History Film / KillBill

''Kill Bill'' takes Creator/QuentinTarantino's favorite things -- [[TheWestern westerns]], [[JidaiGeki samurai movies]], [[MartialArtsMovie martial arts]], [[ConversationalTroping pop-culture references]], {{Action Girl}}s, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick bare feet]] -- and [[MixAndMatch combines them all]] into [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge one hell of a revenge drama]].

Conceived by Tarantino as one complete movie, Miramax [[DividedForPublication split it into two parts]] (''Vol. 1'', released in 2003, and ''Vol. 2'', released six months later in 2004) due to its length. Watching them together earns you a nice four-hour action romp filled with deliberately over-the-top violence which runs on the RuleOfCool. This original cut of the film was eventually released as ''Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair'', with select sequences being extended or uncensored.

The story -- told in "chapters" and in Tarantino's signature [[AnachronicOrder non-linear fashion]] -- centers around an ActionGirl known primarily as "The Bride", a retired assassin who wants a normal life. Her former crew, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad ([=DiVAS=] for short), 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 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, saving Bill for last.

* {{Understatement}}: Bill: "I... [[KillEmAll overreacted]]".

* SoftGlass: In Volume 1, when The Bride fights with Vernita in her house, they throw each other to the glassy objects, such as: the glass-covered photo frame, the glass-covered table and the glassy rack. And they got only a few scratches.

* AnAxeToGrind: One of the Crazy 88s uses throwing axes. [[UnfriendlyFire He winds up killing one of his comrades with one]], and the Bride kills him with [[HoistByHisOwnPetard another.]]

* BetweenMyLegs: when The Bride just finishes off the Crazy 88 leader, Johnny Mo, the latter falls to the bloody pond and is shot between her legs.

* GirlWithPsychoWeapon: Gogo Yubari and her metal ball flail on a chain.

* GoToYourRoom: Downplayed. In the middle of a brutal fight, Vernita's daughter, Nikki, arrives home from her school, Vernita [[MeaningfulLook pleads]] Beatrix to stop fighting. When Nikki enters the house and briefly talks with her mom as well as introducing each other with Beatrix, her mom orders her to go to her room out of protection from the risk of getting killed.

* DamselOutOfDistress: To say that the Bride has been put in situations no average human could get out of, yet she saved herself from each and every time is a ''major'' understatement.

* DamselOutOfDistress: To say that the Bride has been put in situations no average human could get out of, yet she saved herself each and every of is a ''major'' understatement.

* ActionGirl: [[ExaggaratedTrope Exaggarated]] to the point where it basically feels like a parody.

** The Bride defeats Gogo Yubari by stabbing her in the foot with a nailed two by four, breaking her guard long enough to land a killing blow.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: After losing her shoes while struggling to get out of the coffin, the Bride walks barefoot through the hot desert in order to get to Budd's trailer. Later, Elle violently strikes the Bride's foot with her heel, and the latter also walks over broken glass during the fight.

-->'''The Bride:''' This! ''[smack]'' Is what! ''[smack]'' You get! ''[smack]'' For fucking ''[smack]'' around ''[smack]'' with yakuzas! ''[smack]''...Now go home ''[smack]'' to your mother!

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The katana owned by the Bride is so sharp, its creator claims that "If on your journey, you should encounter God, [[BlasphemousBoast God will be cut]]." As for the actually demonstrated cutting power of the blade, it's sharp enough to easily chop a man vertically in half.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: The Bride has been knocked out and tied up by Budd and is at a cemetary about to be buried alive. When Budd tries to pick her up by the shoulders, she starts struggling. He brings out a can of mace and a flashlight and gives her two options: keep struggling and get the entire can sprayed into her eyes or keep calm and she'll get the flashlight put in with her in the coffin. The Bride nods her head in the direction of the flashlight.

-->-- '''The Bride'''

The story -- told in "chapters", as well as Tarantino's signature [[AnachronicOrder non-linear fashion]] -- centers around an ActionGirl known primarily as "The Bride", a retired assassin who wants a normal life. Her former crew, The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad ([=DiVAS=] for short), 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 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.

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The katana owned by the Bride is so sharp, its creator claims that "If on your journey, you should encounter God, [[BlasphemousBoast 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.
* ActionizedSequel: Even though it's two parts of a single story, {{inverted}}. Part 1 has a lot more action than part 2, with the final third or more of the movie being an extended action sequence where the Bride single handedly cuts her way through O-Ren's yakuza army before facing the woman herself. Part 2 spends a lot more time on the narrative and fleshing out the Bride's character and only has 2 real fights, one of which is relatively short and brutal as opposed to the stylized action of the first part, and the second fight, the one where [[spoiler:she kills Bill]], lasts about 10 seconds.

** Also, not the first time Buck has [[Film/NightOfTheComet died in a doorway of head trauma]]. Heck, given how big a fan Tarantino is of ''Film/BattleRoyale'', even the famous yellow track suit could be taken as a shout-out to Chiaki Kuriyama's role in that movie. Except [[https://thekungfufan.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/the-yellow-jumpsuit.jpg it's a]] ShoutOut to Creator/BruceLee.
** Creator/DarylHannah has a similar spastic attack as she did in ''Film/BladeRunner''.

** Budd is first seen wearing an ensemble identical to the thieves' uniforms in ''Film/ReservoirDogs''

* AffectionateParody: Of the entire cinema medium, East and West. This movie also has an example of its own in the form of a Norwegian movie titled "Kill Buljo" which started out as a simple project by amateur directors and actors for the fun of it, with a very low budget. In the end, it became a huge success in Norway, to a degree got released internationally and Quentin Tarantino himself proclaimed [[ApprovalOfGod "I love it. I love it!"]]
* AgeGapRomance: Bill, an old assassin and martial arts warrior who grew up in the 1940s, is outright shown or implied to have been in relationships with several of his decades-younger students, including the Bride, Elle Driver, and most likely Sofie as well. When Bill shows up to the Bride's wedding, and she lies to the groom that he's her ''father'' though he's her lover and father of her child.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: After losing her shoes while struggling to get out of the coffin the Bride walks barefoot through the hot desert in order to get to Budd's trailer. Later Elle violently strikes the Bride's foot with a heel and the latter also walks over broken glass during the fight.

* AnachronicOrder: A Tarantino trademark. The first chapter from ''Volume 1'' shows the Bride's second kill on her mission, and the next four chapters portray the events 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.

