There's way more than these two
How many on-screen badass women can you name?
(I'll update the list periodically.)
Badass On-Screen Women
- Landlady (Kung Fu Hustle)
- Ellen Ripley (Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien: Resurrection)
- Sarah Connor (The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: Dark Fate)
- Zoë Washburne (Firefly, Serenity)
- Kaylee Frye (Firefly, Serenity)
- Inara (Firefly, Serenity)
- Private Vasquez (Aliens)
- Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess)
- Chrisjen Avasarala (The Expanse)
- Naomi Nagata (The Expanse)
- Roberta 'Bobbie' W. Draper (The Expanse)
- Camina Drummer (The Expanse)
- Yu Shu Lien (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
- Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
- The Bride (Kill Bill, Kill Bill: Vol. 2)
- Trinity (The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions)
- PrinceessLeia (Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi)
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Everybody remembers Ripley, but Aliens was a solid gender equality movie... filmed way back in 1986. Remember Vasquez and Ferro? Totally believable, flawed and likeable badasses. I find today's characters to be way too perfect to be believable. Wonder Woman is a good example. I find her annoying.
"Hey Vasquez... Have you ever been mistaken for a man?"
"No. Have you?"
Top ten movie zinger for me. Delivered perfectly. Loved her character so much.
Interesting tidbit: Actress that played Vasquez also did Sarah Conner's mom..
Close but not quite. John Connor's foster mom.
I appreciate the correction. Looks like I need more electrolytes this morning!
I thought you meant she did her mom, not portrayed her.
This blew my mind a bit so here's a pic for others....
Vasquez actress in Titanic:
this is blowing my mind
I just read an interview of James Cameron where he says they actually cut off her hair which was down to her waist at the time. He told her:
"Your hair will grow back. Vasquez will live forever."
And she really does. What a character.
That's a fascinating little nugget!
Vasquez was the cause of some very confusing and interesting feelings to little kid me....
No I don't remember this and looking it up, I can't find any answers either. Just name the movie instead of being cute about it.
Maybe read that comment a little closer there.
Where is the love for Chrisjen Avasarala? The UN General Secretary
Queen of the Earthfrom The Expanse lore? The Space Iron Lady!I admire her more than other traditional depiction of bad ass action stars who are either a man or a woman. I realised I admire mental acuity more than raw strength. Avasarala is Machiavellian but a pragmatist, and ready to get her hands dirty if needs be in spite of her privileged upbringing. Her main drawbacks though is that she is too willing to get her hands dirty, especially at the first episode when she personally oversaw the torture of a Belter in a blacksite. She was also willing to use her family image to gain political sympathy. But one could argue it's for the greater good, not that I am excusing both of her egregious and questionable actions. As I said, she is a pragmatist after all and looks at the bigger picture and have long term scope. She was right about slowly colonising the New Worlds. Avasarala is an anti-hero but she's right in more ways than none.
"i know you love sticking your dick in everything, but try not to fuck this one"
top 20 one liners for me. she was one of my favorites in that series.
"do not put your dick in it, it's fucked enough already"
"Where are you going with this?" - "wherever I god damn like"
It's not only the quotes, the delivery is just perfect
Avasarala and (TV) Drummer were absolute badasses.
“Let’s go hydrate… with some beers” is said too much in my household.
Avasarala is absolutely the top, Bobby is IMO a close second though. (Going by the books)
In the show at least I prefer Camina, Cara Gee really made her shine
WHEREVER I GOD DAMN LIKE! 🙂
I would idolize Avasarala if it wasn't for S1E1.
I can't stand the actor's gross smokers voice, but she was an awesome character and her voice actually kind of fit with it. It's harsh and untempered, just like the character.
In the hands of a lesser actress, that smoker voice would not have been irritating. But Shoreh Agdashloo is such a great one that I did not mind her voice. I almost forget her smoker voice when I watch her.
Yes, she was awesome!
Not a single person mentioned Lucy Lawless? Where my 90s kids at?
Take your pick.
Joss Whedon: Believe me, I did.
Oh nooooooooooo
Can I unresearch this - dang you J Wheed
I'm going to pretend I didn't read this
Who is that on the right?
Inara
Aah same actress as Deadpool’s significant other. Morena Baccarin I think? Absolute smokeshow.
