5 best female-led action movies like Netflix’s The Mother

Telling the story of four widows who are left with a debt to repay after their criminal husbands die in a robbery, Widows is a female-centered story that avoids many of the standard clichés of the genre. Thanks to incredible performances from its ensemble, which includes Air‘s Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Colin Farrell in a supporting role, Widows is evocative and thrilling, and a reminder that there are hundreds of different ways to approach storytelling in an action movie.

Charlize Theron has proven to be one of our great modern action movie heroines, and The Old Guard is a great showcase for everything she can do. Theron stars as a woman incapable of dyning who leads a team of other immortals as they attempt to make the world a better place.

What makes the movie work, in addition to its consistently compelling set pieces, is the weariness that Theron and the rest of the cast bring to their roles. This is a story about people who have lived in the world for centuries, and are getting a little tired of watching humans mess everything up.

Gina Carano’s politics aside, there was a time when she was one of the most exciting stars in action filmmaking, and Haywire showcases her at the peak of her powers. The film follows Carano’s government operative as she’s double-crossed by the agency she’s dedicated her life to. After she’s left for dead, she vows to find the people responsible and learn exactly why she was betrayed.

This plays out in a series of one-on-one fight scenes that are all inventively staged and involve a series of increasingly famous and compelling men. Haywire is a Steven Soderbergh action masterpiece, and it’s one of the most grounded films on this list.

Angelina Jolie (Marvel’s Eternals) is another staple of the female-focused action movie, and Salt is one of the more underrated films in her filmography. The film was originally written with a male protagonist in mind, but it’s hard to imagine anyone besides Jolie in the title role.

She plays Evelyn Salt, an agent accused of secretly working for the Russians who goes on the run to clear her own name. It’s a tale as old as time in the action movie genre, but one that Salt pulls off well thanks to some inventive plot twists and at least one chase scene that will leave you riveted.