Summary

• Revenge is a central theme in Kill Bill, showcasing intense dialogue and epic fight sequences.
• Memorable quotes from characters like The Bride and Elle Driver highlight the dark humor and honor in revenge.
• The film's nonlinear structure and philosophical dialogue add depth to the story of betrayal and vengeance.

Revenge is a recurring theme in a lot of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, but there are several memorable Kill Bill quotes that show the two-parter movie is his definitive take on the subject. Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as an ex-assassin who is beaten, shot, and left for dead by her old gang. When she awakens from her coma, she draws up a list and comes after them. While the movie is perhaps Taratino's best action filmmaking of her career with some truly incredible sequences, that doesn't mean there isn't some great dialogue as well.

Looking at the best quotes from the two Kill Bill movies, they showcase the kind of hallmarks of Tarantino dialogue, with some lines being intense and vivid one-liners and others serving as a display of some dark humor. On the subject of revenge specifically, the movies have a lot to say. From the vengeful mission The Bride embarks on throughout the story to the reaction of those she is seeking revenge on, these Kill Bill quotes enrich the tale of retribution.

20 “Those Of You Lucky Enough To Still Have Their Lives, Take Them With You! However, Leave The Limbs You’ve Lost! They Belong To Me, Now!”

The Bride in Kill Bill: Vol. 1

There is something of a warrior's code that permeates through the Kill Bill movies which cements it within the martial arts movie genre. Some of the characters fight with honor and others are less respectable warriors. The Bride falls into the former category as she is willing to let a defeated enemy live so long as they pay a price which makes for this epic and gruesome line.

It is a chilling moment that shows how far The Bride's mercy extends, ensuring they all hold some reminder of how foolish it was to cross swords with her.

After defeating the Crazy 88 army, The Bride announces to the ones who lie living on the floor that they will be allowed to leave with their lives but not the limbs they lost. It is a chilling moment that shows how far The Bride's mercy extends, ensuring they all hold some reminder of how foolish it was to cross swords with her.

19 "That Woman Deserved Better."

Elle Driver in Kill Bill: Vol. 2

One of the Kill Bill characters who might not seem like she has any of that warrior's honor is Elle Driver. Not only was she part of the kill squad that attacked The Bride on her wedding day, but she also planned on poisoning The Bride while she was in her coma. However, as it is revealed in Kill Bill Vol. 2, Elle's hatred for The Bride does not mean she does not respect her and has some notion of the kind of death she deserves.

After Budd tells Elle that he successfully killed The Bride, Elle turns the tables on him, having him bitten by a poisonous snake. As he dies, she laments that it was someone as lowly as Budd who killed the greatest warrior Elle had ever known. Of course, when The Bride shows up, Elle likely wishes Budd had finished the job.

18 “B****, You Don't Have A Future!"

The Bride in Kill Bill: Vol. 2

The showdown between The Bride and Elle is one of the most vicious and brutal fights in the movie, taking place in the close quarters of Budd's trailer home. These two characters hate each other with a passion which adds fuel to the already life-or-death brawl. However, Elle decides to try some emotional torment on The Bride to throw her off her game. She confesses to murdering the fighting master Pai Mei who was a mentor to The Bride.

While the news does affect The Bride, it only makes her more resolved to finish off Elle. While Elle tries to taunt The Bride with overconfidence in her victory, The Bride simply promises that this is where Elle's story ends. While there is some debate if Elle is really dead at the end of Kill Bill Vol. 2, she is handed a brutal defeat.

17 "And That Was When I Learned That Some Things, Once You Do, Can Never Be Undone."

Bill in Kill Bill: Vol. 2

While Kill Bill follows the revenge movie structure fairly well, the climax of Kill Bill Vol. 2 is likely not what a lot of people were anticipating. After all the blood and carnage of the journey up until that point, it is a shock to see the long-awaited confrontation with Bill come down to some pointed conversations. The Bride is reunited with her daughter who Bill has been raising since her coma and he tells a story about how their daughter, Bebe, killed her pet goldfish only to be filled with remorse.

Bill decided that this was an important lesson for her to learn about actions and consequences. He then relates this story to his own betrayal of The Bride and how he knows the damage is done and he cannot take it back. It is a tense and powerful moment as these two come face-to-face, having a conversation in front of their daughter, knowing that this will end with one of them dead.

