This analysis of 'Kill Bill: Vol. 2' (2004) will consider how the screenplay’s five plot points create the story’s deep structure. These discrete story points include the 'Inciting Incident' in Act 1, 'Turning Points 1 and 2' in Act 2, and the 'Crisis Decision' and 'Climax' in Act 3. Spoiler alert: this structural analysis will reveal crucial plot moments; you may prefer to read this after viewing the film.
This movie’s back story is, of course, 'Kill Bill Vol .1', which saw Beatrix Kiddo (Uma Thurman) go on a full-bore royal rampage of revenge. But she has yet to kill old Bill.
Any Hollywood movie’s ‘Inciting Incident’, which occurs usually in the first 1/2 hour, challenges the hero to respond to a new development or opportunity. To achieve that response, the hero must internally expand, irrevocably changing his life. The hero is then thrown into a series of escalating accommodations on his journey to understand and solve the Inciting Incident’s original problem. This movie’s Inciting Incident sees Bill show up unexpectedly on the happy occasion of Kiddo’s wedding rehearsal. He is welcomed by the groom, and is to be the sole guest from the bride’s family present at the ceremony.
A few moments after his arrival, Budd (Michael Madsen), Elle (Darryl Hannah) and two other assassins arrive. What followed has since become notorious as the massacre at the El Paso Wedding Chapel.
Kiddo escapes from the early grave Budd had cheerfully consigned her to. She then makes her way back to Budd’s trailer. Inside Elle has unleashed the Great Mamba, one of Africa’s three most lethal predators, on poor unsuspecting Budd.
Turning Point 1. When Elle tries to leave, Kiddo comes roaring in. Elle reveals that she killed Kiddo’s revered master, using a cowardly poison, and in the fight that follows, Kiddo impales and swipes out Elle’s one remaining eye with her index and middle finger, blinding her. Kiddo leaves Elle howling in the trailer, trapped there to receive the attentions of the Great Mamba.
A movie’s Midpoint usually provides the story with a coherence and symmetry that the audience feels unconsciously, and for this reason is important structurally. This film’s Midpoint sees Kiddo arrive at Esteban Vihaio’s (Michael Parks) compound over the border. Their conversation suggests his establishment is a hellish desert brothel. She finds out where Bill is now living.
Turning Point 2. After arriving at Bill’s ranch, to her initial shock and overwhelming relief, Kiddo discovers that her daughter is still alive, playing there in Bill’s living room.
Act 3’s Crisis Decision occurs after much additional repartee between the two. Not only has Bill taken from her everything and everyone she loved, he even withheld the knowledge of her daughter’s welfare. Her decision: Bill must die.
The Climax occurs when she kills Bill, using her master’s secret ‘Five-point palm of death’ maneuver. Bill, who had wanted to learn this maneuver, will now see it work firsthand. He rises and arranges his suit, walks away, and dies before taking his fifth step, when his heart collapses. Such is the efficacy of the 5-point palm of death.
The story’s reversal (to a new stasis) sees Kiddo in a motel room with her daughter, her royal rampage of revenge now finished, her four enemies vanquished. She lies curled in a foetal position on the bathroom floor, weeping. Her daughter is watching a cartoon. Kiddo comes out, her spasm of soul anguish behind her.
As Bill insisted earlier, she is indeed a killer. But she’s also a mother.
