The closing of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 returns the screen to the performers after Beatrix's story has been resolved. Its different blocks should not be mistaken for a single entirely black-and-white sequence.
The cast returns after the ending
The end credits of Vol. 2 work as a farewell to the whole work. They bring back figures from both films and let us see faces again that had disappeared from the action long before. The criterion is no longer the chronological order of events or Beatrix's list of enemies. It is the acknowledgement of a set of performances that has sustained the journey.
That return changes our relationship with the characters. During the story, each appearance may signal a threat, an obstacle or some help. In the credits, the image becomes linked to the name of the person who plays it. The viewer can recognise both the character and the actor at once. The film creates some distance from the violence we have just seen without denying that that violence was part of the story.
Bringing back performers from the first volume is especially useful in a work released in two instalments. The ending does not limit itself to the cast we have just seen during the last hour. It brings the two parts together through their bodies and faces. The effect is similar to a curtain call: the differences between leads, enemies and episodic figures give way for a moment to a shared form of recognition.
Not all credits use the same visual treatment
It is worth distinguishing the cast presentation montage from the black-and-white block associated with Beatrix at the wheel. Describing the whole farewell as a monochrome sequence erases a visible difference. The ending uses more than one register and does not impose the same function on every image.
The cast montage works with the immediate memory of the characters. The driving image, by contrast, brings back a figure of transit: Beatrix moving towards a destination. Reusing it after the ending changes its meaning. The same focused attitude that once signalled an action still to come can now be seen as an image held back from the road already travelled.
The use of black and white separates that block from the chromatic continuity of many remembered scenes. There is no need to identify it automatically with a historical date or with an exact memory. Within the credits it can work as a graphic treatment, a distance from the action, or a way of turning the face and the road into emblems of the protagonist.
Music also helps distinguish the sections. Malagueña salerosa, performed by Chingon, accompanies the cast presentation, while Goodnight Moon, by Shivaree, belongs to another moment in the credits. The point of this difference does not require reproducing the lyrics: it is enough to notice the change in energy and how each track supports a different kind of farewell.
Crossed-out names and uncertainty about Elle
The graphic play with the names of several performers brings back the logic of the revenge list. Crossing them out refers to the record Beatrix uses to mark completed targets. By shifting that operation into the credits, the film blends the vocabulary of its story with the space that normally serves to identify those who made it.
The question mark linked to Daryl Hannah introduces a deliberate difference from the crossed-out names. Elle's fate has not been closed off by a death shown on screen. The mark preserves that uncertainty; on its own, it does not establish that she survives or announce any specific sequel. Its value lies in acknowledging that the film has not confirmed the same outcome for every character.
Nor should the credits be treated as a literal database of deaths. The device has a playful and selective element. It mixes the actor's name with the fate of the character and depends on the audience recognising that substitution. An overly administrative reading would lose the pleasure of seeing a narrative convention reappear at the threshold of departure.
The ending thus allows two experiences at once: saying farewell to the cast and remaining for a few minutes within the language of Kill Bill. The images stop advancing the revenge, but they retain its marks, its music and its visual memory. The story ends; the way of looking at it continues through the credits.
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