"Looked dead, didn't I? But I wasn't. And it wasn't for lack of trying, I can tell you that. Actually, Bill's last bullet put me in a coma. A coma I was to lie in for four years. When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements referred to as a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. I roared. I rampaged. And I got bloody satisfaction. I've killed a hell of a lot of people to get to this point, but I have only one more. The last one. The one I'm driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination... I am gonna KILL BILL."
— The Bride
Kill Bill takes Quentin Tarantino's favorite things — westerns, samurai movies, martial arts, pop-culture references, Action Girls, and close-ups of women's bare feet (don't ask aboutthat last one) — and combines them all into one hell of a revenge drama.While Tarantino originally conceived the film as one complete movie, Miramax split it into two parts (Vol. 1, released in 2003, and Vol. 2, released in 2004). Watching them together earns you a nice four-hour action romp filled with deliberate over-the-top violence which runs on the Rule Of Cool. Tarantino plans to film a third movie in 2014.The story — told in "chapters", as well as Tarantino's signature non-linear fashion — centers around an Action Girl known primarily as "The Bride", a former assassin who wants to pursue a life of normalcy. Her former crew, The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, isn't too happy with that — and during The Bride's wedding rehearsal, they crash the church and slaughter the entire wedding party, then beat The Bride spaghetti-western-style until she can't move. Once the DiVAS are done, their leader (the eponymous Bill) walks up to The Bride and puts a bullet in her head — right after The Bride tells him she's pregnant with his child. Four years later, The Bride wakes up from a coma and vows to get her revenge on the DiVAS — and anyone who happens to get in her way — while saving Bill for last.To view a partial list of the innumerable references to other films in Kill Bill, visit the List of Film References in Tarantino's Films.
Kill Bill provides examples of the following tropes:
Absurdly Sharp Blade: The katana owned by the Bride is so sharp, its creator claims that "If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut."
As to the actually demonstrated cutting power of the blade, it's sharp enough to easily chop a man vertically in half.
Agony of the Feet: How the Bride managed to disable Gogo before offing her: she drove the extruding nail of a 2x4 through one of her feet.
After she gets out of that coffin and walks barefoot through the desert back to Bud's trailer, and then is fighting barefoot amid all that shattered glass and splinters and God knows what else (oh, yeah, and the black mamba) all over the floor.... That's brutal.
Elle actually steps on her foot with her heels. Brutal, indeed.
Anachronic Order: A Tarantino trademark. The first chapter from Volume 1 shows the Bride's second kill on her mission, and the next four chapters are a flashback to everything leading up to that kill - the Bride waking up from her coma, getting her Hanzo sword, hunting down O-Ren Ishii, and making her hit list.
Antagonist In Mourning: Given a nod when Bud and Elle think The Bride is dead. Bud asks Elle, who considered The Bride a personal rival/nemesis, which R she feels: Relief, or Regret.
More importantly, Beatrix weeps in the bathroom after she kills Bill.
And this also happens to Bill twice, first when he believes The Bride has been killed, while she had only ran away after finding out she was pregnant. And again, as he explains later in Vol. 2 to B.B. that he felt very sad after, you know, hunting her ass down and putting a bullet in her head. Sorry kiddo!
Anti-Hero: The Bride is an example of Type IV. As an assassin, she fully believes in Paying Evil Unto Evil, though she still has certain things that she will not do if she can help it — like murdering someone in front of their child.
O-Ren's father put up a hell of a bare-handed fight in the animated flashback sequence.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Just about everyone, but especially Elle Driver from the second movie.
Balls of Steel: Pai Mei has these, as the Bride finds out the hard way during her battle with him.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. The Bride gets beat up, slashed up, bloodied, shot up, and even buried alive, and still kicks serious ass on just about everybody she meets — and this is a woman who is referred to as being very beautiful. It's very debatable though — as bloodied and bruised as she gets, none of her wounds appear to leave a visible lasting mark that mars her beauty. She's lucky she wasn't one of Esteban's girls.
