From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elle Driver

Elle Driver is a fictional character, played by Darryl Hannah, in the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill. Driver is a member of an elite group of assassins, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, led by the master assassin Bill, who eventually becomes Driver's lover. Her physical appearance is based on Frigga/Madeleine, portrayed by Christina Lindberg in the 1974 film Thriller - en grym film^{[citation needed]}. Her codename is California Mountain Snake.

Next to Bill, Driver is the movie's primary villain, as well as the least sympathetic character; while all of her fellow Vipers are violent and ruthless, the icy, callous Driver is the only one who could be called genuinely evil. She has an antagonistic relationship with the entire group, especially Beatrix Kiddo (aka "Black Mamba"). While she hates and envies Kiddo, however, she has a grudging respect for her as a warrior.

Driver had trained with Pai Mei, the violent and irritable Chinese martial arts master who trained both the Bride and Bill, and who ripped out Driver's right eye after she called him a "miserable old fool". As revenge, Driver murdered him by poisoning his food. Since then, her eyepatch has become an iconic part of her character, and she changes the design of it depending on her current outfit or disguise. For example, when she disguises herself as a nurse to kill Kiddo while she is in a coma, she wears an eyepatch with a Red Cross on it.

Driver, along with the other three members of the squad, attempted to kill Kiddo at a Texas wedding chapel, then she tried to kill Kiddo herself by injecting poison in her IV while disguised as a nurse when Kiddo was at a hospital in her comatose state. However, just as she was about to plunge the poison, she was stopped by Bill, who called her and told her to abort the mission. Kiddo survived the coma for four years, only to awake and return with a vengeance, killing two members of the squad, O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green.

Bill's brother Budd called Driver (the "hateful bitch" as he put it) one night, having captured and buried Kiddo, and offered to sell Kiddo's Hattori Hanzō katana to Driver for $1 million. Driver agreed, and came to Budd's dilapidated trailer in the California desert with a briefcase full of money — as well as a black mamba.

Budd was bitten by the mamba three times after he uncovered its hiding place by removing cash from the briefcase, and died from the poisonous venom after briefly stumbling around the trailer. Driver lectured Budd as he died, saying that Kiddo deserved a better death than one at his hands. Driver then called Bill and lied to him, saying that Kiddo had planted the black mamba that killed Budd, and that she had killed Kiddo in return.

As Driver was about to depart, however, Kiddo burst through the door and engaged her in battle, culminating in Kiddo blinding Driver by plucking out and treading on her remaining eye. Subsequently, Kiddo left Driver alone in the trailer with the black mamba. Although one might assume this results in Driver's death, it is worthwhile to note that in the credits of the film, each actor portraying a now-deceased DiVAS member has their name crossed out — but Elle's name has, instead, a question mark over it.