She was also in the last few seasons of Stargate SG1.
Summer Glau: Am I a joke to you?
Honestly, just 90 minutes of Summer Glau beating up annoying MAGA fascists. Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez could make it work!
There's an xkcd for that:
https://xkcd.com/311/
I feel like you got us all stuck in a loop here.
Superpower: Able to get any show or movie series cancelled
There is a relevant xkcd for everything
'Landlady' is the absolute correct choice.
From Wikipedia:
Cheung Cheun-Nam, known professionally as Yuen Qiu (Chinese: 元秋; born 19 April 1950), is a Hong Kong actress and martial artist. She is an expert of both Chinese martial arts and Beijing-opera skills, and was apprenticed at the Peking Opera School under the same master, Yu Jim-yuen, as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.
After being away from the Hong Kong film industry for nearly 20 years, she landed a role in Kung Fu Hustle only by chance. She was accompanying a junior woman fellow of the China Drama Academy at the audition but the director's eye was on her. It was reported that Stephen Chow convinced her to take on the role only after unremitting and persistent persuasion.[citation needed]
Yuen later appeared in the movie Kung Fu Mahjong, with Yuen Wah, and has been active in cinema since then. (20 more films)
Ellen Ripley, no contest.
No superpowers, no special training, no special technology. Simply the wisdom to see a job that needs done and the bravery and determination to do it.
Her first interactions with newt were so soft too. Really amazing character played by the perfect actress for the role.
Aliens is my favourite movie of all time.
Newt was badass too.
I can hear his voice so clearly reading that. :D
Every female character in The Expanse. There simply were no non-badasses in that show🙃
Naomi rescued herself by jumping unprotected across an entire expanse of vacuum and then rigged a signal to communicate with her friends, not even from scraps, but from literally nothing.
Fucking genius badass. Hence my username.
Camina Drummer, Bobbie Draper, Chrisjen Avasarala. Top tier character writing.
Rewatching this again right now for basically this exact reason
Michelle Yeoh
Yep! I came here to mention The Heroic Trio and Wing Chun.
Might want to add River Tam from Serenity as well.
Buffy
Joss Whedon does love writing strong women (no comment about anything off screen )
Agreed on both counts.
Let's not forget Echo, November and Whiskey from Dollhouse.
Beatrice Kiddo from Kill Bill
Don't mind me, I'm just here to mention princess Mononoke and lady Eboshi from the same movie, I would list a few but there's too many comments to parse so I just looked for those thinking they might not have been mentioned.
Also basically every single main character in Spirited Away. The luck dragon might be male, and several supporting characters are, but the main protagonist, antagonist, and teacher character are all girls/women
And there is nothing self-serving or self-glorifying about their actions. They simply see that a job has to be done and they do it.
Who is this and what's it from?
I think it's Mandy, played by Diane Morgan.
AKA Philomena Cunk
not in this series but yeah, same actress.
She did knock off her arch enemy using voodoo, marry a russian hitman and be the first woman on Mars, pretty badass that!
Camina Drummer from the Expanse, just one of many awesome female characters of that show
If you've never seen kung fu hustle don't sleep on it any longer.
Lt Kusanagi from Ghost In The Shell for me
Trinity from the Matrix
Major Motoko Kusanagi.
I can't decide if she counts though, as she is a cyborg who looks like a woman rather than actually being a woman. To be perfectly honest, I can't think of anywhere in the universe that it is stated that her brain is even from a female donor.
Haven't read the manga, but at least in stand alone complex when talking about the accident and her recovery in third person, I feel like she was referred to as a girl, though I'm honestly not sure if that's important at all, the way she talks about herself in the adaptations I've seen, she seems to put her personality above everything else relating her past or identity, she is her actions, not her backstory (or that's how I perceive it in the versions I've seen, except maybe the first season of the latest one).
I just watched the 1995 movie last night, and there is definitely reference to her having at least some amount of human brain in her head, though her body is entirely robotic
She definitely has a human brain; the central theme is that she doesn't know her own identity
In Second Gig (the second season of the anime) they do go over her past more and it reveals that she was a little girl that survived a plane crash (?) and was one of the first children to have a fully cybernetic body. That season explores a lot about her relationship with her past and present identities, motivations, and principles. It is one of my favorite pieces of media.
princess Leia, padme amidala (star wars)
Elisabeth Swann (potc)
eowyn of Rohan (lotr)
katara, toph (atla) + azula, mai, tai Lee of we're counting villains
Add on Korra, Asami, and Kuvira from LoK!