Also, Sofie has an arm cut off on screen.
In the Japanese cut of the movie, she has her other arm cut off when the Bride interrogates her in the boot of the car, though the cut is at the elbow rather than the shoulder.
Bilingual Bonus: On the first film's poster, the characters in the background are a katakana transliteration of "Kill Bill" (in this case, reading Kiru Biru) - likely to save space since the actual translation would be 「ビルを殺す」 "Biru o korosu". The Chinese characters on Volume II's poster say "pursue and kill Bill."
Bittersweet Ending: The Bride manages to make peace with Bill before killing him and running away with B.B.
Black and Gray Morality: "That woman deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die. But then again, so does she."
Black Blood: The Crazy 88s segment was shown in black-and-white to avoid an NC-17 rating.
The original full-color (and extended) version was shown in international markets.
Black Dude Dies First: Hilariously played with. Vernita Green dies at the beginning of Vol. 1, but is actually the second Deadly Viper to be killed by the Bride, since the rest of Vol. 1 is a flashback. (The effect on her screen time is the same, though.)
Blade Run: Pai Mei does this to The Bride. She is... surprised, to say the least.
Bloody Hilarious: The blood fountain (and there really is no other way to describe it) that erupts when O-Ren cuts off Boss Tanaka's head is hilarious if only for the fact that it sprays blood five feet into the air for a solid 10 seconds.
As well as when the Bride chops off Sofie Fatale's arm.
Amazingly, the sound of Boss Tanaka's blood is even more graphic on the soundtrack album than the film itself.
Born in the Wrong Century: For the most part, most of the characters try to live by the sword, but even so, being assassins, a lot of them are Combat Pragmatists; even the Bride seems ready to kill Bill with a gun at first.
Boss in Mook Clothing: Johnny Mo, who arrives at the head of the Crazy 88 to battle the Bride. He lasts throughout the entire battle, engaging her multiple times, and at the end faces her in single combat.
Brick Joke: When the Bride says to Nikki that "It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it comin'. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting."
Quentin is planning a third volume of the story, to be released in 2014, and he dropped that half of the brick joke knowing it would be eleven yearsbefore it would pay off.
Pai Mei scoffs that American women are only good for ordering in restaurants. Several months of brutal training, a few years and a live burial later and after clawing her way out of the grave The Bride goes into a cafe and asks for some water.
But Not Too Foreign: O-Ren Ishii is half Japanese and half Chinese-American; Sofie is half Japanese and half French.
The Can Kicked Him: Elle Driver gets her face forced into Budd's toilet by the Bride during their fight, to the point where she has to flush it to save herself from drowning.
Catchphrase: "You and I have unfinished business."
Cat Fight / Designated Girl Fight: Beautifully subverted. None of the fights look like Fanservice for titillating male audiences, and it's refreshing to see women fighting FOR REAL with REAL punches and REAL bruises instead of scratching and hair-pulling. The Bride's fight with Elle Driver in particular is especially vicious.
Code Name: The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad uses the names of lethal snakes as code names. The Bride's was "Black Mamba." This also doubles as Names to Run Away From Really Fast — the Black Mamba is generally considered to be the most deadly snake in the world, which leads to the question of how the others didn't see the end coming.
Cold-Blooded Torture: How The Bride gets information about the D-VAS from Sofie.
"What I am going to do is ask you questions, and every time you don't give me answers, I'm going to cut something off. And I promise you... they will be things you will miss."
Budd appears to be highly honorable at first, what with his talk of "she deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die" and all that. He ends up just shooting the Bride. In the tits. With rock salt.
The Bride herself. She attacks Elle with, among other things, a TV antenna, a lamp, a chair, and a toilet.
And Elle poisoning Pai Mei, who is so Badass it's the only possible way to kill him. Supposedly, anyway.
