Deadly Viper Assassination Squad
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The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (or DeVAS) is a group of fictional characters in Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's Kill Bill
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....
.
It is a reference to Buddhism's "Five Poisons": see this article.
History
Bill and Budd are brothers who grew up without a father (although Esteban Vihaio, a pimp, acted as a father-figure for a time). O-Ren Ishii was left an orphan after her parents were killed by JapaneseJapanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
crime boss Matsumoto.
They were, as their name suggests, an assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
squad, run and managed by Bill. He is known to have had romances with Kiddo (his girlfriend and protégée
Mentorship
Mentorship refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person....
, whom he impregnates) and Elle Driver.
Although their name suggests that the members of the team are codenamed with vipers'
Viperidae
The Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes found all over the world, except in Antarctica, Australia, Ireland, Madagascar, Hawaii, various other isolated islands, and above the Arctic Circle. All have relatively long, hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of venom. Four...
names, the black mamba
Black mamba
The black mamba , also called the common black mamba or black-mouthed mamba, is the longest venomous snake in Africa, averaging around in length, and sometimes growing to lengths of...
and the California mountain snake
Kingsnake
Kingsnakes are a type of colubrid snake that are members of the Lampropeltis genus, which also includes the milk snake along with another four species and 45 sub-species....
do not belong to the viper family; the black mamba is an elapid and the California mountain snake belongs to the colubrids.
At the time of The Bride's revenge, the group has largely disbanded. Vernita lives as a housewife with a daughter, O-Ren is a crime boss in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Budd is a bar bouncer, Bill is shown mostly as a retired killer to whom Elle remains fanatically devoted. The Bride has just recovered from a four-year coma, which started when the others came to her wedding rehearsal and killed the wedding party, but mistakenly left her alive. Bill delivers what he believes to be the coup de grâce
Coup de grâce
The expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...
as revenge for walking out on him. Their daughter is delivered while she is in a coma, and is being raised by Bill without her knowledge.
Although never explicitly said, it is widely held that Black Mamba is the most lethal and skilled of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad after Bill himself, making her the deadliest woman on the planet. Many of them wield katana
Katana
A Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. There are several types of Japanese swords, according to size, field of application and method of manufacture.-Description:...
s, and in the case of Bill and Budd, forged by Hattori Hanzō, an Okinawan sword maker
Sword making
Sword making, historically, has been the work of specialized smiths or metalworkers called bladesmiths or swordsmiths. Swords have been made of many different materials over the centuries and with a variety of tools and techniques...
of legendary standing, who comes out of retirement to make his final masterpiece, The Bride's samurai sword. Bill, The Bride and Elle Driver are trained by Pai Mei, a Chinese martial arts
Chinese martial arts
Chinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as kung fu , are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" , "sects" or...
master who is later poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ed by Elle Driver. Besides their training in the martial arts, they are also fluent in several languages, well-versed in the use of firearms, and skilled in various assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
, espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
and weapon combat techniques. Some members seem to have personal specialties. O-Ren seems to favor ranged weapons (a sniper rifle in her flash-back and throwing darts in the confrontation at the House of Blue Leaves), Vernita favors close combat using knives (as stated by the Bride, quoting Bill) and Elle seems to favor poisons (she used this tactic to kill Pai Mei in a flashback, attempted to use it against the comatose Bride, before Bill stopped her and arguably used it against Budd by way of the black mamba). Budd seems to favor firearms (you see him carrying an AK-47 as the DeVAS approach and enter the Two Pines wedding chapel. Also he shoots a round of rock salt into the bride with his shotgun.) Bill and Kiddo never demonstrate a preference for any specific weapon or tactic, although Bill's codename (Snake Charmer) and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad almost exclusively female membership may imply that Bill's speciality is his way with women.
Kiddo kills Green, Ishii and Bill in her quest for revenge. Budd is killed, fittingly, by a black mamba which Driver puts in a suitcase filled with money. It is left ambiguous whether Driver survives; she is left blinded and locked up with the black mamba that killed Budd, ranting and screaming in an isolated desert trailer. At the end of the film, all the characters who have been killed have their names crossed out on Kiddo's list, but Elle's name instead has a question mark over the top of it, suggesting that she could still be alive.
Cultural references
The five assassins of the Deadly Viper Assassin Squad are a reference to the Five Deadly VenomsFive Deadly Venoms
Five Venoms aka Five Deadly Venoms is a cult 1978 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh, starring the Venom Mob, and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio, about five kung-fu fighters with unique animal styles: The Centipede, The Snake, The Scorpion, The Lizard and The Toad...
, a group of five Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
action actors employed by Run Run Shaw in many old Shaw Brothers martial arts films that were part of the inspiration for Kill Bill. The actors first worked together in a movie called The Five Deadly Venoms, and were referred to as such when seen in later movies together. In another Tarantino movie, Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
, Mia Wallace (also played by Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
) states that she worked on a pilot episode of "Fox Force Five", which included five very different women with special talents that are similar to the talents of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. It was also mentioned in Pulp Fiction that her character was "the deadliest woman in the world with a knife", whereas in Kill Bill Vernita Green is described by The Bride as such. It is also of note that the list of names that Thurman's character makes in Kill Bill is titled "Death List Five". Tarantino also cited the 1973 Ted V. Mikels
Ted V. Mikels
Ted V. Mikels is an American filmmaker of independent cult films. Mikels was also known for his home life, as he once lived with a harem in a Glendale, California castle that contained secret passageways....
film The Doll Squad as an inspiration.
Other
- While Sofie Fatale is not an official member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she is at least involved in their operations and is in personal contact with Bill (who is mentioned to have previously been her mentor).
- Bill has been shown telling at least three members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad that he loves them: The Bride, Elle Driver (on the phone) and Budd (on an inscription on his Hanzo sword).
- The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are mentioned in the science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel GlasshouseGlasshouse (novel)Glasshouse is a science fiction novel by British author Charles Stross, first published in 2006. The novel is set in the twenty seventh century aboard a spacecraft adrift in interstellar space. Robin, the protagonist, has recently had his memory erased...
by Charles StrossCharles StrossCharles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
.