16 "You Overreacted?"

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1

Bill is a character who hides in the shadows for much of the story, with the motives and reasons behind why he tried to kill The Bride kept somewhat vague. What is known is that he is a cool and calm man who, despite being in a very dangerous profession, never seems to get riled up. Even when The Bride finally confronts him at the end of her journey, he is not afraid or angry and even seems eager to have a discussion about what went down between them.

However, this is where a new side of Bill shows through. He explains that he thought The Bride was killed on a mission only to track her down and find that she was pregnant and getting married. He then admits that his emotions got the best of him when he decided to have her killed. Bill explains this as if it is a natural faux pas, however, as The Bride's incredulous reaction points out, his "overreaction" makes him even more of a villain than he initially seemed.

15 "It's Mercy, Compassion, And Forgiveness I Lack, Not Rationality!"

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2

Even in Quentin Tarantino's fight scenes, the filmmaker likes to subvert expectations. While the first Kill Bill movie kicks off with a raucous and intense brawl between The Bride and her former colleague Vernita Green, aka Copperhead, she is willing to take a time-out when Vernita's young daughter arrives one from school. For a moment, she assumed that Beatrix was capable of more rationality than her reputation suggested.

Even as the two headed into the kitchen for a chat, Beatrix was quick to correct her in a darkly humorous manner.

Even as the two headed into the kitchen for a chat, Beatrix was quick to correct her in a darkly humorous manner, instead correcting Copperhead as to the actual traits she lacked, thereby setting up the back half of their confrontation. It serves as a chilling reminder that, despite the momentary reprieve, revenge is not something The Bride is going to give up on so easily.

14 "As I Said Before, I've Allowed You To Keep Your Wicked Life For Two Reasons..."

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1

And the second reason is so you can tell him in person everything that happened here tonight!

After The Bride took out O-Ren Ishii, she used O-Ren's accomplice, Sophie, as a maimed message for Bill. Her intention was to allow Sophie to live (minus an arm) for the purpose of sending a psychological message to her ultimate target. When it came to taking on O-Ren and her sizable army, The Bride decided the element of surprise would be the best avenue to take for the first name on her list. However, once her revenge mission had begun, The Bride had no intention of keeping it secret.

If nothing else, the slaughter of the Crazy 88 and Ishii would have been enough for news to trickle back to Bill, but having Sophie give the message added just the extra amount of vengeful weight. The point of her sending the message was to make it clear to Bill that she wanted him to know that she was coming.

13 "However, Before Satisfaction Would Be Mine... Wiggle Your Big Toe!"

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1

After waking up from a long coma, The Bride aka Beatrix Kiddo was forced to deal with the traumatic aftermath of the church shootout, and the realization that she had lost her baby. In that moment, she succumbed to a blind rage that needed to quickly be tempered, if she wanted to harness it. It all started with willing her limbs out of atrophy, beginning with the seemingly simple task of wiggling her big toe.

She began running down a list of her fellow killers responsible for her predicament.

As she did so, she began running down a list of her fellow killers responsible for her predicament. In so doing, she prepared for her conquest of revenge, which would begin by successfully wiggling said big toe. It is a small moment but wonderfully sets up the immense determination she had to see her mission complete and that nothing was going to stand in her way.

12 “We Have Unfinished Business.”

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1

These four words pretty much sum up the whole movie. Beatrix Kiddo was left with a bullet in her head at her own wedding by her old work buddies, so it’s fair to say that after that, she had unfinished business with every single one of them. One by one, she finished that business by tracking them down and killing them. The fact that her heart continued to beat after being shot in the head shows that she had unfinished business with life as well.

It is a pragmatic way of approaching her mission of revenge as if it is simply a matter of finishing what they started. What is interesting is that, despite his lethal effectiveness, this is an emotional journey for Beatrix as she deals with loss and betrayal on a massive level.

11 "I Am Gonna Ask You Questions. And Every Time You Don't Give Me Answers, I'm Gonna Cut Something Off."

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1

And I promise you, they will be things you will miss!