Yes I see all these, but how many had a private, white slimline telephone?
Hello, Mrs. Bucket!
It's pronounced bouqueeet!
Ah, bucket.
Nobody going to mention Battlestar Galactica (2004)? Starbuck, Laura Roslin, Athena, Kat.. so many good examples of not just strong, but flawed and human women. Well, mostly human.
The Bride (Kill Bill), aka Beatrix Kiddo
Michelle Rodriguez in basically anything.
It's so funny to see her being a goofball in interviews.
Weekly reminder that your favorite gangster actors are artists that probably acted in school plays. Some of those actors forget that too and think they're actually bad ass in real life cough pesci cough
Except Danny Trejo.
My biggest issue with most strong women characters in action movies is they seem to be swappable with a male and nothing changes.
They're strong characters who are portrayed as a woman.
Take Ellen Ripley for example: strong woman. Can't be played by a man as the character no longer makes sense. Has to be a woman. Someone else would get it wrong.
Also I'm getting tired of the "I had X amount of brothers" or "dad taught me Y" as justification. Why can't a woman be strong on her own? Why does it have to be a man making her strong?
Ripley was originally not even written as a woman.
There is not a single scene in the original Alien where her being a woman is in any way relevant.
Eh, I don't see why being a woman has to be an important part of a character, it's cool to see when it is, but people can have many important qualities in their life besides their gender.
As a kid I didn't really think much of the gender when thinking about characters, heck, one of my biggest heroes was Chihiro from spirited away and I'm sure as heck she didn't have a penis like I do.
You don't see why being a woman should be part of a "strong woman character"?
No, they're saying that as a person they don't really care about it when relating to characters. We experience things as human beings, not by sexual orientation or sexual identification.
Unless the specific human experience is related to sex/gender in some way, we feel what others feel and relate to them based on the character work and related narrative elements. Not just "is man/woman, please relate."
They're doubting why that part is important in the first place.
This meme forgot that Katniss Everdeen was the first female lead in an action movie.
Literally every example OP gave predates the hunger games.
Not according to Jennifer Lawrence, “I remember when I was doing ‘Hunger Games,’ nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie because it wouldn’t work — we were told girls and boys can both identify with a male lead, but boys cannot identify with a female lead.”
She said that but she was wrong lol Off the top of my head both the Terminator and Alien series had lead female action hero's that predate the Hunger Games
Also I don't mean to be pedantic, I can't tell if this is a stealth /s discussion or not
I believe Artyom was being sarcastic, and making fun of Jennifer Lawrence for making such a blatantly incorrect statement
Thank you for defending my honor random internet stranger, I salute you.
Tomb Raider movie
The Long Kiss Goodnight is a pretty straightforward action movie from 1996 starring Geena Davis in the lead. Samuel L. Jackson co-stars.
Working backward from there:
La Femme Nikita (1990) and the American remake Point of No Return (1994)
Foxy Brown (1974) and Coffy (1973) are offerings from the blaxploitation angle.
Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor
Lisbeth from girl with the dragon tattoo.
Those wrinkled stockings!
When she passed, the heart and soul that was shown as all the characters gave her a send off - no need for acting that episode.
Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road
Ruth Wilson in Luther...
Samantha Carter Stargate series
Ruth Wilson played that character SO well. Chilling.
Selene from Underworld.
While my Trekkie side offers Michael Burnham (Discovery), Kira and Dax (DS9), Seven of Nine (Voyager), Una and La'an and Nurse Chapel (Strange New Worlds). I'm surely forgetting a bunch.
How about Arya Stark and Brienne of Tarth (Game of Thrones)?
Dorothy aka Dot from season 5 of fargo was fantastic imo!
Ellen (and I guess some would argue Jo) from supernatural is imo. WIthout going into spoilers but the reason I pick her out of a series full of "badass women" is she is the typical tough lady superficial stuff but also extremely compassionate, a supportive and devoted mother.
