Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a 2004 American action/thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the second of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart. Kill Bill was originally scheduled for a single theatrical release, but with a running time of over four hours, it was separated into two volumes. Kill Bill Volume 1 was released in late 2003, and Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released in early 2004. The volumes follow a character initially identified as “The Bride”, a former member of an assassination team who seeks revenge on her ex-colleagues who massacred members of her wedding party and tried to kill her. The film is often noted for its stylish direction and its homages to film genres such as Hong Kong martial arts films, Japanese chanbara films, Italian spaghetti westerns, girls with guns, and rape and revenge.
PLOT SUMMARY
In a flashback, Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) — the visibly pregnant Bride — and her groom (Chris Nelson) rehearse their wedding. Bill (David Carradine), her former lover and the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, arrives unexpectedly and wishes her well, and it is revealed that Kiddo had retired from assassination and left Bill in order to give a better life to her unborn daughter. Moments later, the other assassination squad members arrive and attack the wedding rehearsal on Bill’s orders.
In the present, Bill warns his brother Budd (Michael Madsen), a former Deadly Viper and now a bouncer, that he will be targeted next. Kiddo arrives at his trailer and bursts through the door, expecting to ambush him, but Budd is expecting her, shooting her in the chest with a double-barreled shotgun blast of rock salt, then sedates her. Budd calls Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), another former Deadly Viper, offering to sell her Kiddo’s Hanzō sword for a million dollars cash. He then seals Kiddo inside a coffin and buries her alive.
A flashback shows Bill taking Kiddo to be trained by legendary martial arts master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). She eventually gains his respect and learns a number of techniques, including the art of punching through thick planks of wood from inches away, and a technique, taught to nobody else, of killing using apparently non-lethal touches to pressure points. She uses the former skill to break out of the coffin and claws her way to the surface.
Elle arrives at Budd’s trailer for their transaction but has hidden a lethal black mamba with her money, which kills him. She then tells Bill (by phone) that Kiddo has killed Budd by putting a black mamba (the deadly viper that was Kiddo’s assassination squad code name) in his trailer, and that Elle has killed Kiddo. As she exits the trailer, she is ambushed by Kiddo, who had arrived there soon after Elle. In the middle of an all-out battle in the trailer, Elle taunts Kiddo with the news that Elle had poisoned Pai Mei in revenge for his snatching out her eye when she called him a ‘miserable old fool’. Kiddo then plucks out Elle’s remaining eye and leaves her screaming and thrashing about in the trailer with the black mamba.
Kiddo travels to Mexico to query an elderly gentlemen about Bill’s whereabouts. The man, who is the proprietor of a brothel, was purportedly a father figure to a younger Bill. Regardless, the man divulges Bill’s location.
After finding Bill deep in the Mexican countryside, Kiddo is shocked to find her now-four-year-old daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine) alive and well. She spends the evening with Bill and B.B. After B.B. has gone to bed, Bill shoots Kiddo with a dart containing a truth serum and interrogates her. A flashback recalls Kiddo’s discovery of her pregnancy while on an assassination mission, and her resulting decision to call off her assignment and leave the Deadly Vipers. Kiddo explains that she ran away without telling Bill in order to protect their unborn daughter from him and his life. Though Bill understands, he remains unapologetic for what he did, explaining that he’s a murdering bastard and there are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard. They fight, but although Kiddo loses her weapon, she disables Bill with Pai Mei’s fatal pressure point technique, which he secretly taught her. Bill, aware of the technique and that he will shortly die, makes his peace with Kiddo and dies. Kiddo departs with B.B.; later they are seen watching cartoons in a hotel together after Beatrix shakes off the effects of the truth serum.
FILM SUBLIMINALS
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First Published: Mar 4, 2012 – Last Updated: Apr 21, 2012
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