei
• Chapter Six: Massacre at Two Pines
• Chapter Two: The blood-splattered BRIDE
• Chapter Four: The MAN From OKINAWA
• Chapter Five: Showdown at House of Blue Leaves
• Chapter One: (2)
• Chapter Seven: The lonely grave of Paula Schultz
• Chapter Nine: ELLE and I
• Last Chapter: Face to Face

Volume 1 synopsis

Chapter sequence (chronological order in parentheses)

• Chapter One: (2) (7)
• Chapter Two: The blood-splattered BRIDE (4)
• Chapter Three: The Origin of O-Ren (1)
• Chapter Four: The MAN From OKINAWA (5)
• Chapter Five: Showdown at House of Blue Leaves (6)

Template:Spoiler A black-and-white sequence introduces us to The Bride (Thurman). She lies on a wooden floor, dressed in a wedding gown. Her face is covered in blood and bruises. A hand comes into frame, holding a handkerchief marked "Bill". Bill wipes some of the mess from her face, and he speaks to her softly, explaining, "this is me at my most masochistic." She replies, "Bill, it’s your bab-," but is cut off as Bill shoots her in the head.

The story continues in the first chapter, "2". The Bride, alive and well, drives up to the suburban California home of Vernita Green (Fox), codenamed "Copperhead", one of the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Copperhead answers the door and a vicious knifefight ensues, demolishing most of the living room. In the middle of the fight, Copperhead’s daughter, Nikki, arrives home from school and the two women conceal their knives in a truce. Over coffee, The Bride and Copperhead plan a final battle later that evening, but Copperhead tries double-crossing The Bride using a gun concealed inside a box of cereal. She misses, giving the Bride the opportunity to impale her with her knife. Unfortunately, Nikki witnesses the death of her mother. The Bride sheathes her blade, speaking calmly to Nikki and offering her a chance for revenge should she want it. The Bride returns to her car, a big, yellow pick-up truck named the "Pussy Wagon." Here, she looks at a notepad with the names of five people, including Copperhead’s, written under the title "Death List Five". She crosses out the name Vernita Green, and one can see that "O-Ren Ishii" has already been crossed out. It is during this chapter that the audience first hears the Bride's former code-name as a member of the Deadly Vipers -- "Black Mamba".

The second chapter, "The Blood-Splattered Bride", returns to a time shortly after the Bride's apparent death. A local lawman, Earl McGraw (Parks) surveys the crime scene, at which time it is revealed the Bride wasn't Bill's only victim - an entire wedding party has been massacred. McGraw discovers the body of the Bride, and it becomes obvious to him that she is still alive. Cut to a local hospital, where the Bride lies comatose. She is confronted by another member of Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, Elle Driver (Hannah), codenamed "California Mountain Snake", who, it is implied, has replaced her as Bill's lover. Elle plans to kill the comatose Bride, but at the last minute Bill phones her and orders her to abort the mission, since it would be beneath professional warriors to creep into a room "like a filthy rat" and murder a sleeping victim.

The story jumps ahead four years, as the Bride awakens with her memory of the assassination attempt intact. She bursts into tears on realizing that her unborn child is gone. At that moment, two men enter the room and the Bride fakes her unconsciousness. As it turns out, Buck, a hospital orderly, has been charging visitors to have sex with the comatose Bride for four years now. After killing Buck's customer, she then kills Buck and steals the keys to his pick-up truck - the Pussy Wagon.

From the back of Buck's truck, the Bride works to revive her atrophied legs as she narrates the story of the next chapter.

Chapter three, titled "The Origin of O-Ren", serves as the introduction of O-Ren Ishii (Liu), codenamed "Cottonmouth". This entire chapter is shown as an anime sequence. As a young child O-Ren witnesses the murder of her parents by members of Japanese Yakuza, led by Boss Matsumoto. She takes revenge on same Yakuza boss, slicing him open as she reveals her identity. So begins her career in crime. From this point, she earns a reputation as a very successful and ruthless assassin.

The story returns to the "present", as the Bride regains use of her legs.

In the fourth chapter, "The Man from Okinawa", the Bride boards a plane to Okinawa. There she searches for Hattori Hanzo (Chiba), a famous sword-smith. Hanzo has taken an oath to never make another sword, but is persuaded by the justice of her cause. It takes him a month to make her the best sword he has ever crafted, which she takes to Tokyo for her showdown with O-Ren.

File:Kill Bill Volume 1 movie.jpg

Kill Bill theatrical poster.

In volume one's final chapter, "Showdown at House of Blue Leaves," O-Ren Ishii has become the first female leader of the Yakuza council. The Bride infiltrates O-Ren’s current hangout, a club known as the House of Blue Leaves. She follows Sofie Fatale, O-Ren’s best friend, lawyer and another former protege of Bill, into a bathroom, taking her hostage to lure out O-Ren. After calling O-Ren out into the club's dance hall, she slices off Fatale's arm. O-Ren dispatches her body guards to deal with the Bride, who proceeds to take on O-Ren’s henchmen, including O-Ren's personal bodyguard, the seventeen year-old girl named Gogo Yubari, who wields an altered meteor hammer with retractable blades. After killing the subordinates, she is confronted by the bulk of O-Ren's army, the "Crazy 88s."