The Bride defeats Gogo with the ultimate weapon in the series: a 2x4 with a nail through it.
Cycle of Revenge: Not shown but the possibility is definitely left open. Vernita is killed in front of her daughter Nikki, who the Bride understands might someday want revenge against her.
Dangerously Genre Savvy: Budd in Volume 2, as he's the only one who chooses to outright shoot Beatrix rather than engaging in a bladefight first, though he does it with Rock Salt ammo so that he could bury her alive. However this also means that Elle considers him giving her an unworthy death and poisons him with a Black Mamba serpent for it.
Dark Action Girl: Pretty much every one of the female assassins.
Death by Cameo: Quentin Tarantino plays one of the Crazy 88, and ends up being the first one of them to get sliced up by the Bride.
Deadly Doctor: Averted. Elle dresses up as a nurse so she can get close enough to the the comatose Bride to give her a lethal injection; she's stopped from doing so by Bill, and she is not happy about it.
Death by Irony: Budd, while escaping from death from the Bride, aka Black Mamba, is killed by the venom of an actual black mamba.
Found within the story of Pai Mei that Bill tells the Bride. Pai Mei once offered a small nod of deference (a rare gesture) to a passing Shaolin monk, who failed to return it — for all anyone knows, the monk might not have even noticed it. For this grave insult, Pai Mei headed to the Shaolin Temple and demanded the head of the head abbot as an apology. When the other monks pleaded for mercy and tried to console Pai Mei, he slaughtered every one of them, burning the monastery down afterwards.
Also:
Bill: Not only are you not dead, you're getting married, to some fucking jerk, and you're pregnant. I... overreacted.
[long pause]
The Bride: You overreacted?
Pei Mei again, plucking Elle Driver's eye out for disrespecting him.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Played with. The Bride is a mass-murderer who, in her Roaring Rampage of Revenge, has killed, hacked off parts of, and tortured her former colleagues, moving coldly onto her next target without even waiting for the blood to stop pooling beneath the chopped-up bodies, but when Elle reveals that she killed the Bride's Master, she gets even more fucking pissed!
Bill will be "a murdering bastard" any day, but he will not (in the end) kill someone in their sleep, because "that act would lower us".
The Bride is sadistic and a mass-murderer; but she shows this as well. She sticks to the people on her list (and the Crazy 88) despite pointing out to Vernita to make things even, she would have to kill Vernita, her daughter, and her husband. She is also willing to stop the fight in front of Vernita's daughter and appears genuinely regretful that she killed Vernita in front of her daughter. She also spares one of the Crazy 88 when it turns out that he is just a teenager who is obviously hanging with the wrong crowd.
Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: The Bride is allowed to take her katana on the plane with her, because it's considered matter-of-fact for everybody at the airport (and, by extension, the country of Japan) to have a katana. In that scene, where the Bride is flying out of Japan and formulating her death list, there is also a katana across the aisle from her, and the man seated behind the Bride has one as well. Probably everyone on the plane has one. In fact, the plane has special katana holsters attached to each seat.
Eye Scream: In the Kill Bill 2 flashback, Elle mouths off to Pai Mei and he rips one of her eyes out in response. When the Bride finally confronts Elle, not only does she rip out her remaining eye, but also crushes it under her foot. The Bride rips out one of the Crazy 88's eyes in Vol. 1 in the same manner.
Face Death with Dignity: Bill after he's been five-point-exploding-heart-palmed. He straightens his jacket, wipes the blood off his lip and says "how do I look" before getting up and walking away until he falls down dead.
The Bride gets this TWICE. First, she is repeatedly raped while comatose from her assassination attempt, and then she is Buried Alive.
Elle stumbling around Budd's trailer with no eyes, and that question mark implying she's still there, bloody and confused (even though it's possible that the black mamba in the trailer killed her).
Foot Focus: "Wiggle your big toe", among many other examples. See the trope page for a complete list.
