Did Elle Driver die in Kill Bill 2? And if she did, how?

Question

In Kill Bill, we see the following sequence of events:

• Beatrice crosses swords with Elle Driver
• Beatrice plucks Elle's remaining eye out
• Elle drops Bea's sword, stumbles back (I think into bathroom), and flails around screaming curses and threats
• Beatrice steps on the eye
• Beatrice walks out, and we see a snake slithering nearby
• Elle yells "Oh Sh1t" and goes quiet, as Beatrice closes the door.

This seems to imply to me that Elle was bitten to death by her own snake, but I'm not sure if that's certain.

Was there some confirmation (from creative crew, screenplay, other material) over whether Elle died and exactly how?

Answer 1

Interesting question, considering how this event changed from the initial script.

It is very clear that Elle did indeed die in the original script - but the film does not show her death, although it is implied by the sighting of the black mamba.

Her death appears in this segment from the original screenplay:

Elle drops the Bride's sword.

As her blood continues to escape, both women look across each other.

The effect is that Elle Driver is a balloon and her life is escaping before both their very eyes. And now looking across at each other, the two women see the other for the first time, not as adversaries, or opponents, or as rivals, or as bitches...but as sisters.

Elle no longer has enough life in her to stand up...She falls to her knees in front of The Bride....

...then as she dies, she leans the side of her head against The Bride's standing body. Her blood runs down The Bride's leg. As she passes on, Elle gently wraps her arms around the Bride's leg.

The Bride's hands go down to Elle's long blonde hair, and begins gently stroking it, easing her pain as she expires.

Only in death do they find the sisterhood that could have been theirs.

As you can see, this is markedly different from the final film. In this version of the script, Elle has already killed the black mamba, so she dies from her wounds after fighting Beatrix. In the film, she is left blinded by the bride, with the sound of the mamba growing ever closer.

It appears Tarantino always intended for Elle to die, but left her death offscreen in his final version.

You can read the full script at the Internet Movie Screenplay Database.

Answer 2

At the very end of Kill Bill vol. 2 during the end credits when it's showing The Bride driving in black and white, it goes through the names of the actors and crosses out their name if she killed them in the film. When it gets to Daryl Hannah (Elle) it does not cross her name off, and shows a question mark instead.

Answer 3

I'd like to mention that in a recent interview with Variety regarding the possibility of a Kill Bill VOL. 3, Tarantino directly addresses that Elle Driver is definitely alive and would serve something of a major role in the film's plot. However, in the likelihood that Kill Bill VOL. 3 is never produced, I'm sure it's safe to assume that Elle met her demise at the fangs of her own snake.

I've been talking to Uma about it just a little bit. Some of the stuff that I've written and never made it into the movie that maybe I could use and thinking, 'OK, now, thirteen years later, what would be going on with Sofie Fatale, what would be going on with Elle Driver?’