Like many of the great film characters in cinema, the need and act for survival are crucial. Whether it be in the emptiness of space, or on the ground of the streets, women (and girls) do what they need to keep going. Their determination shines through any notion of be aided or abetted by the male contingent, or an unwillingness to reveal who they are underneath.
Katniss Everdeen – – – The Hunger Games (2012)
Katniss Everdeen is the toughest person in a world full of tough people. She lives in a world where a citizen uprising led to a totalitarian government, and now a yearly game is held where children are forced into battle with each other in which the winner is the last one alive. For Katniss it’s a no-win situation, because she’s good natured at heart, and doesn’t want to kill anyone, but has to in order to survive.
Before the games start, there is first a reaping, which is the selection process when one boy and one girl are picked as the representatives of their district. Katniss is not selected, but her younger sister Primrose is. In order to save her sister, Katniss volunteers in her place. What makes Katniss Everdeen a kick-ass character is that she’s not only smart and knows how to survive in the games, but also the fact that she’s willing to sacrifice herself to allow for her sister to live. It’s a very brave and noble gesture, and it ends up being the first tough decision of many more to come afterwards. – – – Al Robinson
Anna Schmidt – – – The Third Man (1949)
While working as an actress in Vienna, Anna fell head over heels in love with a guy that turned out to be not that great, pretty awful actually. His best mate, Holly Martins, develops romantic feelings for her while trying to unravel the shady circumstances surrounding said mate’s death. But Anna’s loyalty to her beloved, even upon discovery of his wrongdoing, never wavers.
Not to condone falsifying official documents for illegal entry to a country (spoiler) but that shows a lot of courage from a vulnerable woman living in a nation rendered indigent in its post-war fragility. She is a woman of stoic loyalty, rejecting Martins advances with aplomb, and that final scene is one of the finest examples of metaphorically flipping the bird there’s ever been in cinema. – – – Rhiannon Topham
Ryan Stone – – – Gravity (2013)
You’re in space, your shuttle is broken. The rest of the crew is already dead, your commanding partner’s corpse is floating forever into weightless oblivion, and you’re alone, so freaking alone and scared, the only sound thing to do is just break down and cry while waiting for the inevitable oxygen depletion.
Yet, with no reasonable way of surviving, Dr. Ryan Stone still manages to drive it home in the most stunning rebirth parable that has ever come to life on film. Being such a unique story about a woman’s journey to personal deliverance, feel free to gush over not only Bullock’s astrodoc, but this beautiful movie itself.
Talking about kick-ass ladies, this film has a womb in which the heroine grows, it forms a safeguarding placenta around her, lovingly nourishing and healing the pain away until Stone is well and truly ready to let go of her emotional shackles and emerge crying and wobbly-legged into wet existence, with the first gasp of a newborn blinking against the first light. In a rare case of silver screen transcendence, the character isn’t the only ferocious female subject worth mentioning; Gravity itself is. – – – The Greek
Rebecca Morgan – – – Sounder (1972)
Martin Ritt’s adaptation was probably the first realistic rendering of life as a black sharecropper family in the oppressive South during the Great Depression. Tyson’s steely performance makes Rebecca Morgan the heart and soul of the family when her husband and father to her son is hauled away on a minor crime charge and she has to take control of their survival. This was the role that made the world take notice of Cicely Tyson as the acting powerhouse that she is – and remains to be – today.
When Nathan is spotted in the distance, hobbling up the road home after his release from the chain gang, it’s Tyson’s full speed, arms wide sprint to his arms that steals the emotion of a scene that includes both a child AND a dog (Sounder). Tyson was only the second African-American woman to be nominated for Best Actress by Oscar, an honor she had to share with Diana Ross, but her performance in Sounder towers above all others that year. – – – Steve Schweighofer
Sarah Connor – – – Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
If there was a Mount Rushmore of badass movie females, Linda Hamilton’s face would be every single president! You know who she is, Sarah Connor! First introduced to us as a timid character in the original Terminator and she evolved into a militaristic, cunning, and altruistic mom interested solely in the protection of her son and the fate of the future planet.
Over a decade preparing herself for Judgment Day becoming a master tactician and extensive knowledge of firearms and explosives. All this knowledge proved even too much for her as the machines took over the world, but instilled the Messiah like figure of Sarah Connor for future fighters. Linda Hamilton opened the door for more women to step into the action role and is renowned for her impact on the industry. – – – Mike Austin
Jane Craig – – – Broadcast News (1987)
It’s still mind-boggling to think that James L. Brooks wrote the role of Jane Craig in Broadcast News for Debra Winger (who became pregnant before production), because Holly Hunter embodies Craig so believably, it’s as though no one else could be her. Craig is real-world kicking ass: afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted, one story at time. She’s so kick-ass, she makes it obvious why they would choose a 26-year-old as managing producer even in the midst of Draconian cutbacks.
And like Rick in Casablanca, she puts ethics over love. Movies about workplace romances tend to be insipidly sappy; movies about professional ethics tend to be pedantically preachy. Broadcast News very improbably, very watchably threads the needle, and if you’re wondering why more movies don’t follow, it’s because they don’t have a Jane Craig. To paraphrase Joan Cusack’s character, except for socially, Jane’s our role model. – – – Daniel Smith-Rowsey