They all suffer grisly death or mutilation by the Bride (with the exception of one very young "soldier", who is literally spanked with the blunt end of the Bride's sword and told to go home to his mother) in a sequence of sustained, graphic violence. At the end of this frenetic battle The Bride, looking for O-Ren, slides open a door which unexpectedly reveals the quiet of a snowy, Japanese garden in back of the club. After a dramatic swordfight, during which O-Ren's contempt for the Bride's skills changes to quiet respect, the Bride succeeds in scalping O-Ren with her blade, killing her. She deposits the dismembered Sophie Fatale at a hospital after extracting information from her. Sophie is patched up and later returns to Bill.

In the Volume's last line, Bill asks Sophie if the Bride knows that her daughter is alive, a fact of which the audience has thus far been kept unaware. Template:Endspoiler

Volume 2 synopsis

Chapter sequence (chronological order in parentheses)

• Chapter Six: Massacre at Two Pines (3)
• Chapter Seven: The lonely grave of Paula Schultz (8)
• Chapter Eight: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei (2)
• Chapter Nine: ELLE and I (9)
• Last Chapter: Face to Face (10)

Kill Bill: Vol. 2
File:Kill Bill Vol 2 The Bride.jpg Kill Bill: Vol. 2 Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Character of The Bride: Quentin Tarantino Uma Thurman Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Starring	Uma Thurman David Carradine Daryl Hannah Michael Madsen Michael Parks
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Sally Menke
Music by	Robert Rodríguez
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	April 16, 2004
Running time	136 min.
Language	English
Budget	$55 million USD(for two volumes)

Template:Spoiler Note: It is revealed in Volume 2 that The Bride's real name is Beatrix Kiddo. Beatrix is the name used throughout this section.

Kill Bill: Volume 2 opens with a brief recap of Volume 1, narrated by Beatrix herself: she was betrayed and left for dead by the other members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and is now hunting them down one by one. She states that Bill is the only one she has left to kill, indicating that this scene is out of chronological order (at the end of Volume 1 she still had three targets left).

The first chapter of Volume 2 takes place at the now-notorious wedding chapel. Beatrix and her friends are there for her wedding rehearsal when Bill shows up unexpectedly, and for the first time the audience gets to see his face. Though disappointed to see his lover marrying someone else, he is polite and mild-mannered, and even consents to being introduced to the groom as Beatrix's father. Once Beatrix believes she has convinced Bill not to cause any trouble, she takes her place at the altar with her groom, a local record store owner. The camera then pulls back out the door of the chapel, revealing the other four Deadly Vipers waiting outside with their weapons. They walk into the chapel and we hear them firing as Beatrix screams at Bill and the scene fades to black.

Moving to the present, we see Bill paying a visit to his estranged brother Budd (aka "Sidewinder", played by Michael Madsen), another former Deadly Viper. Bill warns him that Beatrix will come for him next, but Budd, now overweight and alcoholic, his assassin days apparently behind him, seems either to not take him very seriously or blatantly not care much for his life. Bill departs, and Budd goes to his job as a bouncer at a topless bar, where his boss reprimands him for being late.

After Budd returns to his secluded trailer home that evening, we see that Beatrix has indeed come for him. But as soon as she opens the door, Budd blasts her in the chest with a shotgun shell filled with rock salt, incapacitating her and then injects her with a drug to make her unconscious. He then phones Elle Driver, tells her he's captured Beatrix, and offers to sell her Beatrix's Hanzo sword for one million dollars. Elle agrees, on the condition that Beatrix "must suffer to her last breath." In a horrific scene, filmed from The Bride's point of view, Budd ties Beatrix up, puts her in a wooden coffin, and buries her alive at the local graveyard.

The movie leaves Beatrix, cliff-hanger style, in the coffin and moves to a flashback set in China, many years before. Bill is taking Beatrix to the temple of legendary martial arts master Pai Mei (a classic example of the elderly martial arts master stock character). After warning Beatrix to be humble and obedient, Bill convinces Pai Mei to accept her for training. The training is extremely rigorous, with many hardships, but she becomes a formidable warrior under his tutelage.

File:Kill Bill Vol 2 screenshot 1.jpg

The Bride and Pai Mei.

Back in the coffin, we see Beatrix call on this training, as she uses one of Pai Mei's techniques to smash her way out of the coffin and claw her way up to freedom. She hikes back to Budd's isolated desert trailer in time to see Elle pulling up in her Trans Am, and Budd standing in his doorway.

Inside the trailer, the eyepatch-wearing Elle makes small talk with Budd, and presents him with a suitcase full of cash in payment for the sword. As Budd counts the money, a highly venomous black mamba that Elle had hidden in the suitcase attacks, biting him several times in the face ("Black Mamba" is Beatrix's Deadly Vipers codename). Elle lights a cigarette and takes great pleasure in lecturing Budd on the black mamba as he dies, noting that Black Mamba also means Death Incarnate, lamenting that Beatrix deserved a more dignified death from someone with more class than Budd. Bill calls her cell phone, and she feigns sympathy as she tells him that his brother Budd was killed by Beatrix, but that Beatrix herself is now dead and buried.

Elle takes both sword and money and prepares to leave, but as she opens the door, Beatrix attacks her, kicking her back inside. The two fight ferociously in the enclosed space, clobbering each other with various items within the trailer. The brutal fight progresses with neither gaining a clear advantage until Elle manages to unsheathe Beatrix's Hanzo sword. Beatrix, however, discovers Budd's Hanzo sword hidden in a golf bag, despite Budd's claim to have pawned it years ago.