Four is Death: Subverted and Averted. The targets the Bride mainly focuses on (besides Bill) are the four members of the DiVAS who tried to assassinate her at her wedding. Note that while she does succeed in killing two of them, one is killed by another, and said other (her fourth target) doesn't actually die.
Also Played Straight and put on a pedestal. The film is 4 hours long. The Bride is in a coma for 4 years. It is the 4th Film by Tarantino. The list goes on.
Four Temperament Ensemble: Villainous example. Bill is phlegmatic, Elle Driver is choleric, Budd is sanguine, Vernita Green is leukine and O-Ren Ishii is melancholic.
Go Out with a Smile: It takes a real man to admit he is wrong, forgive the love of his life for killing him, and to tell her that she is a decent human being with a loving smile before gracefully walking to his death. Manliness, thy name is Bill.
Gory Discretion Blackout: The trucker who pays $75 to rape the now conscious Bride presumably has his lip bit off and his throat torn out with her teeth. It's not know how long it took him to die as by the time she throws him off Buck is coming back.
O-Ren expresses admiration for the Bride's sword and admits that it is a Hanzo sword after the Bride scalps her.
Gratuitous English: "This is so important, I'm going to say it in English!" - O-Ren, addressing a group of Japanese Yakuza. Though arguably, she was doing it to show her dominance, as she was half Japanese and half Chinese American.
Harmful to Minors: O-Ren Ishii witnesses the death of her parents at the hands of Boss Matsumoto when she's nine and takes her vengeance two years later. The Bride tries to avert this when she kills Vernita Green, but winds up doing it right in front of her daughter anyway. Knowing full well what usually happens to a kid after this, she tells her "When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting."
This is a great Sequel Hook. Tarantino is on record as having ideas for Kill Bill Volumes 3 and 4 already rolling around in his brain.
The scene could have been far worse. When Boss Matsumoto throws O-Ren's mother onto the bed, for a moment it totally seems that he is going to rape her...with O-Ren hiding under the mattress!
Well, luckily for her...Boss Matsumoto was a pedophile.
Heroic Comedic Sociopath / Sociopathic Hero: The Bride can be either, depending on the mood. When she's under a truth serum from Bill, she admits that she genuinely enjoys killing and maiming people. In fact, what stops her from being a downright Villain Protagonist (she was after all a contract killer for most of her life) is the relative Heel Face Turn she went through upon finding out she was pregnant, and her very deserved revenge.
"Hattori Hanzo" is the name of a legendary real-life samurai (and ninja) who lived in the 16th century. He had previously been played in a Japanese TV series by... Sonny Chiba.
Hollywood Healing: The Bride shows a wonderful knack for shrugging off various injuries. This is also averted: her healing from the massacre took four years.
Home Field Advantage: O'ren certainly has the advantage. Part of that advantage is her personal army and right hand Dragon.
Honor Before Reason: The Bride's conduct in the saga practically defines this trope. She never "just shoots" her enemies like a coward: instead she always honorably challenges them in a manner that allows them an equal chance at victory. This is debatable though, as the Bride wants her revenge and she doesn't hesitate to use dirty tricks if they're needed to win — ripping eyes out, using improvised weapons, attacking by surprise, you name it.
The other major characters show Honor Before Reason to varying degrees, ranging from Bill (who shows it in spades) to Budd (who just shoots the Bride). Then there's Elle. She was unhappy that Bill called off the hit on the Bride while she was still comatose, she used a black mamba to kill Budd out of pure jealousy and spite, and how she killed Pai Mei simply by poisoning his fish heads.
Actually, Budd's actions after the rock-salt buckshot might be interpreted as this (with traces of The Atoner). He was well aware of what kind of training the Bride had had with Pai Mei, so he was giving her the chance to claw her way back out of her grave if she had the will to do so.
In the original script, although the Bride was still honorable, she did have occasional 'reason over honor' moments — most notably, The Bride actually planned to snipe Bill from far away, under the justification that he originally called a bushwhack on her and she was just repaying the favor. She didn't go through with it because she saw B.B. through the scope and realized that her daughter was still alive.
