The Top 10 Female Action Heroes

by Nicholas H. Parker

Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best action films ever made, and it's being recognized not only for its incredible vehicular mayhem, but for its introduction of one of the strongest female action heroes seen in the cinema: Imperator Furiosa played by the excellent Charlize Theron. The film is named after Mad Max (Tom Hardy), but the film could arguably actually be led by Theron's redemption seeking desert-badass, a war rig General to an evil dictator that has finally had enough and decides to steal his most precious possession: His model wives that serve as his breeding stock. Theron not only fights Max to a draw (with one arm, no less!) but also reveals herself to be fearless, as she rams her monster rig through pursuing war parties, and dangles on the outside of speeding vehicles. In honor of Imperator Furiosa, here are the top ten female action heroes of all time.

10. Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron)

Stolen from her family as a child, she was raised by Immortal Joe, a diseased irradiated freak that controls the water in the post-Apocalyptic world of Mad Max. As a captive, she slowly climbed the hierarchies of power until she became a General, leading raids on enemy citadels and becoming one of Joe's most trusted warriors. Little does Immortan Joe know though, she has just been building up his trust and biding her time until she is able to escape on a flight of redemption, attempting to bring freedom to Joe's captive wives. She's tough as nails, and one woman you do not want to mess with and easily carries the weight of the film on her shoulders. (She's also helped along the way by a guy named Max.)

9. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)

The original female warrior of cinema - and the former top place winner - is Ellen Ripley of the Alien films She's not a soldier, she's not motivated by a crippling childhood, she's simply a regular woman with maternal instincts. Yet this instinct is powerful enough to have her survive an entire platoon of colonial Marines, risking everything to save an orphaned child, even if it means doing battle with the Queen Alien herself.

8. The Bride (Uma Thurman)

Star of the two-part Kill Bill series, Uma's "The Bride" showed that she could play a kung-fu master as good as any male fighter. But "The Bride" gets real points for being able to take the punishment as good as she dishes it out, and take the punishment she does, as Tarantino has her almost killed and left for dead, shot and buried underground, and tortured repeatedly across the scope of both films.

7. Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton)

What's so impressive about Sarah Connor is that she manages to forge an identity for herself based out of necessity. In the first of the Terminator films, she's sort of helpless and well..."mousy." She's as shocked as anyone to learn that her son is going to lead the resistance against a future machine Army bent on killing off humans. And so, with the knowledge she gets from the first film, she begins to prepare and re-make herself. By the time the second film rolls around, she's an entirely different person: Driven, tough, and fearless. (She also starts the second film committed to a mental hospital, but that's a different story.)

**6. Resident Evil Franchise (Milla Jovovich)**

Milla Jovovich - as demonstrated in the photo at left - has to be one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. Which makes it all the more interesting that she's the star of numerous Resident Evil films where she has to kill zombies, monsters, and take-on evil futuristic corporations. And she does it flawlessly, fully inhabiting the physicality of the role which requires her to shoot, jump, kill, and blow things up real good like.

5. Salt (Angelina Jolie)

There's only been one Salt film, but in it, action spy Angelina Jolie gives as good as all of her male counterparts. The physicality of the role and Jolie's willingness to commit to it, puts Salt in a category alongside Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt and also Jason Bourne.

4. Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner)

Sydney Bristow in Alias is just your average graduate student in English, who also happens to be a covert agent for a number of global intelligence and "dark ops" agencies. It's a job she has to do in her spare time while not giving away her identity to the people that populate her "normal life."

3. Selene (Kate Beckinsale)

Selene, from the Underworld series, was originally born in the 14th century, when her entire family was murdered by werewolves (or Lycans). Fortunately, Selene became a vampire (and actually, part of an elite vampire special-ops team) so that she could survive throughout time and take the battle to the evil Lycans. She's as cold and effective a killer, as any male hero the cinema has seen. And she looks incredibly good doing it all in a black leather outfit.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Sarah Michelle Gellar)

Looking at Sarah Michelle Gellar sort of creates a disconnect: She's so tiny and cute that it's difficult to see her as one of the "Slayers," the latest in a long line of heroes that are meant to battle vampires, demons, and other nefarious evil creatures. Yet that's exactly what she did for six years on television, in one of the most popular science-fiction horror shows to grace the air.

1. Hit Girl (Chloe Mortez)

Hit Girl, from the Kick-Ass films, throws all the old comic book conventions on their head. Instead of it being the muscular superhero that ends up beating up all the bad guys, Hit Girl is a prepubescent flurry of righteous anger, taking on entire groups of thugs with her over-the-top martial arts skills. Like Batman, she doesn't have any super powers, just effective training. That she stops evil while being just 11 years old and having a real potty mouth and attitude to spare makes her that much more of a fun character.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicholas H. Parker is a business coach and marketing manager with a huge experience. He writes articles for those who want to buy essay papers to develop their knowledge. He is highly interested in the web design sphere.