File:Kill Bill Vol 2 screenshot 2.jpg

The Bride vs. Elle.

Elle and Beatrix have a brief conversation, in which we learn that it was Pai Mei who "snatched out" Elle's right eye as punishment for her insolence. Elle maliciously tells Beatrix that she got her revenge by poisoning Pai Mei's food, killing him. The two continue to stare each other down until they simultaneously attack one another with their Hanzo swords, hampered somewhat by the extremely close quarters. With their swords locked together, Beatrix's hand suddenly darts out and snatches out Elle's remaining eye, then proceeds to squish it flat with her bare foot. Elle shrieks and falls to the ground, and thrashing about wildly, cursing and threatening Beatrix. Beatrix calmly collects her Hanzo sword and departs, limping, leaving Elle blind and alone (except for the still-hissing mamba) in the secluded trailer.

File:Kill Bill Vol 2 screenshot 3.jpg

The Bride vs. Bill.

The last chapter is set in Mexico, where Beatrix first visits an old pimp named Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks again, in a second role), who turns out to have raised Bill from childhood. He forthrightly tells her Bill's whereabouts, despite knowing her intentions, explaining to an incredulous Beatrix that Bill would have wanted him to.

Beatrix drives to Bill's home, prepared to kill him. She finds that Bill is not alone, however: B.B., their four-year-old daughter, who she had thought was murdered during the wedding chapel attack, is alive and well, apparently delivered while Beatrix was comatose. Met with a family scene rather than aggression, Beatrix is overcome with emotion, creating a tension which envelopes the remainder of the movie: will Beatrix complete her mission? The family spends the evening together peacefully, and B.B. falls asleep watching the chambara film Shogun Assassin in her mother's arms.

File:Kill Bill Vol 2 screenshot 4.jpg

Beatrix and B.B.

With B.B. safely in bed, Beatrix returns to the living room and verbally confronts Bill, who explains he has some unanswered questions for her. Beatrix takes note of Bill's Hanzo sword proudly displayed above his television, and leaps forward to grab it before Bill shoots the television causing Beatrix to jump back. He then shoots her with a dart filled with truth serum, which he describes as "one of his finest inventions", similar to Sodium Pentothal, "but without the druggy after effects". He then makes her tell him why she ran away. We learn that she realized upon becoming pregnant that she must put her daughter's future above Bill, and leave behind the assassin's life. Bill deprecates her attempts to find a "normal" life, and compares her with Clark Kent (Superman), saying that she was trying to hide her true identity behind a ridiculous facade. He explains his own actions toward her, saying, "There are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard... I guess I overreacted."

The tension between their lingering feelings for one another and their desire to kill one another finally comes to a head when Bill draws his sword and attacks Beatrix. Although he appears to gain the advantage by disarming her, she disables Bill using the fatal Five-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique, taught to her without Bill's or the audience's knowledge by Pai Mei. Bill realizes he is beaten, and says a tender goodbye. He then walks unsteadily away, collapses, and dies in silence. Beatrix sheds a few tears for the death of her lover, and returns to the house to collect her daughter. The final scene shows Beatrix on the floor of a hotel bathroom, overcome with conflicting emotions, alternately laughing, crying, and repeatedly whispering, "Thank you.". Since her prevailing reaction is laughter, she's most likely experiencing the only side-effect of the truth serum, stated by Bill: a state of euphoria. Regaining her composure, she goes to her daughter to start their new life together. Template:Endspoiler

Budget and box office

The production budget for Kill Bill (volumes I and II combined) was US$60 million.[4][5] This does not include marketing and distribution costs.

Kill Bill: Volume I was released in the United States on October 10, 2003. Its US gross box office receipts were US$70,099,000; its box office receipts for the rest of the world came to US$110,850,000, for a total of US$180,949,000.

Kill Bill: Volume II was released in the United States on April 16, 2004. Its US gross box office receipts were US$66,208,000; its box office receipts for the rest of the world came to US$85,951,000, for a total of US$152,159,000.

Acclaim and criticism

Much-anticipated by fans and critics (it appeared after a six-year hiatus of Tarantino movies), Kill Bill generated a tremendous amount of discussion. Reaction by film critics was largely positive, though by no means unanimous. Both volumes did well at the box office.

A movie in two volumes

Though released as two movies, the film differs from multi-part "franchise" series like Star Wars. The short duration between the releases of the two volumes, and the film’s history and internal structure, strongly recommend that it be regarded as one movie. The dual-release strategy, ostensibly due to the film’s length, has been criticized as an attempt by Miramax to sell two tickets to one movie.

The two-volume format also amplified what some saw as a structural problem with the film: most of the action occurs in the first half, while most of the dialogue is in the second. Thus, the two volumes are significantly different in style and tone, causing some amount of confusion and disappointment in fans who came to Volume 1 looking for Tarantino's trademark dialogue, or who expected more flashy action sequences in Volume 2. Of Volume 2, Sean O’Connell of Filmcritic.com writes, "The drop-off in energy, style, and coherence from...Volume 1 to its bloated, disinteresting counterpart is so drastic and extreme that you can hardly believe they come from the same director, let alone conclude the same storyline." Other critics preferred Volume 2: "...Characters actually talk to one another here rather than the stilted samurai movie-speak of the first film," wrote Jeffery M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid. [6]

Violence

Much criticism concerned the amount and presentation of bloodshed and general mayhem (the film’s R rating also derives from profanity, depicted drug use, and a couple of non-explicit sex scenes). “A cocktail party in an abattoir,” complained one critic. The violence is not just incidental to the film’s narrative, it is a conscious part of the telling of the story—an aesthetic element, for better or worse. An example is the decapitation of Boss Tanaka prior to the House of Blue Leaves battle, in which an amount of blood seemingly greater than what a body could hold sprays upward from the headless trunk, like a dancing fountain.

