Kill Bill: Volume 2
Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a 2004 American neo-Western martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who continues her campaign of revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) and their leader Bill (David Carradine), who tried to kill her and her unborn child. "Volume 2" is the second of two "Kill Bill" films produced simultaneously; the first, "", was released six months before this film's released. The films were originally set for a single release, but  the film, with a runtime of over four hours, was divided in two. Tarantino considers the two to be a single two-part film. Tarantino conceived "Kill Bill" as an homage to grindhouse cinema including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation, and spaghetti westerns. Like "Volume 1", "Volume 2" received positive reviews and was commercially successful. Plot. The pregnant Bride and her groom rehearse their wedding. Bill − the Bride's former lover, the father of her child, and the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad − arrives unexpectedly and orders the Deadly Vipers to kill everyone at the  wedding. Bill shoots the Bride in the head, but she survives and swears revenge. Four years later, the Bride, having already assassinated Deadly Vipers O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green, goes to the trailer of Bill's brother and Deadly Viper Budd, planning to ambush him. Having been warned by Bill beforehand, he incapacitates her with a non-lethal shotgun blast of rock salt and sedates her. He calls Elle Driver, another former Deadly Viper, and arranges to sell her the Bride's unique sword for $1 million. He seals the Bride inside a coffin and buries her alive . Years earlier, Bill tells the young Bride of the legendary martial arts master Pai Mei and his Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, a death blow that Pai refuses to teach his students; properly used, the attack is reputed to leave an opponent able to take only five steps before dying. Bill takes the Bride to Pai's temple for training. Pai ridicules and torments her during training, but she eventually gains his respect. In the present, the Bride uses Pai's techniques to escape from the coffin and claw her way to the surface. Elle arrives at Budd's  trailer and kills him with a black mamba hidden with the money for the sword. She calls Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed Budd and that she has killed the Bride, using the Bride's real name: Beatrix Kiddo. As Elle exits the trailer, Beatrix ambushes her and they fight. Elle, who was also taught by Pai, taunts Beatrix by revealing that she killed Pai by poisoning his favorite meal (fish heads) in retribution for him plucking out her eye after she called him "a miserable old fool". Enraged, Beatrix plucks out Elle's remaining eye and  leaves her screaming in the trailer with the black mamba. In Acuña, Mexico, Beatrix meets a retired pimp, Esteban Vihaio, who helps her find Bill. She tracks him to a hotel, and discovers that their daughter B.B. is still alive, now four years old. Beatrix spends the evening with them. After she puts B.B. to bed, Bill shoots Beatrix with a dart containing truth serum and interrogates her. She explains that she left the Deadly Vipers when she discovered she was pregnant to give B.B. a better life. Bill explains that he assumed she was dead; he ordered her assassination  when he discovered she was alive and engaged to a "jerk" he assumed was the father of her child. The two begin to fight, but Beatrix traps Bill's sword in her scabbard and strikes him with the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. Surprised that Pai taught her the attack, Bill reconciles with her, then falls dead as he walks away. Beatrix leaves with B.B. to start a new life. Production. "Kill Bill" "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" were planned and produced as a single film. After editing began, producer Harvey Weinstein, who was known for pressuring filmmakers to  shorten their films, suggested that Tarantino split the film in two. The decision was announced in July 2003. Music. As with Tarantino's previous films, "Kill Bill" features an eclectic soundtrack comprising many musical genres. On the two soundtracks, music ranges from country music to selections from the Spaghetti Western film scores of Ennio Morricone. Bernard Herrmann's theme from the film "Twisted Nerve" is whistled by the menacing Elle Driver in the hospital scene. A brief, 15-second excerpt from the opening of the "Ironside" theme music by Quincy Jones is used as the Bride's revenge motif, which  flares up with a red-tinged flashback whenever she is in the company of her next target. Instrumental tracks from Japanese guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei figure prominently, and after the success of "Kill Bill" they were frequently used in American TV commercials and at sporting events. The end credits are driven by the rock and roll version of "Malagueña Salerosa", a traditional Mexican song, performed by "Chingon", Robert Rodriguez's band. Release. Theatrical release. "Kill Bill: Volume 2" was released in theaters on , 2004. It was originally scheduled to be released on , 2004, but was rescheduled. "Variety" posited that the delay  was to coincide its theatrical release with "Volume 1"s release on DVD. In the United States and Canada, "Volume 2" was released in and grossed on its opening weekend, ranking first at the box office and beating fellow opener "The Punisher". "Volume 2"s opening weekend gross was higher than "Volume 1"s, and the equivalent success confirmed the studio's financial decision to split the film into two theatrical releases. "Volume 2" attracted more female theatergoers than "Volume 1", with 60% of the audience being male and 56% of the audience being men between the ages of 18 to 29 years  