10 Fearsome Movie Women You'd Never Mess With

by Sydney Zink

2 & 1. Ashburn and Mullins in The Heatthe-heat-trailer Movies are notorious for cutting female characters short, especially as of late in terms of recent buzz about the low percentage of spoken lines that females have in the past year of movies compared to their male counterparts. The Heat, on the other hand, fights back at these dismal trends by granting the roles of the summer blockbuster's two female protagonists quite a punch -- and an aim to boot. FBI agent Ashburn, played by Sandra Bullock, and police detective Mullins, played by Melissa McCarthy, have all the wit of Bridesmaids with all the fighting power of Miss Congeniality and all the scheme-foiling smarts of, well, most male crime-fighting characters in the movies before allowing women in film representation to prove they can equal that skill with extra to spare. But enough of comparing these two day-savers with men in similar stories; given the strength of their buddy-cop relationship and even higher strength of their minds and arms training, making that comparison would be an insult to these two women. Aside from the female actresses of Hollywood who are increasingly taking a stand for their parts and portrayals, the characters of Ashburn and Mullins are the film industry's most recent forces to be reckoned with. Not female forces -- just forces. Take that, Man of Steel.

Contributor
Contributor

Sydney is from Roswell, Georgia, where she takes pride in Georgia's growing film industry. She is a sophomore at Northwestern University with a minor in Film & Media Studies and a love for writing. Her life has unsuccessfully aspired to model a Keira Knightley period piece. Sydney is most likely to be found in an emptied theater viewing the credits and sipping her staple drink: all the theater’s sodas mixed together.