Beatrix Kiddo

## Beatrix Michelle Kiddo

* Vol 1
* Vol 2

### Goals

Get revenge on all of the members of her former group for betraying her and nearly killing her mostly particuarly her former lover; Bill for stealing her daughter by killing them and to re-obtain her daughter (all succeeded).

## Background information

### Appears in

*Kill Bill: Volume 1*
*Kill Bill: Volume 2*

**Beatrix Michelle Kiddo**, also known as **the Bride** and **Black Mamba**, is the anti-heroic protagonist and mascot in Quentin Tarantino's *Kill Bill* series, appearing in both *Kill Bill: Volume 1* (2003) and *Kill Bill: Volume 2* (2004). She was an assassin for the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad chosen by Bill (her lover and leader of the squad) specifically to represent her as the most venomous snake, due to her superior strength and martial art skills.

She was portrayed by Uma Thurman, who also portrayed Mia Wallace in *Pulp Fiction*.

## Story

While under the tutelage of their leader Bill, Kiddo had a romantic relationship with him. He taught her many fighting skills, but realizing her greater potential, he sent her to study under his former master, Pai Mei.

Although Pai Mei was a legendary fighter and was stated to be immortal, he had extremely rude, racist and sexist personality; he expected total subordination to his painful method of teaching. Beatrix was patient and hardworking, impressing Pai Mei and becoming one of his greatest students. Pai Mei even taught her the legendary Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.

Beatrix was considered the strongest member of the viper squad so Bill nicknamed her Black Mamba, after the viper with one of the deadliest venoms in the world.

After some time, Beatrix discovered that she was pregnant with Bill's child. Wanting a better future for her child, she chose to leave the life of an assassin and fake her death. This fails however, as Bill tracks her down in El Paso, Texas (while actually searching for her supposed murderer) disguised under the name of Arlene Machiavelli, the fiancée of Tommy Plympton.

During their wedding rehearsal at the chapel at Two Pines, Beatrix is surprised to see Bill waiting for her. She introduces him to her fiancé as her father and the two dispersed on a seemingly good note when she kisses him goodbye. However, moments later, Budd, Vernita Green, Elle Driver and O-Ren Ishii break into the chapel and massacre everyone except Beatrix whom they brutally beat. Lying on the in her blood-stained wedding gown, Beatrix is approached by Bill who then shoots her in temple, seemingly killing her, but not before she could tell him that she is actually carrying Bill's baby.

After the event, we follow the infamous Texas Ranger Earl McGraw as his son, Edgar informs him of the Massacre at Two Pines. McGraw picks up on how the massacre was committed by professionals. Upon seeing the Bride, Earl begins to question the possible motives as to why a person would ever want to harm a pregnant woman. It is at this point the Bride's unconscious body motor-reflexes cause her to cough up blood into Mcgraw's face. Earl was the first to discover that she was still alive.

After being taken to a hospital, on a dark and stormy night, a woman with one eye whistles as she goes into a room, changes into a nurse outfit, and carries a tray holding a needle filled with poison to the Bride's room. The woman is revealed to be Elle Driver aka California Mountain Snake, another member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She tells the comatose Bride that she never liked her and even despised her, but she also respected her.

As Elle is about to give the Bride the luxury of dying in her sleep, by poisoning her, she gets a call from none other than Bill. After briefing her about the status of the mission, she tells Elle to abort mission, much to Elle's anger. Eventually, Elle agrees and leaves, but not before warning the Bride to never wake up.

Four years later, the Bride finally wakes up. Seeing her stomach flattened, she believes that her child died while she was in a coma, which leads her to crying uncontrollably for a moment. She hears someone coming and lies back down, pretending to still be in a coma. A male nurse named Buck walks in with another man named Jasper. Buck tells Jasper about the Bride's physical condition and how he can do whatever he wants to her.

Jasper pays Buck after his details and Buck leaves him to rape the now inconspicuously awake Bride who heard their conversation. As Jasper climbs atop the Bride, the Bride bites his tongue, causing him to scream. She kills him and tries to get up and leave, but her legs are still asleep. She grabs a knife from the dead man and waits for Buck's return.