-->'''The Bride''': (in Japanese) Those of you lucky enough to still have your lives, take them with you! However...leave the limbs you've lost. They belong to me now. (in English) Except you, Sofie! You stay right where you are!
** It's also how The Bride exacts both revenge on and information from Sofie Fatale. Cutting off Sofie's arm at the start of the Crazy 88 fight shows O-Ren Ishii that The Bride means business, and she takes the other arm away during her interrogation following the big battle.

* AntagonistInMourning: Given a nod when Budd and Elle think The Bride is dead. Budd asks Elle, who considered The Bride a personal rival/nemesis, which R she feels: Relief, or Regret.

** The Bride is visibly sorrowful after killing O-Ren in their duel, as Ishii was probably her only true friend in the Divas.
** And this happens to Bill twice more: first when he believes The Bride has been killed, while she had only run 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!
* AntiHero: The Bride would be classified as an UnscrupulousHero, but occasionally pushes NominalHero. She may be a brutal assassin, but she still has [[NobleDemon certain things that she will not do]] if she can help it -- like murdering someone in front of their child.

* ArtShift: Between the two volumes in both look and feel. On a more macro level, there's the [[DeliberatelyMonochrome seamless shift]] to black and white film stock during the climax in ''Volume 1'' – [[BlackBlood in the US theatrical cut, at least]].
** O-ren Ishii has two flashback sequences explaining her origins that suddenly shift to an animation style typical of early-[[TheNineties '90s]] anime.

* AssholeVictim: Most of the assassins fit this trope, though some are more sympathetic than others. The only exceptions to this are [[spoiler:O-Ren Ishii and, oddly enough, Bill]], as Beatrix feels genuinely shaken by both of their deaths. Then there's Buck, Matsumoto and Tanaka, all three of whose deaths absolutely no one will mourn.
* AudibleSharpness: Zig-zagged at first. When The Bride first handles a Hanzô sword on screen, it makes a sharp sound just when she spins it 180° while still in the sheath. Then she unsheaths it slowly and it has the correct muted leather sound. Then she quickly unsheaths it the rest of the way and the unrealistic metal-on-metal sound is present. Then when she sheaths it again the muted 'whomp' is back. After that, it's pretty much all the expected examples, plus naked Hanzo swords almost constantly emit a quiet, high-pitched tone.
** When [[spoiler:The Bride pulls the knife out of Vernita's chest]], a metallic *shing* sound effect is heard, even though metal colliding with flesh shouldn't make such a sound.

* AwesomeAnachronisticApparel: O-Ren Ishii's white robes are this to an extent, they're just rarely worn as opposed to completely unworn. And The Bride's Bruce Lee-inspired striped suit.
* AnAxeToGrind: One of the Crazy 88s uses throwing axes. [[UnfriendlyFire He winds up killing one of his comrades with one]] and the Bride kills him with [[HoistByHisOwnPetard another.]]
* BadassBoast: After Hanzo makes a sword for the bride:
-->'''Hattori Hanzo:''' I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encouter God, God will be cut.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Just about everyone, but especially Elle Driver from the second movie. Incidentally, the [[LimitedWardrobe same suit]] worn by [[Film/PulpFiction Mia]] and [[Film/JackieBrown Jackie Brown]].
* BathroomBrawl: In ''Vol. 2'', The Bride fights Elle Driver in a cramped trailer, eventually spilling over to the even-more cramped bathroom.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: The Bride is a gorgeous blonde who 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. 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 [[MarkOfShame wasn't one of Esteban's girls]].

** The penalty for disparaging O-Ren Ishii's Chinese or American heritage is [[OffWithHisHead decapitation]]. Which she does to Boss Tanaka following her taking of power at the crime council when he insults her heritage. Her warning about the penalty leads to her SuddenlyShouting (see below).

*** Let's put it this way: in a story related to us by [[UnreliableNarrator Bill]], [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane which may or may not have taken place during the 10th century (making Pai Mei at least a thousand years old)]], he responds to a Shaolin's monk lack of thanking him for a respectful nod of the head - which he didn't notice - by requesting the neck of the Shaolin temple's master. His response to being refused? Massacring everyone in the Shaolin temple, of course!
* BestServedCold: The Bride is forced by circumstance to wait a long time in a coma to get her revenge, but she dishes it out. It's even the opening title card. Cited as an old Klingon proverb no less.
* BilingualBonus: 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."
** The scene with Gogo and the businessman has a bit of this, when he asks what Gogo thinks of Ferrari's, he's actually propositioning her for sex. In Tokyo Ferrari is slang for Fellatio.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Bride gets her revenge by killing Bill and assumes custody of B.B., but all of her friends (including her fellow assassins that turned on her) and family are dead, leaving her alone and having to start over from square one. Not only that, but she'll have to figure out how to connect with B.B. after being estranged from her following childbirth.]]

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: 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.)
* BladeLock: The Bride and Elle do this, [[spoiler:giving the Bride a golden opportunity to rip out Elle's remaining eye]].
* BladeRun: Pai Mei does this to The Bride (as seen in the trope's page image). She is... surprised, to say the least.

** The Bride introduces O-Ren through a StartOfDarkness flashback to O-Ren's childhood done in anime style, where Boss Matsumoto and his men kill both of her parents as she hides under the bed. At one point, a sword blade goes through her mother and the bed courtesy of Matsumoto himself, and her mother's blood drips down onto her. And [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSIET_P9Ckk Luis Bacalov's beautiful score from "The Grand Duel"]] is playing throughout.
*** Later during the flashback, two floozies are splattered with blood when O-Ren assassinates a government official in his limousine.
** Not to mention the second "chapter" of the movie is entitled, ''The Blood Splattered Bride'', a ShoutOut to a LesbianVampire film with the same name. In fact, [[spoiler:she's splattered with blood for pretty much the majority of the movie.]]

** The blood fountain ([[HighPressureBlood 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.

* BookEnds: As a duology, ''Film/KillBill'' begins and ends with The Bride [[spoiler:hesitating to kill someone with their child present, sending the child away, planning to fight in an alternate location away from the child, and finally being forced to kill them in a relative anticlimax because they forced her hand by trying to attack her with her guard down]].
** The last thing The Bride asks Bill before the wedding rehearsal (and subsequent massacre) begins is: "Do I look pretty?". Years later, when [[spoiler: Beatrix hits Bill with the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique]], he asks her: "How do I look?"
* BoringButPractical: Out of Kung-Fu masters, armies of katana-wielding henchman, expert assassins and knife fighting matriarchs, [[spoiler:Budd]] easily incapacitates and comes closest to killing The Bride out of all of them with nothing but [[spoiler:a shotgun full of rock salt and a syringe of tranquilizer.]]

