In this week’s Wanted, Angelina Jolie returns to heat-packing form as an assassin named Fox, but how does she
measure up against the likes of fellow fatal femmes like Sigourney Weaver (Aliens),
Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon),
and Pam Grier (Foxy Brown)? We count down through 25 of the baddest
chicks in movie history and name the number one best action heroine of all time.
Our criteria: each lethal lady should make you think twice before challenging
her to a fight. (Which is why two of three Charlie’s Angels didn’t make
the cut. Sorry, Drew and Cameron.) Kicking many butts in multiple action films
improves a nominee’s stock, but so too can a single, iconic performance. We
think you’ll agree that our #1 Best Action Heroine of All Time (by unanimous
decision) can best the rest of the list in our fantasy showdown, but start here
and see for yourself! Our list begins with…
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25. Famke Janssen Before starring as telepathic super heroine Jean Grey in the X-Men |
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24. Demi Moore While she provided a fabulous foil to the 21st century (Video NSFW) |
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23. Linda Hamilton
If a killer robot from the future appeared on your doorstep with assassination on his mind, and you only narrowly manage to escape his rather large Austrian clutches, how would you react? “Work out like there’s no tomorrow and become a bona fide badass” was evidently Linda Hamilton’s answer. When Ahnuld returns in Terminator 2 as a good guy and helps break Hamilton’s Sarah Connor out of the mental hospital she’s been forced to enter, she leads the charge in saving the world yet again. From the pure adrenaline of the hospital escape to the SWAT shootout to end all SWAT shootouts, Hamilton throws herself into the role with such passion that you can’t help but feel every punch, stab, and gunshot. |
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Ever wonder how a nude blonde could kill a man with a French kiss? We found out when Natasha Henstridge made her movie debut in Species as Sil, a half human, half alien hybrid with a very violent impulse to mate. Sure, she’s not exactly a heroine — killing innocent men has a habit of giving you a bum rap — but Sil was just doing what came naturally. After her stunning (and oft-nude) debut, former model Henstridge would appear in a sequel, Species II; later she replaced Courtney Love in John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars. And while none of her subsequent films would reach Species-level success, we always took some guilty pleasure in her role as a karate-chopping ex-con in the syndicated show She Spies. (Video NSFW) |
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21. Lucy Liu Lucy Liu’s first foray into the action genre was actually a small role in the Mel Gibson-powered Payback, but at the time, she was still mostly known for her role on TV’s Ally McBeal. But then came the new millennium, and with it a new Lucy Liu, one that mixed it up with baddies as one of Charlie’s Angels, which had Liu and co-stars Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore leaping, kicking, and blasting their way to box office stardom. She suffered a minor setback when actioner Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever proved to be as terrible as its name, but when Quentin Tarantino came a-knockin’ to cast Lucy as O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill: Vol. I, she found redemption. O-Ren’s Lady Snowblood-like ruthlessness reminded us that Lucy Liu could be as dangerous as she was exotic. |
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20. Jennifer Garner Prior to landing her career-defining role as secret agent Sydney Bristow on J.J. Abrams’ television show Alias, Jennifer Garner was stuck playing romantic interests in films like Dude, Where’s My Car? and Pearl Harbor. However, once Alias hit the airwaves, the world found out just how lethal (and how buff) Garner could be. Hollywood soon took note, and Garner landed the role of the Greek-born, sai-wielding ninja assassin Elektra opposite future hubby Ben Affleck in Daredevil. Elektra rose from the grave for a subsequent spin-off movie, though critics beat it to death (zing!); Garner would pack heat once more as a terrorist-hunting FBI agent in 2007’s The Kingdom. |
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19. Anne Parillaud Though French actress Anne Parillaud has a couple of roles that might qualify her for this list (a vampire in Innocent Blood, an assassin in Shattered Image), it’s Luc Besson‘s La Femme Nikita that really screams “You do NOT want to cross me, mon ami!” Parillaud’s Nikita is a nihilistic thrill seeker until a covert government program remodels her into a hot (but lethal) hit-woman. She endures a harsh training program, then proceeds to drop her victims one by one without batting an eyelash or severely disrupting her private life… for a while. Nikita was such a sensation that it even spawned an American remake (Point of No Return, starring Bridget Fonda) and a television series. |
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18. Angela Mao Kung fu films were never better than during the 1970s, and kung fu stars were never cuter than Angela Mao. Dubbed “Lady Kung Fu,” the diminutive actress appeared with the likes of Sammo Hung and Bruce Lee (appearing as Lee’s sister Su Lin in Enter the Dragon) and, contrary to her delicate build, put her training in hapkido, taekwondo, and kung fu to great use; Mao would often go head-to-head with the best of the Chinese Opera stars, a whirlwind of lethal kicks and blows that made her a match for any man. As an undercover cop in Stoner, Mao plays opposite one-time Bond George Lazenby in a role originally meant for Bruce Lee himself, battling one baddie in the film’s final fight while Lazenby delivers his own style of lumbering blows in the next room. |
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17. Hilary Swank She may not be an action star, but Hilary Swank has no shortage of solid combos in her filmography. She battled the Cobra Kai-esque Alpha Elite in The Next Karate Kid and punched her way to the top in Million Dollar Baby. In The Reaping, she even stared down the Prince of Darkness himself. And let’s not forget her work in Freedom Writers — after all, the pen is mightier than the sword. |
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16. Brigitte Nielsen
She’s a reality show punch line these days, but in the 1980s |
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15. Carrie-Anne Moss The first Matrix was mind-blowing, but the first scene of the first Matrix redefined how we watch action movies. Thanks in large part to Carrie-Anne Moss’ steely precision, that first chase scene — more specifically, that bullet-time crane kick — became lasered into our collective movie memories. Plus, if the very idea of a hot female computer programmer wasn’t enough to earn the adulation of geeks worldwide, Moss’ leather-clad Trinity had the power of the Matrix — and the love of Neo — at her fingertips. |
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14. Kara Hui
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13. Tura Satana |
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12. Zhang Ziyi Early in her acting career, Zhang Ziyi caught a break when Ang Lee cast |
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11. Cynthia Rothrock |
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10. Kate Beckinsale When Hollywood demands actresses maintain wireframe physiques, how is |
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09. Michelle Rodriguez |
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08. Zoe Bell |
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07. Sigourney Weaver Looking back at the Alien quadrilogy, it’s tough to say if Sigourney Weaver made Ellen Ripley or if Ripley made Weaver, but the role has achieved such a lofty status that we just couldn’t imagine anyone else splattering facehuggers and chestbursters across the insides of a spacecraft. Weaver isn’t a particularly striking specimen of physical prowess, and considering she spends most of her time in a flightsuit or covered in slime, her sexual allure is not what’s on display here either, but that’s precisely what makes her so incredible. Cyborgs, marines, and a colony of space criminals all failed to eliminate the alien threat, so who we gonna call? Ellen freaking Ripley. |
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06. Grace Jones She may not have as extensive a filmography as some of her colleagues on |
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05. Milla Jovovich
Quick – name |
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04. Uma Thurman Okay, yeah, she was Poison Ivy in ’97, an Avenger in ’98, and a |
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03. Angelina Jolie |
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02. Pam Grier Before the 1970s, prominent roles for African-American women |
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Click for our #1 Action Heroine of All Time!
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01. Michelle Yeoh What can you say about a woman who’s starred in over 20 action films,
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