A woman known only as “The Bride” wakes up in a hospital after four years in a coma. The last thing she remembers: standing at the altar of a wedding chapel in El Paso, Texas, surrounded by her friends and the man she loved, when a team of assassins burst in and massacred everyone. Their leader — her former boss and lover, Bill — shot her point-blank in the head. Miraculously, she survived.

Now awake and consumed by an unstoppable fury, The Bride creates a death list: Vernita Green, O-Ren Ishii, Budd, Elle Driver, and Bill himself — all former members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, the elite kill team she once belonged to. Her journey of revenge takes her first to Vernita’s suburban home in Pasadena, then across the Pacific to Okinawa, where she commissions legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzo to forge a katana worthy of her mission.

The film climaxes in Tokyo at the House of Blue Leaves restaurant, where O-Ren Ishii — now the head of the Japanese criminal underworld — presides over her empire protected by the Crazy 88, a small army of masked swordsmen. The resulting battle is one of the most extraordinary action sequences in cinema history: a 25-minute bloodbath mixing martial arts, swordfighting, and Tarantino’s signature blend of pop-culture homage, dark humor, and jaw-dropping violence.

Director & Cast

Director: Quentin Tarantino — paying tribute to Shaw Brothers kung fu films, samurai cinema, spaghetti westerns, and anime, Tarantino crafted a wholly original revenge epic that transcends genres.

Cast: Uma Thurman as The Bride/Beatrix Kiddo, Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii, Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green, David Carradine as Bill, Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo, Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari, and Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver.

Behind the Scenes

Uma Thurman trained extensively in martial arts and swordplay for the role. The anime sequence detailing O-Ren’s backstory was animated by Production I.G, the studio behind Ghost in the Shell. Originally conceived as a single film, it was split into two volumes due to its four-hour runtime. The House of Blue Leaves sequence used 450 gallons of fake blood.