* {{Bowdlerize}}: TV cuts of the movie obviously have to tone down the violence and language a bit to meet network standards. One of the most notorious: in the TBS cut, the "Pussy Wagon" was visibly changed to a ''Party'' Wagon, and Buck introduces himself by saying "My name is Buck and I'm here to [[SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion party]]." Would it have been that hard to change his name to "Marty?"
* BreastAttack: Budd opens his 'duel' with the Bride by shooting her in the chest with rock salt. (He specifically says he was aiming for her breasts.) This attack, more than any other across both films, incapacitates the Bride; she spends the next two minutes writhing feebly and moaning in pain. Especially after Budd rolls her over onto her wounded front.

* BrickBreak: Used as part of Pai Mei's training method towards The Bride. In Vol. 2, she [[ChekhovsSkill puts this to use]] after Budd buries her alive in a wooden coffin.

** 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.

* CampfireCharacterExploration: Bill tells Beatrix the story of Pai Mei while both as seated by a campfire somewhere in the Chinese countryside. With the aid of a flute, Bill tells Pai Mei's tale in a "Music/PeterAndTheWolf" type fashion.

* CastingGag: Casting Sonny Chiba as OldMaster Hattori Hanzo.

** CallBack to ''Film/PulpFiction''[='=]s epinephrine-shot scene, with a mosquito proboscis taking the place of the syringe.
* CatchAndReturn: In the Crazy 88 fight scene, a hatchet gets thrown at the Bride, and she catches it ''right'' before it hits her. After the thrower throws a second hatchet -- [[DeadlyDodging which she dodges, causing it to hit another member]] -- the Bride throws it right to the thrower's forehead.

* CatFight / DesignatedGirlFight: Subverted consistently. None of the fights look like {{Fanservice}} for titillating male audiences, and the women are fighting as brutally as you'd expect from men -- even more brutally, sometimes, with no scratching and hair-pulling. The Bride's fight with Elle Driver in particular is especially vicious and sees both of them covered in blood, sweat, [[{{Squick}} spat tobacco and toilet water]].
* CeilingCling: The Bride does this to hide from Go-Go Yubari.
* CelebCrush: Bill's father figure Esteban Vihaio, a Mexican pimp, tells a story about how he once took Bill to the movies when he was a little boy. He could tell that Bill was drawn to blondes when he noted that the boy had a PrecociousCrush for 1940s-1950s movie star Creator/LanaTurner.

** The punch through wood that Pai Mei teaches the Bride is used to [[spoiler:get out of her coffin]].
** That move where she [[EyeScream snatches your eye right out of its socket]]. She learned it from Pai Mei, used it on one of the Crazy [=88s=], then used it to defeat [[spoiler:Elle]].
** Pai Mei's Five Point Palm [[spoiler:Exploding Heart]] Technique. Bill tells the Bride that Pai Mei doesn't teach the technique to anyone, and [[spoiler:ends up on the receiving end of it [[{{Irony}} from the Bride, as taught by Pai Mei]]]].

* ColdBloodedTorture: How the Bride gets information about the D-VAS from Sofie.

* CombatBreakdown: The battle between Elle and the Bride starts off pretty viciously already. By the end, it has devolved into brutal brawl in which the two assassins resort to [[CombatPragmatist every single dirty trick and tool available to them]].

** Prior to this, she and Vernita attack each other (and defend themselves) with ordinary household things like a frying pan and a coffee table. And Green turns out to keep a hidden gun in her kitchen just in case.
** And Elle [[spoiler:poisoning Pai Mei, who is so badass it's the only possible way to kill him. Supposedly, anyway.]]

* ConservationOfNinjitsu: The entire Crazy 88 fight.

* CoolCar: The Pussy Wagon. Apparently Tarantino's actual truck, which would later be featured prominently in Music/LadyGaga's ''Telephone'' video. It's not Tarantino's daily drive or anything, he just kept it after the movie. You can actually see it parked in his driveway on Google Maps.

* CrossCounter: The Bride vs. Elle Driver.
* CruelMercy: [[spoiler:How the Bride deals with Elle Driver, choosing to blind her instead of killing her]].

* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler:The Bride vs. Bill -- she managed to catch his sword ''in her sheath'' before using the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique on him]].

* CuteAndPsycho: Gogo.
* CycleOfRevenge: Not shown but the possibility is definitely left open. Vernita is killed in front of her daughter Nikki, whom the Bride understands might someday want revenge against her.

* DarkActionGirl: Every major female character other than Sofie Fatale, Nikki Green and [[spoiler:B.B.]]
** {{Dark|ActionGirl}} ActionMom: Vernita and [[spoiler:the Bride]] become this after the incident in the church.
* DawsonCasting: Played for comedy during an aside flashback in ''Vol.2'', where The Bride is doing a roll call in her elementary school classroom. When the teacher eventually calls for "[[spoiler:Beatrix Kiddo]]", it cuts to her, still being played by the ''very'' adult Uma Thurman, saying "Here."

* DeathByIrony: Budd, while escaping from death from the Bride, aka Black Mamba, is killed by the venom of an actual black mamba.
* DeathByMaterialism: An unintentional example with [[spoiler:Budd. Elle gives him a suitcase full of money with the black mamba hidden in the money, but there's no indication or warning that it's in there.]] It was all by surprise.

** The wedding flashbacks that open the saga.
** A portion of the fight at The House of Blue Leaves (at least in America). The moment where it goes to monochrome is right when the Bride [[EyeScream rips out one of the Crazy 88's eyes]].

* DiscOneFinalDungeon: House of Blue Leaves, complete with foot soldiers, mini-bosses and DiscOneFinalBoss (O-Ren).
* DisproportionateRetribution: Where to start.

'''The Bride:''' ''[leans forward in a KubrickStare]'' ...You "''overreacted''"?
** Pai Mei again, plucking Elle Driver's eye out for calling him a "miserable old fool". [[spoiler:Unfortunately for Pai Mei, Elle was just as much a psychopath as he was...]]
*** It supposedly could have been worse for Elle: Bill warned Beatrix that Pai Mei was also liable to snap someone's back for disrespect. So you could say she got off easy...
* DividedForPublication: Tarantino's original vision of ''Kill Bill'' was a single film, but it was cut in half due to length. See also the {{Recut}}[=/=]GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion entry below for details about ''The Whole Bloody Affair'', the single-film cut that was screened at Cannes.

