Whether they are looking for lost treasures, facing serial killers, battling aliens or fighting injustice, realistic portrayals of women in action-thrillers are few and far between.
Still, Jodie Foster has played her fair share of them. In her latest film, Flightplan, she plays a recent widow whose daughter mysteriously vanishes from a plane en route to New York. After her vain search of the plane to find her little girl, she is told she never had a daughter. Is she really crazy? Or is she going to get to the bottom of the mystery even if it kills her? Think we know the answer to that one.
Here are other commanding characters who have helped paved the way for the strong female roles we’ve come to know in film.
Erin Brockovich from Erin Brockovich (2000)
Played by: Julia Roberts
Why Her? Because even with her affinity for tight-fitting clothes, she’s a lot smarter than she looks. Because she proves single moms can have it all. Because she has the guts and fortitude to bring down a huge corporation polluting a small town’s water supply. But mostly because she refuses to take no for an answer.
Best Moment: Sitting in a conference room with the snooty lawyers representing said corporation, who tell Erin that a $20 million settlement is more than enough, she responds, “Oh see, now that pisses me off. First of all, we have more than 400 plaintiffs and… let’s be honest, we all know there are more out there. They may not be the most sophisticated people but they do know how to divide and $20 million isn’t s**t when you split it between them. Second of all, these people don’t dream about being rich. They dream about being able to watch their kids swim in a pool without worrying that they’ll have to have a hysterectomy at the age of 20…So before you come back here with another lame ass offer, I want you to think real hard about what your spine is worth, Mr. Walker. Or what you might expect someone to pay you for your uterus, Ms. Sanchez. Then you take out your calculator and you multiply that number by a hundred. Anything less than that is a waste of our time.”
Lara Croft from Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Played by: Angelina Jolie
Why Her? Because she’s not just a videogame babe anymore. Because not since Indiana Jones have we seen an adventurer globetrot after rare and dangerous artifacts so beautifully. Because although she may have the beauty and the brains, she can still dish out a serious ass-whupping.
Best Moment: After single-handedly defeating marauders who break into her mansion–while she’s suspended by bungee ropes, no less–Croft tells the UPS guy the next day when he sees the wrecked house, “I woke up this morning and I just hated everything.”
Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With the Wind (1939)
Played by: Vivien Leigh
Why Her? Because as a supposed “delicate” Southern belle, she proves she’s smarter than most men around her. Because she marries men for her own advancement. Because she can deal with just about anything thrown at her, including the Civil War, but can’t stand the fact the man she thinks she loves belongs to another. Because even as she realizes too late her only true love is walking out of her life, apparently forever, you know secretly she’s going to get him back.
Best Moment: After escaping the burning of Atlanta in a wagon, tending to a sickly pregnant woman and returning starving to her beloved plantation, Tara, only to see it in near ruin, Scarlett declares with full authority, “As God as my witness, I will never go hungry again!” And we believe her.
Ellen Ripley from the Alien series
Played by: Sigourney Weaver
Why Her? Because she’s just an ordinary crew member on a commercial towing spacecraft, trying to do her job, who gets stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because she has a maternal side. Because she gets pretty handy with flamethrowers and big-assed guns, but mostly because she beats those nasty, acid-blood drippin’, jaw-grippin’, egg-lovin’ aliens every friggin’ time.
Best Moment: Strapped into a giant, walking loading machine, ready to protect the little girl she’s grown to love, Ripley faces the mother of all Aliens, cocks her head and yells, “Get away from her, you bitch!”
Marge Gunderson from Fargo (1996)
Played by: Frances McDormand
Why Her? Because even if she seems like just another small-town cop, living in the God-forsaken frozen tundra of Minnesota, when it comes to persistent and thorough police work, she’s the best. Because being pregnant doesn’t slow her down, except when she has to eat (preferably fast food, please). Because not only does she get her man, she takes him down with only a couple of shots–and then lectures him about all his wrongdoings.
Best moment: Sitting with the perp (Peter Stormare) in the back of her police car after he’s killed several people, including his accomplice (Steve Buscemi) by placing him in a woodchipper, Marge tells him, “There’s more to life than a little money, ya know. Don’tcha know that? And here ya are. And it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.” That about sums Marge up.
Clarice Starling from Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Played by: Jodie Foster
Why Her? Because she reigns in her palpable fear and matches wits with one of the most diabolical serial killers of all time. Because although she isn’t able to beat said killer at his own game, she is able to decipher his clues and catch another equally evil serial killer on the loose. Because she proves that even the quiet, thinking heroes are just as powerful as the ones that kick ass.
Best Moment: Allowing Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to manipulate her but knowing in doing so she will get the answers she needs, Clarice sits in front of Lecter’s Plexiglas cell and softly recalls her childhood memories of being on a farm and hearing the slaughtering of the lambs. Chilling.
Aurora Greenway from Terms of Endearment (1983)
Played by:Shirley MacLaine
Why Her? Because she’ll never win any Mother of the Year awards–and that’s just fine with her. Because, honestly, she doesn’t take any bullcrap, especially from a retired astronaut who’s never had a stable relationship with a woman. Because she likes sex, even in her later years. Because she loves her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) the only way she knows how–with her whole heart.
Best Moment: When Aurora’s sick daughter is in need of her pain medication at the hospital–and it’s late in coming–she shakes the nurses’ station to its core by screaming, “GIVE MY DAUGHTER HER SHOT!” What else could a mother do?
Thelma Dickerson and Louise Sawyer from Thelma & Louise (1991)
Played by: Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon
Why Them? Because they get away from the insensitive, neglectful men in their lives. Because they then take a really bad situation and turn it into an adventure of a lifetime. Because they make dusty hair and wearing bandanas around your neck not only sexy but empowering. Because they make the adage, “Best Friends Forever,” actually mean something.
Best Moment: Driving off a cliff in their convertible, hands clasp, hair blowing in the wind. Think they make it to other side of the ravine? One can only hope.
