By Cory Walker
The purpose of this essay is to look at popular Hollywood films that feature a female in a heroine role. I hope to be able to breakdown principles of what these films did right and explain why they were empowering for women and how other major motion pictures can emulate them. The three films I will be using for this analysis are Edge of Tomorrow, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Alien. The three films were chosen because they all have heroine character, but all three also differ in the importance of that character to the plot. In Alien, Ripley is the main protagonist. In Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa shares the role of protagonist with Max. Finally in Edge of Tomorrow, Rita Vrataski serves as the mentor to the films male protagonist.
In the film Alien a mining space ship accidentally awakens an ancient alien that slowly hunts and kill the entire crew with the exception of Ripley. Ripley is ultimately able to defeat the creature and escape. The crew of the ship consisted of both males and one other female. Ripley is not portrayed as being any more prepared to fight the creature than any of her crewmates, but her character is shown to be far braver. In every scene where Ripley is fighting the alien it can be seen that she is terrified due to her raspy breathing and purpose sweating, but the character fights anyway. This is a stark contrast to some of the crewmates who were to freeze in horror to do anything when faced by the creature. Ripley is not the only empowering part of this film. The universe itself is one where men and women appear to have equal treatment in terms of jobs and pay. This is seen by the fact that Ripley is a high ranking member of the team and in a scene where all of the workers complain about how little they are all being paid, insinuating they all make the same pay. The most important aspect of this film was that the heroine was shown as an initially ordinary person in order to emphasize her humanness and to show her growth as a character.
Edge of Tomorrow uses the heroine architype in a different way than alien. The film’s plot follows Maj William Cage as he fights to save the human race from an alien invasion. He is able to do this because he acquired the power to restart the day of the battle repeatedly. Every time he dies the day restarts. Rita Vrataski comes into play because she understands this power and trains Cage to be a real soldier since he previously had no battle experience. Rita plays the role of a grizzled veteran and she is shown to be a more competent fighter than any other individual in the military of this universe. This type of heroine is like a force of nature, she is beyond the realm of the normal individual which makes her akin to a symbol. Edge of Tomorrow and Alien have heroines that are diametrical opposites but that is fine since Rita is the type of character that people can see as an ideal even if they know that level of strength is unobtainable.
In Mad Max: Fury Road, the world has fallen to a post-apocalyptic state. Water is scarce, everyone is fighting for survival, and some women are treated less than human. The plot is set in motion when Furiosa, the female protagonist of the film sets out to rescue a group of woman who were to be used for breeding the children of a mad cult leader. She plans to take them to a paradise where they will be safe. The character of Furiosa is one that appears cold and ruthless at first, but her human side is shown later in the movie when she is reunited with her old family. She is also shown to be incredibly strong and resilient, fighting Max in an equal fight until he was able to use a gun to subdue her. These are characteristics make her strong and relatable, but her most important characteristic is her understanding that hope is something that she must keep in the desolate world not for her own sake, but for the sake of the women she rescued. This characteristic is revealed following her realization that the paradise she had promised them did not exist and so she planned to continue running and hope they found a place to live or dies trying. This adds another level to the heroine. Rita was strong, but not relatable. Riley was relatable, but her fight was her own. Furiosa is fighting for all women in this world and if she cannot find paradise then at the least she plans to die fighting and not being subjugated. This film added the element of unity among woman to the heroine role and that is still something new that no another major Hollywood film has done.
The purpose of this essay is to look at popular Hollywood films that feature a female in a heroine role. I hope to be able to breakdown principles of what these films did right and explain why they were empowering for women and how other major motion pictures can emulate them. The three films I will be using for this analysis are Edge of Tomorrow, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Alien. The three films were chosen because they all have heroine character, but all three also differ in the importance of that character to the plot. In Alien, Ripley is the main protagonist. In Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa shares the role of protagonist with Max. Finally in Edge of Tomorrow, Rita Vrataski serves as the mentor to the films male protagonist.
In the film Alien a mining space ship accidentally awakens an ancient alien that slowly hunts and kill the entire crew with the exception of Ripley. Ripley is ultimately able to defeat the creature and escape. The crew of the ship consisted of both males and one other female. Ripley is not portrayed as being any more prepared to fight the creature than any of her crewmates, but her character is shown to be far braver. In every scene where Ripley is fighting the alien it can be seen that she is terrified due to her raspy breathing and purpose sweating, but the character fights anyway. This is a stark contrast to some of the crewmates who were to freeze in horror to do anything when faced by the creature. Ripley is not the only empowering part of this film. The universe itself is one where men and women appear to have equal treatment in terms of jobs and pay. This is seen by the fact that Ripley is a high ranking member of the team and in a scene where all of the workers complain about how little they are all being paid, insinuating they all make the same pay. The most important aspect of this film was that the heroine was shown as an initially ordinary person in order to emphasize her humanness and to show her growth as a character.
Edge of Tomorrow uses the heroine architype in a different way than alien. The film’s plot follows Maj William Cage as he fights to save the human race from an alien invasion. He is able to do this because he acquired the power to restart the day of the battle repeatedly. Every time he dies the day restarts. Rita Vrataski comes into play because she understands this power and trains Cage to be a real soldier since he previously had no battle experience. Rita plays the role of a grizzled veteran and she is shown to be a more competent fighter than any other individual in the military of this universe. This type of heroine is like a force of nature, she is beyond the realm of the normal individual which makes her akin to a symbol. Edge of Tomorrow and Alien have heroines that are diametrical opposites but that is fine since Rita is the type of character that people can see as an ideal even if they know that level of strength is unobtainable.
In Mad Max: Fury Road, the world has fallen to a post-apocalyptic state. Water is scarce, everyone is fighting for survival, and some women are treated less than human. The plot is set in motion when Furiosa, the female protagonist of the film sets out to rescue a group of woman who were to be used for breeding the children of a mad cult leader. She plans to take them to a paradise where they will be safe. The character of Furiosa is one that appears cold and ruthless at first, but her human side is shown later in the movie when she is reunited with her old family. She is also shown to be incredibly strong and resilient, fighting Max in an equal fight until he was able to use a gun to subdue her. These are characteristics make her strong and relatable, but her most important characteristic is her understanding that hope is something that she must keep in the desolate world not for her own sake, but for the sake of the women she rescued. This characteristic is revealed following her realization that the paradise she had promised them did not exist and so she planned to continue running and hope they found a place to live or dies trying. This adds another level to the heroine. Rita was strong, but not relatable. Riley was relatable, but her fight was her own. Furiosa is fighting for all women in this world and if she cannot find paradise then at the least she plans to die fighting and not being subjugated. This film added the element of unity among woman to the heroine role and that is still something new that no another major Hollywood film has done.