Does Leslie Knope parks and rec count? She's a badass to me.
Margie Gunderson from the Fargo movie also counts even if ACAB includes her too, lol.
Willow Rosenberg
Fran Fine, The Nanny
Samantha Carter, Stargate SG-1
Delenn, Babylon 5
Natalie Teeger, Monk
Eve, Killing Eve
Beth Harmon, Queen's Gambit
CJ, The West Wing
Donna, The West Wing
Donna Noble, Doctor Who
And if children count:
Matilda, Matilda
Merida, Brave
I'm so happy to see Fran Fine mentioned here! And Fran Drescher is a total fucking badass, herself.
Thank you I was looking for Donna Noble!
Also Matilda was the person I last expected to see here but 100%
Donna Noble is the best Dr. Who companion and I will not be entertaining any arguments that say otherwise.
Okoye (Danai Guria) from the Black Panther movies. Went with my husband to see this movie and when we were walking back to the car he said "Damn, Okoye was hot, she reminds me of you." ❤️ He also has a thing for Grace Mallory from the show The Boys. I think I created a monster.
I would say that all the women in Kill Bill are bad ass. Some just align differently than others.
I mean... Sofie's just kind of a glorified personal assistant who folds immediately.
Yeah. I was thinking of all the vipers and go-go.
Sofie shouldn't count in my statement.
Kung Foo Hustle is just amazing. I need to get that later and watch it again.
A potentially lesser known movie is 'Kimi'. Not your typical example, but watching her get past her trauma enough to kick ass in the end was great.
It’s hard to find versions of the original with the cheesy English dubbing. There are a few LBGTQ jokes in the old version which many streaming services just won’t run.
The old dubbed version is waaay better though and I had to track a copy of it down on DVD on eBay to get it.
Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil
Han So-hee, My Name
There is a very interesting documentary called "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" and how they created her in 1940 as a feminist super hero.
Oooh, neat! I'm looking forward to watching that. Thanks for the mention and link!
OG Princess Leia
Expected to see this one way sooner!
To be fair, Sarah Connor was more of a badass once she could do chin ups.
I didn't choose the skux life, the skux life chose me
Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) in The Long Kiss Goodnight!
Darlene from mr robot .
Always had a theory the whole show was actually her story...
Its not
The original Lisbeth Salander from the european movies!
Mrs. Doyle
When Mrs. Doyle offers you a cup of tea it is not a request!
Lucy Ball
Hell yeah! Seconded; big time.
Agent May.
(Don't call her The Cavalry, she hates that.)
Where's my trekkies at? We got Janeway, Jadzia Dax, Belana Torres, Kira Nerys, Seven of Nine, Tasha Yar, Guinan, Ensign Ro... and a lot more I'm not remembering right now.
I was not expecting three characters from firefly, that show is still popular it blows my mind!
Vi, Jinx, catalyn from arcane.
I mean idk about Jinx, she's more or less just a traumatized wreck with huge guns than anything, but Vi absolutely. Caitlin will get there but her upper crust naivete that's never been challenged until she goes to Zahn kinda stifles that. Hoping she gets a bigger dose of reality and it changes her character more significantly (just not enough screentime in the last part, really) in season 2.
Gotta disagree jinx is an absolute badass no matter her mental state.
Lt. Riza Hawkeye (Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Major Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell - the 80's movie and the anime series. Live action one needs to die in a fire)
Jo Lupo (Eureka)
Domino (Deadpool 2)
Go-go Tamago (Big Hero 6)
Mako Mori (Pacific Rim)
Golden Sparrow (Forbidden Kingdom)
Gamora and Nebula (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Evie (V for Vendetta)
Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)
Valkyrie (Thor: Ragnarok)
Molotov Girl/Millie (Free Guy)
Vaggie (Hazbin Hotel)
Cherri Bomb (Hazbin Hotel)
Carmilla Carmine (Hazbin Hotel)
Sypha Belnades (Castlevania)
Lisa Tepes (Castlevania)
Princess Mononoke
Sophie (Howl's Moving Castle)
Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Storm, Jean Grey (X-men)
I could keep going all day. These are just the ones that come to mind without having to dig around my watched media for ideas.
