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Kill Bill - Vol I Preview Quentin Tarantino's samurai-style tale of revenge starring Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox as an elite group of female assassins known as the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS). In Vol. 1 of the two-part ' Kill Bill ' saga, Uma Thurman plays a woman betrayed, shot, and left for dead by her former master and friends -- upon whom she swears bloody revenge.

Kill Bill is the fourth film by writer-director Quentin Tarantino. Originally conceived as one film, it was released in two separate volumes (in fall 2003 and spring 2004) due to its running time of approximately four hours. The movie is an epic-length revenge drama, with homage's to earlier film genres, such as Hong Kong martial arts movies, Japanese samurai movies and Italian spaghetti westerns, an extensive use of popular music and pop culture references, and deliberately over-the-top violence.

Volume 1

The Bride, a.k.a. Beatrix Kiddo Thurman, is introduced to the audience in a blood-spattered wedding gown immediately after a violent massacre at an El Paso, Texas wedding chapel. She attempts to tell her would-be killer, Bill, Carradine,that she is pregnant with his baby, but he shoots her in the side of the head. The Bride is left for dead.

Four years later, The Bride arrives at the house of Genie Bell, whose real name is Deadly Viper Vernita Green (Fox), codenamed Copperhead. Vernita, thinking it is a friend, opens the door with a smile, only to have the Bride engage her in a vicious fight, destroying her living room. Vernita's four-year-old daughter Nikki arrives home from school, abruptly pausing the fight until she is taken to her room. In the kitchen over coffee, Vernita appeals to Beatrix, apologizing for betraying her and asking for mercy on behalf of her family. Beatrix coldheartedly refuses, and the two agree to a knife fight later that evening. Vernita then, however, attempts to shoot Beatrix with a concealed gun; she misses, and the Bride kills her by throwing a knife into her chest. Nikki witness the fight, and Beatrix tells her that she's sorry for killing her mother in front of her, and that if the young girl wishes to avenge her death when she grows up, the Bride will be waiting. The Bride then leaves in a customized yellow pick-up truck.

A flashback to the events after the wedding reveals that the comatose Bride is the only survivor of the massacre. Deadly Viper Elle Driver (Hannah), codenamed California Mountain Snake, the one-eyed assassin who has replaced the Bride as Bill's lover, slips into the hospital ward intending to inject poison into The Bride's intravenous line. She is stopped at the last second by Bill via cell phone, who believes The Bride deserves a more honourable death.

The Bride wakes up from her coma in the present and is horrified to discover she is no longer with child. She escapes from the hospital after killing an orderly named Buck, who has been selling sexual access to her body as she lay unconscious. She steals Buck's truck, the Pussy Wagon, and hides in the back seat as she slowly works her limbs out of atrophy. In the back of the truck, The Bride narrates an anime short depicting the backstory to another Deadly Viper, O-Ren Ishii (Liu), codename: Cottonmouth. O-Ren rose to the top of the Japanese crime world as well as working as a highly paid assassin. The segment introduces her personal bodyguard Go-Go Yubari, her friend and lawyer Sofie Fatale (another protege of Bill), and Johnny Mo, leader of O-Ren's personal army, the Crazy 88.

The Bride travels to Okinawa to obtain a katana from Hattori Hanzō (Chiba), a renowned sword-smith, who has retired to the life of a sushi chef. Though Hanzo has taken an oath to never make another sword, The Bride is able to convince him of the merit of her mission, and he forges for her the best sword he has ever created.

The Bride tracks O-Ren to a hangout called the "House of Blue Leaves", where a band (The 5,6,7,8's) is performing. The Bride arrives wearing a yellow motorcycle jump suit (an homage to Bruce Lee movies), taking Fatale hostage and cutting off Fatale's arm in public to lure O-Ren from her dinner. O-Ren dispatches Yubari and dozens of the Crazy 88 to deal with The Bride. She dispatches them all in a bloody sword fight, then turns her attention to O-Ren, climaxing in a dramatic sword fight in a snowy garden (which borrows from the Japanese sexploitation film Sex & Fury). After crossing swords several times, O-Ren is scalped by The Bride with her Hattori Hanzo sword.

The film ends with The Bride telling a disfigured Fatale to tell Bill she is looking for him, before dumping Fatale at a hospital. Bill is heard talking with Fatale at the hospital, revealing that The Bride's daughter is, unbeknownst to her, still alive.

Volume 2

Opens with "The Massacre at Two Pines," taking place a few minutes before the events that open the first volume. Bill (Carradine) tracks down The Bride and her friends as they are gathered for her wedding rehearsal. He is polite and mild-mannered, and even consents to The Bride introducing him as her father to the groom. The Bride begs Bill in private to be able to move on past her assassin life, and Bill seemingly consents. She takes her place at the altar as the other four Deadly Vipers arrive at the chapel, weapons in tow, and kill everyone at the rehearsal.

