Female heroes
by Ida_Andersson | created - 09 Jun 2011 | updated - 11 Aug 2020 | PublicMostly action heroes, but also some dealing with every day life or feminist political issues.
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1. Alien (1979)
R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
Votes: 950,074 | Gross: $78.90M
2. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen
Votes: 1,193,297 | Gross: $70.10M
3. Alien³ (1992)
R | 114 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Returning from LV-426, Ellen Ripley crash-lands on the maximum-security prison Fiorina 161, where she discovers that she has unwittingly brought along an unwelcome visitor.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann
Votes: 319,316 | Gross: $55.47M
4. Dollhouse (2009–2010)
TV-14 | 44 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A top secret organization erases the identities of attractive young people, turning them into blank "dolls" ready for imprints of temporary identities they need to fulfill assignments for clients.
Stars: Eliza Dushku, Harry Lennix, Fran Kranz, Tahmoh Penikett
Votes: 51,791
5. Ginger Snaps (2000)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Two death-obsessed sisters, outcasts in their suburban neighborhood, must deal with the tragic consequences when one of them is bitten by a deadly werewolf.
Director: John Fawcett | Stars: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche, Mimi Rogers
Votes: 52,285 | Gross: $0.00M
6. Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004)
R | 94 min | Horror, Thriller
Ginger's sister Brigitte, now a werewolf herself, must try to find a cure for her blood lust before the next full moon while hiding out in a rehab clinic from a relentless werewolf.
Director: Brett Sullivan | Stars: Emily Perkins, Brendan Fletcher, Katharine Isabelle, Tatiana Maslany
Votes: 15,204
7. The X-Files (1993–2018)
TV-14 | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents, Fox Mulder the believer and Dana Scully the skeptic, investigate the strange and unexplained, while hidden forces work to impede their efforts.
Stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis
Votes: 249,686
I've always been a fan of Scully.
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
R | 152 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A journalist is aided by a young female hacker in his search for the killer of a woman who has been dead for forty years.
Director: Niels Arden Oplev | Stars: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Ewa Fröling, Lena Endre
Votes: 223,316 | Gross: $10.10M
My reaction to this story might have been just as positive if I'd seen the American version first, but I prefer the Swedish Lisbeth. She seems tougher, more in control.
9. Easy A (2010)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When Olive lies to her best friend about losing her virginity to one of the college boys, a girl overhears their conversation. Soon, her story spreads across the entire school like wildfire.
Director: Will Gluck | Stars: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Dan Byrd
Votes: 417,824 | Gross: $58.40M
10. Hanna (2011)
PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A sixteen-year-old girl who was raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe, tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent and her operatives.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Vicky Krieps
Votes: 206,829 | Gross: $40.26M
I'd be proud to say I hit like this little girl!
11. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
R | 137 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
The Bride continues her quest of vengeance against her former boss and lover Bill, the reclusive bouncer Budd, and the treacherous, one-eyed Elle.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah
Votes: 805,126 | Gross: $66.21M
12. Girlfight (2000)
R | 110 min | Drama, Sport
Diana, without her father knowing it, trains as a boxer and achieves impressive success, blazing new trails for female boxers.
Director: Karyn Kusama | Stars: Michelle Rodriguez, Douglas Santiago, Jamie Tirelli, Paul Calderon
Votes: 11,381 | Gross: $1.52M
13. House of Flying Daggers (2004)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A romantic police captain breaks a beautiful member of a rebel group out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.
Director: Yimou Zhang | Stars: Ziyi Zhang, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Dandan Song
Votes: 116,249 | Gross: $11.05M
14. The Quick and the Dead (1995)
R | 108 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A female gunfighter returns to a frontier town where a dueling tournament is being held, which she enters in an effort to avenge her father's death.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio
Votes: 102,809 | Gross: $18.64M
15. The Princess Blade (2001)
R | 93 min | Action, Sci-Fi
Raised by assassins, Yuki is the last of the Takemikazuchi royal bloodline. A deadly weapon in her own right, she learns the gruesome truth about the death of her beloved mother and joins forces with a mysterious rebel leader.
Director: Shinsuke Sato | Stars: Yumiko Shaku, Hideaki Itô, Yôichi Numata, Shirô Sano
Votes: 3,084
16. The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Samantha Caine lives in a small town with her daughter. Eight years ago she emerged, two months pregnant, from a nearby river with no memory of her past or who she is. However, she's getting closer to finding out about her past.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Yvonne Zima, Craig Bierko
Votes: 85,657 | Gross: $33.33M
17. Dark Angel (2000–2002)
TV-14 | 60 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
A group of genetically-enhanced children escape from a lab project. Years later we meet Max, one of the escapees who now works for a messenger service in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest.
