It happened in the mid 80s with Sigourney Weaver taking on the acid blooded alien in James Cameron’s Aliens, women stopped being the objects of desire or the manipulative bitches, the helpless victims or sexy seductresses, they began to take leading roles in action pictures kicking ass just as well as the greatest male action heroes in film.
Although actresses such as Pam Grier as Foxy Brown were breaking ground in the 70s it wasn’t until Aliens that women were kicking butt in the mainstream. They had the occasional part, like Grace Jones in Conan the Destroyer that shows some toughness, but they weren’t the main ticket unless they were a superhero of some sort (Supergirl, Red Sonja) to make their toughness believable.
No, it took Sigourney in a front loader knockin’ the brains out of an alien to break open the idea that a female can lead in an action film. Once she did it, the floodgates opened and women have been wasting bad guys with gun and fist ever since.
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Cherry, Grindhouse – Planet Terror (2007)
Rose McGowan
If tough chicks are your thing, then how can you not include a girl with a machine gun leg? Cherry adds new meaning to the word tough. By squatting down and spinning she turns her lower limb into a devastating weapon. No one has a chance when she gets the anger going![/div]
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Ellen Ripley, Aliens (1986)
Sigourney Weaver
There was no way an alien queen was going to harm her or her surrogate child Newt, Ellen Ripley learned how to use a machine gun, a flame-thrower, and how to make a front loader into a weapon, all in the course of two hours of film. With Ripley and Pvt. Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein), Aliens has two females that show off the new and improved version of the female sex. They started it all.[/div]
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Lt. Jordan O’Neil, G.I. Jane (1997)
Demi Moore
Having to put up with male chauvinism as well as the toughest training program in the American armed forces didn’t stop O’Neil from passing through the Navy Seals. She is the ultimate tough chick, bald head and all.[/div]
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The Bride, Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)
Uma Thurman
How could you not include a girl on a rampaging killing spree with a Hattori Hanzo samurai sword? That she dispatches more men in less time then all of our other selections on this list makes her a compulsory addition.[/div]
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Jen, Yu, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Zhang Ziyi
She flies through the air, runs up the sides of walls, balances on tree tops, and uses a sword expertly, all at the age of a teenager. When she takes on a whole gang of bar patrons single-handedly, she becomes one of the toughest chicks ever to be on the big screen.[/div]
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