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)
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
I would idolize Avasarala if it wasn’t for S1E1.
WHEREVER I GOD DAMN LIKE! 🙂
Yes, she was awesome!
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.
Not a single person mentioned Lucy Lawless? Where my 90s kids at?
Renee O’Conner also
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.
Hudson: Seventeen DAYS!? Hey man, I don’t wanna rain on your parade, but we’re not gonna last seventeen HOURS!!! Those things are gonna come in here just like they did before! And they’re gonna come in here AND THEY’RE GONNA GET US!!!
Ripley: Hudson! This little girl survived longer than that with no weapons and no training!
Newt: [salutes]
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🙃
Camina Drummer, Bobbie Draper, Chrisjen Avasarala. Top tier character writing.
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.
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.
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.
Beatrice Kiddo from Kill Bill
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!
- Tank Girl
- Wynonna Earp
- Tokyo Gore Police
- Buffy and Xena are classic
- Ghost in the Shell if counting anime
If you’ve never seen kung fu hustle don’t sleep on it any longer.
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