Stars: Jessica Alba, Michael Weatherly, Richard Gunn, J.C. MacKenzie
Votes: 34,588
18. Hysteria (2011)
R | 100 min | Biography, Comedy, Romance
The truth of how Mortimer Granville devised the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.
Director: Tanya Wexler | Stars: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Jones
Votes: 33,178 | Gross: $1.80M
19. Aliens (1986)
R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser
Votes: 762,766 | Gross: $85.16M
20. Agora (2009)
R | 127 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.
Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom
Votes: 73,034 | Gross: $0.62M
21. Sanctuary (2008–2011)
TV-14 | 44 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
Modern society's evolution involves stem cells, gene therapy, transplants, and cloning, but also exposes the existence of monsters that hold the key to our race's future.
Stars: Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne, Christopher Heyerdahl, Ryan Robbins
Votes: 22,640
The boss of the Sanctuary is both extremely smart and has a lot of action skills. So has her daughter.
22. Nikita (2010–2013)
TV-14 | 60 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A rogue assassin returns to take down the secret organization that trained her.
Stars: Maggie Q, Shane West, Lyndsy Fonseca, Aaron Stanford
Votes: 53,892
23. Domino (2005)
R | 127 min | Action, Biography, Crime
A recounting of Domino Harvey's life story. The daughter of actor Laurence Harvey turned away from her career as a Ford model to become a bounty hunter.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramírez, Rizz Abbasi
Votes: 69,377 | Gross: $10.17M
24. Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama
A free-thinking art professor teaches conservative 1950s Wellesley girls to question their traditional social roles.
Director: Mike Newell | Stars: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Votes: 90,911 | Gross: $63.86M
25. Æon Flux (2005)
PG-13 | 93 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Æon Flux is a mysterious assassin working for the Monicans, a group of rebels trying to overthrow the government. When she is sent on a mission to kill the Chairman, a whole new mystery is found.
Director: Karyn Kusama | Stars: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sophie Okonedo, Marton Csokas
Votes: 132,754 | Gross: $25.87M
26. Ultraviolet (2006)
PG-13 | 88 min | Action, Sci-Fi
A beautiful haemophage infected with a virus that gives her superhuman powers has to protect a boy in a futuristic world, who is thought to be carrying antigens that would destroy all hæmophages.
Director: Kurt Wimmer | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright, Nick Chinlund, Sebastien Andrieu
Votes: 84,078 | Gross: $18.50M
27. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)
TV-14 | 44 min | Action, Drama, Fantasy
A young woman, destined to slay vampires, demons and other infernal creatures, deals with her life fighting evil, with the help of her friends.
Stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head
Votes: 159,661
28. The Woman (I) (2011)
R | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
When a successful country lawyer captures and attempts to "civilize" the last remaining member of a violent clan that has roamed the Northeast coast for decades, he puts the lives of his family in jeopardy.
Director: Lucky McKee | Stars: Pollyanna McIntosh, Brandon Gerald Fuller, Lauren Ashley Carter, Chris Krzykowski
Votes: 25,842
Hero? She might not be the kind of person you'd want to be like, but I want to put the movie on the list because I've never seen such an extreme survivalist in female form before.
29. The Help (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Drama
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 492,651 | Gross: $169.71M
30. Proof (2005)
PG-13 | 100 min | Drama, Mystery
The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father's ex-students, who wants to search through his papers, and her estranged sister, who shows up to help settle his affairs.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal
Votes: 46,304 | Gross: $7.52M
Brain power!
31. The Brave One (2007)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Struggling to recover emotionally from a brutal assault that killed her fiancé and left her in a coma, a radio personality begins a quest for vengeance against the perpetrators that leaves a bloody trail across New York City.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt
Votes: 63,485 | Gross: $36.79M
32. Catwoman (2004)
PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Crime, Fantasy
A shy woman, endowed with the speed, reflexes, and senses of a cat, walks a thin line between criminal and hero, even as a detective doggedly pursues her, fascinated by both of her personas.
Director: Pitof | Stars: Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt, Lambert Wilson
Votes: 125,776 | Gross: $40.20M
33. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
PG-13 | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Video game adventurer Lara Croft comes to life in a movie where she races against time and villains to recover powerful ancient artifacts.
Director: Simon West | Stars: Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight, Iain Glen, Noah Taylor
Votes: 218,914 | Gross: $131.14M
34. Resident Evil (2002)
R | 100 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A special military unit fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey, Oscar Pearce
Votes: 288,340 | Gross: $40.12M
35. Rise: Blood Hunter (2007)
R | 97 min | Action, Crime, Horror
A reporter wakes up in a morgue and finds herself a member of the undead, before vowing revenge against the sect which put her there.