When Buck comes back, he sees the dead man while the Bride, behind him, slashes at the back of his ankle. She then drags him to the door and constantly slams it against his head, demanding to know where Bill is. After realizing that Buck doesn't know Bill, and that Buck, while she was in a coma, raped her, the Bride slams the door against Buck hard enough to kill him. She takes Buck's keys to his truck, the Pussy Wagon, and drove a wheelchair out to the parking lot.

In the parking lot, the Bride finds Buck's truck and sits inside the backseat, trying to wake her feet up by will. She takes the time to think about the faces of the people that caused the massacre, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She states that when fortune smiles on something violent and ugly, like revenge, it's proof that God not only exists, but you're doing His will. She states that her first target, O-Ren Ishii, was the easiest to find, because "When one manages the hard task of becoming queen of Tokyo's underworld, one doesn't keep it a secret, does one?"

### Chapter One: 2

The Bride tracks down her second victim Vernita Green in Pasadena, CA. As turns out, Vernita has retired from her assassin lifestyle and choose family. This however doesn't stop the bride from taking her revenge as Vernita haven't shown mercy while beating up a pregnant woman. The rage breaks out with the reunion and is followed by brutal combat which eventually turns into knife fight (which was Vernita's specialty) until Vernita's 4 year old daughter - Nikki comes home from school; The Bride shows rationality by stopping attack when Nikki enters house; Vernita sends her into her room and makes a coffee break during the fight to try and make the bride feel merciful but instead, she gets mockingly refused; After that Vernita tries to kill her nemesis by shooting her with a gun hidden in the Kaboom cereal box, she misses the target however and gets darted with a knife, which leads to her death in front of Nikki's eyes, Bride takes her knife out of Vernita's chest and tells Nikki that if she'll ever want a revenge she shall wait for her.

### Chapter Four: The MAN From OKINAWA

Arriving in Okinawa, the Bride heads into a local sushi shop and begins to mingle with the owner over trivial things. As they talk, she makes an order which the owner tells his bald employee to prepare. After some arguing, the bald man goes to fetch her a bottle of warm sake while the owner asks what she is doing. The Bride tells him she is looking for a man, to which he asks who. Upon uttering the words, "Hattori Hanzo", the bald man in the other room drops the sake and the owner, Hattori Hanzo, begins questioning her in Japanese. The Bride, now in perfect Japanese, tells him that she is looking for Hattori Hanzo because she needs Japanese steel, because she has "vermin to kill." Hattori comments that if she needs Hattori Hanzo's steel, she must have big rats, which the Bride only replies to by uttering "Huge."

Hanzo leads the Bride into his showcase room, a hidden attic where he keeps dozens of his famed hand-made weapons. Mesmerized, the Bride looks in awe at each and every single row before picking one up. Unsheathing it, Hanzo makes fun of the fact she likes swords and he in fact enjoys baseball. He produces a baseball and slings it at her, the Bride uses the sword in her hands to slice the ball in half. As they discuss his retiring, the Bride tells him that she must use a weapon crafted by his legendary hands to exterminate her "vermin". He states that he no longer creates swords. He rebuffs her, demanding to know why she thinks he will give/make her one. She tells him that her "vermin" is actually a former student of his and that, considering who the student is, he is very obligated. After becoming shaken upon realizing that she is talking about none other than Bill, he tells her that she can sleep there and tells her making the sword would take him a month, which he suggests she spends by practicing.

A month after the sword has been crafted, Hanzo and the bald man hold a ceremony in which the Bride receives her brand new Hattori Hanzo Sword. He states that he has broken his blood oath since the Bride's target is Bill. The Bride's sword is the apex of his career and the perfection of the sword.

### Chapter Five: Showdown at House of Blue Leaves

It starts three years ago at a council meeting the night O-Ren Ishii assumed power over the rest of the Yakuza gangs, while Beatrix narrates. O-Ren is sitting with several other Yakuza bosses, along with her entourage, including Sofie Fatale, a former protegee of Bill's and O-Ren's half-French half-Japanese lawyer, best friend, and first lieutenant, Gogo Yubari, O-Ren's sadistic 17 year old personal bodyguard, and Johnny Mo, head general of O-Ren's gang, the Crazy 88.