Style and substance

Much of the controversy over the film reflects the differing expectations of those who admire a movie for its style and craftsmanship against those who look primarily at story and substance; as a tribute film and revenge saga, the movie is at a disadvantage with the latter group. “You never forget that Kill Bill is an exercise in genre-sampling,” writes the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro. However, the opinion that the movie appeals mainly to film buffs looking to spot obscure pop culture references is a minority view. Most critics found it well-constructed, with tightly-edited action scenes, strong performances, often-clever dialogue, and an effectively exciting soundtrack which draws on an astonishing selection of (mostly post-1960) music.

Releases

DVD release

File:Kill Bill.jpg

Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 DVD pack

File:Kill Bill Vol 1 Black.jpg

Kill Bill Vol 1 Special Edition (Japanese version)

In the United States Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released as a DVD on April 13, 2004 while Volume 2 was released August 10, 2004. As of August 2006, only the basic DVDs have been released, with almost no special features. No further DVD releases have been announced.

In a December 2005 interview, Tarantino addressed the lack of a special edition DVD for Kill Bill by stating "I've been holding off because I've been working on it for so long that I just wanted a year off from Kill Bill and then I'll do the big supplementary DVD package."

The United States does not have a DVD boxed set of Kill Bill, though box sets of the two separate volumes are available in other countries, such as France and Japan. Upon the DVD release of Volume 2 in the US, however, Best Buy did offer an exclusive boxset slipcase to house the two individual releases together.

Sequels

Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly in April 2004 that he is planning a sequel:

Oh yeah, initially I was thinking this would be my Dollars Trilogy. I was going to do a new one every ten years. But I need at least fifteen years before I do this again. I've already got the whole mythology: Sofie Fatale will get all of Bill's money. She'll raise Nikki, who'll take on The Bride. Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as The Bride deserved hers. I might even shoot a couple of scenes for it now so I can get the actresses while they're this age.

It is also worth noting that in the credits at the end of the film, each actor portraying a now-deceased DiVAS member has their name crossed out — but Elle Driver's name has, instead, a question mark over it.

Prequels

Quentin Tarantino said at the 2006 Comic Con that, after the completion of Grind House, he wants to make two anime Kill Bill films. One will be an origin story about Bill and his mentors, and the other will be an original tale starring The Bride. The latter is most likely to be a prequel, but could also follow the rumored (sequel) plot reported in Entertainment Weekly in April 2004.

Influences

General

The overall storyline of Kill Bill - a woman seeks revenge on a group of people, crossing them off a list one by one as she kills them - is adapted from Lady Snowblood (1973), a Japanese revenge film in which a woman kills off the gang who murdered her family; The Guardian commented that Lady Snowblood was "practically a template for the whole of Kill Bill Vol. 1". The storyline also has strong similarities with Francois Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black (1967), which also features a bride hunting down the murderers of her husband and crossing them off a list. However, Tarantino has claimed this is a coincidence, since he has never seen the film.[7]

File:Shawframe019.jpg

Shaw Scope logo

Kill Bill pays tribute to film genres including the spaghetti western, blaxploitation, Chinese "wuxia" and Japanese martial arts films, and kung fu movies of the 60s and 70s. This last genre, which was largely produced by the Shaw Brothers, is given an obvious nod by the inclusion of the Shaw Scope logo [8] at the beginning of Kill Bill Vol. 1.

The Japanese Lone Wolf and Cub series of Manga and films are echoed in the characters of the Bride and her daughter. The Americanized version of this series, Shogun Assassin, is actually viewed by the two characters.

Specific allusions to other works

Tarantino features direct nods to many of his influences in his movies. Here are some examples of this in Kill Bill:

• In addition to the overall plot, Lady Snowblood is referenced in the House of Blue Leaves swordfight, in particular when Sofie Fatale writhes on the floor after her arm is sliced off, in a similar shot to one in Lady Snowblood, including the blood that splashes on the camera lens. Furthermore, the theme song from Lady Snowblood plays during the death of O-ren Ishii.
• When Bride returns to her car after killing Copperhead, dialogue from the 1979 Japanese TV series "The Yagyuu Conspiracy" is heard. The dialogue was spoken by Sonny Chiba, who played the well known Samurai and folk hero Yagyu Jubei in that series.
• Quentin Tarantino (who himself is a big fan of Toho's monster and sci fi films, especially those of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya) based the fight between Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill Vol. 2 on the final battle in War of the Gargantuas. He showed his copy of the film to both actresses and told them he wanted it to be "War of the Blonde Gargantuas"
• The character of Elle Driver derives in part from the Swedish film Thriller - en grym film (1973), a revenge film with an eyepatch-wearing heroine.
• The Bride describes her vendetta as "what the movie advertisements call 'a roaring rampage of revenge'." This was the tagline to the 1972 B-movie "biker-chick-flick" Bury Me an Angel, about an angry, sexy blonde who sets out to kill the bikers that murdered her brother. The full alliteration-heavy tagline was "A howling hell-cat humping a hot steel hog on a roaring rampage of revenge!"
• The red skyline during the plane flight scenes are inspired by Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell.
• The miniature Tokyo set used when the Bride flies into the city is the same set used in the most recent Godzilla movie at that time, which was Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. The miniatures impressed Tarantino so much that he used the Tokyo set for Kill Bill.
• During the Origin of O-ren sequence, a young O-ren, from under a bed, shoots one of Boss Matsumoto's bodyguards in the ankle and then in the head, almost identically to a scene in the Coen Brothers film Miller's Crossing.
• During the scene where the Texas Ranger is driving to the chapel, the view from the car with the pilot glasses on the dashboard is taken from the 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds by H.B. Halicki.
• "Revenge is a dish best served cold.- Old Klingon Proverb" – This proverb as it is referenced is from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as well as Star Trek VI. It is also used in the spaghetti western Death Rides a Horse (1968) (Kill Bill used music from Death Rides a Horse). Lee Van Cleef's character paraphrases the quote saying, "Somebody once wrote that revenge is a dish that has to be eaten cold. Hot as you are, you're liable to end up with indigestion." In fact, the earliest known literary occurrence of this proverb is in the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos in 1782, basis for the popular 1988 film Dangerous Liaisons, although clearly this reference did not suit Kill Bill's particular aesthetic.
• The character Gogo Yubari's name comes from the Japanese animation series: Mach Go Go Go (known in North America as Speed Racer) as well as the Japanese town of Yubari, famous for its melons. The actress playing Gogo has joked that she will return as the character: Mach Melon.
• Bill's eventual reason for stopping the Bride's wedding is very similar to those of Cary Grant in His Girl Friday, one of Tarantino's favorite films.
• The siren-like music (actually the theme from the television program Ironside) is an homage to Five Fingers of Death, in which the siren-like music is played during fights.
• The use of music and stylish flashbacks when the Bride is about to deal out vengeance recalls John Phillip Law's flashbacks in Death Rides a Horse.
• Death Rides a Horse is also referenced in the animated sequence in which a young O-Ren witnesses her parents' murder, where the last man to leave the room shoots a bottle of alcohol and kicks a cigar butt, causing the house to set on fire. In Death Rides a Horse, a young boy named Bill hides as he watches the death of his parents, and the last attacker shoots a lantern, setting the house ablaze as he leaves.
• The Bride goes without a name for most of the two movies. This recalls iconic Segio Leone characters (Clint Eastwood played the "man with no name," and Charles Bronson played "Harmonica") as well as Kurosawa's Yojimbo character.
• Chapter 2 is entitled "The Blood Splattered Bride," a reference to the movie La Novia Ensangrentada (1972) (released in the US as The Blood Spattered Bride).
• The speech given to Copperhead's daughter after her mother's assassination is identical to the speech given in the Takashi Miike film, Rainy Dog, after the murder of a young boy's assassin father.
• The Bride's yellow jumpsuit is based on one worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death.
• The masks worn by the members of the Crazy 88 are the same style that Bruce Lee's character Kato wore in the TV series The Green Hornet. The music played during the Yakuza and Bride's heading for the teahouse before the en-masse swordfight is also a nod to the series, which used Al Hirt's jazzy trumpet rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" as its theme. These two homages to Bruce Lee's work combine in the Crazy 88 fight to pit Bruce Lee's first screen incarnation (Kato) against his last (Game of Death). Bruce Lee was snubbed for the lead role in the Kung Fu TV series in favor of David Carradine (Bill). Kato usually had to wear his black mask and did not get many lines or close-ups with his mask off. Tarantino, paying homage to the success of Asian cinema with Kill Bill, has the vindicated "Game of Death" incarnation of Lee defeating the "Black Mask" version of Lee. And, of course, the film ends with the defeat of David Carradine's character.
• Several songs from Italian composer Ennio Morricone appear throughout the two films. These include tracks from A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Navajo Joe, The Mercenary, and Death Rides a Horse.
• Navajo Joe, a film Tarantino repurposed music from, featured an actress named Nicoletta Machiavelli. Since Tarantino was familiar with Navajo Joe, giving the Bride "Machiavelli" as an alias may have been a nod to the film.
• The Japanese release of Volume 1 begins with a dedication to Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku, director of Battles Without Honor and Humanity and Battle Royale.
• The use of the rock song "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" is both an allusion to the Yakuza film Battles Without Honor and Humanity (directed by Kinji Fukasaku) and Samurai Fiction. The song's composer/performer, Tomoyasu Hotei, both acted in and contributed music to Samurai Fiction, which in its own way refers back to Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.