* DoubleTake: When the Bride is finally able to sit down with Bill and confront him about what he did, he admits that he "[[{{Understatement}} overreacted]]". The Bride obviously waits for him to say more, when he doesn't, she sits visibly nonplussed for a long moment as she tries to process, that no, really, this is all Bill is willing to say about it.

* DramaticRedSamuraiBackground: As [[WordOfGod a direct]] ShoutOut to ''Samurai Fiction'', Kill Bill features a silhouetted battle, but against a blue backdrop instead.
* DressedAllInRubber: The Bride's yellow PVC racing jumpsuit.
* DrillSergeantNasty: Pai Mei, and how. Disrespect most drill sergeant types and they will yell at you until their throat is raw and/or send you to be punished. Pai Mei will [[spoiler:''blind you''.]]

* DumbBlonde: A defiant Sofie Fatale calls The Bride this, even after having a limb hacked off.

--->'''Budd:''' Bill thought she was so damn smart. And I tried to tell him she was just smart- for a blonde.
* DyingTruce: [[spoiler:After having the Five Point Palm technique done on him, Bill knows he's a dead man walking. He has a last bit of conversation with The Bride before peacefully walking to his death.]]
* TheDyingWalk: Anyone hit with the Five Point Palm technique will die as soon as he takes five steps. [[spoiler:The Bride uses it on Bill at the end, and he does a very dignified and symbolic walking away from her and his life as he dies.]]

* EnforcedTrope: [Bleep] is used to maintain NoNameGiven until the time is right. Hints are dropped, though.
* {{Epigraph}}: The movie quotes "Revenge is a dish best served cold" which is WrongfullyAttributed as being an [[InTheOriginalKlingon old Klingon proverb]].
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Played with. The Bride is a mass-murderer who, in her RoaringRampageOfRevenge, 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 [[BerserkButton fucking pissed!]]''
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Bill considers his brother Budd the only man he ever loved. His past relationship with the Bride was genuinely romantic; the Bride making him think she was dead and breaking his heart is the reason he went on a rampage at all. [[spoiler:And he's a doting father to BB.]]

** 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 [[spoiler:and appears genuinely regretful that she killed Vernita in front of her daughter]]. She also [[SparingTheFinalMook spares one of the Crazy 88 when it turns out that he is just a teenager who is obviously hanging with the wrong crowd]].
** The scene that starts the Bride's plan to leave the [=DiVAS=] counts as well. [[spoiler:She's just discovered she's pregnant, and the assassin sent to kill her agrees to go home, rather than kill a pregnant woman.]]

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Uma Thurman's character is known only as "The Bride." Several characters do call her by name, but they're bleeped out until midway through Vol. 2.
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Master assassin Bill has a noted preference for blondes. He was involved with at least two of his students, both beautiful blonde women (the Bride and Elle Driver), and his pimp father notes that he had a [[PrecociousCrush Precocious]] CelebCrush on Lana Turner after seeing her in ''Film/ThePostmanAlwaysRingsTwice1946'' as a small boy.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The whole point of the films are to chronicle The Bride's quest to ''[[TitleDrop Kill Bill]]''.

** Either this or {{captain ersatz}} but Creator/QuentinTarantino strongly based [[WordOfGod Elle Driver]] on [[Film/SwitchbladeSisters Patch]].
* EyepatchOfPower: Elle Driver wears an eye patch. The origins of her eye injury are explored but she is no less dangerous for being a cyclops.

** In the Vol. 2 flashback, Elle Driver 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 [[spoiler:rip out her remaining eye, but also ''crushes it under her foot.'']]

* FamilyThemeNaming: Bill and Budd are brothers with four-letter names that start with a "B" and end with a double letter. [[spoiler:The matching first letter even extends to Bill's lover Beatrix, a.k.a. The Bride, and their daughter B.B.]]

** The Bride is played by ''Uma Thurman''. [[UnkemptBeauty Even without makeup]] she's stunning.
** Elle in a nurse outfit. The Red Cross on her eyepatch really shows the extra effort.

** Let's not forget O-Ren using a crapload of [[{{BFG}} huge-ass guns]] [[SmallGirlBigGun in her origin story]].

** The Bride gets this TWICE. First, she is implied to be repeatedly raped while comatose from her assassination attempt, and then she is BuriedAlive.

* FemaleGroinInvincibility: Averted. The Bride and Elle hit each other on the groin several times as their battle within the cramped trailer [[CombatBreakdown rapidly degenerates to chaos]]. In all occasions, it is shown to be an effective and painful move.
* FingerPokeOfDoom: The Five Point Palm [[spoiler:Exploding Heart]] Technique.
* FingerTwitchingRevival

* FourIsDeath: Downplayed example as 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 PlayedStraight as 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.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Villainous example. Bill is phlegmatic, Elle Driver is choleric, Budd is sanguine, Vernita Green is leukine and O-Ren Ishii is melancholic.
* FunnyBruceLeeNoises: Johnny Mo throughout his fight with the Bride.
* FunWithAcronyms: The Deadly Viper Assassin Squad - [=DiVAS=].

* GenreMashup: Take a {{Revenge}} thriller, add {{Samurai}}[=/=]martial arts movie, a dash of {{Spaghetti Western}}, and a pinch of {{Anime}}, and you get ''Kill Bill''.
* GenreShift: Volume 1 is an ode to kung fu movies. Volume 2 is an ode to the western, as well as a deconstruction of Volume 1.

* GirlWithPsychoWeapon: Gogo Yubari
* {{Gorn}}

** [[spoiler:When The Bride kills O-Ren, a line of blood hits the snow first, followed by the top of O-Ren's skull.]]

%% * GottaKillThemAll: She even has a list.
* GracefulLoser: O-Ren expresses admiration for the Bride's sword and admits that it is a Hanzo sword after [[spoiler:the Bride scalps her]].
* GratuitousEnglish: "So that you understand how serious I am, I'm going to say this in English." - O-Ren, addressing a group of Japanese {{Yakuza}} after killing one of their leaders.

** The Bride and Elle hit each other with these during their fight and they are [[RealityIsUnrealistic depicted as effective]].

* HairTriggerSoundEffect: The Pai Mei training montages. Every single movement is accompanied by a cheesy whipping sound effect. Even the Bride's ponytail makes it making it [[{{Pun}} literally]] a [[HairTriggerSoundEffect hair-triggered sound effect.]]