Beatrix uttered this quote to get a captured and maimed Sophie to answer her questions, thereby gaining good intel on where Bill was hiding out. It followed her slaughtering O-Ren Ishii and her entire crew, after slicing Sophie's arm clean off. With someone like Beatrix, a trained assassin devoid of anything resembling mercy, this was a threat to be taken most seriously.

With many of Tarantino's movie characters, he has never been shy about making even the protagonists into complex characters who can have darker sides to them. While a flashback in Kill Bill shows that Sophie was present at The Bride's attempted assassination, seeing the hero brutally torture someone like this shows that Beatrix is going to be a relentless force of vengeance.

10 “To Get Even? Even Steven? I Would Have To Kill You...”

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1

Like many of Tarantino’s films, Kill Bill has a nonlinear narrative structure. So, the first person that the Bride checks off her kill list in the movie isn’t actually the first person she kills, chronologically. However, the Vernita kill scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Vernita says “You have every right to want to get even.” However, the Bride explains to her with the full quote:

“To get even? Even Steven? I would have to kill you, go up to Nikki’s room, kill her, then wait for your husband, the good Dr. Bell, to come home and kill him. That would be even, Vernita. That’d be about square.”

There is a powerful sense of sadness to this quote as The Bride already feels as though she has lost and there really is no way to truly get even in the end. She knows that she could sink to the viciousness of her enemies as they wiped out all of her friends, husband, and even the church owners. However, The Bride does not need to get even with these dead, she just wants to see them dead.

9 "I Roared And I Rampaged And I Got Bloody Satisfaction.”

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 2

When Quentin Tarantino was forced to split Kill Bill into two separate movies, he decided to see it as a “glass half full” situation, because it gave him the opportunity to play around with the format. So, Vol. 1 ends with a cliffhanger and a flash-forward to the events of Vol. 2, and Vol. 2 begins with a voiceover narration recapping the events of the first movie. The Bride explains how she got into a coma and says, “when I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements referred to as a roaring rampage of revenge."

She sees this as a fitting description of her actions throughout her journey of revenge. It further cements her as a force of nature who has cut her way through countless enemies and made a number of people sorry that they were ever foolish enough to cross her.

8 “When Fortune Smiles On Something As Violent And Ugly As Revenge, It Seems Proof Like No Other That Not Only Does God Exist, You're Doing His Will.”

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

As she points out in this line, the Bride doesn’t believe that there’s anything particularly noble about seeking revenge. However, she feels that she has to do it, but she also sees it as something of a divine crusade as she has gone up against impossible odds and keeps succeeding in her bloody path toward her ultimate goal of reaching Bill. It suggests, in her mind, that this is part of God's plan.

Whether or not The Bride actually believes this is debatable, but it does reinforce that she is on the right side of the battle. It is easy for the audience to cheer for The Bride and her mission. However, she also proves many times that she is the more righteous hand of justice and there are some people along the way who are more than happy to help her in her pursuit.

7 “Revenge Is Never A Straight Line.”

Hattori Hanzo In Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Hattori Hanzo is the man who trained Bill and later came out of retirement to make a sword for the Bride to use to exact her revenge on the people who wronged her (including Bill). However, although he supports her quest for revenge and forges the sword that she uses, he does warn her about the dangers of getting wrapped up too deeply in her revenge and losing sight of why she is doing it in the first place.

“Revenge is never a straight line. It’s a forest. And like a forest, it’s easy to lose your way...to get lost...to forget where you came in.”

6 “Those Of You Lucky Enough To Still Have Their Lives, Take Them With You!”

The Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

However, leave the limbs you’ve lost. They belong to me now.

The House of Blue Leaves sequence in Kill Bill is one of the most breathtaking action sequences in film history. The way that it’s intentionally inconsistent, with the format switching back and forth between color and black-and-white and the song on the soundtrack constantly changing, is a breath of fresh air.

The big action set piece in Kill Bill is shot and choreographed in the most Kill Bill way possible.

Most action scenes use the factory settings, with perfect calibration and a meticulously considered look, to the point that they’re interchangeable. But the big action set piece in Kill Bill is shot and choreographed in the most Kill Bill way possible. There’s no mistaking it for an action scene in any other movie. This line showcases how The Bride is perfect for this kind of scene.