Hospital Hottie: Elle Driver dresses as a nurse in order to sneak into the hospital where the Bride lies in a coma.
Iconic Outfit: The Bride's famous jumpsuit, itself a reference to a similar outfit worn by Bruce Lee.
I'll Kill You!: Elle Driver, after being reduced to a screaming psychotic wreck after the Bride snatches out her eye and crushes it underfoot.
Info Drop: The protagonist is usually known only as the Bride, but there are hints and one specific scene that reveal it to be Beatrix Kiddo.
Karma Houdini: Ernie, the guy that helped Budd bury the Bride in Volume 2.
Karmic Death: Elle Driver poisoned Pai Mei after he ripped her eye out, and she sics a black mamba on Budd after he claims to have killed the Bride. The Bride later rips out Elle's remaining eye, and leaves her locked in Budd's trailer with the black mamba in question. Of course, the list of former members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad shown at the end has a question mark by her name, but scratches through the names of all the ones the Bride killed — which, if Tarantino is to be believed, is meant to be the opening for a sequel to Kill Bill involving B.B., Vernita Green's daughter, and a blind Elle.
Katanas Are Just Better: Played straight and subverted. Although Hattori Hanzo is described as the world's greatest swordmaker, making his katanas the world's greatest swords, the film undercuts the power of the katana on a number of occasions. The Bride gets knocked around quite a bit by a meteor hammer and is at a disadvantage whenever she's faced with a gun. Her martial arts master is also a Chinese man who lambasts katanas and the Japanese.
Pai Mei is justified though — he is a kung fu master who easily avoids The Bride's blade and defeats her while being completely unarmed.
Kensington Gore: Scads and scads of neon-red fake blood are used, especially in Part 1. Mostly a Shout Out to old Shaw Bros. style Kung Fu movies.
Knife Nut: Copperhead, played by Vivica A. Fox. Beatrix even chooses to leave her Cool Sword behind to face Copperhead in a fair knife fight. When Copperhead tries to shoot Beatrix with a gun, she misses, and dies when the Bride sends a knife into her at range.
Large Ham: Old-school martial arts stars Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo (especially his English dialogue), and Gordon/Chia Hui Liu in both his roles.
Left for Dead: Driver, after the Bride plucks her eye out. While the credits for volume 2 have the other Vipers' names crossed out, she simply gets a question mark. Presumably the black mamba bites her at some point.
Leitmotif: Whenever the Bride lays her eyes on a target, the sirens from "Ironside" cut in.
Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Averted as well; the Bride tries to set up duels with Vernita Green and Bill, but she ends up killing them a few moments later.
Made of Iron: All of the DiVAS, but the Bride in particular deserves credit for surviving the No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at the wedding, followed by a bullet to the head.
Mama Bear: The reason why the Bride left her assassin order was to raise her soon-to-be-born baby away from bloodshed. Guess what she did when she couldn't fulfil it...
"Guessing won't be necessary."
Man Bites Man: The Bride's first kill upon getting out of her four-year coma was a trucker who tried to rape her, whose tongue she ripped out with her teeth.
May-December Romance: Bill with the Bride, Elle Driver, and most likely Sophie as well. He even plays along when Beatrix introduces him as her "father" at the wedding chapel on account of the age difference.
Medium Blending: O-Ren Ishii's backstory leading up to her takeover of the Yakuza is told through an animated sequence, as shooting that sequence in live-action would have all but ensured an NC-17 rating (and potentially a few arrests).
"Luckily for her, Boss Matsumoto... was a pedophile." (cut to a young O-Ren stabbing Boss Matsumoto through the chest while on top of him, apparently before having sex)
Mighty Whitey: The elderly Chinese kung fu master Pai Mei hates skinny people, blondes, whites, women, Japanese people, and Americans. Therefore, his greatest pupil is a skinny, blond, white American woman who speaks Japanese. Then again, he put her through Hell. She earned that training. Elle Driver - also a skinny, white, American blonde woman - notably gets her eye ripped out of her head for mouthing off to Pai Mei.