* HallwayFight: The Bride and Elle briefly get into a sword fight in the hallway of Budd's trailer, which leads to the Bride [[spoiler:ripping the eye from her socket and considering she only had one eye to begin with, it gives her the win.]]

** 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 avoid it 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 SequelHook. Tarantino is on record as having ideas for ''Kill Bill'' Volumes 3 and 4 already rolling around in his brain.)
%% * HelloAttorney: Sofie Fatale.

* HeroicComedicSociopath[=/=]SociopathicHero: 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 VillainProtagonist (she was after all a contract killer for most of her life) is the relative HeelFaceTurn she went through upon [[spoiler:finding out she was pregnant]], and her very deserved revenge.
* HiddenVillain: Bill, for the first half's entirety. However, TheReveal happens early in ''Vol. 2'' - or earlier, if you [[SpoilerOpening bothered to read the ending credits]] of ''Vol. 1''.
* HighOnHomicide: Young O-Ren's killing Boss Matsumoto saw her tilt her head back and takes a deep breath after her revenge.
%% * HighPressureBlood

* HollywoodHealing: Zig-Zagged. The Bride shows a wonderful knack for shrugging off various injuries, and usually looks pristine the next day. But her healing from the massacre took four years. And when she woke up from the coma she couldn't move her lower body at all and struggled just to drag herself around. Then again, recovering her old physical prowess from the effects of a 4-year coma were implied to have taken only a short amount of time rather than the months and likely years it should have taken.

** O-Ren certainly has the advantage. Part of that advantage is her personal army and right hand [[TheDragon Dragon]].

** The Bride's conduct in the saga. 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. Not uncomplicated, though: the Bride ''wants'' her revenge and she doesn't hesitate to use dirty tricks if they're needed to win -- [[EyeScream ripping eyes out]], using {{improvised weapon}}s, [[DynamicEntry attacking by surprise]], you name it.
** Elle averts this. She was unhappy that Bill called off the hit on the Bride while she was still comatose; [[spoiler:used a [[AnimalMetaphor black mamba]] to kill Budd out of [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou pure jealousy and spite]] (though Elle actually accuses ''Budd'' of this trope's inversion, citing the reason as "regret that perhaps the greatest warrior I've ever met... met her end at the hands of a ''bushwhackin[='=]'', scrub, alky piece of shit like you")]]; and [[spoiler:she killed Pai Mei simply by poisoning his fish heads]].
** Budd's decision to shoot the Bride. While the Bride very clearly challenged both Vernita Green (by knocking on her door unarmed) and O-Ren (by facing her minions first), she seemed unwilling to grant the same favor to Budd -- in fact, she ended up breaking through his trailer without warning, while being armed already with her katana. Whether she did that because she did not expect Budd to offer a fair fight, or because she underrated his value as a fighter, is never made clear. What it seems is that Budd, at the end of the day, was not very clearly given an occasion for a real duel, so his responding to the Bride's ambush with one of his own does not appear to be that cowardly. Budd's actions [[spoiler:''after'' the rock-salt buckshot might be interpreted as this. 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 [[spoiler:she saw B.B. through the scope and realized that her daughter was still alive]].
* IconicOutfit: The Bride's famous jumpsuit, itself a reference to a similar outfit worn by Creator/BruceLee.
* IJustWantToBeYou: Played for laughs with Vernita Green about The Bride's [=DiVAS=] codename "[[IronicNickname Black Mamba]]":

* IllKillYou: Elle Driver, after [[spoiler:being reduced to a screaming psychotic wreck after the Bride snatches out her other eye and crushes it underfoot]].
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: The fate of O-Ren's parents; her father was run through by one of Boss Matsumoto's men while her mother was pinned to a bed (which narrowly avoided hitting O'Ren). Also the fate of Boss Matsumoto, the boss that ordered their deaths.

** In this case, an implacable woman. The Bride will travel to the ends of the earth, get grievously injured multiple times, and even [[spoiler:rise from a grave]] if necessary, to get her revenge.

--->'''Bill:''' The abbot, at first, tried to console Pai Mei — only to find, Pai Mei was... inconsolable.
* InfoDrop: The protagonist is usually known only as [[NoNameGiven the Bride]], but there are hints and one specific scene that reveal it to be [[spoiler:Beatrix Kiddo]].

* IronicEcho: "[[AndThisIsFor This is for breaking my brother's heart.]]" [[spoiler:The Bride does this again -- in a quite literal sense -- at the end of the film.]]
* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:Racist, misogynist Pai Mei considered the Bride, a blonde white woman, the greatest student he had ever taught--enough so, even, that she inherited from him his top-secret, super-forbidden Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. It works the other way around, too: Pai Mei's next, and ultimately final, student was another blonde white woman who happened to be the complete opposite of the Bride and was perfectly willing to kill him over an eye.]]

%% * KarmaHoudini: Ernie, the guy that helped Budd bury the Bride in Volume 2.

* KatanasAreJustBetter: 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.
* KensingtonGore: Scads and scads of neon-red fake blood are used, especially in Part 1. Mostly a ShoutOut to old Shaw Bros. style Kung Fu movies.

* KungFoley: Plenty of "wooshes" from all of the martial arts moves and lots of sword noises in the fights.
%% * LadyOfWar: O-Ren Ishii, also a [[WhiteShirtOfDeath clad in all white]].

* LeftForDead: [[spoiler:Driver]], after the Bride [[spoiler:plucks her eye out.]] While the credits for volume 2 have the other Vipers' names crossed out, she simply gets a question mark. Presumably [[spoiler:the black mamba bites her]] at some point.

* LikeCannotCutLike: While Hattori Hanzo declares the weapon he made for the Bride his finest work it has no particular advantage over other Hanzo swords in battle, and is incapable of cutting through them like it can other katanas. Alluded to by Budd who- when Ellie asks him how the Bride's Hanzo sword compares to his- answers that you can only compare Hanzo swords to 'every other sword ever made that wasn't made by Hattori Hanzo'.

** After awakening from her four-year-long coma in Vol. 1, the Bride discovers that Buck the orderly has been prostituting her unconscious body to paying customers. After Buck leaves the room for the sake of his client's privacy, she pretends to still be comatose while the latest john climbs on top of her, and as soon as he tries to kiss her, she chomps down hard on his lower lip - complete with a charming shot of the damn thing being stretched to breaking point!
** In Vol. 2, semi-retired pimp Esteban Vihaio remarks that Bill was unnecessarily harsh in shooting the Bride in the head, claiming that he would have just cut her face. Sounds pleasant by comparison, but then we see that one of his prostitutes is sporting a painful-looking gash running from her lower lip to the base of her nose. Equally unpleasant is the fact that the poor girl can't properly close her mouth as a result, forcing Vihaio to lend her a hankie to mop the saliva off her chin.