• The kung-fu film Master of the Flying Guillotine is paid homage to by the brief use of the film's droning theme music, an excerpt of the song "Super 16" by Neu!, during the House of Blue Leaves sequence. The 'blind monks' theme is referenced during this ordeal as Oren-Ishii leaves the house of Blue Leaves during the prolific fight sequence. Otherwise known as a meteor hammer, the ball and chain weapon wielded by the character GoGo Yubar also adorns retractable blades, which appears to mimic the mechanisms of the original 'Flying Guillotine' weapon. Many kung-fu sound effects are taken from this movie as well.
• The move the Bride uses with two katanas (when she is surrounded by Crazy 88 members in the House of Blue Leaves) is a reference from Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection. The way she attacks low and disables her opponents is a mirror reference to the way the surrounded Bruce Lee used nunchaku against his opponents. There is even the same air of suspense before each fight scene.
• The finale between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii bears a stylistic resemblance to the finale of Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection, in that both take place outside of a Japanese building with fusuma sliding wood and paper doors, in a small, enclosed garden area. More obvious is that both scenes begin quietly, the silence permeated only by the rhythmic sound of a Shishi odoshi (Japanese water feature).
• The scene in which O-Ren Ishii walks down a hall followed by some of the Crazy 88 is similar to a scene in A Clockwork Orange in which Alex is walking with his "droogs".
• The phrase "My name is Buck, and I'm here to fuck..." has a striking resemblance to the phrase "My name is Buck and I'm ready to fuck!" from Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive.
• The scene in the House of Blue Leaves in which the three bodyguards fall simultaneously after the Bride strikes the hilt of her sword with her fist is almost identical to a scene in Shogun Assassin when the titular character and his son confront a female ninja.
• The end of the duel between Beatrix and O-Ren is very similar to the duel between Musashi and Kojiro in the third picture of Samurai Trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune. Both have the two enemies running parallel to each other, a simultaneous strike, a blood spatter without showing who was cut, and then the loser falling. This same scene has been replicated and imitated countless times in various other Japanese forms of media, especially anime.
• The blue lit silhouettes during the House of Blue Leaves fight are very similar to scenes using colored light and contrast in Samurai Fiction, as well as the climactic scene from Highlander.
• After Beatrix rips out the eye of Elle Driver, she is completely covered in blood and dirt, quite reminiscent of Carrie after the buckets of blood are spilled over her. In the hospital scene in Volume 1, Tarantino uses a split-screen technique, also reminiscent of Carrie director Brian De Palma.
• The film has a very similar plot to Five Deadly Venoms.
• The character Elle Driver is influenced by the character Patch from Switchblade Sisters which Tarantino has released under his Rolling Thunder imprint.
• After being blinded, Elle Driver shrieks and thrashes about on the floor of the trailer. This is an homage to Blade Runner, in which Darryl Hannah's character, the replicant Pris, exhibits identical behavior after being shot by Rick Deckard.
• The character of Pai Mei, priest of the White Lotus Clan, has appeared in other movies. Actor Lieh Lo played him in Executioners from Shao Lin (Hung Hsi-Kuan), Abbot of Shaolin (Shao Lin ying xiong bang), and Clan of the White Lotus (Hung wen tin san po pai lien chiao), which also featured Gordon Liu. The character is based on Bak Mei, a historical martial artist from China.
• Some parts of the English translation of Pai Mei's Cantonese dialogue are rather loose similiar to countless Shaw Brother kung fu movies dubbed or subtitled in English in the 70s and 80s.
• The character of Hattori Hanzō (服部半蔵) is based on a historical figure who has been depicted in film many times. Actor Sonny Chiba played the role in the television series Kage no Gundan ([影の軍団] Error: {{nihongo}}: text has italic markup (help), ; 'Shadow Army'). Actor Kenji Oba (aka. Kenji Ohba) also played the role in the television series Kage no Gundan; the character of bald guy (Sushi shop) is based on Gamahachi (がま八) who appears in that work. Sonny Chiba and Kenji Ohba are actually teacher and student's relations. They played together also in Uchuu Keiji Gavan and influenced Paul Verhoeven's Robocop.
• The scene in Kill Bill Volume 2, where David Carradine plays his flute while sitting near the fire and talking to Beatrix, is almost identical to a similar scene in Circle Of Iron, which Carradine also starred in. The flute that Bill plays is actually one of the prop flutes from the original "Kung Fu" TV show, which Carradine always kept as a memento.
• Issac Hayes' score from the films Three Tough Guys and Truck Turner were used in both volumes (the Truck Turner theme where The Bride is seen driving Buck's Pussy Wagon, and the title to Three Tough Guys during a flashback with Pai Mei in Vol. 2).
• The theme music that plays when the Bride looks down on Sophie is the theme to The Yagyu Conspiracy, a popular TV series starring Sonny Chiba in one of his most memorable roles as Yagyu Jubei. The Battle of the House of Blue Leaves is similar to Jubei's fight against dozens of soldiers in the final episode of that series. Interestingly, Sonny Chiba choreographed the majority of the HoBL fight scene.
• Chapter 6 "The Massacre at Two Pines" is an allusion to the film "Meatballs", a seventies comedy starring Bill Murray, in which he scares a group of camp counselors with a fictional tale about an escaped lunatic murdering a group of kids at camp Two Pines.
• Just after Buck walks back into the hospital room to find the trucker dead in Kill Bill Vol:1, The Bride, who is lying behind him, cuts the tendon in the back of his ankle to make him drop to the floor. This is a nod to director Chan-Wook Park and his film Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance where one of the main characters ankle tendons are cut in a river so he cannot support himself and so subsequently drowns.
• The scene of Beatrix driving through southwestern countryside in black and white while credits roll, as well as the setting of El Paso,Texas are likely references to Manos Hands of Fate which Tarantino is known to have a rare copy of and list as his favorite comedy.