Root and Shaw of Person of Interest. And Joss Carter from Person of Interest
::: spoiler spoiler I guess you could also say The Machine. It/She kind of took on a personality. :::
Jaime Sommers
Molly Cobb (For All Mankind), Eleven (Stranger Things)
In a similar vein, Evelyn Wang from Everything Everywhere All At Once... She may not start out badass, but oh boy does that change
Crystal, played by Betty Gilpin in the movie The Hunt (2020)
Mrs Thatcher.
(JK)
Resident evil movies had quite a few.
Mulan (1998)
Valeria (Conan The Barbarian), Zula (Conan The Destroyer)
My Latino parents saw me watching Kung Fu hustle and wanted to know if I was watching El Chavo del Ocho, Asian version cause of the neighborhood scenes
Allright, this is becoming my list of movies to go see (if I haven't already)
Support your Badass Women of Cinema!
Rita Vrataski aka Full Metal Bitch from Edge of Tomorrow.
Alice (Resident Evil I, II, III, IV, V), Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace (Battlestar Galactica 2004-2009)
Am I doing this right?
Misu from the blue eye samurai .
I wanted to mention ger but didnt know of animated characters counted. That is an excellent show
Jo Kang Ja from Angry Mom and her legendary flying kick.
That girl is legendary. Je suis allé revoir l'extrait après avoir lu ce commentaire. edit: episode 2, 11:30-13:45. That's how Bang Wool ascended to the Beolgoopo's Sashimi of legend.
Also, Jang Man-wol from Hotel Del Luna.
Il y en a beaucoup dans les dramas coréens. Là je pense à :
Il y a bcp de femme forte en général. Mais souvent on ne peut pas les qualités de badass parce qu'il y a un côté force physique / sexy/charismatique au personnage qu'on retrouve moins dans les personnages écrits pour un public féminin.
Do Rahe dans Be Arrogant rentre dedans, la sexualisation en moins.
Pareil pour Kang Yunhe dans Modern Farmer pourtant joué par la superbe Lee Honey.
Côté Jdrama, il y a Sangenya Machi dans Your Hause Is My Business Nami dans Caution, Hazardous Wife ou Yamaguchi Kumiko dans Gokusen.
Bon, Gokusen, c'est un cas à part, mais pour les autres, se sont des rôles de femmes fortes et belles mais la beauté n'est pas sexualisée.
Oui c'est ça des femmes fortes, parfois importantes voire même imposantes mais pas forcément des badass.
Il y a aussi Cindy dans Producer que j'ai bien. C'est le rôle qui m'a fait aimé IU.
Sofia Boutella, in any role she's had - Atomic Blonde, The Mummy Tom Cruise Upstages, Kingsman, etc.
quietly ignores Rebel Moon and her abysmal performance, and not just the writing either.
How could I forget about Lesley?
Any number of the female hunters from Supernatural.
I remember in the 90th Lady Dragon, Cynthia Rothrock, black belt in seven martial arts https://tube.kuylar.dev/watch?v=5FaU1XyyA6k
From cartoons: Pinkie Pie, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle
IRL: Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Ada Lovelace, Svetlana Tihanovskaya.
Kanamori from "keep your hands off eizouken"
Maomao from "Aphotecary diaries"
Diana Rigg from The Avengers. Also from the best Bond movie of all time. Also from Game of Thrones, I suppose, although I've never watched that.
Definitely Balsa from Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.
Samantha Carter, SG1
I don't see Gunpowder Milkshake or Killing Eve here..
Nairobi, Rio from money heist .
Martha from dark .
Margo from The Magicians
Well, they might just not have seen Kung Fu Hustle
What's with Lee Yeong-ae in her role as Lee Geum-ja in Park Chan-Wooks Lady Vengeance?
Maggie Beare:
"I say, Arthur..."
Then WM2 happened and it doesn't even look like the same character
Dr Domingas (Bacurau, 2019).
Gal Gadot 🤮 Zionist pos
The cigarette makes me hate her. I totally despise smoking.
As long as you acknowledge her being a supreme badass, it´s perfectly fine that you hate smoking. Smoking stinks!
I wonder why there are so many people who defend smoking?
Everytime (in the last several years) I say how disgusting it is, I get down-voted all to hell.
That is probably because they don´t want to reflect on their addiction and don´t like to be reminded that they do something disgusting.
No doubt