The Bride And Mia Wallace Are Actually The Same Person

It’s no secret that enigmatic filmmaker Quentin Tarantino likes to indulge in his own work that spans over two decades. And we’re certainly not the first to point out that the Pulp Fiction director intricately interweaves his characters and their stories from one film to the next, essentially crafting an alternate version of history of which he is both the puppet master and a sideline player in a hyper-violent universe.
If you’re unfamiliar with the maverick’s subverted ways, some popular Easter egg examples include his characters smoking the fictional Red Apple cigarettes, or that Vic Vega (Michael Madsen) — AKA Mr. Blonde of Reservoir Dogs — and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) of Pulp Fiction are brothers. There’s also much, much more where those came from.
The whole idea began when Tarantino outlined his incestuous alternate universe and populated it with “movie movies” that his characters could realistically see and digest. For example, Pulp Fiction acts as reality, but Kill Bill Vol. 1 is a movie that, say, Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) or Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) could theoretically see at the historic theater where the Inglourious Basterds murdered Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Which reminds us of a couple of things: the first being that we’re beyond excited that Inglourious Basterds is coming to Netflix later this month, followed by the fact that Mia Wallace of Pulp Fiction and The Bride of Kill Bill are one and the same. To celebrate Uma Thurman, Tarantino’s greatest muse, and her 45th birthday, we’re breaking down how her immortal character goes on to become the star samurai of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2.
We first get to know Mia when she sits down with Vincent Vega at a ’60s-themed restaurant and orders a burger, “bloody as hell,” and a “five-dollar shake.”  Vince inquires about her failed pilot, as she drags on a Red Apple cigarette and explains the plot of Fox Force Five, an all-female crime romp about five foxy secret agents who are a force to be reckoned with. She then breaks down all of the characters and their unique skills, which, aside from their differing character names, describe The Bride’s weapon-literate, female arch nemeses in Kill Bill played by Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Sofie Fatale, and Chiaki Kuriyama, who specialize in everything from dynamite to sex. Mia then reveals her character’s specialty: knives.

It’s possible that, because the characters in Tarantino’s alternate history are so intrigued by violence (after all, they did grow up reading about the bloody take down of the Candyland plantation of Django Unchained and the even bloodier massacre of Hitler’s army in a burning theater), Fox Force Five died as a TV show so Kill Bill could live as an ultra-violent feature movie and give Mia her big break as an actress. But how? Well, if you recall, Mia’s mobster husband Marcellus has serious Hollywood connects, who might include Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek), the famous producer in the Tarantino-written crime adventure, True Romance (directed by Tony Scott). If Donowitz is ringing another bell, that’s because Lee’s father was actually Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) of Inglourious Basterds, who you probably remember as the “Bear Jew.”
The director admitted long ago about the worlds he’s created within his films, and to dive down the rabbit hole of Tarantino’s self-made fan fiction is a cinematic puzzle worth taking on. Mia Wallace as The Bride is particularly interesting, however, because the journey that brought Kill Bill Vol. 1 to fruition as a “movie movie” involved some renaming and rearranging of the characters, which is what often happens in Hollywood when a project gets the axe: it’s back to the drawing board. Thus, Tarantino took his own made-up pilot, fictitiously sunk it, and gave it a new life nearly ten years later as a feature starring his beloved Uma Thurman. Have your own theories about Quentin Tarantino’s universe? Share them in the comments below.
 
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Photos: Everett Collection