Of course, the only reason he even considered teaching them at all is because of Bill...
Not to mention that the Bride mops the floor with the bloody remains of the all-Asian martial arts army, the Crazy 88, and then goes on to defeat their Asian mistress.
Missing Trailer Scene: While Michael Jai White is featured in the Vol. 1 teaser, his scene did not make it into either film.
Mook Chivalry: Subverted. The Crazy 88s are a little less chivalrous than most mooks. Doesn't really help them, though.
Mundane Made Awesome: At the end of the second movie, Bill takes the most dramatic five steps ever.
And then he takes an additional SIXTH step because he is just that AWESOME!
Bill's badassery aside, the first footfall after he gets up is a pivot, not a step.
Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: In the spirit of this trope, Elle is so focused on killing the Bride with her own sword that she neglects to protect her face...
Nice Hat: Subverted with Budd's cowboy hat, at least as far as his employer at the titty bar is concerned.
Nightmare Face / Suddenly Shouting: O-Ren fulfills both when, after warning about the price one pays for bringing up her Chinese or American heritage as a negative, she says, "Now, if ANY of you sons of bitches GOT ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY, NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!"
No Name Given: Forced and lampshaded (as her name is actually bleeped out), but also very subtly averted for the Bride in the first movie: Although she seems to be completely pseudonymous, her real name can be seen very briefly on an airline ticket; furthermore, what seems to be just Bill's affectionate nickname for the Bride — "kiddo" — turns out to actually be her surname. Also, the "silly rabbit, Trix are for kids" exchange between the Bride and O-Ren seems at first to be an entirely random pop culture quote, but is actually a veiled reference to the name Beatrix Kiddo.
Lampshaded when the Bride's real name is revealed and the scene cuts to a school classroom, with the (fully grown) Bride answering the register when her name's called.
Nonindicative Name: There aren't actually 88 of them. They just thought it sounded cool. Though if you keep track, the Bride kills or maims 78 people while fighting them, so there could actually have been 88 mooks there.
When the Bride first meets Hattori Hanzo, she pretends not to know how to speak Japanese.
Budd, a drunken redneck to most until they realize he's a cold-blooded killer with a philosophical side... and by then it's too late.
Off with His Head!: O-Ren does this to Boss Tanaka for insulting her heritage, and the Bride deals out several of these during the Crazy 88 fight.
The Oner: A continuous shot in the House of Blue Leaves follows the Bride into the restroom, "Charlie Brown" up to the dining room, then Sofie back to the restroom.
Another one follows the Bride's walk down the aisle, the DiVAS entrance into the chapel and the massacre itself.
Old Master: Pai Mei is the evil (or at very least, Jerkass) version of this, as is Bill himself.
Pai Mei might be a deconstruction of the Kung Fu Master trope.
Police Are Useless: The only cops we ever see are those at the scene of the massacre.
Power Walk: The Bride does this, as do O-Ren and her Mooks, this one accompanied by Awesome Music.
Precision F-Strike: An excellent one from Bill: "You're not a bad person. You're a terrific person. You're my favorite person. But every once in a while... you can be a real cunt."
Pressure Point: The basis for the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.
Product Placement: Largely averted, except for the Lucky Charms and Bimbo bread in the end.
What do you mean? Trix—hell, even the Catch Phrase—is an integral part of the plot. I bet sales of Trix went up after the film came out. Or damn well should have done.
Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Never stated outright, but Elle's hatred for the Bride likely comes from being displaced as Bill's lover (given the familiar way Elle speaks to him on the phone, plus Bill's liking for blondes) by her younger rival.
The Public Domain Channel: The Bride and her child watch an oddly symbolic old Heckle and Jeckel cartoon at the end of the movie.
