Volume 1
Before the credits, we learn that the film is about the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which has five members. A quotation (which the film claims is an ancient Klingon proverb) sets the tone of the events to come very well: "Revenge is a dish best served cold." In monochrome, a gasping, blood-covered bride (Uma Thurman) looks up from a chapel floor. A hand wipes her face using a handkerchief with the name Bill in the corner, while a male voice explains that what he is about to do is not a sadistic act, but a masochistic one. Just before he shoots her in the head, the Bride tells Bill (David Carradine) that the baby she's carrying is his. A gunshot is heard and the opening credits begin, backed by the song "Bang Bang".Chapter 1: #2. Pasadena.
The Bride drives up in a yellow and red pickup truck outside a suburban home and strolls to the front door. As she rings, a flashback shows the Bride crashing to the floor and looking up to see the face of one of her attackers, Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). As soon as the door is open, the Bride's fist crashes into Vernita's face. A savage fight follows, first with fists, then with knives. The fight pauses when a school bus pulls up outside and a little girl walks through the door. The combatants hide their knives and pretend nothing is amiss despite the wreckage around them. They both reassure the child, Nikki (Ambrosia Kelley). The Bride mentions that she used to have a child who would be the same age as Nikki (four). Vernita sends the girl to her room. At this point, Vernita is introduced as a member of the Deadly Vipers, codename Copperhead. The Bride is also a member, codename Black Mamba. The Bride makes clear that she is here for revenge but promises not to kill Vernita in front of her child. They plan to fight later, but while Vernita is preparing cereal for her child, she fires a concealed gun at the Bride. She misses, and the Bride kills her with a thrown knife.
The child walks in, a witness to her mother's death. The Bride apologises, but explains that her mother had it coming. She tells Nikki that if, when she grows up, she can't get past the killing, she should come find the Bride. "I'll be waiting," the Bride promises. She returns to the pickup, which is emblazoned with the words Pussy Wagon, crosses Vernita's name off a list headed "Death List Five," and drives away.
Chapter 2: The Blood Splattered Bride
Four years earlier in an El Paso wedding chapel, police are investigating a mass murder. The sheriff (Michael Parks) drives up and is told that there has been an execution-style massacre leaving nine bodies, including the bride, the groom, the preacher and his wife, the guests, and even the piano player. The sheriff strolls around commenting on the massacre, stops near the bride, and remarks on how good-looking she was. He immediately recognizes the name she was using, Arlene Machiavelli, as an alias. As he kneels to look more closely at her, she suddenly (perhaps unintentionally) spits in his face. We see her rushed to a hospital, where she lies in a deep coma.
A smartly dressed blonde woman walks through the hospital, whistling a tune. She finds a changing room and emerges dressed as a nurse with a red-cross patch over one eye and carrying a tray with a syringe. A title identifies her as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) of the Deadly Vipers, codename California Mountain Snake. She stands over the comatose Bride and says that her gift is to allow her to die in her sleep. As she prepares to inject the contents of the syringe into the Bride's IV line, her mobile phone rings. It is Bill, who orders her to abort the mission in view of the Bride's survival of their previous efforts to assassinate her, and because it would lower them. Elle is furious, but does as ordered and leaves.
Four years later, the Bride is still lying in a coma. A mosquito bites her, and she sits up with a shriek. In a flashback she sees a gun pointing at her and a bullet approaching in slow motion. She begins to feel her body, first noticing the metallic sound of a plate in her skull and then feeling the absence of the baby in her womb. She shrieks again and sobs pitifully. When she hears approaching footsteps, she lies back and pretends to be still in a coma. An orderly (Michael Bowen) enters, accompanied by a large trucker (Jonathan Loughran). The orderly explains that, for $75, this attractive woman is available for whatever the trucker wants. The man pays up and is told that he can do anything as long as he doesn't leave any marks. The orderly leaves, and the man climbs on top of the Bride. As he starts to kiss her, she bites down on his lower lip and severs it in a profusion of blood. He's left unconscious or dead.
