59 Fun Facts About Kill Bill

Who wrote and directed the Kill Bill films?

Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed both volumes, billed on screen as 'the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino'; it was his first release in six years.

Which actress plays the Bride?

Thurman and Tarantino dreamed up the character together while making Pulp Fiction, and the credits attribute the Bride to "Q & U".

What is the Bride's real name, withheld until Volume 2?

Beatrix Kiddo is bleeped out whenever spoken in Volume 1 and revealed only in Volume 2; a parasitic wasp, Cystomastacoides kiddo, was later named after her.

What is the name of the elite group of assassins the Bride used to belong to?

Deadly Viper Assassination Squad was Bill's team of killers, each with a snake code name; the Bride's death list is made up of her former squad-mates and Bill himself.

Who plays Bill?

Carradine, best known as Caine in the 1970s series Kung Fu, is heard but not seen for all of Volume 1.

Tarantino originally wrote the role of Bill for which actor, who turned it down?

Warren Beatty was the first choice for Bill but bowed out before shooting; the part was then rewritten around the Kung Fu star who finally played him.

In which city does the Bride confront O-Ren Ishii and the yakuza?

Tokyo is where the Bride arrives by air, sword stowed in a seat rack, to face O-Ren and the yakuza at the House of Blue Leaves restaurant.

The wedding chapel massacre takes place in a rural chapel near which city?

El Paso, Texas, is the setting of the Two Pines chapel massacre; Texas Ranger Earl McGraw and his son Edgar arrive to find the bodies.

How many years does the Bride spend in a coma after being shot in the head?

4 years is how long she lies in the coma after the chapel shooting; the Bride wakes to find she is no longer pregnant and only learns in Volume 2 that her daughter survived.

Which actress plays O-Ren Ishii, the assassin who rises to lead the yakuza?

Lucy Liu plays O-Ren Ishii, beheading Boss Tanaka when he questions her mixed heritage at the council table; the role won Liu the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.

What is O-Ren Ishii's Deadly Viper code name?

Cottonmouth was O-Ren Ishii's code name in the squad; the anime chapter shows her parents murdered by a yakuza boss when she was nine and her revenge at eleven.

Vernita Green, now a suburban homemaker, goes by which Deadly Viper code name?

Copperhead was Vernita Green's code name; she lives in Pasadena as housewife Jeannie Bell, a name borrowed from an early Black Playboy Playmate and blaxploitation actress.

Where does Vernita Green hide the pistol she tries to shoot the Bride with?

In a box of cereal, a Kaboom pack on the counter, Vernita hides the pistol; the Bride answers the shot by throwing a knife into her chest as the daughter watches from the doorway.

Which legendary swordsmith breaks his oath never to forge again in order to arm the Bride?

Hattori Hanzō, who swore off sword-making, agrees to forge one last blade after hearing her target is Bill, his former student.

The Bride travels to which Japanese island to obtain her sword?

Okinawa is where the Bride finds the retired swordsmith running a sushi bar; he shows her his attic sword collection before agreeing to forge one more.

Which Japanese action star plays the sushi chef and retired swordsmith?

Sonny Chiba, the Street Fighter star, plays the swordsmith; the character's name honours the ninja Chiba played in the 1980s TV series Shadow Warriors.

What is the name of O-Ren's schoolgirl bodyguard, who fights with a meteor hammer?

Gogo Yubari, O-Ren's teenage bodyguard, swings a meteor hammer against the Bride; a cut chapter featuring her vengeful sister Yuki was animated for the film's 2025 re-release.

Which actress, who had starred in Battle Royale, plays the schoolgirl bodyguard?

Chiaki Kuriyama, Takako Chigusa in Battle Royale, was cast as the schoolgirl bodyguard after the director saw that 2000 film.

What is O-Ren's masked personal army called?

The Crazy 88 are O-Ren's masked, black-suited enforcers led by Johnny Mo; the Bride takes on the whole gang at the House of Blue Leaves.

What does the Bride cut off Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's French lawyer, at the House of Blue Leaves?

Her arm comes off in one stroke at the House of Blue Leaves; the Bride leaves Sofie alive to carry news of the massacre and a warning to Bill.