Director: Sebastian Gutierrez | Stars: Lucy Liu, Michael Chiklis, Carla Gugino, Robert Forster
Votes: 12,569 | Gross: $0.11M
36. Elektra (2005)
PG-13 | 97 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
Elektra the warrior survives a near-death experience, becomes an assassin-for-hire, and tries to protect her two latest targets, a single father and his young daughter, from a group of supernatural assassins.
Director: Rob Bowman | Stars: Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Will Yun Lee, Kirsten Zien
Votes: 97,921 | Gross: $24.41M
37. Cutthroat Island (1995)
PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A female pirate and her companion race against their rivals to find a hidden island that contains a fabulous treasure.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury Chaykin
Votes: 30,532 | Gross: $10.02M
38. The Hunger Games (2012)
PG-13 | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games: a televised competition in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to fight to the death.
Director: Gary Ross | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Stanley Tucci
Votes: 1,003,422 | Gross: $408.01M
39. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
PG-13 | 146 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the 74th Hunger Games sparks a rebellion in the Districts of Panem.
Director: Francis Lawrence | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 721,069 | Gross: $424.67M
40. Orphan Black (2013–2017)
TV-MA | 44 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A streetwise hustler is pulled into a compelling conspiracy after witnessing the suicide of a girl who looks just like her.
Stars: Tatiana Maslany, Dylan Bruce, Jordan Gavaris, Kevin Hanchard
Votes: 116,932
41. Jennifer's Body (2009)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Horror
A newly-possessed high-school cheerleader turns into a succubus who specializes in killing her male classmates. Can her best friend put an end to the horror?
Director: Karyn Kusama | Stars: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, Johnny Simmons
Votes: 151,165 | Gross: $16.20M
42. Maleficent (2014)
PG | 97 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child could be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land.
Director: Robert Stromberg | Stars: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Lesley Manville
Votes: 400,137 | Gross: $241.41M
43. The Descent (2005)
R | 99 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
Director: Neil Marshall | Stars: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder
Votes: 246,847 | Gross: $26.02M
44. The Heat (I) (2013)
R | 117 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
An uptight FBI Special Agent is paired with a foul-mouthed Boston cop to take down a ruthless drug lord.
Director: Paul Feig | Stars: Sandra Bullock, Michael McDonald, Melissa McCarthy, Demián Bichir
Votes: 181,251 | Gross: $159.58M
45. Crazyhead (2016)
TV-MA | 44 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Amy and Raquel attempt to navigate their way through the choppy waters of their early twenties whilst simultaneously kicking ass on some seriously gnarly demons. What could possibly go wrong?
Stars: Cara Theobold, Susan Wokoma, Lewis Reeves, Tony Curran
Votes: 5,411
46. The Scandalous Lady W (2015 TV Movie)
87 min | Drama, History, Romance
An 18th-century drama details the scandalous life of Lady Seymour Worsley.
Director: Sheree Folkson | Stars: Natalie Dormer, Craig Parkinson, Aneurin Barnard, Shaun Evans
Votes: 2,846
47. Tallulah (2016)
111 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Desperate to be rid of her toddler, a dissatisfied Manhattan housewife hires a stranger to babysit and ends up getting much more than she bargained for.
Director: Sian Heder | Stars: Elliot Page, Allison Janney, Tammy Blanchard, Evan Jonigkeit
Votes: 21,479
48. The Post (2017)
PG-13 | 116 min | Biography, Drama, History
A cover-up spanning four U.S. Presidents pushes the country's first female newspaper publisher and her editor to join an unprecedented battle between press and government.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk
Votes: 162,194 | Gross: $81.90M
49. The Nightingale (I) (2018)
R | 136 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Maya Christie, Baykali Ganambarr, Addison Christie
Votes: 35,617 | Gross: $0.39M
50. Ghost in the Shell (2017)
PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In the near future, Major Mira Killian is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
Director: Rupert Sanders | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche
Votes: 227,832 | Gross: $40.56M
51. The Old Guard (2020)
R | 125 min | Action, Thriller
A covert team of immortal mercenaries is suddenly exposed and must now fight to keep their identity a secret just as an unexpected new member is discovered.
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood | Stars: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari
Votes: 183,593
52. Mortal Engines (2018)
PG-13 | 128 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
In a post-apocalyptic world where cities ride on wheels and consume each other to survive, two people meet in London and try to stop a conspiracy.
Director: Christian Rivers | Stars: Hera Hilmar, Robert Sheehan, Hugo Weaving, Jihae
Votes: 140,680 | Gross: $15.95M
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