Over the years, we have seen some fantastic action heroines hit the big screen who have not been afraid to fight for what they believe in and the people that they love.
Morgan
We are going to see another kickass female character this week with the release of Morgan. And we take a look at some of the women on the big screen who are absolute badasses.
- Ellen Ripley - Alien/Aliens
If this wasn't first on the list, there surely would have been outcry because let's face it... this film, with Sigourney Weaver playing the lead character Ripley, fore fronted the amazing films we see with women as lead action stars. These films are about a species of alien that lay it's young in a human's stomach and then destroy the host by bursting out of their chest - I know, pretty gross right?
Oh, and the aliens blood is acidic and they have this weird little tiny mouth that pops out. Ripley basically faces one of the scariest things the universe has ever seen and she does it with some goddamn panache. In a word, Ripley is totally hardcore.
Ripley is one of the most iconic female film characters of all time and the role which Weaver will forever by synonymous.
- Sarah Connor - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Another fierce female in this list is Sarah Connor from the Terminator franchise. In the first film, a humanoid machine is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor and stop her giving birth to a future resistance leader, John Connor.
Judgement Day begins in a mental asylum where Sarah has been kept because no one believed that a 'terminator' came back from the future to kill her. She now has to find her son and protect him at all costs - but how do you kill a seemingly indestructible robot? Well, Sarah finds a way and is most definitely on the scale for kickass women.
Sarah Connor goes on one of the biggest transformations from The Terminator to Terminator 2: Judgement Day. She realises that she has a huge role to play in the future and is ready to risk it all to protect her young son.
When it comes to iconic female film characters, Sarah Connor is up there as one of the best and Linda Hamilton delivered a knockout performance. Other actresses have played Sarah Connor over the years, but Hamilton was the first and remains the best.
- Black Widow - MCU
When it comes to kickass female characters on the big screen right now, there are none better than Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Scarlett Johansson took on this role for the first time in Iron Man 2 before going on to star in Avengers Assemble, Captain America: The Winter Solider, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
In the MCU, she plays an ex-KGB agent who switched allegiances to America to work as a spy. With a seemingly endless list of skills and traits that make her the ultimate killer, she kind of epitomises the modern era action woman.
As we couldn't pick a specific film for her, here's a specific scene where she kills it (literally and figuratively).
- River Tam - Serenity
Lovers of the cult TV show Firefly will appreciate Serenity and River Tam being added to this list and then probably get mad because they'll remember that Firefly was cancelled.
River Tam attends a boarding school which turns out to be a testing centre where the government experiment on humans. Her brother, Simon, finds out and rescues her which then leads to them both winding up on Serenity, a ship captained by Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion).
Basically, Summer ends up being some crazy intelligent and skilled mind reader who proves how awesome she is in the below scene. Definitely a must watch for any action fan.
- Hit-Girl - Kick Ass
For anyone who has seen this film, I think everyone had a completely shocked reaction when they heard the language coming out of Chloë Grace Moretz's mouth. But, that doesn't take away from the fact that this 11-year-old was completely amazing.
This was the movie that sent Moretz's star rocketing and she remains one of the best female action heroes of recent years.
This scene is just one of the awe-inspiring fights she's involved in. One of the youngest on our list of badass women but she definitely deserves to be there.
- Imperator Furiosa - Mad Max: Fury Road
In a wasteland, futuristic world run by a warlord known as Immortan Joe, Charlize Theron plays Imperator Furiosa; a right hand to Immortan Joe and his rabble of war boys.
Why is Furiosa so awesome? Well, one is that she saves innocent women from being raped and carrying the child of the horrific Immortan Joe. Two, she drives the epic 'big rig', can shoot pretty much anything from any distance and does all of this with one arm.
Just check her out fighting Max in a clip from the film and absolutely nailing the kickass woman vibe. Tom Hardy may have been the film's headlining star, but it was Charlize Theron who really did steal the show.
- Morgan - Morgan
So why did we go through a list of most badass women in film? Well, firstly because these women needed some recognition. And secondly, because we're celebrating the release of Morgan, the new sci-fi film from Luke Scott.
Morgan is a bio-engineered being crafted from synthetic DNA to become the ultimate human. It is smart, highly evolved and incredibly strong... it would definitely be able to rival a few of the other women on this list.
Anya Taylor-Joy takes on the title role in the new film and it comes just months after she enjoyed huge success with The Witch. Morgan is on course to be another hit for the young actress as her star continues to climb.
Morgan is released 2nd September.
Tagged in Terminator