Budd (Kill Bill)

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Budd is a fictional character in the Kill Bill movies directed by Quentin Tarantino, portrayed by Michael Madsen.

Budd is a professional assassin, a member of his brother Bill's Deadly Viper Assassination Squad under the codename Sidewinder. Along with the rest of the squad, he attacks and nearly kills former colleague Beatrix Kiddo (aka The Bride or Black Mamba) at her wedding rehearsal, leaving her in a seemingly irreversible coma.

Over the next four years Budd abandons his old life for a meager existence in the outskirts of Barstow, California taking with him a Hattori Hanzō kendo sword Bill had custom made for him. He later tells Bill that he pawned it in El Paso, but Kiddo later finds it in his closet.

By the time Kiddo emerges from her coma and sets out for revenge against the other Vipers, Budd has degenerated into a broken-down (but still wily) alcoholic. He is not without remorse for what he has done, and tells Bill "That woman deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die... but then again, so does she."

That very night, Kiddo is outside his trailer, stalking him with her own Hanzō sword. Budd is ready and waiting for her, however, and incapacitates her with a blast of rock salt from his shotgun. He then proceeds to render her unconscious with a syringe. He then calls Elle Driver, another former colleague, and offers to sell her Kiddo's sword for $1 million dollars.

Budd and a crony of his then take the unconscious Kiddo to a nearby cemetery to bury her alive. Kiddo awakes, however, and tries to struggle free. Amused, Budd offers her the closest thing he can to mercy: behave, and he would let her have a flashlight six feet under ground; don't, and she would get a blast of mace in the eyes at point blank range. She chooses the flashlight, then Budd seals her in a wooden box and buries her, but not before telling her that she deserves her fate for breaking his brother's heart. She eventually escapes, however.

Budd meets with Driver back at his trailer and assures her that Kiddo is in fact dead. When he opens the briefcase containing the payment, however, the Bride's namesake, a black mamba, springs forth from underneath the money and bites him in the face multiple times. Driver gloats over him as he dies, phones Bill, and tells him Kiddo planted the snake in his camper, and takes the money for herself.

[edit] Trivia

• Michael Madsen viewed his character as being the conscience of the film, given his character having walked away from his career as an assassin in pursuit of living a regular life.