List of Kill Bill characters
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The following is a list of characters from the film Kill Bill. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, it was released in two separate parts, Kill Bill Vol. 1 in 2003 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 in 2004. The film takes place after a massacre that killed the fiancé and friends of the main character, The Bride, at the chapel in which she was to be married; though also thought to have been killed, The Bride survived, but was put into a coma for four years as a result of the attack. Upon finally awaking, she plots her vengeance against the killers.
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[edit] Beatrix Kiddo/Black Mamba/The Bride
The film's main character, The Bride -- whose real name, Beatrix Kiddo, was not revealed until Vol. 2 -- abandons her life as a hired assassin for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DVAS) upon realizing she is pregnant. This action provokes the attacks on her and her loved ones and its ensuing revenge, which is the entire basis of the film. The Bride shares a unique relationship with each of the DVAS members, as evidenced by the way they speak and interact with one another. Her code-name whilst working for DVAS was Black Mamba.
[edit] Bill
Bill, the antagonist of the film, is the leader of the DVAS, to which The Bride formerly belonged, and also her ex-lover. He and the four remaining Deadly Vipers attempt to kill her after she leaves him without a trace after learning she was impregnated by Bill. Though the squad has since disbanded, he is still in touch with each of its former members. Early on in the film (chronologically), he shared a mentor/lover relationship with The Bride, which later soured into a bittersweet hatred.
[edit] DVAS members
[edit] Vernita Green
Also known as Copperhead, Vernita Green is a fighter skilled with knives and hand-to-hand combat, a past member of the Deadly Vipers. She eventually left the Squad to pursue a normal life, assuming the name "Jeanie Bell," married and raising a four-year-old daughter Nikki. When The Bride finds her, she and Green fight in her California house, but are interrupted by the arrival of Nikki, home from school. They both decide it's best to take their fight somewhere else, though it's only a diversion until Vernita gets a handgun from the cupboard. Her shot misses, and The Bride throws a knife into her chest from across the room. Nikki witnesses the death of her mother and The Bride regrets her having to see what she did, saying that she'll be waiting should Nikki ever seek revenge.
[edit] O-Ren Ishii
Codenamed Cottonmouth, O-Ren Ishii is a Chinese-Japanese-American who, after seeing her parents brutally murdered at the age of 9, becomes a professional assassin proficient in sword fighting. Though once a member of the Deadly Vipers, she eventually became the head of the Tokyo Yakuza and possessed her own squad of assassins, the Crazy 88 (see below). The Bride is hinted to have shared an almost sister-like relationship with O-Ren before the events of the chapel. This is reinforced by their sharing of the "Silly rabbit -- Trix are for kids." dialogue, a playful joke on Beatrix's name, and by the fact that O-Ren is the only Deadly Vipers member, other than Bill, that The Bride is shaken after killing.
[edit] Elle Driver
Elle Driver, AKA California Mountain Snake, is another swordswoman loyal to Bill. She was trained by Pai Mei, like Bill and The Bride, but upon disrespecting Pai Mei, he plucked out one of Elle's eyes, and thus she wore a distinctive eyepatch ever since. In retaliation, she murdered Pai Mei by poisoning his food. She is depicted as being excessively greedy and sadistic, offering large amounts of money to buy The Bride's Hanzo sword from Budd, then killing him with a live Black Mamba snake. Her hatred for The Bride stems from jealousy over her close relationship with Bill, though she also respects The Bride as "the greatest warrior [she] had ever known." In their climactic fight, The Bride pulls out Elle's other eye and leaves her for dead; as Pai Mei declared The Bride's arm "his" when he began training her, he in effect took both of Driver's eyes. Elle's fate is open to interpretation by end of the second film, in the final credits all the dead DVAS have a line through their name. However Elle's name has a "?" over it.
[edit] Budd
Budd, or Sidewinder, is the only man Bill ever loved, his brother, and the only other male Deadly Viper. Now living in a motorhome, Budd has degenerated into a poor alcoholic working as a bouncer at a strip club. Initially when Bill informed him about the deaths of O-Ren Ishii and her bodyguards, he claimed that maybe they all deserved to die for what they did to The Bride. However, he changed his mind and was determined to kill her for a reward from Bill to solve his financial problems. When The Bride finds him, he manages to shoot her, bury her alive, and take her priceless sword. The Bride escapes her casket, but not before Elle has killed Budd with a live black mamba to take The Bride's sword.
Budd seems to be the most reasonable-minded of all the Deadly Vipers. When told by Bill that Beatrix was coming to kill him, he said "that lady deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die." This shows that he has accepted that what they did to Beatrix was horrible, and that they deserve to be punished for it.
[edit] Associates of O-Ren Ishii
In getting her revenge against O-Ren, The Bride must first confront many adversaries who represent O-Ren.