%% * LukeYouAreMyFather

* MamaBear: The reason why the Bride left her assassin order was to raise her soon-to-be-born baby away from bloodshed. When she couldn't fulfil it, she went on to get revenge and she sheds much blood.
* ManBitesMan: The Bride's first kill upon getting out of her four-year coma was a trucker who tried to rape her, whose lower lip she ripped off with her teeth.
* MasterApprenticeChain: The Bride learned her martial art skills under Pai Mei, the same master who also taught her adversaries Elle Driver and Bill.

** The Bride is known as the "Black Mamba" as her part in the [=DiVAS=]. The Black Mamba is generally considered the world's deadliest snake (Elle's description was spot on).
** Subverted with Budd being "Sidewinder." The sidewinder, a type of Rattlesnake, while venomous is rather shy and is also one of the smallest venomous snakes in the world. The Copperhead is also rather timid and has a relatively mild venom which is almost never fatal to a healthy adult.

-->'''Bride narration:''' 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 in a sexual position.
* MemeticBadass: InUniverse example, Pai Mei seems to have achieved this status so much that legends of his badassery go back a millennium.
* MightyWhitey: 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 [[TrainingFromHell 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.

* MundaneMacGuffinPerson: Finding Bill so she could kill him is the entire focus of the Bride's RoaringRampageOfRevenge... well, that and revenging herself on the people who could lead her to him.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: "[[SurvivalMantra Wiggle... your big toe.]]" ''O-Ren Ishii's entire sordid backstory was built up to that.'' {{Deconstructed}} for both drama ''and'' humor in that it takes an additional 13 hours for The Bride to get the rest of her lower torso functioning again, presumably with other monologues.
** Also played for drama is [[spoiler:Bill's death after The Bride lands the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique on him. Never has taking [[{{Determinator}} six]] steps forward ever been so [[TearJerker heart-wrenching]].]]
* MutilationInterrogation: "I'm gonna ask you questions. And every time you don't give me answers...I'm gonna cut something off. And I promise you, they will be things you will miss." No mistake about it, The Bride does not fuck around. And the very first part that she starts with is Sofie's remaining arm, as she already chopped off the other one... The Japanese cut has her making good on this threat.
* MyGodYouAreSerious: In ''Vol.2'', Esteban Vihaio tells the Bride that Bill's [[ConvenientComa coma-inducing]] [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain gunshot to the head]] was "much too cruel; I [[CruelMercy would've just]] [[AScarToRemember cut]] [[MarkOfShame your face]]." He then calls over his prostitute Clarita, to dab the saliva from her [[FacialHorror artificially-cleft lip]].
* MythologyGag: To previous works in which Tarantino had a hand --
** To ''Film/PulpFiction'', when The Bride [[HomageShot moves her finger in a half-rectangle]] and says "That'd be just about square."
** To the same film, when a mosquito pricks The Bride and she soon after [[CatapultNightmare starts upright from her coma]].
** When Bill finishes his Superman vs. Spider-Man parable by calling The Bride "a [[Film/NaturalBornKillers natural-born killer]]."

* NaughtyNurseOutfit: Elle's initial scene has her in an old-fashioned form-fitting nurse's outfit when she infiltrates a hospital to kill a comatose Bride.

* NoNameGiven: 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, [[spoiler:what seems to be just Bill's affectionate nickname for the Bride -- "kiddo" -- turns out to [[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep actually be her]] ''[[HisNameReallyIsBarkeep 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 (Tarantino has suggested that he wants it to come across as an old in-joke between the two), but is actually [[spoiler:a veiled reference to the name Beatrix Kiddo.]]
** Lampshaded when [[spoiler: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.]]

** Budd, a drunken redneck to most until they realize he's a cold-blooded killer [[WarriorPoet with a philosophical side]]... and by then it's too late.

** In O-Ren's backstory, one of the mooks of Boss Matsumoto has this when, after being knocked down to the floor by being shot through his foot, sees a young O-Ren under the bed and aiming a gun directly at him. He barely registers fear before getting a bullet in-between his eyes.
** Vernita gets the Oh, Crap! face in the middle of her fight with the Bride when her daughter comes home from school. It's like she realized that, whether she survived or not, her daughter was going to be traumatized by this experience.
%% * OldMaster: Pai Mei is the evil (or at very least, {{Jerkass}}) version of this, as is Bill himself.

** Another one follows the Bride's walk down the aisle, the [=DiVAS=] entrance into the chapel, and the massacre itself.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: O-Ren, despite supposedly growing up in Japan, has a rather heavy American accent. Lucy Liu did not know Japanese before the role and worked with a language coach to at least sound convincing to an American audience, but was obviously ''gaijin'' to Japanese audiences. Possibly justified as she's an American military brat, see FauxFluency above.
* OrderliesAreCreeps: Buck rapes comatose patients and made a sideline in pimping their bodies out to others (usually truckers like him). He ends up as one of the Bride's first victims when she gets out of her four-year coma, losing his life (by means of heavy steel door), his clothes and his truck (the Pussy Wagon) in the bargain.

* PaedoHunt: Boss Matsumoto, who the Bride described as a pedophile, giving young O-Ren the opening to exact her revenge.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: It's a story about an assassin assassinating assassins.
* PoliceAreUseless: The only cops we ever see are those at the scene of the massacre. After that, this movie takes WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief here and cranks it up to eleven regarding the ease Beatrix pulls it all off. One would think a woman waking up from such a long coma (let alone one that had killed more than one hospital staff after doing so and was now missing and possibly armed and dangerous) would be on the news somewhere, and they'd know about it, but the Bride manages to take Vernita and O-Ren by near complete surprise. (Especially given the AnachronicOrder of the events); Vernita clearly has no idea her old teammate's ''entire organization'' was slaughtered in something that would likely be a headline. Also, the Bride was driving around in Buck's very noticeable yellow truck in a residential area. Someone should have noticed this - to say nothing of the gunshot after a violent fight and argument - and could have called the police with a description of the vehicle. But apparently, the Bride continued to drive that same vehicle for a while, the equivalent of wearing a sign that said, "I'm a murderer on the lam".