The Bride tries to get out of bed, but collapses, as her legs will not support her after four years of atrophy. When she hears the orderly returning, she picks up a knife and crawls behind the door. He enters and stands aghast at the carnage and the empty bed. She slashes his heel, and he falls to the floor. Then, slamming the door repeatedly into his head, she demands to know where Bill is. She reads the name Buck on the orderly's name tag, which triggers memories of his earlier assaults on her. She gives him a couple more violent blows with the door, perhaps killing him, then searches him for his car keys. The key fob says "Pussy Wagon" in distinctive pink script. Propelling herself to the basement car park in a wheelchair, the Bride is able to identify Buck's yellow pickup from the words "Pussy Wagon" emblazoned on its back. She hauls herself in and starts the long process of getting her legs moving again.
A shot of the rest of the Deadly Vipers gang introduces O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), codename Cottonmouth, now head of the Tokyo yakuza.
Chapter 3: The Origins of O-Ren Ishii
In anime format, the film follows O-Ren's development from the age of nine, when she witnessed the murder of her parents at the hands of a group of yakuza. Her father, an American military officer, tried to fight off several yakuza henchmen, but was killed. The yakuza leader, a sleazy old man named Matsumoto, then brutally murders O-Ren's Japanese mother. The last of Matsumoto's men lights a fire in the room, letting the house burn to the ground. O-Ren survives and avenges the murders at age 11 in blood-spouting style, taking advantage of Matsumoto's pedophilia to get close enough to him to attack. She grows up to be a world-class assassin.
Meanwhile, 13 hours have passed in the hospital parking lot and the Bride has regained use of her legs, so she sets out on her revenge trail. We see her flying to Okinawa.
Chapter 4: The Man from Okinawa
The Bride enters a Japanese sushi bar to have an extended conversation with the jovial barkeeper and some slapstick action with his assistant. Things get serious when she tells the barkeeper that she is looking for him, Hattori Hanzo (Shin'ichi Chiba, credited as Sonny Chiba). She explains that she needs some "Japanese steel" to kill vermin. He shows her to his attic where he keeps an array of the katanas he has made. When she tries one out, he says that they are not for sale and he has sworn not to make any more "instruments of death". She explains that her "vermin" is a former pupil of his, and he correctly guesses that she means Bill. He agrees to make her a sword, which will take a month. He suggests the Bride spend that time training.
A month later, we see Hanzo examining the new sword, which he believes is his finest work. He hands it to her in a small and solemn ceremony where he admits he broke his personal pact not to make any more swords, but has done so because he supports the Bride's mission.
Chapter 5: Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves
The film returns to O-Ren, showing her as the newly elected Head of the Council of all the yakuza bosses in Tokyo. When one objects to her election on the grounds of her mixed-race origin (she is Chinese/Japanese-American), she immediately beheads him and warns the others never to disparage her heritage in any way, or they'll suffer the same fate. We are introduced to O-Ren's lieutenants: her French-Japanese lawyer Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus), another of Bill's protégées; her teenage bodyguard Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama), a vicious killer sporting a plaid-skirted school uniform; and Johnny Mo (Chia-Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu), the head of her private army, the Crazy 88.
The Bride flies into Tokyo, appearing in yellow leathers and helmet riding a yellow motorbike while O-Ren and her motorcade are heading for a restaurant. The Bride spots Sofie in her car, and there is a flashback to Sofie calmly taking a call on her mobile phone while the Bride and her party were being slaughtered. O-Ren and her immediate subordinates arrive at the restaurant and are ushered upstairs to a private dining room by the obsequious owners. At the bar, the Bride sits quietly and watches.
O-Ren and her party are enjoying themselves when O-Ren senses something threatening. She throws a small dart with a red tassel through the paper wall to lodge in a beam in the hallway outside, startling the Bride, who is lurking near the private room. O-Ren sends Gogo to look around, but the Bride has braced herself against the ceiling and Gogo doesn't see her. The Bride enters the toilet and, while stripping off her leathers, hears "Auld Lang Syne," the distinctive ringtone of Sofie's cell phone.
