If Quentin Tarantino sticks to his plan to retire from directing after his tenth movie, then he’s only got one left to go. From a horror movie to another western to a John Brown biopic to an R-ratedStar Trekmovie, there are a ton of possibilities that Tarantino has mentioned that could end up being his next (and last) film project. He told Joe Rogan that he even considered rebootingReservoir Dogsas his final film.
Tarantino said onCBS Sunday Morningthat he’s considering making his final film a kind of “epilogue” at the end of his filmography, becauseOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodis big enough to serve as his final epic. So, his official final movie could be something smaller-scale to act as a kind of postscript on the director’s career as a filmmaker. Maybe he’ll finally get around to readapting Bret Easton Ellis’Less Than Zerofor the screen as a cool hangout movie. But if he ends up wanting to go the other way with a big, extravagant, cinematic spectacle that tops everything that came before it,Kill Bill: Volume 3could make for the perfect finale.
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A thirdKill Billmovie has been floated around as a possibility ever since the first two volumes became a box office success. Tarantino has outlined a vague plot that would see Vernita Green’s daughter Nikki Bell training under a blind Elle Driver to exact revenge against the Bride. B.B. would be all grown up and a well-oiled killing machine, having been trained by her mother.
The casting lines up perfectly with Uma Thurman’s real daughter Maya Hawke (who had a minor role inOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood) to play B.B., while Vivica A. Fox hassuggested Zendaya to play Nikki. The time jump would allow Tarantino to round out the supporting cast with roles for fan-favorite collaborators like Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz in theKill Billuniverse. Not only wouldKill Bill 3allow just about everybody from Tarantino’s regular stable of actors to appear in his final work; the pulpy, unique world in whichKill Billtakes place means they’d all have a substantial and memorable role to play, big or small. Imagine Kurt Russell playing a grizzled hitman or Harvey Keitel playing a notorious crime boss or Leonardo DiCaprio playing a master martial artist.
If audiences are expectinga giant, action-packed,Endgame-style epicas the finale of the Tarantino-verse, thenKill Bill 3is the best way to go. Tarantino has always referred toKill Billas hisDollarstrilogy, andVolume 3could be his answer toThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: a full-throttle, action-packed epic to end all epics.
Nikki seeking revenge could offer a great twist onKill Bill’s themes of eye-for-an-eye justice. After seeing her mom killed in front of her, Nikki has as much of a reason to want vengeance against the Bride as she did against Bill and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in the original movies. Revenge has beena common thread throughout Tarantino’s filmography– his last four movies have brutally righted the wrongs of history – so it would make a lot of sense to end his career on a straightforward revenge story.
Ultimately, Tarantino’s legacy as a filmmaker is his impact on genre. WithReservoir DogsandPulp Fiction, Tarantino brought the subversions on Hollywood crime films found in French New Wave classics likeBreathlessandLe Doulosback to American cinema. InDjango Unchained, Tarantino tackled the most challenging era of U.S. history through the lens ofa blood-soaked spaghetti western. After Tarantino stops making movies, he’ll be remembered for his idiosyncratic, groundbreaking takes on various genres.
SinceKill Billis his most ambitious cocktail of influences (it’s a spaghetti western, a kung fu actioner, and an exploitation movie rolled into one),Kill Bill 3could be the perfect movie to end his career on. It would have a nostalgia factor for long-time fans to revisit the Bride’s journey later down the road, but it could also act as Tarantino’s final definitive statement on genre concluding the postmodern deconstruction thatbegan three decades ago withReservoir Dogs.
In addition to incorporating all the genre elements of the first twoKill Billmovies, Tarantino could throw in every genre from the kitchen sink that he didn’t get around to trying:spy movies, screwball comedies, prison movies, traditional gangster movies – the sky’s the limit.
It’s possible thatKill Bill: Volume 3would give Tarantino a final movie loophole. Since he counts the first two volumes ofKill Billas a single movie (if he didn’t, he’d already be on ten),Volume 3could fall under that banner and open the door for a sneaky eleventh movie. That way, he could treatKill Bill 3as his final movie, but keep his prospects open in case the right story comes along to make another one.
