The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad is the group of assassins led by Bill in Kill Bill. Its English name, Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, is usually abbreviated to DiVAS. It includes six characters: Bill and the five professionals who work under his authority, including Beatrix Kiddo. That is why the five names on the Bride’s revenge list do not add up to the whole team: she also belonged to it.
The squad’s relationships combine work, kinship, affection and rivalry. Bill is Budd’s brother and had a relationship with Beatrix, with whom he has B.B. That mixture means the break with the protagonist affects an organisation whose decisions are never entirely separate from its leader’s personal interests.
The film allows its members to be identified by names and aliases, but presents them in very different situations. Their later paths help distinguish the former team from the allies, employees and bodyguards who surround some of its members.
The members of the squad share a professional past and a central authority. The revenge story finds them scattered, with different occupations and relationships to one another. Understanding that difference makes it possible to identify the group without turning every character who helps one of its members into another member.
Members, aliases and performers
The Portuguese Cinematheque programme for its 2022 screening of Kill Bill records these correspondences between characters, aliases and performers:
- Bill — Snake Charmer: David Carradine.
- Beatrix Kiddo, The Bride — Black Mamba: Uma Thurman.
- O-Ren Ishii — Cottonmouth: Lucy Liu.
- Vernita Green — Copperhead: Vivica A. Fox.
- Budd — Sidewinder: Michael Madsen.
- Elle Driver — California Mountain Snake: Daryl Hannah.
The aliases give the group a shared identity, although Bill occupies a different position within that vocabulary too. Snake Charmer means one who charms snakes: it refers to someone who controls them. The choice reinforces his position of command.
The total of six includes Beatrix before her break with Bill. When she draws up the Death List Five, the other five become the targets of her retaliation. They are two different sets of people: one describes the team she belonged to and the other selects those she pursues. Beatrix’s absence from the second does not erase her past within the first.
Bill as boss, brother and former partner
Bill’s authority is evident in concrete decisions. In the hospital, a phone call from him is enough for Elle to interrupt the attempt to kill Beatrix. Elle shows her disagreement, but obeys. The scene establishes who can order an operation and who must stop it, even when the assassin assigned to carry it out has a personal interest in continuing.With Beatrix, that leadership overlaps with a former romantic relationship and with fatherhood of B.B. His decision to leave that life affects both the organisation and Bill. The attack on her uses the former colleagues as the agents of a response that stems from that personal conflict. The working relationship offers no protection from the boss’s will.
Budd has a different bond with Bill: they are brothers. The conversation between them in the second volume shows a disagreement that kinship does not erase. Budd recognises reasons for Beatrix’s revenge and keeps his own way of facing the threat. Having direct access to Bill because he is his brother does not make him a docile extension of his decisions.
Elle’s rivalry with Beatrix also cannot be reduced to a work order. Elle expresses hostility towards her and, at the same time, recognises her ability as a fighter. That combination explains why she cares who defeats her and under what circumstances. The competition between former colleagues continues even when it seems that one of them has already disappeared.
Between Beatrix and O-Ren, recognition of the other’s skill survives enmity. O-Ren apologises for having underestimated her former colleague after seeing how she fights. With Vernita, Nikki’s arrival causes a pause in the clash and a brief cooperation to hide from the child what is happening. Familiarity makes it possible to recognise ability or accept a truce. None of those gestures, however, restores an alliance between them.
The former team and the circles around it
The chapel massacre
brings together Bill, O-Ren, Vernita, Budd and Elle against Beatrix. That collective attack is the antecedent that links the five targets of revenge. When the protagonist goes back after them, she no longer finds them gathered in a single operation: she has to approach the spaces and lives each one occupies.O-Ren exercises power within her criminal organisation in Japan; Vernita appears in a domestic setting, while Budd works in a club. Those situations do not erase their responsibility for the attack. They do change the conditions of the encounters and show that having belonged to the same squad does not mean maintaining an identical existence or sharing the same resources.
O-Ren’s circle requires an additional distinction. Sofie Fatale is a close associate; Gogo Yubari acts as her bodyguard and Johnny Mo is in charge of the Crazy 88. The three belong to her circle, but they are not part of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Their involvement in the conflict comes from the relationship they have with O-Ren, not from holding a place among the six members of the group.
Distrust also reaches the former colleagues: Elle kills Budd when the agreement between them seemed to benefit them both. Shared history does not guarantee help or loyalty. The squad’s story therefore unfolds through its broken ties, as well as Beatrix’s actions against those who took part in the assault.
Distrust extends to former comrades too: Elle kills Budd when their arrangement seemed to benefit them both. Their shared past does not guarantee help or loyalty. The squad's story thus unfolds through its broken bonds, as well as Beatrix's actions against those who took part in the assault.
The presentation of the members also distributes information unevenly. For much of the story, the protagonist is known as The Bride or Black Mamba before her full name is revealed. Bill, meanwhile, can give orders and intervene in the story before the viewer knows his face. The group’s identity is built up through voices, names and appearances that do not all arrive at once.
O-Ren receives an animated account of her childhood; Vernita is introduced inside a family home and Budd in a work environment that places him under someone else’s orders. Those differences broaden what can be known about each of them beyond their alias. The squad provides a common link for identifying them, while the staging places them in specific conditions. Membership explains where their relationship with Beatrix comes from; the way they are presented shows what each life has become.