"Do you have a magpie in your home? If you do, you are most fortunate. The magpie is the most charming bird in all the world. He is the best friend a farmer ever had. Treat him gently, treat him kindly. And always remember,the magpie deserves your respect.."
Punch A Wall: During a rainy day, the Bride's training by Pai-Mei is put on hold and she tries napping, only to end up punching a wall with her knuckles. Ouch.
Her training has been so intense that she apparently does this in her sleep by accident.
Punctuated Pounding: The sword-spanking the Bride delivers on the last Crazy 88 before sending him off.
Recycled Trailer Music : Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor Or Humanity" began showing up all over the place (in movie trailers, at sporting events, in other movies like Transformers, which used it to punctuate Bumblebee's "makeover") after Tarantino's usage of the song made it famous. Weak covers of the famous bass riff also show up routinely on television in scenes that homage or spoof its usage in Vol. 1. (Examples: Robot Chicken's parody Kill Bunny, as well as a scene in Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins involving Mystery Inc. sneaking onto a school campus in disguise.)
The 5-6-7-8's have been featured in a few commercials since the film as well.
Retraux: The Bride 'driving' in front of an obvious back-projection at the start of Vol. 2, while delivering her monologue.
Retired Badass: Hatori Hanzo is no longer in the sword-making business but that doesn't mean he isn't willing to make an exception when it comes to killing Bill.
Vernita and Budd have both left the criminal lifestyle behind- but not their skills as assassins.
Subverted in the case of O-Ren, who only gave up the assassin's lifestyle to become head of the Yakuza.
Bill seems to have left the business behind as well in order to raise Bea-Bea.
Bill's adopted father Estaban is now a pimp but there is an implication that he was much worse in the past and more involved in crime.
Beatrix retired from being an assassin so that she could raise her child. She never seems all that remorseful for her past actions, nor does she care what her former lover/partners do as long as they didn't bring trouble her way.
Pei Mei seems more content with living alone but when he was younger, he was willing to slaughter an entire temple for a slight insult that may not have actually happened. Also, he is more than willing to rip your eye out of its socket if you talk back to him.
The Reveal: The last few seconds of Part 1, when we learn that the Bride's child is still alive.
Secret Art: The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, which even Bill was surprised to find out was taught to someone else (the Bride, of all people) by Pai Mei.
Sequel Hook: Elle and Sofie are still alive (if not in one piece), Budd still had some friends back in Barstow, and Vernita's daughter saw her mom killed in front of her eyes. Add the Bride's own daughter to the mix and Tarantino's comments and "Kill Beatrix: Vol. 3" is just waiting to be a-born.*
"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."
The trope is also inverted in that, with the exception of the question mark in the end credits, none of these happen near the end of the films. In fact, only Budd's friends even happen in the second movie!
The Seventies: Many, many references, visual homages, and the soundtrack.
She-Fu: Averted by both movies. The Bride took as good as she gave. This led a few reviewers to claim the movies were hateful toward women since it essentially meant the character was being put through everything any male action character would be put through. Apparently, the critics wanted She-Fu instead.
Perhaps most notable, the live action film adaptation of Lady Snowblood. Aside from the general similarities in the plot, Vol. 1 uses the film's theme song, and many shots, especially O-Ren Ishii lying on the ground after her death, are strikingly similar to those in Snowblood.
One specific one is that the Bride wears a jumpsuit similar to the one Bruce Lee wore in Game Of Death when she takes on O-Ren Ishii and the Crazy 88's.
Heck, given how big a fan Tarantino is of Battle Royale, even the famous yellow track suit could be taken as a shout-out to Chiaki Kuriyama's role in that movie.
Gordon Liu, who appears as Johnny Mo in "Volume 1", and Pai Mei in "Volume 2", starred in The36th Chamber Of Shaolin. The style of the Bride's training regimen is modeled after The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Also the Wu-Tang Clan's debut album is named in honor of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)". The RZA, the creative force behind the Wu-Tang Clan composed the original music for "Kill Bill".