[edit] Sofie Fatale
Sofie Fatale, of mixed Japanese and French descent, is O-Ren's best friend, lawyer, and interpreter. The only person at the original massacre who did not commit any of the murders, Sofie is still in contact with Bill. While at The House Of Blue Leaves Sophie's arm is dismembered by The Bride in order to get O-Ren's attention. The Bride does not murder Sofie, but however threatens to chop off her second arm and other parts of her body to reveal the locations of the remaining Deadly Vipers. A distressed Sophie is last seen in the film crying and apologizing to Bill for telling The Bride where of the rest of the Deadly Vipers are.
[edit] Crazy 88
Originally employed to help O-Ren take control of the Tokyo underworld, the Crazy 88 are a gang controlled by O-Ren. It includes members of both sexes and a wide age range. Most members fight using katanas, but some also throw axes. Johnny Mo, the clan's leader (under O-Ren), uses dual shortswords which, connected together a certain way, become a long stick. The Bride manages to fend off the entire gang, killing, mortally wounding, and dismembering many. Those who survived were taken into custody. One of the last few she faces before O-Ren is a very timid young man, whom she literally spanks with the flat of her blade and sends home to his mother. Quentin Tarantino appears as one of the Crazy 88.
The Crazy 88 does not actually have eighty-eight members; Bill speculates that they adopted the name because it "sounded cool."
[edit] Gogo Yubari
Gogo Yubari is O-Ren Ishii's extraordinarily sadistic 17-year-old bodyguard who dresses in a stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl uniform. Despite the fact that she performs many assassinations with a tantō, she attempts to kill Black Mamba with a manriki. She was killed in one-on-one combat with The Bride at the House of Blue Leaves. Tarantino originally intended Gogo to have a twin sister, Yuki, who would hunt down The Bride in revenge of her sister's death, but the idea was later scrapped.[1]
[edit] Other characters
[edit] B.B.
The four-year-old daughter of The Bride and Bill, B.B. is in utero during the massacre at the Two Pines chapel. Upon first coming out of her coma, The Bride believes her unborn child was killed in the attack and promises to avenge her death. The audience does not learn that she is alive until the last line of Vol. 1, and The Bride does not find out until the final act of Vol. 2. B.B. was named and raised by Bill, who was always open with his daughter about the terrible crime he had committed against The Bride.
[edit] Earl McGraw
Earl McGraw is a Texas Ranger who investigates the murders at the wedding chapel, and the first person to realize that The Bride has managed to survive the attack. This is the second appearance of McGraw in a Tarantino film, as he had previously been a character in From Dusk Till Dawn (in which he was killed by Tarantino himself starring as Richard Gecko); he would later appear in both features that make up Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse.
[edit] Esteban Vihaio
Esteban Vihaio is an eighty-year-old Mexican pimp who, as a friend of Bill's mother, was seen by a young Bill as a father figure. His prostitutes's illegitimate children are apparently recruited into an organized crime gang called the Accuna(sp) Boys, of which Esteban is the de facto leader. When The Bride visits him, he tells her of Bill's whereabouts, noting that it is what Bill would have wanted Esteban to do. He also notes that if he were in Bill's situation when Bill had tracked the Bride down he says he would have only mutilated her face instead of trying to kill her – his apparent discipline of choice for his prostitutes.
[edit] Hattori Hanzō
Though currently the owner of a sushi shop in Okinawa, Hattori Hanzō is the finest swordsmith in the world; however, he has not created a new sword in over a quarter-century because he feels guilty for making instruments used to kill humans. In realizing The Bride wants "Japanese steel" to dispatch Hanzō's former student Bill, who has displeased his former master by his dishonorable actions, Hanzō spends a month crafting what he considers his finest sword.
[edit] Karen Kim
As an assassin sent to kill The Bride while she was still a Deadly Viper, Karen Kim narrowly misses hitting The Bride with shells from a shotgun. Before a further shootout can ensue, Karen is convinced to leave in peace when The Bride proves that she is pregnant.
[edit] Pai Mei
A powerful, possibly ageless practitioner of Bak Mei, and based by Tarantino upon the historical martial artist for whom that kung fu style is named, Pai Mei is the former tutor of The Bride, Bill, and Elle, although it is unclear if he tutored all the members of the DVAS. Though a wise and knowledgeable White Lotus priest, he is also a racist and misogynist. Before being poisoned by Elle for plucking out her eye, Pai Mei teaches The Bride the "Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique" she uses to kill Bill.
[edit] Rufus
The piano player at the Two Pines chapel, Rufus is a former professional blues musician who died in the massacre. The character is notable as being a cameo for Samuel L. Jackson, who had starred in two previous Tarantino films.
[edit] Tommy Plympton
Tommy Plympton is The Bride's fiancé who is murdered at Two Pines. He is the proprietor of a record shop and employed The Bride, who used the assumed name Arlene Machiavelli when she met him.
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