How many weeks did the House of Blue Leaves fight sequence take to film?

8 weeks of shooting went into the House of Blue Leaves sequence alone, at a Beijing studio; the blood spurts were practical, using condoms filled with fake blood.

Why does part of the Crazy 88 fight switch to black and white?

To avoid an NC-17 rating in the US, the bloodiest stretch of the fight was desaturated to black and white; the Japanese release kept it in full colour.

Which Wu-Tang Clan producer composed the original score for Volume 1?

RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan composed and produced Volume 1's original score, blending hip-hop beats with spaghetti-western and kung fu borrowings, and returned for parts of Volume 2.

Which Ghost in the Shell studio produced the anime sequence telling O-Ren's backstory?

Production I.G, the studio behind Ghost in the Shell, animated O-Ren's backstory, with Kazuto Nakazawa directing the sequence.

Which choreographer, fresh from The Matrix, served as martial arts advisor?

Yuen Woo-Ping, who had staged the fights in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, choreographed the sword and kung fu action for both volumes.

The Bride's yellow tracksuit and motorcycle pay homage to which martial arts star?

Bruce Lee wore the yellow-and-black jumpsuit in his unfinished Game of Death (1978); the Bride's tracksuit and her yellow motorcycle copy the look.

Kill Bill's plot resembles which 1973 Japanese film about a woman avenging her family?

Lady Snowblood (1973), starring Meiko Kaji as a woman raised for vengeance, supplied the snow-garden duel and her song 'The Flower of Carnage'; Kaji also sings on Volume 2's soundtrack.

In what year was Kill Bill: Volume 1 released in theaters?

2003: Volume 1 opened on 10 October at number one with about $22 million, ahead of School of Rock and Intolerable Cruelty, the director's biggest opening to that point.

How many months separated the releases of Volume 1 and Volume 2?

6 months separated them: Volume 1 opened in October and Volume 2 the following April, the same week Volume 1 arrived on DVD.

Which of the director's films, released six years earlier, immediately preceded Kill Bill: Volume 1?

Both Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction had opened to $9.3 million; Volume 1 more than doubled that with $22 million.

What is the title of the single combined cut of both films, released to theaters in December 2025?

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair joins both volumes into one cut, with the House of Blue Leaves fight in full colour and a newly animated Yuki chapter; it reached theaters in December 2025.

How does Bill's brother stop the Bride when she comes to his trailer?

A shotgun blast of rock salt to the chest drops her at the trailer door; he then nails her into a coffin and buries her alive, setting up the Pai Mei flashback.

What is Bill's brother called?

Budd, played by Michael Madsen, is Bill's younger brother, reduced to bouncing at a strip club and living in a trailer in the desert.

What was Bill's own Deadly Viper code name?

Snake Charmer was Bill's code name, fitting for the man who ran the squad; his brother was Sidewinder and Elle Driver the California Mountain Snake.

Which snake species does Elle Driver hide in the money case to kill Bill's brother?

A black mamba, coiled in the suitcase of cash, bites Bill's brother in the face; Elle then reads him the snake's lethal statistics from a notebook, a pointed choice since it was the Bride's code name.

Which actress plays the one-eyed Elle Driver?

Daryl Hannah plays Elle Driver, the eyepatch-wearing assassin who loses her remaining eye to the Bride in the trailer fight in Volume 2.

Elle Driver's look is based on Madeleine, the heroine of which 1973 Swedish exploitation film?

They Call Her One Eye, also released as Thriller: A Cruel Picture, stars Christina Lindberg as an eyepatch-wearing avenger; Elle's look and patch copy her.

What is the name of the death blow Pai Mei refuses to teach his students?

A victim can take only five steps before dying, which is exactly how Bill goes.

Which Shaw Brothers veteran plays Pai Mei, having already appeared in Volume 1 as Johnny Mo?

Gordon Liu, the star of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, plays the white-bearded Pai Mei in Volume 2 after appearing as O-Ren's lieutenant Johnny Mo in Volume 1.

How did Elle Driver kill Pai Mei?

She poisoned his favourite meal, fish heads, in revenge for Pai Mei plucking out her eye after she called him a miserable old fool.