5 “Before This Tale Of Bloody Revenge Reaches Its Climax, I’m Going To Ask You Some Questions.”

David Carradine in Kill Bill Vol. 1​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Bill, played by David Carradine, is one of Quentin Tarantino’s most outspoken and articulate characters. When the Bride finally catches up with him, he gives her this whole monologue about revenge.

“Now, when it comes to you, and us, I have a few unanswered questions. So, before this tale of bloody revenge reaches its climax, I’m going to ask you some questions, and I want you to tell me the truth. However, therein lies the dilemma. Because, when it comes to the subject of me, I believe you are truly and utterly incapable of telling the truth – especially to me, and least of all, to yourself. And when it comes to the subject of me, I am truly and utterly incapable of believing anything you say.”

It is a classic Tarantino dialogue moment with characters waxing philosophically while in the midst of a tense and inevitably deadly situation. Bill calmly and rationally breaks down the situation he and The Bride find themselves in as enemies now locked in a faceoff that will end with one of them dead.

At the same time, they share a lot of history with each other and Bill wants to hash things out before the revenge takes place. It is a moment that is not often seen in revenge movies where the villain actually gets to explain his reason for his wrongdoing before the final confrontation.

4 "It Was Not My Intention To Do This In Front Of You. For That I'm Sorry. But You Can Take My Word For It, Your Mother Had It Comin'."

The Bride In Kill Bill Vol. 2

When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting.

After killing Copperhead in her own kitchen, Beatrix was faced with the unenviable task of confronting her little daughter, who had just walked in on her mother's dead corpse. At this point, Beatrix's mind was still firmly entrenched in vengeance, with little regard for anything else.

She gave the little girl a bit of harsh advice, which would later come full circle in Kill Bill Vol. 2, when she learned that her own daughter was still very much alive, and well. It is this conversation and the tease that there could be a future confrontation that has sparked fans' interest in the possibility of Kill Bill 3 ever since.

3 “That Woman Deserves Her Revenge. And We Deserve To Die.”

Michael Madsen In Kill Bill Vol. 2

Michael Madsen has appeared in a few of Quentin Tarantino’s movies. They’re a perfect fit for each other since Madsen’s stilted line delivery style matches Tarantino’s pontificating dialogue writing style. His Kill Bill character Budd sums up the central conflict of the movie in this one line, which he first utters in a flash-forward at the end of Vol. 1 and then again when his story arc is fleshed out in Vol. 2.

Budd is a unique character in the revenge movie genre as he is not someone who is afraid of what is coming and actually accepts that he should be punished for what he did to The Bride. However, the complexity of the character goes even further as he points out that she is also a murderer and deserves to die as well, so he will simply wait to see how things play out. Perhaps this approach is why Budd is the one who comes the closest to killing The Bride.

2 “When I Arrive At My Destination, I Am Gonna kill Bill.”

The Bride In Kill Bill Vol. 2

At the beginning of Kill Bill Vol. 2, the Bride recaps the events of the first movie in voiceover narration. It plays over a black-and-white image of the Bride driving a car with a determined look. She explains that she was shot in the head by her old hit squad, slipped into a coma, and emerged with a thirst for revenge. However, the sequence also teases the end of the movie as she is setting her sights on Bill at last.

It might seem like a bold move for Tarantino to essentially spoil the movie by revealing that The Bride is able to defeat all of her other enemies and make it to Bill's house by the end of the story. However, it is also an exhilarating way to kick things off with the filmmaker seeming to understand that the audience fully expects a confrontation between The Bride and Bill to end the movie.

1 “Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold.”

It Appears As A Title Card Before The Movie Starts, Attributed To An "Old Klingon Proverb."

This isn’t just the best-known quote about revenge from Kill Bill; this might be the best-known quote about revenge, period. It’s the epigraph that opens the movie, attributed simply as an “Old Klingon Proverb.” While the Klingon lexicon might not have been where the quote first appeared, they have been known to say it.

The expression suggests that revenge is not something that needs to be delivered in haste and the person who seeks vengeance should exercise patience. The Bride was in a coma for years following her betrayal. However, when she wakes up, she is not willing to let things cool anymore.