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Eccentric and unpredictable filmmaker Quentin Tarantino first made a name for himself as an actor in key films like Reservoir Dogs (which he also directed) and Desperado before his talents as a director began to seize the hearts and minds of American audiences. He’d already had a smash hit in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, and he’d soon follow it up with Jackie Brown in 1997.
His next big project would solidify his status as a directing powerhouse. Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2 took everything that made 1970s kung-fu flicks and spaghetti westerns so great and threw them in the same pot. The result was a duo of movies loaded with action, tons of laughs, excessive violence, and of course, a wealth of quotes. Here’s 15 of the absolute best.
Updated on January 2nd, 2021 by Derek Draven: Fans of Quentin Tarantino’s movies rarely find that one viewing is enough and keep coming back to his filmography time and time again over years and years. With each new viewing often also comes a newfound appreciation for another part of one of his iconic screenplays and there’s plenty to appreciate in his Kill Bill movies. We’ve expanded on this list to include 5 more quotes from the Kill Bill movies that will live forever. Some are wise, others are ominous, and the rest are quite humorous. These quotes hit hard and stay with the audience long after the credits have ended, and their pop culture status is undeniable.
15 “Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold.”
One of the most memorable quotes from the entire film wasn’t a Tarantino original, but one lifted straight out of the iconic Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting quote to kick off a revenge flick with, and it’s another example of Tarantino’s quirky sense of humor.
The meaning of the proverb would pop up several times throughout the two movies, most notably in Japan when Beatrix seeks out the legendary swordsman Hattori Hanzo. While he builds her katana, he also bestows a few wise warnings about the nature of revenge, and what it can lead to.
14 “Your Name Is Buck…Right?”
Controversial super-director Quentin Tarantino loves to fill his films with bad language, and Kill Bill is loaded with enough to fill a warehouse. After awakening from a prolonged coma to realize that an orderly has been paying people to come and have sex with her after hours, she cuts his Achilles tendon before smashing his head with a door until he’s killed.
The buildup is intense as Beatrix remembers some of the words he spoke to her while she was in a coma, and they aren’t pretty. Neither is her revenge, for that matter.
13 “It’s Mercy, Compassion, And Forgiveness I Lack. Not Rationality!”
The Bride wasn’t about to slaughter one of her targets in front of her own child unless absolutely necessary. She was quick to call a temporary time-out when Vernita Green’s daughter came home from school to a house turned upside down. After she was sent upstairs, the two of them caught up in the kitchen.
Green demanded to know whether the Bride was going to make another move on her with her child around, but was reassured that was not the case. When Green claimed that it was a more rational reply than she expected, the Bride quickly corrected her with this quote to make sure she understood the situation.
12 “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’!”
When the Bride finally tracked down Vernita Green, otherwise known as “Copperhead,” she wasted no time leaping through the front door and engaging in a brutal fight in the middle of the living room. When Green’s young daughter suddenly came home, the two halted their fight and headed into the kitchen to talk shop.
Green took the opportunity to try and kill the Bride with a gun hidden in a box of breakfast cereal. She met her end on the point of a knife through the chest. When the little girl stumbled upon the bloody mess, the Bride could only utter this quote before inviting her to take revenge when she grew up, if she so chose.
11 “I Can Tell You With No Ego, This Is My Finest Sword. If On Your Journey, You Should Encounter God, God Will Be Cut.”
Hattori Hanzo swore an oath to stop creating the world’s finest katana blades out of moral and philosophical principles. He realized that his prowess as a sword maker allowed others to commit murder in his name, which was something he no longer wanted to be a part of.
However, when Beatrix showed up in Japan demanding one of his blades, Hanzo felt a responsibility to aid her in her quest to take out Bill. He spent weeks fashioning the perfect sword before giving it to her during a private ritual while speaking this quote.
10 “The Price You Pay For Bringing Up Either My Chinese Or American Heritage As A Negative Is…I Collect Your F*****’ Head.”
Actress Lucy Liu played the iconic O-Ren Ishii, a woman who prided herself on being a cold, calculating-yet-fair leader of the famed Crazy 88, and her influence extended outwards towards the Yakuza circle she was involved in. Not everyone on the council was thrilled about having her lead, however, mostly due to her Chinese and American heritage.
While Ishii understood the sentiment, she didn’t tolerate anyone bringing it up. When one of the council tried, she beheaded him right there on the spot, sending a clear message to the others. To drive the point home, she spoke this quote to remind everyone of the penalties.
9 “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!”
For a display of raw killing power and bloodthirsty determination, one needn’t look any further than when Beatrix obliterates the Crazy 88 and leaves the survivors writhing on the floor. While she surveys her bloody handiwork, she offers some choice words for those still breathing.
It’s a testament to an earlier portion in the film when the Bride speaks with Vernita Green and tells her that compassion is a quality she lacks, which plays out to startling reality in this scene.
8 “I Am Gonna’ Ask You Questions, And Every Time You Don’t Give Me Answers, I’m Gonna’ Cut Something Off. And I Promise You, They WILL Be Things You Will Miss!”
