Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two Kill Bill films produced at the same time, and was followed by Kill Bill: Volume 2. It was originally set for a single theatrical release, but with a runtime of over 4 hours, it was divided into two films.

Plot
A woman in a wedding dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a church in El Paso, having been attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She tells their leader, Bill, that she is carrying his baby. He shoots her. Four years later, having survived the attack, the Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, planning to kill her. Both women were members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which has since disbanded; Vernita now leads a normal suburban family life. They engage in a knife battle, but are interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter. Not wanting to kill Vernita in front of her child, the Bride agrees to meet Vernita at night to settle the matter. However, Vernita tries to surprise the Bride with a pistol hidden in a box of cereal, and the Bride throws a knife into her chest, killing her. Four and a half years earlier, the El Paso Sheriff's Department investigates the massacre at the wedding chapel. The sheriff discovers the Bride is alive but comatose. In the hospital, Deadly Viper Elle Driver prepares to assassinate the Bride via lethal injection, but Bill aborts the mission at the last moment, considering it dishonorable to kill the Bride when she cannot defend herself. In the present, the Bride awakens from her four-year coma and is horrified to find she is no longer pregnant. She kills a hospital worker who has been raping her while she was comatose, takes his truck, and, due to her atrophied legs, teaches herself to walk again. Resolving to kill Bill and all four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she picks her first target: O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyo Yakuza. Years earlier, in Japan, the young Ishii's parents are murdered in front of her by the Yakuza. She takes vengeance on the Yakuza boss, and becomes the new boss after training as an elite assassin. In the present, she kills a Yakuza subordinate who questions her right to lead because of her gender and Japanese-Chinese-American ethnicity. The Bride travels to Okinawa to obtain a sword from legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is his former student, Bill, he agrees to forge his finest sword for her. The Bride tracks down O-Ren at a Tokyo restaurant and defeats her Yakuza army, including the elite Crazy 88 and O-Ren's bodyguard, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. She duels with O-Ren in the restaurant's Japanese garden and slices the top of her skull off with a sword stroke. The Bride tortures O-Ren's assistant and Bill's protege Sofie Fatale for information about Bill, but leaves her alive as a threat. Bill asks Sofie if the Bride knows her daughter is alive.

Cast

 * Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride aka Black Mamba


 * David Carradine as Bill aka Snake Charmer


 * Lucy Lui as O-Ren Ishii aka Cottenmouth


 * Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green aka Copperhead


 * Michael Madsen as Bud aka Sidewinder


 * Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver aka California Mountain Snake


 * Michael Parks as Earl McGraw


 * James Parks as Edgar McGraw