** Downplayed with [[Film/FromDuskTillDawn Texas Ranger McGraw]]. At first, he disciplines his son for blaspheming in a chapel, but after The Bride reflexively spits in his face: ''"Son Number One? This tall drink of '''cocksucker''' ain't dead."''

%%* PressurePoint: The basis for the Five Point Palm [[spoiler:Exploding Heart]] Technique.

* PsychoExGirlfriend: 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.
%%* PsychoForHire: Gogo.

-->"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.."
* PunchAWall: 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.
* PunctualityIsForPeasants: Budd is frequently late to his shifts at strip club because he feels that absence of any customers makes it rather pointless.

* RadialAssKicking: This happens in the Crazy 88 fight scene.
* RailingKill: A non-lethal version. During the fight with the Bride on first floor, a member of Crazy 88 breaks through the banister and crashes onto a table on ground level.
* RainOfBlood: O-Ren's vengeance upon Matsumoto.
* RaisedHandOfSurvival: The Bride emerges from [[BuriedAlive her coffin]] like this.

** 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 ''Film/{{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 include ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken''[='=]s parody ''Kill Bunny,'' as well as a scene in ''Film/ScoobyDooTheMysteryBegins'' 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.

* RenownedSelectiveMentor: Pai Mei. Apparently, he only rarely accepts students and is a thousand-year-old renowned recluse.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: [[spoiler:B.B.]], both serious and lighthearted ([[MoodWhiplash at once]]) -- although it wasn't so much "reports" as assumption, considering [[spoiler:the Bride enters her coma [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown badly beaten]] and [[ImperiledInPregnancy pregnant]]; and [[CatapultNightmare awakens]] after four years in a hospital, [[ConvenientMiscarriage not pregnant]]]].
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Deadly Viper Assassin Squad.
* ResignationsNotAccepted: When The Bride tried to resign from the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, they tried to murder her. The second installment indicates that she didn't quit as much as walk off her current assignment and allow Bill to think that she was dead. This way she could start a new life somewhere else and avoid having Bill raise their child as an assassin. The ironic part is, by the time she woke up, the Deadly Vipers were defunct as a team; in fact, only two of them were still active criminals.

* RetiredBadass: Hattori Hanzo is no longer in the sword-making business but he's 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.
** Inverted in the case of O-Ren, who only gave up the assassin's lifestyle to become head of the Yakuza.

** Bill's adopted father Esteban 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 seemed all that remorseful for her past actions, nor did she care what her former lover/partners do as long as they didn't bring trouble her way. Unfortunately for them, they did.
** Pai 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 snatch your eye out of its socket (or snap your back) if you talk back to him.
* {{Retraux}}: The Bride 'driving' in front of an obvious back-projection at the start of Vol. 2, while delivering her monologue.

* TheReveal: The last few seconds of Part 1, when we learn that [[spoiler:the Bride's child is still alive.]]
* RevengeByProxy: Invoked.
* ReverseGrip: During her fight with Vernita, The Bride wields a knife using an icepick grip.

** Surprisingly ''not'' the {{Trope Namer|s}}; Tarantino used the phrase in a ShoutOut to the blaxploitation classic ''Ebony, Ivory, and Jade''.
** Very downplayed in Vol. 2, because [[spoiler:while it is still a very violent movie, by the end credits, The Bride has taken only one life.]]

* SailorFuku: Gogo. Never has this trope been [[CuteAndPsycho so terrifying]] as this [[EpicFlail Meteor hammer]] wielding pixie.
* [[ScaryBlackMan Scary Black Woman]]: Vernita Green, a.k.a Copperhead.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When the bride cuts off Sofie's arm in the House of Blue Leaves, the entire staff and clientele quickly vacate the premises
* SecretArt: The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, [[spoiler:which even Bill was surprised to find out was taught to someone else (the Bride, of all people) by Pai Mei]].

** Elle's line, "Now you should listen to this, because it concerns you", was previously used in ''Film/JackieBrown''.
* SequelHook: 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 [[spoiler:the Bride's own daughter]] to the mix and [[WordOfGod Tarantino's comments]] and "Kill B[[spoiler:eatrix]]: Vol. 3" is just waiting to be a-born.

* TheSeventies: Many, many references, visual homages, and the soundtrack.
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: [[spoiler:Even better than katanas. And Budd didn't even have to get out of his chair to prove it. If he used real buckshot instead of rock salt, the Bride's RoaringRampageOfRevenge would have ended right then.]]

** Perhaps most notable, the live-action film adaptation of Film/LadySnowblood. Aside from the general similarities in the plot, Vol. 1 uses the film's theme song, and many shots, especially [[spoiler: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.
** Gordon Liu, who appears as Johnny Mo in "Volume 1", and Pai Mei in "Volume 2", starred in ''Film/The36thChamberOfShaolin''. The style of the Bride's training regimen is modeled after ''The 36th Chamber of Shaolin''. Also [[Music/WuTangClan 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".

** Tommy Plympton was named in honor of animator Creator/BillPlympton, whom Quentin Tarantino had recently met and became friends with at [=ComiCon=][[note]]"Met and became friends with" meaning that Plympton supposedly saw Tarantino, [[FanBoy leaped over his table in the dealer's room and ran over to gush about how big a fan he was]].[[/note]]
** The bald-head man in a yellow kimono is compared to [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]]. In fact, according to the credits, that's his name.

** Also the Bride when [[spoiler:she first sees B.B. at Bill's house.]]
* SmugSnake: Elle Driver is confident enough to waste time in her fight with the Bride when she gloats about [[spoiler:killing Pei Mei]].
* SnowMeansDeath: O-Ren and the Bride's duel takes place on a snowy Japanese exterior.
* SonOfAWhore: Heavily implied to be the case with Bill. The only person who knows his whereabouts just happens to be [[ParentalSubstitute a pimp]] who apparently raises the sons of his prostitutes to become his enforcers. Totally explains the big age and appearance difference between Bill and his brother Budd as well as his penchant for getting women to do his dirty work for him. Snake Charmer indeed.

-->'''O-Ren:''' As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so. But allow me to convince you. And I promise you, right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo. Except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is... '''I collect your fucking head'''. Just like this fucker here. Now, if any of you sons of bitches, got anything else to say, now is the fucking time! ''[beat]'' I didn't think so.
* SoundingItOut: The Bride does this when reading the instructions to her pregnancy test.

* SpareAMessenger: The Bride lets Sofie Fatale live so she could tell Bill about her return.