It's revealed that the subject of O-Ren's Chinese and American heritage came up before the crime council one time only, the night she took control. While all the other Yakuza bosses are laughing "like stupid donkeys," one of the bosses, Boss Tanaka, becomes enraged that everyone is celebrating the perversion of the council, which he loves more than his children. O-Ren calmly asks what perversion he speaks of, which Tanaka responds that he means the perversion done by making a "Chinese Jap-American half-breed bitch" its leader.

O-Ren quickly responds by running onto the table, grabbing her Hanzo sword, and decapitating Tanaka, much to the horror of all the other bosses. She then says something to the other bosses in English, so they understand how serious she is, while Sofie translates. She tells them that she encourages them to question her logic and tell her if they're unconvinced that something she's decided is the wisest choice, but also warns them that if anybody ever brings up her Chinese or American heritage as a negative again, she will "collect your fucking head." She then calmly tells the other bosses that the meeting is adjourned.

Meanwhile, Beatrix takes a plane to Tokyo, and proceeds to O-Ren's club, the House of Blue Leaves, on a motorcycle. On the way there, she sees Sofie and has a flashback of her at the massacre. Upon arriving at the club, Beatrix waits at the bar as O-Ren and her posse also arrive. She tries to sneak into O-Ren's private room, but O-Ren's sensed danger and threw a knife out the paper wall which landed on the wall mere inches from Beatrix. She sent Gogo to check on everything, but couldn't find anybody as Beatrix was hiding on the ceiling right above her.

Beatrix then hides in the bathroom and meets Sofie, who answers her phone. Recognizing Sofie from being present at the Wedding Chapel Massacre, Beatrix uses Sofie as a hostage. Beatrix announces to O-Ren that they have unfinished business and chops off Sofie's left arm. O-Ren orders her bodyguards to kill Beatrix, but Beatrix defeats them. Gogo then confronts Beatrix. Despite Beatrix pleading to Gogo to walk away, Gogo refuses and engages Beatrix in a deadly duel. It ends when Beatrix throws a broken chair leg at Gogo's head, and the nails impale Gogo, killing her. Just then, Johnny Mo and the rest of the Crazy 88s show up and fight Beatrix. During the massive fight between Beatrix and the Crazy 88s, O-Ren disappears through the back of the building. Beatrix either kills or maims the Crazy 88s. The only survivor was a frightened young boy, who Beatrix easily defeats by cutting his crudely made sword into bits and then spanks him with the flat end of her sword. Beatrix finally defeats the Crazy 88s when she slices Johnny Mo in half. She then tells the ones who are still alive to flee, but leave their dismembered limbs behind. However, Beatrix orders Sofie to stay right where she is.

Outside, snow has fallen on the ground. O-Ren comments that Beatrix's sword is impressive, but refuses to believe it is a Hattori Hanzo sword. The two engage in a duel, during which O-Ren slashes Beatrix's back. O-Ren mocks Beatrix calling her a "silly Caucasian girl who likes to play with Samurai Swords." The fight resumes and Beatrix wounds O-Ren, who apologizes for her earlier insult. Beatrix is on the verge of tears, but knows she must finish what she started. The fight ends when Beatrix scalps O-Ren. The dying O-Ren acknowledges that it truly was a Hanzo sword, and falls to the ground dead. Afterwards, Beatrix crosses O-Ren's name off her death list.

Beatrix drives the maimed Sofie to a hillside. At first, Sofie refuses to talk, but Beatrix threatens to further mutilate her. Beatrix tells Sofie she can keep her wicked life for two reasons. Firstly, so she can tell Beatrix the information on the surviving members of the DIVAS. Secondly, so Sofie can tell Bill everything she told Beatrix. After the interrogation, Beatrix rolls Sofie's deformed body down the hill outside Tokyo General Hospital, where she is taken in and patched up. Bill is not angry at Sofie's betrayal and instead comforts her. The chapter and film ends with Bill asking Sofie if Beatrix is aware that her daughter is still alive.

