This is a tough OP; first I’ll state the purpose of this thread, which is to list all the action/adventure, and from what I can think of right now horror and drama movies we can that have contained what we know as ‘ass-kicking women’- by this, I’ll make clear that I’m not including the femme fatales; but this too requires explanation.
I just read the Wiki page on femme fatales, which points out
And they name some of these films
Femme Fatale - (2003)
Basic Instinct
Body Heat
Double Indemnity
The Last Seduction
The Blue Angel (1930)
It’s a fascinating cultural/mythological concept and I will learn more deeply of it later; however, for this thread, let’s exclude femme fatales, only naming films containing these ‘ass-kicking’ women which have become so common in the last few decades of film.
One of my favorite ass-kicking women of all time is Ellen Ripley, from the Alien series. Sigourney Weaver was the perfect choice for the role. She’s tough without being totally butch. Yay Ripley!
There’s a difficulty here b/c there are many films that obviously contain powerful and able female characters who hold their own in battle and participate in the adventure as much as the male characters, ie the Star Wars films or kids movies that contain mothers and daughters and young girls who fight well. However, let’s keep the list to just the more notable characters who stand out in some way.
Also, a critical look at the proliferation of these characters in movies belongs in another thread.
Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero
Maggie Cheung again in Hero
Lucy Liu in Kill Bill 1 (more for her mouth than for what she did)
Thandie Newton in Mission Impossible 2
Carey Lowell deserves mention, I believe, for her role in License to Kill. When her character, CIA operative Pam Bouvier first meets James Bond in a seedy Florida waterfront dive, she askes him if he’s armed. He leans forward slightly to let his jacket open a little, letting her see his shoulder holster and Walther PPK. She rolls her eyes and pushes back in her chair slightly, letting him see the shotgun across her lap.
Priceless.
Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore got to kick soe Bond-butt in Goldfinger, too. Both women succumbed quickly enough to his charms, though.
Both Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin in Total Recall
Rene Russo in Lethal Weapon 3
Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill
Tons from Bond movies:
Pussy Galore from Goldfinger
Aki from You Only Live Twice
Bambi and Thumper from Diamonds Are Forever
The schoolgirl twins from The Man With the Golden Gun
That female circus squad from Ocyopussy
Grace Jones in A View to a Kill
The Chinese spies, Carey Lowell in License to Kill
Xenia Onatop (Famke Janseen) in Goldeneye
Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies
Halle Berry in Die Another Day
Excuse me, I need some alone time.
Going through my list of movies as I currently am, I came across something I should point out: in a horror movie or drama, if the killer is a woman (ie the first Friday the 13th or Fatal Attraction or Scream 2 for that matter ) she is a femme fatale, but if there is a good woman fighting against the killer (ie Neve Campbell in the Scream films or Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20) they can count. The previous two certainly do in my book.
Based (kinda sorta) on Lady Snowblood (heroine of film of same name), who’s definitely an ass-kickin’ woman in film.
Pam Grier has kicked all sorts of ass over the years in her women-in-prison and blaxploitation flicks.
This page contains a list of more B-movies with ferocious (mostly half-naked) women (I haven’t seen any of these flicks, but they all look great, don’t they?):
I vote for Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies as well as Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2. Both of them seemed like real women who were believably tough.
In my opinion. Angelina Jolie was more like a cartoon character in Lara Croft.
) she is a femme fatale, but if there is a good woman fighting against the killer (ie Neve Campbell in the Scream films or Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20) they can count. The previous two certainly do in my book.
