Top 10 Most Badass Female Characters in Movies
These Female Characters Don’t Need to be Rescued by Anyone.
Female Characters don’t get the respect they deserve in movies. Hollywood has an obsession with old school storytelling where Prince Charming has to come along and save the damsel in distress. Check out most action movies and the women in them are treated more like plot devices than actual characters. What kind of message does that send kids?
That’s why this week I decided to honor the badass female characters that send a very different message to kids. Namely, that girls will mess you up if you get too fresh with them. It was a hell of a list to narrow down because it turns out there are a lot of powerful women in film. However, I steered clear of animated movies, because that’s a list all in its own to tackle one day. No, this one is for the live-action women in movies that can throw down with the best of them. I’m not talking “strong” in the emotional fortitude, “I shall carry on while my husband is off at war,” kind of way. This is for the women who kick some serious ass. So, get ready because you’re about to get punched in the face by some hardcore feminism.
10. Hanna (Hanna)
Kicking off this list is a female character you might remember from Stars & Popcorns 10 Best Movie Assassins list. Hanna might seem relatively young for this list (though she’s not the youngest), but she spends almost 2 hours taking apart heavily trained government operatives despite not having her driver’s license. Trained in the wilderness since she was a small child by a former CIA agent. Hanna pretty much “Jason Bourne’s” it across Europe after her father sends her on a mission. Stone cold in her resolve, Hanna not only completes her mission but makes everyone who stands in her way regret it. It turns out, hell hath no fury like a teenage girl.
9. Lorraine Broughton (Atomic Blonde)
Just a heads up, you’re going to see Charlize Theron on this list more than once and there’s good reason for that. 2017’s Atomic Blonde took John Wick and, well, made him blonde. From the same director as our favorite assassin, Lorraine Broughton has all the qualities we loved about him with a bit more charm and sophistication to her. A British Intelligence officer working with the CIA, Lorraine doesn’t resort to the “graceful” fighting style we normally see from female characters. Instead, she savagely beats her opponent by any means necessary and that means she has to take some hard hits to do it sometimes. But hey, women are hella tough and Lorraine is one of the toughest we’ve seen in years.
8. The Bride (Kill Bill Vol 1 and Vol 2)
Look, I’m not a fan of Quentin Tarantino’s, mostly because I’m not a college freshman who just discovered R-rated movies. However, I have to give the guy a bit of credit when it comes to The Bride. One of the first movies that really showed not just how brutal women can be, but also that they can look good even after a hardcore brawl, Kill Bill had several strong female characters in it. In the end, though, The Bride (aka Beatrice Kiddo) proved to be the strongest there is. Filled with 70’s-esque kung-fu fight sequences, samurai swords, and buckets of blood, Kill Bill puts its hero through the ringer. This character showed that not only can women create life, but they can take it away even easier.
7. Letty Ortiz (The Fast & Furious Franchise)
If you’re going to run with the likes of Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, then you’ve got to be tough and if you’re looking for a tough woman, then you’re probably looking for Michelle Rodriguez. Letty might have played the damsel in distress once or twice in the series, but she also threw down when Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano (both are/were professional fighters in real life). She’s a gearhead with a solid right hook and has more than enough testosterone to fit in with the boys club that makes up the rest of the movie. This female character proves that anything boys can do, girls can do better.
6. X-23 (Logan)
It only makes sense that a female character from one of the best movies of 2017 would make it onto this list. I know what you’re thinking, “How could a little girl be considered badass?” Well, she might be a little munchkin wearing a rainbow shirt with a horsey on it, but when her claws come out there isn’t enough oxy clean in the world to get the blood out of that shirt. Just take the scene where she first pulls them out, the man who laughed in “The Wolverines” face gets a look of terror and backs up slowly from her. That moment alone speaks volumes about just how badass this little girl is. Here’s hoping Marvel gives us a lot more of her in the future. After all, she is the clone of the man who is the best at what he does, so I assume that goes for her as well.