** This gets turned in her in volume 2, where she spits in Budd's face after he shoots her, and he responds by spitting back - except his spit is far more plentiful and laden with chewed tobacco. "I win."
* StealthPun: The chapter of Vol. 2 titled "Elle and I" could also be written as [[spoiler:"Elle and Eye" when she loses her other eye]].
* SteppingStoneSword: During her fight with the Crazy 88s, the Bride pierces a wooden beam with a samurai sword in order to climb the balustrade.
** Pai Mei does it during his first meeting/fight with the Bride, balancing on her sword (while she's still holding it) in order to get close enough to kick her in the face.

* SuddenlyShouting: After calmly and pleasantly encouraging her subordinates to question her decisions--always in a respectful manner--and warning about the penalty for bringing up her Chinese or American heritage negatively (see BerserkButton above), O-Ren Ishii wraps it up with, "If ''any'' of you sons of bitches got ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY, '''NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!!'''"
%%* SwipeYourBladeOff: All over the end of the first movie.
* SwitchToEnglish: Happens frequently during conversations/dialogue in Japanese (Bride/Hanzo, Bride/Gogo, O-Ren addressing the yakuza bosses, etc.)
* SwordPointing: In Vol. 2, just before The Bride has her sword fight with Elle Driver, they point their katanas at each other.
* SystematicVillainTakedown: The films have The Bride hunt down the individual members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and methodically battle and kill them (and either kill or maim anyone who gets in her way or they put in her way) one by one in revenge for crashing her wedding and killing all the guests. She saves Bill, who actually shot her in the head, for last.

** Subverted when Bill calls The Bride "kiddo" before shooting her in the head, as it turns out [[spoiler:"Kiddo" is her name.]]
* ThemeNaming: In addition to the [=DiVAS=] snake pseudonyms (with Bill as their [[spoiler:"Snake Charmer"]]), every significant character has double letters in their name.
* TheThingThatGoesDoink: In the background during O-Ren's fight.

* TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain: The Bride survives a shot to the head at point blank range (though it does send her into a coma).

%%* TouchOfDeath: The legendary Five Point Palm [[spoiler:Exploding Heart]] Technique.
%%* TrainingFromHell: "The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei."

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: The Bride asks a young girl if she would like to watch a video before she goes to bed. The girl's answer? ''Shogun Assassin''. Being a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, The Bride sees nothing wrong with this.

* UnkemptBeauty: The Bride. Spectacularly gorgeous even when she spends most of her time covered in sweat, mud and blood.
* UnsoundEffect: In the anime sequence showing O-Ren's backstory, while she's hiding under the bed as a child as her parents are being killed, she's shown trying to not make a sound with the word "whimper" slowly coming out of her mouth before pushing it back in.
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Lampshaded by Hattori in how it's easy to lose one's way for revenge. Granted The Bride has good reasons for it but not without certain consequences along the way.
* VideoCredits: ''Volume II'' ends with a credits sequence showing every cast member of both movies.

* VillainOfAnotherStory: Both the Bride's EvilMentor Pai Mei and RetiredMonster Esteban Vihaio are very evil people by most standards, but they only exist in the film as part of Bill's sinister background. Both actually aid the Bride in going after Bill. To drive the trope home, the film's version of Pai Mei is directly modeled on Pai Mei's HistoricalVillainUpgrade appearances as the BigBad of ''Executioners from Shaolin''--that's where the story of the temple massacre comes from--and as a minor villain in ''Clan of the White Lotus'', making him quite literally the villain of another story.
* VillainousBreakdown: Elle, after [[spoiler:losing her remaining eye.]] Holy...
* VisualPun: In Part One, Vernita Green has a gun concealed [[spoiler:in a box of "Kaboom" cereal.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: Hattori Hanzo and his assistant seem to have this going.
%%* WaxOnWaxOff
* WesternSamurai: O-Ren Ishii is a half-Japanese, half-Chinese-American woman that is also one of [[BigBad Bill]]'s assassins and eventually became the leader of the Yakuza in Japan. Boss Tanaka despises her origin (his assertion that it makes her unworthy to be a leader or even considered a Japanese pushes her BerserkButton... and you'll die for that). She usually dresses as a {{geisha}} and [[IaijutsuPractitioner uses Iaijutsu as her main technique]].

* WhiteShirtOfDeath: [[spoiler: O-Ren Ishii]] wears an elegant white kimono to her final battle with The Bride. Guess who wins?

* WholeCostumeReference: The Bride wears a tracksuit very reminiscent of Bruce Lee's from his final movie ''Film/GameOfDeath,'' and O-Ren's outfit is very much inspired by ''Film/LadySnowblood''. The suit and blouse Elle wears to meet Budd is the same one Uma Thurman wore on her date in ''Film/PulpFiction'' and also worn by the titular character in ''Film/JackieBrown''.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: 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 [[RuleOfCool the point]]. She obviously wanted to make peace first.

** There's also her run-in with Budd. As soon as she opens up the trailer door... Bang.
* WithinArmsReach: When Gogo is strangling The Bride, Gogo manages to yank The Bride a tiny bit closer and the Bride is able to flip up a board with a nail in it [[HandyFeet with her foot]] and then is able to hit Gogo's foot with it, before swinging again and embedding the nail in her head.

* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: "I want him to know what ''I'' know. I want him to know...[[UpToEleven I]] ''[[UpToEleven want]]'' [[UpToEleven him to know]]."

* OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: [[UpToEleven The Movie.]] Just how much blood is in that severed arm, anyway?

* PoliceAreUseless: The only cops we ever see are those at the scene of the massacre. After that, this movie takes WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief here and cranks it UpToEleven regarding the ease Beatrix pulls it all off. One would think a woman waking up from such a long coma (let alone one that had killed more than one hospital staff after doing so and was now missing and possibly armed and dangerous) would be on the news somewhere, and they'd know about it, but the Bride manages to take Vernita and O-Ren by near complete surprise. (Especially given the AnachronicOrder of the events); Vernita clearly has no idea her old teammate's ''entire organization'' was slaughtered in something that would likely be a headline. Also, the Bride was driving around in Buck's very noticeable yellow truck in a residential area. Someone should have noticed this - to say nothing of the gunshot after a violent fight and argument - and could have called the police with a description of the vehicle. But apparently, the Bride continued to drive that same vehicle for a while, the equivalent of wearing a sign that said, "I'm a murderer on the lam".

* NiceHat: Subverted with Budd's cowboy hat, at least as far as his employer at the titty bar is concerned.