10 Most Paused Moments In Quentin Tarantino Movies
8. O-Ren Ishii Loses Her Head (In 5 Minutes) - Kill Bill: Volume 1
For more than a few reasons, the moment O-Ren Ishii ultimately falls victim to The Bride's brilliance with a blade was enough to earn an immediate whacking of the pause button for all watching on.
Hot on the heels of seeing off the Crazy 88 with her sword crafted by Hattori Hanzō, Uma Thurman's leading light is informed by Lucy Liu's yakuza leader that if she hasn't saved her energy, she likely wouldn't last five minutes against her in a duel.
And what do you know, less than five minutes later - four minutes, 59 seconds to be precise - Ishii is well and truly bested by The Bride, proving her statement to be a rather unsettling piece of unexpected foreshadowing towards her own eventual fate.
If trying to clock this wholly satisfying detail on a stopwatch wasn't enough of a reason to freeze the frame, a lingering shot on Ishii's severed skull the second it becomes clear The Bride has defeated her one-time Deadly Viper colleague will likely do the trick.
Combining a simply astounding technical detail with one of the most gruesome visuals the brutal Kill Bill volumes have to offer, this really is the pause that keeps on giving.