It might not be considered to be one of Quentin Tarantino’s finest works ever, but considering the man is responsible for some of the greatest films ever made, Kill Bill is still a masterpiece on a grand scale. It follows Beatrix Kiddo as she seeks revenge on her ex-assassin collages who left her for dead at the hand of her daughter’s father.
Despite being one of the most impressive examples of satirical filmmaking and over-the-top violence, even Tarantino couldn’t create the perfect film. We’ve listed 10 of the biggest issues in continuity and plot holes in Tarantino’s only two-part film.
Vol. 1: Why Do The Bride’s Arms Work So Well?
One of the first things we ever see in Kill Bill is The Bride learning to re-use her legs/feet/toes after such a long time without moving them. This takes her many, many hours but she eventually manages it.
The only problem is, she hadn’t used her arms/hands/fingers for just as long either, but they seemed to be working like any normal day. Even if one got better quicker than the other, you’d think there would be at least a brief period where she had to bring life back to her upper limbs?
Vol. 1: Right & Left
Kill Bill loves its use of meta techniques, and one of these can be seen through The Bride’s own voice-over introducing O-Ren and her clan.
She explains that Sofie Fatale is to the right of O-Ren, but she is actually to her left. It sort of makes sense because to the viewer, she is to the right, but her wording makes this a little confusing. She just came out of a coma - viewers will probably let her off on this on.
Vol. 1: Buck Should Have Seen Her
The Bride’s first moment of revenge in the film comes pretty early on, when she takes down Buck as he comes back into her hospital room.
However, the fact that she is on the floor by the door should have been pretty obvious to him when he walked into the room, but he somehow doesn’t see her at all.
Vol. 1: And His Body Should Have Been Found
Speaking of Buck, there is the glaring issue of his corpse lying dead in the hospital. The event happened in the night, so he may have had a few undisturbed hours, but eventually, someone was going to find that corpse.
The Bride spent 13 hours wiggling her big toe - are we to believe that no one found the body and went to investigate his car?
Vol. 1: Sofie Fatale’s Arms
Beatrix Kiddo makes a strong promise to Sofie Fatale that she is going to cut both of her arms off, and this is a promise she keeps.
Before her death (chronologically) the audience saw and heard Kiddo cut off her right arm, and when she cuts off the left and leaves Sofie to fall down the hill, it is clear that her right arm has magically re-attached itself.
Vol. 2: The Moving Blanket
One of the strangest sequences in all of Kill Bill comes towards the end, when Beatrix, fresh from a murder spree and gearing up to take her daughter’s father’s life, watches a film with her daughter.
When Beatrix leaves the room, the blanket moves three times: first it is covering BB and her doll, then the doll seems to have escaped, and then the blanket seems to have moved mostly off of both of them.
Vol. 2: Bill’s Six Steps
The whole point of the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique is that as soon as you take five steps, your heart explodes and you die.
Bill obviously needed to be in a specific position to make the shot of his death work, so he takes a sneaky first step that you can only just make out on camera. This messes the continuity of the whole thing up slightly.
Vol. 2: Beatrix’s Damaged Hand
Most of the film shows The Bride in a position of success and power. For an extended period, her entrapment in a coffin seems unwinnable, but she manages to break out using an incredibly powerful punching technique she had been taught.
Despite mangling her hand in the coffin, it is completely undamaged when the audience sees her in the café, pretty much straight after.
Vol. 2: The Magic Sword
The prominence of swords in Kill Bill means that there are a lot of continuity errors to keep on top of. Unfortunately, there are a few Tarantino missed (or kept in for effect - fans may never know for certain).
For example, when Beatrix is playing with her daughter, the sword disappears and reappears multiple times, while much earlier on in the film, Buck kicked Beatrix’s sword out of his trailer, only for it to reappear.
Vol. 2: Bill’s Superhero Knowledge
Tarantino is very clearly a man of incredible pop culture knowledge, and he makes this known in every single one of his films. Whether he was slightly less clued up on his superheroes, or this was a character flaw with Bill, fans don’t know.
What they do know, is that Bill claimed Superman to be unique as he was a superhero, but pretended to be a ‘normal’ man. But he isn’t unique, because Thor does basically the same thing.