[Nerdspresso] Tough Girls Rule! Furiosa and Other Movie Ladies Who Could Beat Me Up

So Furiosa, the prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, has already come and gone from movie theaters. It rolled out earlier this summer with expectations that it would dominate the box office, but it fell short. Like The Fall Guy, another recent good movie that flamed out too soon, Furiosa is now relegated to video on demand until it shows up for free on one of your streamers. [EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s due to arrive on Max on Aug. 16.]

It’s a shame really because this flick deserves to be seen on the big screen. A visual feast with nearly every frame boasting unimaginably amazing sights, Furiosa is a dystopian fever dream. Director and co-writer George Miller has composed an epic origin for Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron’s character from Fury Road.

Theron stole that movie from Tom Hardy, who played Mad Max, which is kind of a big deal. I mean, that character’s name was in the title of his movie, but no one could take their eyes off her. Theron was riveting, portraying Furiosa as a hardcore survivor, a fierce warrior with a mysterious past and no mercy for the wicked. Audiences wanted more.

George Miller has been guiding us through post-apocalyptic wastelands since his first Mad Max movie back in 1979. Back then Mel Gibson played Max, a former lawman turned road warrior, in three movies before Tom Hardy took over in 2015. Max is mostly absent from this fifth movie. He makes a blink and you’ll miss him cameo to tease the fan base, but this new flick is all about Furiosa. The character is played here by Anya Taylor-Joy (Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit and Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho) and chronicles Furiosa’s journey from child victim to avenging warrior.

Snatched by marauders and sold into servitude to the grotesque and ominous Immortan Joe, Furiosa grows into the steely rebel that we come to know in Fury Road. This movie tells you how she got there, robot hand and all. Taylor-Joy has big shoes to fill, but she plops her feet right in there and starts running. She captures the character’s spirit, complementing Theron’s performance without imitating it. Taylor-Joy simply inhabits Furiosa at a particular stage in her life and Theron another. The progression from one actor to the other feels completely organic.

Taylor-Joy doesn’t walk in Theron’s shadow as much as she strides beside it. Her Furiosa holds her own against a legion of dark desert pirates, including Chris Hemsworth’s charming and brutal Dementus. Hemsworth, famous for beefcake superheroics in the Marvel movies, kicks it up a notch here with a career-redefining performance. Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth perform a vicious duet, culminating in an unforgettable conclusion.

Furiosa is an awesome action hero. She’s resilient, resourceful, and relentless. Some fanboys are mansplaining that this movie didn’t conquer the box office because no one wanted to watch an action movie with a female lead. That’s just hooey if you ask me. Box office success and artistic quality aren’t always intertwined. Some pretty lousy movies have made big money while some really incredible flicks never made back their production budget.

Time will tell with Furiosa, but it deserves to be seen. Any complaints about female action heroes are just rubbish, in my opinion. I love watching movies with a tough female lead. It’s about time we see women kicking down doors and doing the rescuing in movies. The damsel in distress trope gets tiresome. Hardcore action ladies are always refreshing and modern cinema has gifted us with some exceptionally heroic women. Here are a few of my favorites for your reading (and viewing) pleasure. I would be proud to be beaten up by any (and all) of them.

Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde

Charlize Theron, who gave Mad Max a run for his money in Fury Road, rules as a superspy in this thriller set in Cold War Berlin. Directed by action maestro David Leitch (John Wick, Bullet Train and The Fall Guy), Atomic Blonde is a stylish, bone crunching affair. It has atmosphere to spare, set in the Eurofab late ’80’s with a thumping New Wave soundtrack. Theron is both sexy and threatening as Lorraine Broughton, a British agent tracking down a mole and retrieving world secrets before they are sold to the highest bidder. Watching the action in this movie will make your body hurt for hours afterwards. It’s freaking intense.

Catwoman in Batman Returns

Michelle Pfeiffer dons the famous catsuit of this iconic Batman villain in the sequel to Tim Burton’s superhero epic. This kitten has a whip and she steals the movie from the titular Dark Knight Detective the moment she says “Meow.” Ms. Pfeiffer has been my celebrity crush ever since she crooned about cool riders as tough gal Stephanie in Grease 2. She earns her bad girl cred in this flick as Catwoman. Her performance is brimming with venom and attitude, proving that the meek may inherit the earth, but the badass ladies will run it. Still have no idea why they never did a spinoff with Pfeiffer in this role. (No, that Halle Berry movie doesn’t count).

Ellen Ripley in Aliens

Sigourney Weaver proved to be a formidable cat lady in 1979’s Alien, surviving a predatory xenomorph that wiped out her entire crew. She returns in the sequel, directed by James Cameron, and proceeds to take care of her unfinished business with a whole nest of nasty aliens. Cameron, fresh off his success with The Terminator, turns this second chapter into a nonstop rollercoaster. Weaver is out in front the whole way, leading a ragtag troop of space marines after they get bushwacked by those big toothy monsters. She kicks plenty of xenomorph butt, taking on the queen mother alien and saving her surrogate daughter along the way.

Princess Leia in Star Wars

Let’s be honest, folks. Carrie Fisher is the real hero of this legendary space saga. She was a princess, but no pushover, as the leader of the rebellion against the evil galactic empire. If you think about the events in that first movie as happening over the course of a few days, Princess Leia had a pretty crappy week. You never see that back up on her. She’s always kicking ass and taking names. Leia is resisting mind probes and lying to Grand Moff Tarkin in the face of impending doom. As she tells that bureaucrat on Yavin: “We have no time for our sorrows, Commander” when she steps up to help lead the attack on the Death Star. Leia awards the boys with medallions at the end, but where’s her trophy for being intergalactically awesome?

Let’s See More Tough Ladies in the Movies!

I think it’s time that we injected more action movies with big lady energy.Take a look at how flicks like Atomic Blonde reenergize the genre and lead you down some unexpected paths. I don’t know about you, but I go to movies to be entertained. Whether the heroes are male, female or nonbinary, just wrap me up in the magic of the movies for a few hours. Hey, filmmakers, take me somewhere new. Be storytellers. Introduce me to some fresh faces and make me care about their journey. I will love it. Even if those ladies can kick my ass.