WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Gunpowder Milkshake, now available on Netflix.
With the trailers and description of Gunpowder Milkshake, there were bound to be a number of comparisons to John Wick; however, after watching the Netflix film, what actor Karen Gillan says is more than true. During an interview with IGN, Gillan said, "[Gunpowder Milkshake's] more bonkers. It's really stylized. So I would say that there's like a level of Tarantino feel to it. Maybe like Kill Bill more so than John Wick," and she's correct, as Gunpowder Milkshake has plenty of homages to the Quentin Tarantino classic, with the following being the more overt references and reimaginings.
This is one of the cases where it's not an homage, but it feels like Gunpowder Milkshake is reworking a moment from Kill Bill, whether intentional or not. The first victim of the Bride (Uma Thurman) on screen is Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), who has retired from The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad to become a mom. While the Bride is aware she is a mother, she kills Vernita while her daughter (Ambrosia Kelley) is in the house, and the child walks in to witness this. The Bride then tells the girl that if she wants to, she'll be waiting for her to kill her one day.
Meanwhile, in Gunpowder Milkshake, Sam (Gillan) shoots Emily's father (Samuel Anderson) before she learns he has a daughter, Emily (Chloe Coleman), and he took the money to get her back. Sam does what she can to save him before going out to get Emily. Tragically, the dad does not survive, and while it takes some time, Sam admits to Emily she killed her father. Unlike Vernita's child, audiences see how Emily deals with this information, forgiving Sam eventually and placing the blame on the men who sent her on this mission in the first place. While these beats are different, both films explore how the murder of a parent can impact a child, with Gunpowder Milkshake going a bit more in depth.
An early fight scenes in Gunpowder Milkshake is between Sam and the boneheads, three men sent after her by her boss, Nathan (Paul Giamatti). While they are supposed to bring Sam in, she is not budging, so they decide to use deadly force with blunt force objects. This proves to be no problem for Sam, despite having to use a suitcase and a bowling ball as her weapons.
Along with the lack of gunplay in this scene, the way the battle is shot feels reminiscent to the iconic sword fight between the Bride and The Crazy 88. At one point during the fight scene, the Bride takes on several sword fighters in a dark room, with only their black silhouettes visible against a blue lit backdrop. Similarly, when Sam fights the boneheads, their bodies are almost completely in shadow while they fight against a neon backdrop. Sam is not going up against as many people as the Bride in this fight, but the cinematography feels like its paying homage to Kill Bill.
After saving Emily, Sam takes her to the doctor (Michael Smiley), only to discover Emily's father died. Meanwhile, the boneheads are in the other room. The doctor strikes a deal with them to inject Sam with a serum that'll make her temporarily lose control of her arms, so they should be able to jump her; however, Sam still puts up a fight, with Emily's help, as she taps a knife to one of Sam's hands and a gun to the other.
To a certain extent, this is similar to what the Bride does, as she wakes up without any feeling in her legs, but she still manages to kill the man who was about to rape her and the nurse who was going to allow this. While the Bride does not have the help of a child, she and Sam prove that temporary paralysis will not get in their way, as they both make their way to their respective vehicles and flee the scene.
A number of weapons are on full display in Gunpowder Milkshake, but one of the most captivating is the chain Florence (Michelle Yeoh) uses during the battle for the library. She is able to incapacitate and kill several men, and the final use of the chain is its most impressive, as Florence wraps it around an assassin's neck from the top floor, jumping down and hanging him in the process.
While Gogo's (Chiaki Kuriyama) weapon of choice in Kill Bill is a meteor hammer, she also uses it in a similar way to Florence's chain. The spiked ball is devastating, but Gogo also uses the chain to great effect for offense and defense. She even wraps it around the Bride's neck and almost breaks it, similar to how Florence kills the assassin; however, the Bride breaks away and kills Gogo.
Kill Bill's soundscape and score is a hodgepodge of different genres, popular songs, unique sound effects and more. A lot of this lends itself to Tarantino's overall stylistic and nostalgic approach to filmmaking, as Kill Bill homages plenty of other movies and genres while also standing on its own.
As for Gunpowder Milkshake, it is also paying homage to the films that have come before, specifically Kill Bill, as several of the music compositions feel like they are reimaginings of the sound work from Kill Bill. This includes the whistling incorporated into the bowling scene -- a possible reference to Elle Drive's (Daryl Hannah) whistling in Kill Bill -- and the music used during the doctor's office fight, as it has the same Wild West feel that RZA composed for Kill Bill. Regardless of if this was intentional on the part of composer Haim Frank Ilfman or not, it does continue RZA's trend of remixing and referencing sounds and styles from other films to create something unique yet familiar.
While these moments are not pulled directly from Kill Bill, they're similar enough to feel like an intentional homage to the classic. Gunpowder Milkshake, now on Netflix, is packed full of these, as well as its own original, stylistic scenes and characters.
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