With Sofie in tow, the Bride loudly announces her presence from the restaurant floor, which brings O-Ren and her party rushing out onto the balcony. While they watch, she slashes off one of Sofie's arms, and pandemonium ensues as the diners and staff flee.
O-Ren sends her lieutenants down singly or in groups to kill the Bride, but all end up being cut apart. The final defender is Gogo, who opposes the Bride's sword with a ball and chain in a vicious fight, ending when the Bride kills Gogo by embedding a broken, nail-studded table leg in her temple. Before O-Ren and the Bride can engage each other, the roar of motorbikes is heard and the Crazy 88 pour in. The ensuing battle of one against many is long, balletic, and bloody, but finally only one of the 88 remains — the youngest — and the Bride sends him off with a spanking. She announces to the defeated Crazy 88 that they may leave, but they must leave behind their severed limbs, which belong to her now. She also orders Sofie to stay.
Outside in the snow, the Bride and O-Ren fight it out in a long and evenly-matched swordfight. At the start of the fight, O-Ren casts doubt on the provenance of the Bride's sword. The Bride wins by slicing off the top of O-Ren's head; before she dies, O-Ren apologizes for her earlier insult and remarks that the sword must really be a Hanzo. Later, the Bride crosses O-Ren's name from her list.
The Bride loads Sofie into a car and drives to a point where she can roll her down a snowy slope to a hospital. The Bride has tortured Sofie, cutting off her other arm for information on the whereabouts of the other Vipers and Bill. As the Bride draws up her "Death List Five," we see Sofie, talking to someone whose face is not seen but who is clearly Bill. She tells Bill that under threat of having more limbs cut off, she has told the Bride everything she knows. She explains that the Bride kept her alive just so she could tell Bill in person all that happened and warn him that soon all of them would be dead. Bill's final words are "Is she aware that her daughter is still alive?"
To be continued....
Volume 2
During the opening credits, we see the Bride's bloodied face again and hear her say "Bill, it's your baby." In the first scene, she drives an open Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and says there is only one left to kill (which tells us she believes that Elle is dead). She is on her way to Bill.
Chapter 6: The Massacre at Two Pines
Back at the beginning (a black-and-white segment), at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel in El Paso, Texas, a dress rehearsal for a wedding is taking place. Reverend Harmony (Bo Svenson) and his wife (Jeannie Epper) decide that, since the bride will have no relatives present at the wedding, the groom's relatives and friends can sit on both sides of the aisle. The Bride (Uma Thurman), irritated with the reverend's wife, leaves the chapel to get some fresh air; on the way out, she is disturbed to hear flute music. On the front porch, she finds Bill (David Carradine) sitting on a bench playing his bamboo flute. Bill asks her about her fiancé, Tommy (Christopher Allen Nelson), and what she's been doing for work; she's been working in Tommy's used record store, a job she says she enjoys. She asks him to "be nice", and he replies that he does not know how to be nice, but will do his best to be sweet. They enter the hall, and she introduces Bill to her fiancé as her father, but rejects the fiancé's idea that, as her father, he should give her away at the ceremony. Bill politely replies that it would be "asking a lot" of him to do so but he'll happily join the congregation for the ceremony. As the bride and groom are called to the front by Reverend Harmony, no attempt is made to introduce 'father' to the rest of the fiancé's family. Bill stays at the back of the chapel.
Outside the chapel, four armed assassins appear, all dressed in black. In one line they move to the door, they enter, and the shooting starts, killing everybody inside except for the Bride and Bill.
Back in the present (in color), Bill visits his younger brother Budd (Michael Madsen), a.k.a. Sidewinder, at his trailer in the middle of nowhere and warns him about the Bride. She will kill Budd if Budd does not allow Bill to protect him. They've had their differences in the past, but he urges him that they should move on. Budd, drinking as they talk, replies that maybe they should get killed because the Bride deserves her revenge. He then infuriates Bill by saying that he pawned his priceless Hanzo sword (a gift from Bill) for $250.