old. "Volume 2"s opening weekend was the largest to date for Miramax Films aside from releases under its arm Dimension Films. The opening weekend was also the largest to date in the month of April for a film restricted in the United States to theatergoers 17 years old and up, besting "Life"s 1999 record. "Volume 2"s opening weekend was strengthened by the reception of "Volume 1" in the previous year among audiences and critics, abundant publicity related to the splitting into two volumes, and the DVD release of "Volume 1" in the week before "Volume 2"s theatrical release. Outside of  the United States and Canada, "Volume 2" was released in 20 territories over the weekend of , 2004. It grossed an estimated and ranked first at the international box office, ending an eight-week streak held by "The Passion of the Christ". "Volume 2" grossed a total of in the United States and Canada and in other territories for a worldwide total of . Home media. In the United States, "Volume 2" was released on DVD and VHS on August 10, 2004. In a December 2005 interview, Tarantino addressed the lack of a special edition DVD for "Kill Bill" by stating "I 've been holding off because I've been working on it for so long that I just wanted a year off from "Kill Bill" and then I'll do the big supplementary DVD package." The United States does not have a DVD boxed set of "Kill Bill", though box sets of the two separate volumes are available in other countries, such as France, Japan and the United Kingdom. Upon the DVD release of "Volume 2" in the US, however, Best Buy did offer an exclusive box set slipcase to house the two individual releases together. Both "Volume 1" and "Volume  2", were released in High Definition on Blu-ray on September 9, 2008 in the United States. Section::::"The Whole Bloody Affair". At the 2008 Provincetown International Film Festival, Tarantino announced that the original cut of "Kill Bill", incorporating both films and an extended animation sequence, would be released in May 2009 as Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. Screenings began on March 27, 2011 at the New Beverly Cinema. Reception. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, "Kill Bill: Volume 2" holds an approval rating of 84% based on 244 reviews, with an average rating of 7.80/10. The website's critical consensus  states, ""Kill Bill: Volume 2" adds extra plot and dialogue to the action-heavy exploits of its predecessor, while still managing to deliver a suitably hard-hitting sequel." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 83 out of 100 based on 41 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale, a grade up from the "B+" earned by the previous film. Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars out of 4, writing: "Put  the two parts together, and Tarantino has made a masterful saga that celebrates the martial arts genre while kidding it, loving it, and transcending it. ... This is all one film, and now that we see it whole, it's greater than its two parts." In 2009, he named "Kill Bill" one of the 20 best films of the decade. Accolades. Uma Thurman received a Golden Globe Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama nomination in 2005 for her role. David Carradine also received a Best Supporting Actor nomination in the same year. "Kill Bill: Volume 2" was placed in "Empire  Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time" at number 423 and the Bride was also ranked number 66 in "Empire" magazine's "100 Greatest Movie Characters". Possible sequels. In April 2004, Tarantino told "Entertainment Weekly" that he was planning a sequel: At the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International, Tarantino stated that, after the completion of "Grindhouse", he wanted to make two anime "Kill Bill" films: an origin story about Bill and his mentors, and another origin starring the Bride. Details emerged around 2007 about two possible sequels, "Kill Bill: Volume 3" and "Volume 4". According  to the article, "the third film involves the revenge of two killers whose arms and eye were hacked by Uma Thurman in the first stories." The article adds that the "fourth installment of the popular kung fu action films concerns a cycle of reprisals and daughters who avenge their mother's deaths". In 2020, Vivica A. Fox, who portrayed Vernita Green in the first film, suggested original actress Ambrosia Kelley would reprise her role as the grown up Nikki in the film, expressing interest in Zendaya being cast in the role if Kelley would be unable to return. At the  2009 Morelia International Film Festival, Tarantino stated that he intended to make a third "Kill Bill" film. The same month, he stated that "Kill Bill 3" would be his ninth film, and would be released in 2014. He said he wanted 10 years to pass after the Bride's last conflict, to give her and her daughter a period of peace. In December 2012, Tarantino said there would "probably not" be a third film." However, in July 2019, Tarantino said that he and Thurman had talked again about a possible sequel, and added "If any of my movies were going  to spring from my other movies, it would be a third "Kill Bill"." In December 2019, Tarantino said he had spoken to Thurman about an "interesting" idea for a new film: "It would be at least three years from now. It is definitely in the cards". In June 2021 Tarantino stated that potential film would take place 20 years following the original volumes, and was excited about the possibility of Thurman and her daughter Maya Hawke playing the Bride and B.B. respectively. He also noted the possibility of Elle Driver, Sophie Fatale, and Gogo's twin sister Shiaki also appearing  in the film. Later that month, Tarantino said that none of the potential sequels or prequels had come to fruition, due to his reluctance to take on more "Kill Bill" films following the fatigue he endured in the making of the first two volumes.