Specific allusions to other Tarantino films

Quentin Tarantino also includes many references to his own previous works.

• Vivica A. Fox's resentment towards her alias "Copperhead" is a reference to Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, in which Steve Buscemi's character dislikes his own alias, "Mr. Pink."
• Uma Thurman's character "The Bride" explains revenge as getting "square" and then traces a square in the air with her index fingers references Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, in which Thurman's character Mia Wallace tells John Travolta's character not to be a "square", punctuated by her similarly tracing the shape.
• Another reference to Mia Wallace is the manner is which The Bride gasps and suddenly wakes from her coma, all shot from overhead. The exact same angle is used to film the same actress performing the same actions in Pulp Fiction when Mia wakes from her drug induced stupor.
• Texas Ranger Earl McGraw, played by Michael Parks, appeared in the opening of From Dusk Till Dawn, which was written by Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez. One could infer that the Texas Ranger's scenes in Kill Bill take place before the events of Dusk, since his character dies in that movie. Parks is rumored to be playing the character again in the Tarantino / Rodriguez collaboration, Grind House.
• Deputy Edgar McGraw also appeared in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. In each film, he is played by James Parks, the real life son of actor Michael Parks.
• During the scene where The Bride discovers she is pregnant, a shot of her bent foot is a reference to Pulp Fiction, as a similar shot is taken when Mia Wallace (also played by Uma Thurman) prepares to dance at the Jack Rabbit Slim's.
• In Volume 2, Bill tells the Bride that she is a "natural born killer". Tarantino wrote the story for Natural Born Killers.
• When Kiddo confronts Bill in his living room, she lunges for his sword in the middle of their conversation. Bill fires a warning shot, then trains the gun on her. He threatens to shoot her in the kneecap, which he hears is a very painful place to be shot in. This is a reference to Resovoir Dogs, in which Mr. White tells Mr. Orange that the kneecap is the most painful place a man can be shot.
• A conspicuous camera angle, apparently shot from within a car's trunk, appears in all of Tarantino's films and again appears in this film, after the Bride imprisons Sophie Fatale in her car.
• The part of the film where the Bride awakes from her coma and kills Buck and his customer, then steals the truck is similar enough to be seen as an homage or parallelism to the scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch escapes his bonds and he and Marcellus kill Zed and the other rapist, with Butch subsequently stealing Zed's chopper. Both situations are similar as are the personalized nature of the vehicles stolen by the respective characters.
• Upon arriving in Japan in Volume 1, Beatrix walks past a large sign advertising Red Apple cigarettes. In the opening scene of Jackie Brown, the title character walks past a similar sign, again in an airport. In Pulp Fiction, Butch Coolidge asks a bartender for a pack of Red Apple cigarettes after speaking with Marcellus Wallace. Also in Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman produces a pack of Red Apples at Jack Rabbit Slim's.
• In Volume 2, Budd gives the Bride what he describes as a "Texas funeral." In From Dusk Till Dawn, there is a song on the soundtrack called "Texas Funeral" by Jon Wayne.
• In Volume 2, when Beatrix has been given a Texas funeral she uses a knife hidden in her boot that is an old shaving razor. In the film Reservoir Dogs the character Mr. Blonde cuts up a cop with an old shaving razor hidden in his boots.
• In Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman's character (Mia Wallace) had acted in a failed TV pilot about an elite assassination squad named the "Fox Force Five".

Fox, as in we're a bunch of foxy chicks. Force, as in we're a force to be reckoned with. Five, as in there's one... two... three... four... five of us. There was a blonde one, Sommerset O'Neal from that show "Baton Rouge", she was the leader. A Japanese one, a black one, a French one and a brunette one, me. We all had special skills."

• Mia Wallace's character from Fox Force Five was supposedly the deadliest woman in the world with a knife. In Kill Bill Vol. 2, Beatrix says "I'm the deadliest woman in the world..." when confronted by a Japanese assassin. Also, she is pretty handy with a knife, as demonstrated in the opening fight from Kill Bill Vol. 1. Quentin Tarantino has confirmed in interviews that the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS)" was inspired by "Fox Force Five," the fictional television show that Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) filmed in Pulp Fiction.
• Budd falsely claims that he pawned his Hattori Hanzo sword. In Pulp Fiction, Butch Coolidge uses a katana sword found in a pawn shop to save Marsellus Wallace from the two rapists.

Music

The following are the tracks from the released Kill Bill Soundtrack CDs. Some tracks are not music, but are lines of dialogue from the films. Also, this is only a list of music on the soundtrack CDs, not a list of all music appearing in the film; for example, "I'm Blue" by the 5.6.7.8's is not included.

Volume 1

1. "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" – Nancy Sinatra
2. "That Certain Female" – Charlie Feathers
3. "The Grand Duel (Parte Prima)" – Luis Enrique Bacalov
4. "Twisted Nerve" – Bernard Herrmann
5. "Queen of the Crime Council" – Lucy Liu/Julie Dreyfus
6. "Ode to Oren Ishii" – RZA
7. "Run Fay Fun" – Isaac Hayes
8. "Green Hornet" – Al Hirt
9. "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" – Tomoyasu Hotei
10. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" – Santa Esmeralda
11. "Woo Hoo" – 5.6.7.8's
12. "Crane-White Lightning" – RZA/Charles Bernstein
13. "The Flower of Carnage" – Meiko Kaji
14. "The Lonely Shepherd" – Zamfir
15. "You're My Wicked Life" – David Carradine
16. "Ironside" – Quincy Jones
17. "Super 16" – NEU!
18. "Yakuza Oren 1" – RZA
19. "Banister Fight" – RZA
20. "Flip Sting"
21. "Sword Swings"
22. "Axe Throws"

