Kill Bill: Volume 2

Four years before the events of Kill Bill: Volume 1, the pregnant Bride and her groom rehearse their wedding. Bill, the Bride's former lover, the father of her child, and the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, arrives unexpectedly and orders the Deadly Vipers to kill everyone at the wedding. Bill shoots the Bride in the head, but she survives and swears revenge.

In the present, the Bride has already assassinated Deadly Vipers O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green. She goes to the trailer of Bill's brother and Deadly Viper Budd, planning to ambush him. Budd has been warned by Bill of her approach; he incapacitates her with a non-lethal shotgun blast of rock salt and sedates her. He calls Elle Driver, another former Deadly Viper, and arranges to sell the Bride's unique sword for $1 million. He seals the Bride inside a coffin and buries her alive.

Years earlier, Bill tells the young Bride of the legendary martial arts master Pai Mei and his Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, a death blow that Mei refuses to teach his students; the technique that supposedly kills any opponent after they have taken five steps. Bill takes the Bride to Mei's temple for training. Mei ridicules her and makes her training a torment, but she gains his respect. In the present, the Bride uses Mei's board punching technique to break out of the coffin and claw her way to the surface.

Elle arrives at Budd's trailer and kills him with a black mamba hidden with the money for the sword. She calls Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed Budd and that she has killed the Bride, using the Bride's real name: Beatrix Kiddo. As Elle exits the trailer, Beatrix ambushes her and they fight. Elle, who was also taught by Mei, taunts Beatrix by revealing that she killed Mei by poisoning him in retribution for him plucking out her eye. An enraged Beatrix plucks out Elle's remaining eye and leaves her screaming in the trailer with the black mamba.

In Acuña, Mexico, Beatrix meets a retired pimp, Esteban Vihaio, who helps her find Bill. She tracks him to a hotel, and discovers that their daughter B.B. is still alive, now four years old, spending the evening with them. After she puts B.B. to bed, Bill shoots Beatrix with a dart containing truth serum and interrogates her. She recounts a mission in which she discovered she was pregnant and explains that she left the Deadly Vipers to give B.B. a better life. Bill explains that he assumed she had died and mourned her for three months; he ordered her assassination when he discovered she was alive and engaged to a "jerk" that he assumed was the father of her child. Beatrix disables Bill and strikes with Mei's Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, which she had kept secret. Bill makes his peace with her, takes five steps and dies. Beatrix leaves with her daughter. The next morning we see Beatrix cry for she still loved Bill, but at the same time she laughs uncontrollably. It's a collateral effect of the truth serum, Bill's last gift for his beloved, so B.B. couldn't see her in tears. Understanding his gesture, Beatrix whispers "thank you" to the late Bill and starts a new life with her child.

• Uma Thurman as The Bride / Beatrix Kiddo (Black Mamba): A former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who is described as "the deadliest woman in the world". She is targeted by her former allies in the wedding chapel massacre, and falls into a coma. When she awakens four years later, she embarks on a deadly trail of revenge against the perpetrators of the massacre.
• David Carradine as Bill (Snake Charmer): The former leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. He is also the former lover of Beatrix and the father of her daughter. He is the final and eponymous target of Beatrix's revenge.
• Michael Madsen as Budd (Sidewinder): A former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and brother of Bill. He later becomes a bouncer living in a trailer. He is the third of Beatrix's revenge targets.
• Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake): A former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She is the fourth of Beatrix's revenge targets.
• Gordon Liu as Pai Mei: An immensely powerful and extremely old martial arts master. Bill, Beatrix, and Elle all train under him. Liu had appeared in Volume 1 as Johnny Mo, leader of the Yakuza gang The Crazy 88's.
• Michael Parks as Esteban Vihaio: A retired pimp. He was the first of Bill's “father figures”. Beatrix comes to him asking for Bill's whereabouts. Like Gordon Liu, Parks appeared in the first film as a different character, Texas Ranger Earl McGraw.
• Stephanie L. Moore, Shana Stein, and Caitlin Keats as Joleen, Erica, and Janeen: Beatrix's best friends who are present at the wedding rehearsal.
• Bo Svenson as Reverend Harmony: The minister who was to officiate at Beatrix and Tommy's wedding.
• Jeannie Epper as Mrs. Harmony: Reverend Harmony's wife.
• Chris Nelson as Tommy Plympton: Beatrix's fiancé who is killed in the wedding chapel massacre.
• Samuel L. Jackson as Rufus: The organist who was to perform at Beatrix and Tommy's wedding.
• Larry Bishop as Larry Gomez: The abusive manager of the strip club at which Budd works.
• Sid Haig as Jay: An employee at the strip club where Budd works.
• Perla Haney-Jardine as B.B.: The daughter of Beatrix and Bill. She is raised by her father while her mother is comatose.
• Helen Kim as Karen Kim: An assassin sent to kill Beatrix. Her attack comes moments after Beatrix learns that she is pregnant.
• Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth): A former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She later becomes "Queen of the Tokyo Underworld". She is the first of Beatrix's revenge targets.
• Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green (Copperhead): A former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She later becomes a homemaker living under the false name Jeannie Bell. She is the second of Beatrix's revenge targets.
• Julie Dreyfus as Sofie Fatale: O-Ren's lawyer, best friend, and second lieutenant. She is also a former protégé of Bill's, and was present at the wedding chapel massacre.
• Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo: Revered as the greatest swordsmith of all time. Although long retired, he agrees to craft a sword for Beatrix.