In the present, Bill ventures to the California desert to talk to his brother and fellow Viper, Budd, aka "Sidewinder" (Madsen), another former Deadly Viper. Bill warns him that The Bride will come for him next. Budd, now overweight and alcoholic, has put his assassin days behind him, lives in a trailer and works as a bouncer at a local strip club, abused by the management.

The Bride arrives at Budd's trailer that night to take his life. Anticipating her entry, Budd shoots her in the chest with rock salt the moment she opens his door, then injects her with a sedative. Budd calls Driver and offers to sell her The Bride's Hanzo sword for one million dollars. Budd then gives The Bride a "Texas funeral," burying her alive with a flashlight in someone else's grave.

As she lies in her grave, The Bride remembers her early training in China, when Bill took her to the temple of legendary martial arts master Pai Mei (an example of the elderly martial arts master stock character), who used cruelty as a tool for discipline and obedience. Pai Mei could perform a fatal attack called the Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, which is so secret that he has not even taught it to Bill. Although he "hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women", he takes The Bride in, and moulds her into a formidable fighter. He brutally trains her and she eventually gains his silent respect. In the present, The Bride calls on Pai Mei's training to break out of the coffin and claw her way up to freedom.

The Bride arrives back at Budd's trailer to see Elle Driver, aka "California Mountain Snake," arriving. Elle hands Budd a suitcase containing his money for the sword; the suitcase also contains a hidden black mamba, the deadly snake that shares The Bride's codename. The snake bites Budd in the face, and while he lies paralyzed and dying, Elle explains she regretted The Bride's demise at Budd's hands, and that The Bride deserved a better end. After Budd succumbs to the venom, Elle calls Bill and says his brother was killed by The Bride, but that she was then killed by Elle. Elle tells Bill the location of the final resting place of Beatrix Kiddo — revealing for the first time The Bride's real name. (Several characters previously called her "Kiddo," a common pet name in America; and previous utterances of her name by Vernita and O-Ren were bleeped out). As Elle leaves Budd's trailer, Beatrix, who was watching them from a nearby ridge, attacks her with a flying kick. Elle uses Beatrix's own sword against her, but she finds Budd's Hattori Hanzo sword in his closet, which Elle believed Budd had sold. As they fight to a standstill, Beatrix asks Elle why Pai Mei (who also taught Elle) snatched out her eye. Elle tells her that Pai Mei found her insolent, but as revenge, she poisoned and killed the elderly master. The two charge each other, clash, and Beatrix plucks out Elle's remaining eye and departs, leaving the blinded Elle in the trailer with the same black mamba that killed Budd. Elle's fate is left unknown; in the credits, while all the other members of The Bride's "Death List Five" are listed as dead, her status is marked merely as "?".

Beatrix travels to Mexico and visits Esteban Vihaio (Parks), an old pimp who raised Bill from childhood. He forthrightly tells her Bill's whereabouts, explaining to a puzzled Beatrix that Bill would have wanted him to. When she finally finds Bill, she is shocked to find that B.B., her four-year-old daughter, is alive and apparently expecting her mother's return. The family spends the evening together peacefully, and B.B. falls asleep watching the chambara film Shogun Assassin in her mother's arms.

With B.B. safely in bed, Beatrix confronts Bill. Bill shoots her with a dart filled with self-made truth serum, Beatrix is forced to reveal that, when she discovered her pregnancy and decided not to abort, she thereafter had to put her unborn daughter's future above Bill. Bill questions if she will truly save her daughter's future by taking her away from Bill and killing him.

The estranged couple sit down at a table outside, and when Beatrix insists that she complete her unfinished business, Bill draws his sword to attack her. Beatrix dodges his attack and draws her own sword, but Bill succeeds in disarming her. He thrusts to stab her with his sword, but she catches it in her Hanzo sheath and disables Bill with the Five-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique, taught to her without Bill's or the audience's knowledge. Bill, defeated, says a tender goodbye and takes five silent steps to his death. Beatrix sheds a few tears at the death of her lover, and returns to the house to collect her daughter. As the movie ends, B.B. is watching cartoons in a motel while Beatrix cries with relief in the bathroom. As the Bride returns to watch cartoons with B.B., the movie ends. The exit quote on the screen is: "The lioness has rejoined her cub. All is right in the jungle."

Style and substance

Much of the controversy over the film reflects the differing expectations of those who look primarily at a movie for its style and craftsmanship against those who look at story and substance; as a tribute film and revenge saga, the movie is at a disadvantage with the latter group. “You never forget that Kill Bill is an exercise in genre-sampling,” writes the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro. However, the opinion that the movie appeals mainly to film buffs looking to spot obscure pop culture references is a minority view. Most critics found it well-constructed, with tightly-edited action scenes, strong performances, often-clever dialogue, and an effectively exciting soundtrack which draws on an astonishing selection of (mostly post-1960) music.