Volume 2

1. "A Few Words From The Bride" – Uma Thurman
2. "Goodnight Moon" – Shivaree
3. "Il Tramonto" – Ennio Morricone
4. "Can't Hardly Stand It" – Charlie Feathers
5. "Tu Mirá [Edit]" – Lole Y Manuel
6. "Summertime Killer" – Luis Bacalov
7. "The Chase" – Alan Reeves, Phil Steele And Philip Brigham
8. "The Legend Of Pai Mei" – David Carradine And Uma Thurman
9. "L'arena" – Ennio Morricone
10. "A Satisfied Mind" – Johnny Cash
11. "A Silhouette Of Doom" – Ennio Morricone
12. "About Her" – Malcolm McLaren
13. "Truly And Utterly Bill" – David Carradine And Uma Thurman
14. "Malagueña Salerosa" – Chingon
15. "Urami Bushi" – Meiko Kaji

Trivia

File:Neca-action-figure-kill-bill.jpg

NECA action figure released 2004.

• When Vernita Green shoots at the Bride, the gun is in a box of cereal named "Kaboom!" Tarantino is known for his love of discontinued cereal brands, as seen in his use of Fruit Brute cereal in previous films.

• At the very end of the credits of Kill Bill: Volume 2, we see a sequence of the Showdown at House of Blue Leaves where Beatrix snatches the eye of one the members of The Crazy 88. This reminds the audience that she already used the technique in Volume 1 (a brief moment in the long sequence of sustained and particularly graphic violence) before doing the same to Elle in Kill Bill: Volume 2.

• In the Showdown at House of Blue Leaves, before the fight scene when Beatrix Kiddo walks over a clear glass tiled floor, the phrase "FUCK U" forms the tread pattern on the soles of her sneakers.

• The film also features an anime sequence explaining O-Ren's tragic backstory. It is directed by Kazuto Nakazawa, who also directed the Linkin Park video for "Breaking The Habit", with the animation studio Production I.G, producers of Ghost in the Shell and End of Evangelion among other works.

File:Beatrix Kiddo boarding pass.jpg

The Bride's boarding pass (click for a larger view).

• During Volume 1, The Bride's real name is bleeped out when characters say it. However, The Bride's real name is present on her boarding pass for her flights to Okinawa and Tokyo.

• In the ending credits, Beatrix Kiddo is stated to have been "based on the character 'The Bride' by Q & U". Q & U represents the first initials of Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman, crediting their close collaboration on the character.

• In Volume 1, before The Bride's real name is revealed, she and O-ren have a short conversation that hints at it. The words they exchange are "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids," a well-known phrase from the television commercials for an American breakfast cereal. "Kids" hints at "Kiddo" while "...bit, Trix..." hints at "Beatrix", hence the name "Beatrix Kiddo".

• While the American cut of the movie shows the violent battle at the House of Blue Leaves in black-and-white, the Japanese cut shows it in color. The "Color Cut" of this film segment is highly sought after by fans, but has not been officially distributed outside Japan.

• The Crazy 88: in China, "88" is an auspicious number, much like 7 in the west. In Chinese the number 8 is pronounced "ba", 88 therefore in Chinese chatslang meaning "byebye". See 8 (number) for more on the luck factor associated with it. In Japan, it is most often associated with the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage.

• In contrast to her murderous rampage in Volume 1, The Bride kills only one person in Volume 2, and not with her sword.

• The alias she used on her marriage certificate is 'Arlene Machiavelli'. Niccolò Machiavelli advocated faking one's own death as a strategy to fool enemies.

• On September 15, 2006, the film made its United States commercial television debut on the TNT network. A TV-14 rating was achieved by deleting certain language and violence elements, including renaming the "Pussy Wagon" as the "Party Wagon" on the pickup's tailgate and even on Buck's keychain ("party" was also used to replace "fuck" in Buck's most memorable line). These edits required some computer-assisted trickery, both with the "party" changes and smoothing out lipsync to match the altered dialogue.

• Just before their duel in Volume One, O-Ren tells The Bride, "I hope you've saved your energy. If you haven't, you might not last five minutes." In fact, the fight, from the time the two contenders' blades first touch as they approach each other, lasts exactly five minutes.

• Kill Bill Volume 2 advertisments appear in the British video game The Getaway: Black Monday.

Cast

Actor	Role	Deadly Viper Assassination Squad name
Uma Thurman	The Bride/Beatrix Kiddo/Arlene Machiavelli/Mommy	Black Mamba
David Carradine	Bill	Snake Charmer
Vivica A. Fox	Vernita Green/Jeanie Bell	Copperhead
Lucy Liu	O-Ren Ishii	Cottonmouth
Michael Madsen	Budd	Sidewinder
Daryl Hannah	Elle Driver	California Mountain Snake
Sonny Chiba	Hattori Hanzō	N/A
Chiaki Kuriyama	Gogo Yubari
Julie Dreyfus	Sofie Fatale
Gordon Liu	Pai Mei/Johnny Mo
Michael Parks	Earl McGraw/Esteban Vihaio
Perla Haney-Jardine	B.B. Kiddo
Helen Kim	Karen Kim

References

External links

• Kill Bill: Vol. 1 at IMDb
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2 at IMDb
• Kill Bill: Vol. 1 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Production I.G on the Kill Bill Anime Sequences Article from CGSociety.org
• The Kill Bill References Guide
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being Cool: Appropriation and Prospects of Subversion in the Works of Quentin Tarantino