As with Tarantino's previous films, Kill Bill features an eclectic soundtrack comprising many musical genres. On the two soundtracks, music ranges from country music to selections from the Spaghetti Western film scores of Ennio Morricone. Bernard Herrmann's theme from the film Twisted Nerve is whistled by the menacing Elle Driver in the hospital scene. A brief, 15-second excerpt from the opening of the Ironside theme music by Quincy Jones is used as the Bride's revenge motif, which flares up with a red-tinged flashback whenever she is in the company of her next target.[3] Instrumental tracks from Japanese guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei figure prominently, and after the success of Kill Bill they were frequently used in American TV commercials and at sporting events. The end credits are driven by the rock and roll version of "Malagueña Salerosa", a traditional Mexican song, performed by "Chingon", Robert Rodriguez's band.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Kill Bill: Volume 2 received a score of 84% based on reviews from 238 critics, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Kill Bill: Volume 2 adds extra plot and dialogue to the action-heavy exploits of its predecessor, while still managing to deliver a suitably hard-hitting sequel."[13] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 83 out of 100 based on 41 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[14]

Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars out of 4, writing: "Put the two parts together, and Tarantino has made a masterful saga that celebrates the martial arts genre while kidding it, loving it, and transcending it. ... This is all one film, and now that we see it whole, it's greater than its two parts."[15] In 2009, he named Kill Bill one of the 20 best films of the decade.[16]

In April 2004, Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly that he was planning a sequel:[18]

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.

At the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International, Tarantino stated that, after the completion of Grindhouse, he wanted to make two anime Kill Bill films: an origin story about Bill and his mentors, and another origin starring the Bride.[19][20] Details emerged around 2007 about two possible sequels, Kill Bill: Volume 3 and Volume 4. According to the article, "the third film involves the revenge of two killers whose arms and eye were hacked by Uma Thurman in the first stories." The article adds that the "fourth installment of the popular kung fu action films concerns a cycle of reprisals and daughters who avenge their mother's deaths".[21]

At the 2009 Morelia International Film Festival, Tarantino stated that he intended to make a third Kill Bill film.[22] The same month, he stated that Kill Bill 3 would be his ninth film, and would be released in 2014.[23] He said he wanted 10 years to pass after the Bride's last conflict, to give her and her daughter a period of peace.[24]

In December 2012, Tarantino said there would "probably not" be a third film."[25][26] However, in July 2019, Tarantino said that he and Thurman had talked again about a possible sequel, and added: If any of my movies were going to spring from my other movies, it would be a third Kill Bill."[27] In December, Tarantino said he had spoken to Thurman about an "interesting" idea for a new film: "It would be at least three years from now. It is definitely in the cards".[28]

• Zoë Bell
• Lady Snowblood
• Kill Buljo
• Quentin Tarantino filmography

• Kill Bill: Volume 2 on IMDb
• Kill Bill: Volume 2 at AllMovie
• Kill Bill: Volume 2 at Box Office Mojo
• Kill Bill: Volume 2 at Rotten Tomatoes