Current Events > When did the action female costar take off?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I never thought about it before, but there's practically a night and day transition between 80s and 90s action movies. In the 80s, the female lead or love interest was usually a character who couldn't fight. She might point a gun at somebody, or even shoot one of the random goons, but she would normally be frightened when doing so. It'd be clear that she was not an action hero.

Then came the 90s and you saw women in action movies who would punch, kick, and shoot with competence. I wonder if there's a specific year or even a specific movie that can be pinned down to. If you look at ethnic diversity in films today, the future will probably not remember "Hollywood So White." They'll simply take note that films in the 2000s often had one black or Latino character and that movies in the 2010s had a lot of diversity. Was there a specific article or movement which kicked off women kicking ass in the movies?

Alien.
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james cameron maybe?

ridley, sarah connor etc.
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Aliens?
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Yep, alien is what comes to mind
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That was 1979.

What I'm talking about is the transition from, say, Predator to Total Recall. Both Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Both made within a few years of one another. The girl in Predator can't use a gun, although she makes one attempt at doing so, whereas both women in Total Recall kick ass.

What I'm talking about is actually more likely the result of Terminator 2.

In the first movie, Sarah Connor spent most of the movie frightened of the Terminator. In the second movie, she was a bad ass mama bear action hero. That's probably what lead to the Sonya Blades of the 90s replacing the distressed female characters of the 80s. Or maybe it began with Total Recall since that movie was 1990 and T2 was 1992.

Alien
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asian cinema maybe?

females regularly engaged in action was already a trope over there. maybe hollywood just realized they needed to catch up.
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I'm not talking about the history of female action heroes in general. There were some film serials which had female leads. There was a western called Gunslinger about a sheriff's widow who takes over his profession and goes after the bad guys. And, yes, there were dozens of female leads (and costars) in Chinese martial arts cinema.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking specifically about the transition from 80s cinema (specifically Hollywood) to 90s cinema. In movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and Predator, the women were mostly non-action characters who more or less occupied the damsel in distress roles while perhaps being a little more sophisticated character-wise. In the 90s, you saw movies like T2, Mortal Kombat, True Lies, Die Hard With a Vengeance, etc., where the female lead would get into fight scenes and generally be more of a bad ass in her own right.

Women in action movies were a thing before the 90s, but they didn't become commonplace in Hollywood films until around that time. There were some female action leads in the 80s, but it seemed like it was still okay to have the female lead mostly be on the sideline whereas the 90s had her really get into the game so to speak.

Anyway, I think I may have answered my own question. It probably goes back to T2 or to Paul Verhoeven. As I listed the action movies of the 80s, I found myself selectively omitting RoboCop. Lewis was legit. And Verhoeven kept things going with badass women in Total Recall and Starship Troopers.

Of course, the controversy over the alleged sexism in Terminator 1, and the praise for a strong female character in T2, probably led to other films following suit. It was probably a one-two punch with Cameron's second Terminator movie being the big one.

People complaining about the new movie being "SJW" should probably take note of the fact that James Cameron has had badass women in his movies for decades.

There was a sexism controversy in T1? Do tell.

Does Leia count?
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tv had mid70s linda carter as wonder woman

then in the 90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f26Yx7PmRK8" data-time="

strong women leads in tv series. just dont think the market was ready for women in strong roles. im sure tv series helped usher the woman lead.

...movies. hmm not off the top of my head really. just alien comes to my mind as others already pointed out.

foxy brown
red sonja
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lifeindamines posted...

There was a sexism controversy in T1? Do tell.

People complained about Sarah Connor being stereotyped and helpless in the first movie. That's why she was made an ultra-badass in the sequel. Except Cameron didn't do it to be progressive. He was trying to piss those same people off by going too far in the opposite direction.

And now shes coming out in another one, as the badass matriarch. Interesting info.