The recent release of Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, starring MMA fighter Gina Carano, was as notable for its A-List cast and crew as it was for the casting of an actress not named Jolie in the lead role. As such, it got us to thinking: How many true female Action Heroes are there?
“There’s the studio exec who wanted us in white T-shirts in this scene.”
2. Milla Jovavich
Though she doesn’t quite make #1 as the most influential, Jovovich comes in a close second. Instead of resting on her Ace-bandaged, non-Action Hero Leeloo laurels after The Fifth Element, Jovovich went on to pretty much blow everyone else away in terms of butt kicked (correct scientific measure = the metric ass-ton). Her four Resident Evil films (with the fifth due this year) pit her against hordes of virus-mangled baddies and, along with Ultraviolet, place her well ahead of Kate Beckinsale in the battle for sci-fi action queen. (Jovovich’s turn as the lead in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) doesn’t hurt , either.) When all the bodies that haven’t been disintegrated are accounted for, Jovovich ranks up there with the big guys in unbridled whoop-ass can opening.