### Chapter Six: Massacre at Two Pines

The Bride is attending her wedding reherseal at the chapel in Texas. While discussing the ceremony, The Bride gets angry at the hostess for pestering her about her family, and goes outside for some fresh air. There she meets Bill.

Bill and The Bride discuss her future, where the Bride reveals that she now works at her future husbands used record store in town.

Bill ends up being taken into the rehersal, where he pretends to be the Bride's father. He introduces himself to Tommy and the rehersal begins.

The camera pulls away from the chapel to reveal the Deadly Vipers standing outside, all armed with machine guns. They calmly walk inside and Massacre at Two Pines begins.

### Chapter Seven: The lonely grave of Paula Schulz

Driving to the California desert, Beatrix locates and hides underneath Budd's trailer, waiting for his arrival. Upon his arrival from his job as a bouncer at a local strip bar, Beatrix storms into the trailer, only to get shot in the chest with rock salt by Budd. Budd then proceeds to inject Beatrix with a sedative. With the help of an assistant, Budd places Beatrix inside a wooden coffin, and buries her alive with a flashlight in a grave that was meant for a woman named Paula Schulz.

### Chapter Nine: ELLE and I

After escaping Budd's coffin, using Pai Mei's Three Inch Punch, Beatrix makes her way back to his trailer, and sees Elle Driver arriving with a suitcase. As Elle leaves the trailer, having murdered Budd, Beatrix attacks her with a flying kick, which initiates a fight between the two, climaxing with them facing each other with a sword, Elle with Beatrix's, and Beatrix with Budd's.

Elle reveals to Beatrix that her eye was snatched out by Pai Mei when she called him a "miserable, old fool" during her training. In retribution, Elle killed him by poisoning the dinner of fish-heads that she served him.

The two armed women charge at one other with swords drawn. In a clutch, with swords crossed, Beatrix snatches out Elle's other eye, leaving her blindly shouting and crawling on the floor. Although Elle was not killed, she was left in the trailer with Elle's Black Mamba that killed Budd.

### Last Chapter: Face to Face

Sometime after the confrontation with Elle, Beatrix heads down to Mexico to visit Esteban Vihaio, an 80 year old pimp who was friends with Bill's mother and who Bill saw as a father figure. After a brief conversation, he tells her where she can find Bill, noting it is what he [Bill] would have wanted him to do. After she arrives to his home, she discovers that her daughter is very much alive.

After spending time with B.B., she and Bill have a long conversation in which she explains why she did what she did -- running away and hiding when pregnant with Bill's child. After the conversation and a brief sword fight, Kiddo taps Bill in the center of his chest, using a secret Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique that was taught to Kiddo (and not to Bill, or anyone else) by Pai Mei.

Bill understands the significance of this move and that he will meet his death from an exploding heart once he takes five steps from where he stands. "Well," he smiles, "How do I look?" "You look, ready." Kiddo tells him. As Kiddo cries just a little, Bill steps into the darkness of his backyard and collapses, Kiddo's vengeance collected at last.

After Bill's death, Beatrix and B.B. left his house and stayed in a hotel for the night. In the morning, as B.B. was watching cartoons, Beatrix was lying on the bathroom floor, sobbing, clutching B.B.'s teddy bear, but in a state of euphoria. She has faced all of her enemies, the entire Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and the Snake Charmer himself (Bill), and has defeated them, finding and claiming her daughter in the process. After collecting herself, the mother and daughter hugged in bed, smiling. The final scene shows the two of them on the road laughing, beginning their new lives together.