Chapter 7: The Lonely Grave of Paula Schulz
Budd goes to work at the strip club where he's employed as a bouncer. He arrives 20 minutes late and sees that there are no customers in the club. He talks briefly with the bartender, Jay (Sid Haig), before he is called into the office by his hot-tempered, coke-snorting boss Larry Gomez (Larry Bishop). In the office, Larry argues with Budd over being late again, and Budd talks back, saying that there is nobody in the bar and there was no need for him to be there. Larry takes away Budd's scheduled hours for several days and tells him in a rude tone not to come back to work until he hears from him. In the bar, Budd agrees to clean up a soiled restroom.
Budd returns to his trailer, but standing in front of it, he suddenly freezes. He enters the trailer, but looks out the window. The Bride, who was hiding under the trailer, sticks to the wall so he does not see her. When she opens the door, Budd shoots her in the chest with a shotgun loaded with rock salt. While she lies wounded on the ground, Budd, very pleased with himself, injects her with a sedative. He phones Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and offers to sell her the Bride's Hattori Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle agrees to bring the money in the morning. Her condition is that the Bride must suffer to her last breath.
At a cemetery, Budd and an accomplice dig a large hole in the ground in which they plan to bury the wounded Bride alive. When the grave has been dug, the Bride is given a choice: if she does not resist, she'll be given a flashlight; if she does, Budd will burn her eyes with mace and leave her buried alive in darkness. She chooses the flashlight, is put in a coffin, and the lid is nailed down. "This is for breaking my brother's heart," says Budd. Budd and his accomplice lower the coffin into the ground, cover it with soil, and drive off. The Bride panics for a short time and recalls her training under Pai Mei.
Chapter 8: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei
In a flashback, Bill and the Bride, who is very much in love with him, sit by a campfire somewhere in China, and Bill, who calls her "kiddo", plays his bamboo flute. He tells her about his kung fu teacher Pai Mei (Chia-Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu), who is reputed to be 1000 years old, and his 'five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.' The technique involves five blows administered to particular pressure points on the body with the fingertips. Thereafter, the victim's heart explodes after they take five steps. Pai Mei did not teach Bill the technique because he does not show it to anyone.
At the foot of the stairs leading to Pai Mei's place in another part of rural China, Bill, who has just come down, informs the Bride that Pai Mei will take her as his pupil because he is a lonely old man. Bill's bruised face shows that he was hurt, but he refuses to say what happened. Bill warns her not to show any disrespect or disobedience to Pai Mei because Pai Mei will kill her, as "he hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women." She climbs the steps and quickly is humiliated by Pai Mei, who scorns her fighting skills and her ethnicity. He challenges her to land one blow on him while they engage in hand-to-hand combat, and the Bride fails, at one point trying to use a rock which Pai Mei tosses aside after grabbing her wrist. Pai Mei threatens to chop her hand off with a single blow and declares that her hand now belongs to him and she must strengthen it. Over the next several weeks, the Bride works hard (practicing martial arts forms, carrying buckets of water up the long, steep flight of stairs, and learning to eat with chopsticks) and learns hard. She finds striking a blow with her fist to break a hole through a thick wooden plank at close range the most difficult skill.
Back to the present: still in the coffin, the Bride manages to remove her boots and the belt tying her feet together. She takes out a straight razor hidden in her boot and uses it to cut her hands free. She first tests the planking of the coffin lid for a weak spot, then hits the lid with her fist repeatedly. The planks get smeared with her blood as she struggles to break free, but finally crack. She appears to swim up through the earth, and an arm emerges from the grave. The Bride crawls out. Covered in dirt and trailing dust behind her, she walks into a diner, sits down, and calmly asks for a glass of water.
Chapter 9: Elle and I
The Bride walks a great distance across the desert and through the mountains. She reaches Budd's trailer in time to see Elle arrive.