Getting to Bill meant sending a message in order to shake him, and the rest of her former gang. Her decimation of the Crazy 88 and the slaughter of O-Ren Ishii was a big enough calling card, but it would require a messenger. Enter Sofie, O-Ren’s right-hand girl who behaved just as callously towards Beatrix’s beating and almost-murder as the rest.
Having already lost an arm to the Bride’s blade, Sofie was thrown out of a car and left on the doorstep of the local hospital where Bill came to check on her. By then, he knew exactly what the game was, and he had time to prepare.
7 “That Woman Deserves Her Revenge…And We Deserve To Die.”
Bill visited his brother Bud to warn him about Beatrix’s revenge quest, certain that he’d probably be next on her hit list. By that time, Bud’s life had spiraled into squalor as he worked a dead-end job for an unappreciative boss. It was a far cry from his glory days as a contract killer.
When Bill brought the news, Bud was defiant on the outside, yet sympathetic on the inside. Deep down he knew that their actions warranted their own deaths, and he uttered this quote to Bill openly and without hesitation before claiming that she also deserved the same fate for running out on Bill.
6 “Right At This Moment, The Biggest ‘R’ I Feel Is Regret. Regret That Maybe The Greatest Warrior I Have Ever Known…Met Her End At The Hands Of A Bushwhacking, Scrub, Alchy Piece Of S*** Like You! That Woman Deserved Better.”
Elle Driver might have hated Beatrix more than anyone due to her status as the top assassin in Bill’s crew, but along with that hatred came a twisted, yet somehow noble sense of respect for her as a warrior. She understood full well how powerful the Bride was, and that underestimating her was a mistake.
She showed up to purchase the Bride’s Hattori Hanzo sword from Bud, but the entire thing was a set up to murder him with a black mamba tucked into a suitcase full of cash. As he lay dying in agony, she uttered this quote which revealed how she felt about both Bud, and Beatrix.
5 “You Know What I Did? I Killed That Miserable Old Fool! I Poisoned His Fish Heads, And I Told Him, ‘To Me, The Word Of An Old Fool Like You Is Worth Less Than Nothing!”
Elle Driver hated the Bride more than anyone in the group, and she wasn’t afraid to show it. She was poised to kill her when she was still in a coma but was stopped prematurely by Bill as a matter of honor. That didn’t stop her from prepping for an eventual showdown with her former rival.
To goad the Bride into anger, she revealed that she had poisoned their mutual master Pai Mei. While it did achieve the objective she wanted, Driver failed to take into account Beatrix’s skill with a blade while under the heat of rage. She lost her other eye because of it and was left to wallow in blindness for the rest of her life.
4 “B****, You Don’t Have A Future!”
Next to O-Ren Ishii, Elle Driver was probably the Bride’s most lethal opponent. At some point, the two would need to square off, and it would be a much harder fight than the challenging duels she’d participated in before. Nevertheless, she was ready.
The showdown took place in Bud’s trailer after he was killed by a nasty black mamba bite to the face. The two fought around his corpse long enough for the Bride to gain the upper hand. Rather than kill her, she simply plucked her other eye out and left her permanently blind and alone, screaming in the trailer.
3 “I Have Only One More. The Last One; The One I’m Driving To Right Now. The Only One Left. And When I Arrive At My Destination, I Am Gonna’ Kill Bill!”
Bill probably didn’t understand the kind of monster he’d inadvertently unleashed when he took young Beatrix Kiddo under his wing and taught her the killing arts. He opened her up to a whole new world of adventure, excitement, and danger the likes of which she didn’t know was possible.
It all came crashing to a halt the moment he decided to have her killed at her own wedding. “The Bride” survived, and kicked off a campaign of bloody revenge that stopped right at Bill’s doorstep. Beatrix wouldn’t let up, give up, or reconcile. Not for anything in the world.
2 “Clark Kent Is Superman’s Critique On The Whole Human Race.”
Bill speaks these words as he delivers a monologue about how Superman is unique because he is the only one out of the bunch who actually pretends to be normal. It’s a powerful speech that serves a great purpose, with a poignant truth attached to it.
His effort was to convince Beatrix that she was always a killer, deep down inside of her soul, rather than one he created. Under duress, the Bride was forced to admit that he was right, even though the circumstances of her pregnancy changed everything for her.
1 “You And I Have Unfinished Business!”
The Bride cut a bloody path of revenge in order to get to Bill, but it took on a much different form than she imagined. She arrived at Bill’s compound to be confronted with none other than her daughter, whom she assumed she lost when she was almost murdered by his henchmen.
Instead, the little girl was alive and well, and she suddenly had more to live for than herself. After taking the time to catch up with Bill and talk things out, she reminded him that they had unfinished business. After a brief fight, Beatrix struck Bill with Pai Mei’s exploding heart technique – a throwback to the eccentric Kung-Fu flicks of the 70s – and sealed his fate, while solidifying her future.