## Abilities

* Hand-to-hand combat: Beatrix is a highly capable fighter, having been trained by both Bill and Pai Mei. She managed to overpower fellow assassins such as Vernita Green with her bare hands and hold her own against Elle Driver, gaining the upper hand at one point. Before being trained by Pai Mei in Hung Gar Kung Fu, she had already mastered two kung-fu styles (Tiger and Crane) and, how she herself implied, was able to break wood panels. Under the tutelage of the Chinese master, she learned Snake Style kung-fu and other techniques requiring physical strength and agility. She also learned the Three-Inch Punch, which she used to punch through a wood coffin. She has the ability to rapidly snatch eyes out and can perform the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. Beatrix was also seen resorting to chokeholds. In combat, she is eager to attack the enemy's weak spots, demonstrating excellent reflexes and accuracy. Her fighting method before Pai Mei's teaching was limited to her kung fu, but after the coma she displayed quick, strong and brutal blows much more effectively. This includes a wide array of moves mutuated from Jeet Kune Do.
* Edged weapon proficiency: Beatrix is also well-versed in using single-edge weapons, displaying her skill to Pai Mei on their initial meeting using a Jian. It is implied that Beatrix learns more from Pai Mei, demonstrating Pai Mei-like skill when Bill attacks her with a sword during their conversation at a table. Beatrix defends against the attack with the sword's scabbard and manages to "catch" the sword in its scabbard, thus disarming Bill. She was able to kill O-Ren Ishii with her katana, despite O-Ren being slightly more skilled (O-Ren even noted that Beatrix is not as skilled as she thinks she is). Aside from her excellent samurai sword skill in both single and melee combat, she is also proficient in the use of two swords, as shown when cornered by the Crazy 88. In the very same confrontation, she combined this skill with Capoeira-like moves to incapacitate a large number of foes. Furthermore, she has demonstrated decent prowess in knife throwing and handling.
* Handgun proficiency: Her ranged weapon of choice seems to be a pistol. This was seen both at the hotel room with assassin Karen Kim and when she first arrived at Bill's house.
* Quick-thinking skills: When in serious trouble, Beatrix thinks on her feet, narrowly escaping danger in numerous instances, as seen in her fight with Gogo Yubari, Budd and Elle Driver. This enables her to use any object as a weapon and to resort to the most effective option to cope with any dangerous situation.
* Endurance and stamina: Beatrix was able to bear a savage beating by the others Vipers without falling unconscious, and most remarkably she survived being shot in the head without subsequent physical or mental handicaps. She recovered from the wound after only four years of coma, and it took her muscles just thirteen hours to recover from atrophy. In numerous fights Beatrix was able to stand back up after suffering serious wounds, and she was able to kill O-Ren despite having fought against the Crazy 88 (there were actually around 50) and Gogo just moments before.
* Miscellaneous skills: She is seen to have stealth abilities, noteworthy agility, strength, speed, reflexes, coordination, and balance. Beatrix is fluent in both Japanese and Mandarin Chinese; she also knows some Cantonese and Spanish.

## Relationships

### Bill

Despite their mutual hatred, Bill and Kiddo were willing to debate Kiddo’s vendetta and Bill’s reasons before the final duel.

### Budd

Kiddo’s and Budd’s relationship was not shown. However, despite Bill’s and Budd’s falling out, Budd stated that Kiddo emotionally wounded Bill.

### Elle Driver

Driver openly stated that she despised Kiddo. However, at the hospital and Budd’s trailer, Driver openly stated that she respected Kiddo’s skill and she deserved a dignified death. Kiddo’s planned death at the hospital of “dying in her sleep” would be a “luxury” and a “gift” to an assassin. Kiddo’s presumed death from Budd was deemed a dishonor as Kiddo had died at the hands of a washed-up disgrace and Driver said “that woman deserved better”.

### O-Ren Ishii

O-Ren and Kiddo had a personal joke about Kiddo’s first name based on the Trix breakfast cereal slogan “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids”. After killing O-Ren, Kiddo dropped her sword in the snow and showed physical remorse for having to kill O-Ren.

### Sofie Fatale

Kiddo showed no personal hatred for Fatale other than her involvement in the Massacre at Two Pines.

### Vernita Green

Kiddo’s relationship with Green was based on some respect as Kiddo stated Bill’s opinion of Green’s knife skills. Kiddo expressed regret that Green had died in front of Nikkia Bell.

## Trivia

* As of Pai Mei's death, Beatrix is the strongest living person in the world.