Elle enters the trailer and gives Budd a red suitcase full of money. He makes margaritas in a grubby blender and serves them in dirty jelly-jar glasses while she examines the sword. He opens the suitcase, gloats over the money, and is then struck in the face by a venomous black mamba snake that was hidden among the bundles of cash. Before he dies, Elle tells him that she is sorry that such a "piece of shit" as himself was the one who managed to kill the Bride — she deserved better. She phones Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed his brother but that she, Elle, has killed the Bride. Elle also reveals the whereabouts of the supposed final resting place of the Bride (in the grave of Paula Schulz) and mentions the Bride's real name for the first time: Beatrix Kiddo.
Beatrix flies in and immediately attacks Elle, landing a blow to Elle's chest with both feet. Their long and vicious fight destroys the trailer's interior. Elle gets hold of the Bride's sword during the struggle. In a golf bag, the Bride finds another katana, inscribed "To my brother Budd, the only man I ever loved, Bill" — apparently Budd didn't pawn it after all. Beatrix asks Elle what Elle said to Pai Mei to make him pluck out Elle's eye. Elle says she called him a "miserable, old fool". Elle also tells Beatrix that she poisoned Pai Mei's favorite meal, fish heads, out of revenge, killing him. As they face off, Elle relishes the irony of killing the Bride with her own sword. However, at close range, the Bride plucks out Elle's remaining eye and steps on it. Rather than finish killing Elle, Beatrix leaves the trailer, the black mamba hissing behind her as Elle shrieks and curses and flails.
Last Chapter: Face to Face
In Mexico, the Bride visits the courtly retired pimp Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks), one of Bill's old mentors, and asks him to tell her where Bill is. He finally agrees because he thinks Bill would surely like to see her.
She enters Bill's hacienda carefully, a gun in her hand, but is shocked to the point of tears when Bill and their small daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), who she didn't know was alive, both play-shoot at her with toy guns. The Bride is stunned, but joins them for a dinner of sandwiches. Bill explains to B.B. that he shot her mother because he was saddened when Beatrix abandoned him and angry when he found her engaged to be married to another man. The Bride spends some quality time with her daughter, who falls asleep. The Bride goes to speak to Bill.
Sensing that Beatrix might attack him, Bill fires a warning shot, freezing Beatrix in her seat, then he shoots her with a truth-serum dart and waits for it to take effect, giving a speech about Superman and one's inability to hide their true nature to pass the time. After enough time has elapsed, he asks her why she left him, and her answer is that because she wanted to keep their child safe, not wanting her to grow up to be assassins like them. When Bill asks her when she came to that decision, the Bride tells him the story.
In a flashback to a hotel room: the Bride, who's been sent on an assassination assignment to LA, discovers that she is pregnant. Another assassin, Karen Kim (Helen Kim), who spotted Beatrix when she arrived, shoots a hole in the door with a shotgun. The Bride, pointing her gun at Karen, convinces her that she is pregnant and persuades her to walk away, promising that she will do the same. As she leaves, Karen congratulates the Bride.
Back in the present, Bill is puzzled because he believes that Beatrix is a natural-born killer and cannot change. He asks if she enjoyed killing the other people on her revenge list, and the truth serum forces her to admit that she did. They agree to fight with swords on the beach — then Bill suddenly attacks her as they sit on his patio. At the climax of a brief skirmish during which both remain seated, she strikes him with the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique. She tells Bill that she did not mention that Pai Mei taught her the technique because she is a bad person. Bill disputes that. They share an affectionate farewell before he takes five steps and falls down dead.
Later, while B.B. watches cartoons in their hotel room, Beatrix lies on the bathroom floor crying for a time over Bill. Then, she leaves with B.B. to start a new life. "The lioness has rejoined her cub, and all is right in the jungle."
Before the credits roll, Beatrix's death list is written on the screen; the names of those she killed outright are crossed out. A question mark is written over Elle's name. Bill's name is not crossed out.