"My name is Buck and I came here to fuck" is a modified line from Eaten Alive.
Given the nature of the film, it's probably best just to link to the IMDB's "movie connections" pages for bothvolumes.
Spiteful Spit: The Bride spits blood in Budd's face after he shoots her. He responds by spitting back - except his spit is far more plentiful and laden with chewed tobacco.
Stealth Pun: The chapter of Vol. 2 titled "Elle and I" could also be written as "Elle and Eye" when she loses her other eye
Also, Budd gets killed by a black mamba.
Stock Scream: Our old buddy Wilhelm shows up more than once during the Crazy 88 sequence.
Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: The infamous primetime version of the film contains the absolutely jarring line, "My name is Buck and I like to party." Comedian Doug Benson discussed this, asking, "You couldn't just change his name to Marty?"
Theme Naming: In addition to the DiVAS snake pseudonyms (with Bill as their "Snake Charmer"), every significant character has double letters in their name.
Twinkle Toes Samurai: O-Ren during the meeting of the bosses, immediately before beheading Boss Tanaka. Justified as she's wearing traditional Japanese clothing at the time: If she didn't take those dainty little steps, she'd probably end up with a face full of table.
Wham Line: "Does she know... her daughter's still alive?"
Whole Costume Reference: The Bride wears a tracksuit very reminiscent of Bruce Lee's from his final movie "Game of Death," and O-Ren's outfit is very much inspired by Lady Snowblood.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Her meeting with Bill. Bill does shoot the Bride eventually — with a truth-serum gun. On the Bride's end, killing Bill wasn't really the point. She obviously wanted to make peace first.
Subverted in the beginning of the first movie: Shooting the Bride is the first thing one of her intended targets tries, but she misses her mark and gets knifed immediately after.
There's also her run-in with Budd. As soon as she opens up the trailer door... Bang.
And then at the end of Volume 2, we see her in white again. Bringing the story full circle.
World of Ham: So much so that it all seems normal, in-universe.
Worthy Opponent: Each of the DiVAS expresses grudging respect for the Bride in the course of the two films. O-Ren seems to be the only one The Bride respects though.
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Aside of the deal with her own unborn kid, the Bride really doesn't like it when other children and teens get involved in violent stuff. She's very unhappy when Nikki witnesses how the Bride kills her mom in their fight, later attempts to disuade Gogo from fighting her, spares the one Crazy 88 mook without a mask and gives him a spanking to remember before sending him home to his mother, and in the end of Part 2 she decides that she'd rather put her revenge aside for a little, than having B.B. witness her and Bill fight to the death.
You Are Already Dead: This is how the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique works.
Bill: He hits you with his fingertips at five different pressure points on your body, and then he lets you walk away. But once you’ve taken five steps, your heart explodes in your body, and you fall to the floor, dead.
You Look Familiar: Michael Parks plays Earl McGraw in Volume 1 and Esteban Vihaio in Volume 2. Gordon Liu plays Johnny Mo in Volume 1 and Pai Mei in Volume 2.
The story — told in "chapters", as well as Tarantino's signature non-linear fashion — centers around an Action Girl known primarily as "The Bride", a former assassin who wants to pursue a life of normalcy. Her former crew, The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, isn't too happy with that — and during The Bride's wedding rehearsal, they crash the church and slaughter the entire wedding party, then beat The Bride spaghetti-western-style until she can't move. Once the DiVAS are done, their leader (the eponymous Bill) walks up to The Bride and puts a bullet in her head — right after The Bride tells him she's pregnant with his child. Four years later, The Bride wakes up from a coma and vows to get her revenge on the DiVAS — and anyone who happens to get in her way — while saving Bill for last.To view a partial list of the innumerable references to other films in Kill Bill, visit the List of Film References in Tarantino's Films.
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