Tagline: The bride is back for the final cut.
After having successfully crossed the first two members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad – Vernita Green, O-Ren Ishii, and the Crazy 88s, The Bride (whose real name is now revealed to be Beatrix Kiddo) sets her sites on the remaining three. While she goes after Bill’s brother Bud, Elle Driver, and ultimately Bill herself, we learn more about Beatrix’ back story.
This includes her time in China training under ultra strict traditionalist martial arts legend Pai Mei – who has a taste for brutal action, and a super-secret technique that can take out any opponent, and how she got to be where she is. Unfortunately Elle and Bud are out to stop her from getting to Bill and learning the truth about the attack on her wedding four years earlier. Getting to Bill will be an ultimately rewarding experience for Beatrix, but can she get through Bud and Elle first?
Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a 2004 American 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.
Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as a homage to “grindhouse” cinema including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation films, and spaghetti westerns. It is the second of two Kill Bill films produced simultaneously; the first, Kill Bill: Volume 1, was released in 2003. The films were originally set for a single release, but the film, with a runtime of over four hours, was divided in two. Like Volume 1, Volume 2 received positive reviews and was a commercial success.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released in theaters on April 16, 2004. It was originally scheduled to be released on February 20, 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 2,971 theaters and grossed $25.1 million 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 April 23, 2004. It grossed an estimated $17.7 million 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 $66.2 million in the United States and Canada and $86 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $152.2 million.
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Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Michael Parks
Screenplay by: Quentin Tarantino
Production Design by: Yohei Taneda, David Wasco
Cinematography by: Robert Richardson
Film Editing by: Sally Menke
Costume Design by: Alexander AD, Kumiko Ogawa, Catherine Marie Thomas
Set Decoration by: Yoshihito Akatsuka, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Music by: RZA
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, language, sexual content.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: April 16, 2004
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