Breatrix's Box Vol. 1
A Writer's Allegory from Kill Bill 2
I’m guessing that I probably saw Kill Bill Vol. 2 in 2005 or 2006, I had HBO and Starz at the time. Yeah, those were the good old days when DirecTv, Dish, or your local cable company -if you lived in town- had every channel in one place, for one subscription. And if you were savvy enough to have TiVo, you were the equivalent of a television god. No commercials ever. I can still hear my kids say, “blip it daddy, blip it,” when a commercial would come on— That was the noise TiVo made when you fast forwarded, “blip, blip, blip, blip, blip.”
Okay, back to 2025— My wife and I were looking for something to watch last week and saw Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 available, so since she hadn’t seen them yet, we decided to watch. I’m excited because I like Quentin Tarantino, I’ve seen most of his movies multiple times. He’s an absolute master.
Spoiler Alert! If for some reason you’ve been unable to watch movies for the past 20 years, perhaps you’ve been marooned on a deserted island like Tom Hanks in Castaway— Oh wait, you wouldn’t know about that either🙃 I’m about to give away a major scene…
My wife and I were headed to town the day after we watched Vol. 2, and she said,” OMG, my chest was tight during that movie last night.”
So I’m like, “You mean when Beatrix is being buried alive in her coffin?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s giving me anxiety right now just talking about it.”
I said, “ Yeah I know right, it was so intense. I was thinking that I want to write scenes like that. I’ve got to put the reader in the box.”
Since I began writing, I watch movies differently. I’m constantly studying the story arc, or the hero’s journey. I watch for the major plot points, and conflicts, ect. Well now I know why Quentin Tarantino is one of the greatest filmmakers in the game, it’s because he knows how to— Put the movie-watcher in the coffin with Beatrix.
To begin with, he foreshadows this scene when Bill’s brother, Budd, and Ellie, are discussing killing The Bride— We don’t actually know Beatrix's name yet btw.
Ellie says, “She must suffer to her last breath.”
Budd replies, “That Ellie darlin, I can pretty damnwell guarantee.”
Then suddenly we're in a cemetery, and you see an old dusty casket has been dragged out of its hole; over in the hole is a shovel sound, and there's dirt flying out of the hole into a pile beside it.
Right about this time, we see Budd’s truck tailgate flop open, and a beat up Beatrix gets pulled out of the truck by her collar. Her hands and feet are bound, and she hits the ground with a thud that takes her breath. She’s just waking from being shocked unconscious with a taser. She’s disoriented, but pissed.
We watch as The Bride realizes what’s about to happen, she sees that she’s in a graveyard. She sees the hole being dug, and not only the old dusty coffin, but a new pine box sitting beside it. But before she can attempt anything, Budd is on top of her. “You’re going in that box,” he says as he leans down over her. Beatrix spits in his face, at which time he retaliates with a large brown wad of tobacco spit that covers her face. Then Budd takes out a can of Mace, but he doesn’t use it, he only threatens her with it— She quickly calms down.
Budd then takes something out of his other pocket, “Looky here bitch,” he says. “Now you’re going underground tonight, and that’s all there is to it. But I was going to bury you with this,” he said as he showed her a flashlight. “But if you’re going to act like a horse’s ass, I’ll spray this whole goddamn can of Mace in your eyeballs. Then you’ll be blind, burning, and buried alive.” Budd holds up the can of Mace and the flash light, “Now what’s it going to be sister?” Beatrix relinquishes her last hope with a nod toward the flashlight.
Budd and his little friend— The one that’s been digging the hole, and now is drinking a beer like this is regular Saturday night fun; pick her up and toss her into the box. The screenplay reads— Dark, except for the cracks of light seeping through between the lid and the box. However with each nail pounded in, more light is cut off… BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!…the only light left, is the crack by The Bride's head. The last hammered nail obliterates that light source. The Bride lies in TOTAL DARKNESS. Then it gets quiet for a second…
We are inside the box now with Beatrix as it is dragged toward the hole, rocks scratch the bottom of the box as it scars the ground, there’s a slight pause, just a second of weightlessness, then BOOM we are all jolted violently as the box collides with the bottom of the grave. Then the two men start to throw dirt onto the box– Each shovelful of dirt lands on top of us, inside the box with a BAM! That at first is defining, BAM! But gradually it gets more and more muffled. Eventually, it is only me, you, and Beatrix in the box buried 6-ft below the ground.
She is insane by now, the chaos inside that box is unfathomable– she is trying to kick but her feet are bound. She tries to punch, but her hands are bound. She finds the flashlight and we get a moment of light, until she knocks the flashlight out by beating on the coffin with it in desperation…
Show, don’t tell. We’ve heard it a million times right? But what is– Show, don’t tell?
Fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson said, “The idea is, that its a scene where a character takes an action to express an attribute; that is more memorable to a reader than a scene where a character tells you an attribute(or something).”
It’s putting the reader in Beatrix’s box, with her. Master Tarantino doesn’t just bury The Bride and move onto the next scene, he adds a shit-ton of suspense— Actions. He builds and builds tension with one thing after another, until we forget we’re watching a movie. We’re being buried alive right along with The Bride.
That is– Show, don’t tell. That’s what we as writers have to do for our readers. That’s what makes for a book that’s impossible to put down. When we draw our readers into Beatrix’s Box with actions, we bring them into her experience. The reader becomes part of the story.
Thanks for reading! In the next Newsletter we’ll take a look a Beatrix’s Box from a Allegory of Life perspective.
Beatrix's Box Vol. 2
What do you do when you feel the tension rising? Do you have a go-to prayer or mantra that helps you deal with anxiety?
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