What is the name of the Bride's daughter, whom she discovers alive at Bill's home?

She is four years old, and Tarantino once floated casting Thurman's real daughter Maya Hawke as a grown-up B.B. in a sequel.

How does Bill get the Bride to talk honestly before their final fight?

He shoots her with a truth serum dart, his own 'undisputed truth' concoction, and she admits she fled the squad on learning she was pregnant so her child could have a better life.

In which country does the Bride finally track Bill down?

Mexico is where the Bride finds Bill's hacienda, after the retired pimp Esteban Vihaio, a father figure to Bill, points her the way from Acuña.

What job does Rufus, Samuel L. Jackson's cameo character in Volume 2, hold?

The wedding organist Rufus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, sits at the keys at the Two Pines rehearsal and rattles off the soul acts he claims to have played with.

Michael Parks's Ranger Earl McGraw originated in which earlier Tarantino-written film?

From Dusk till Dawn (1996), which the director scripted, introduced Michael Parks as Ranger Earl McGraw; Parks revived him in Kill Bill and both halves of Grindhouse.

Which director shared composing duties on the Volume 2 score?

Robert Rodriguez scored Volume 2 for a fee of one dollar, and the director repaid him by shooting a scene of Sin City for the same dollar; Morricone cues filled out the western half.

In Tarantino's long-discussed sequel idea, who would seek revenge on the Bride?

Nikki, Vernita Green's daughter, who watched her mother die, was the avenger in the director's long-floated sequel; he wanted years of peace to pass for the Bride first.

Which NBA star adopted the Bride's code name as his own nickname?

Kobe Bryant borrowed the Bride's snake code name from Kill Bill as his nickname, to separate his ruthless on-court persona from his life off it.

Which singer's 2023 hit "Kill Bill" was inspired by the films?

SZA's 'Kill Bill', from her album SOS, topped the Hot 100 in 2023; its video restages the films and features Vivica A. Fox, Vernita Green herself.

Kill Buljo, a 2007 parody of Kill Bill, comes from which country?

Norway produced Kill Buljo, Tommy Wirkola's 2007 parody set in Finnmark that sends up stereotypes about the Sámi; Wirkola went on to make Dead Snow.

The city skyline the Bride flies into was a miniature from which 2001 film franchise?

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) supplied the miniature cityscape reused for the Bride's night-time flight into the city.

Which TV series' Quincy Jones theme blares whenever the Bride spots a target?

Ironside, the Raymond Burr detective series, had a Quincy Jones theme whose siren-like sting plays whenever the Bride sees one of her targets.

How does Elle Driver plan to kill the comatose Bride in the hospital before Bill calls it off?

Lethal injection was the plan: Elle, disguised as a nurse, fills a syringe with poison, but Bill phones to call it off, saying killing a helpless woman would lower them.

Which yakuza boss, her parents' killer, did O-Ren murder at age eleven?

Matsumoto, the boss who murdered her parents, was lured by O-Ren posing as a child prostitute and killed in his bed; she later beheads Boss Tanaka for mocking her heritage.

Volume 2 premiered on April 8, 2004 at which Los Angeles landmark?

The Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard hosted the Volume 2 premiere on 8 April 2004; the geodesic 1963 theater was then part of the ArcLight complex.

Which song plays over the opening credits of Volume 1?

Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), in Nancy Sinatra's 1966 version, plays over Volume 1's opening credits right after the Bride is shot in the chapel.

The Bride's fiancé, killed in the chapel, has what name?

Bill ordered the massacre because he assumed the "jerk" she was marrying was the father of her child.

Which Japanese band performs 'Woo Hoo' on stage at the House of Blue Leaves?

The 5.6.7.8's, a Japanese garage-rock trio, perform 'Woo Hoo' and 'I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield' live at the House of Blue Leaves; the director discovered them on a trip to Japan.

The Bride's truck, the Pussy Wagon, later cameoed in the video for which 2010 Lady Gaga and Beyoncé song?

Telephone's video, released in March 2010, has Gaga and Beyoncé drive off in the Pussy Wagon, which the director lent them; he had kept the truck after the shoot.