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A montage of actresses who have played female action heroes.
From top left: Michelle Yeoh, Uma Thurman, Tia Carrere, Linda Hamilton, Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Sigourney Weaver, and Lucy Liu.
Are female action heroes truly empowering? - Dan Hassler-Forest (Utrecht University)

The following is a list of female action heroes and villains who appear in action films, television shows, comic books, and video games and who are "thrust into a series of challenges requiring physical feats, extended fights, extensive stunts and frenetic chases."[1]

Elizabeth Abele suggests that "the key agency of female action protagonists is their ability to draw on the full range of masculine and feminine qualities in ever-evolving combinations."[2]

Films

Animated theatrical films

Live-action theatrical films

Films based on comic books

See also: Superhero comics, List of superheroines, and List of female supervillains
DC
Marvel

Films based on novels

Films based on video games

Literature

Literary villains

Television

Animated television series

See also: female action heroes and villains in the section for anime.

Anime

Commercials

Video games

See also

References

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