Top 20 Femme Fatales In Modern Movies
Underestimate these modern femme fatales at your own risk. Welcome to Watchmojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the best female characters who attempted to con or seduce their way to a better life…to varying degrees of success.
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00:00What do you want from me?
00:05Say, what do you want from me, Catherine?
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the best female characters
00:12who attempted to con or seduce their way to a better life, to varying degrees of success.
00:17Be warned, spoilers will be discussed.
00:20I inspired him to rise to my level.
00:23I forged the man of my dreams.
00:2720. Violet Bound
00:29Before they introduced the world to The Matrix,
00:32the Wachowskis directed this stylish crime thriller,
00:35playing with an old archetype in new and exciting ways.
00:38Hi, my name's Violet. We sort of met on the elevator.
00:44Sure, I'm Corky.
00:45Reluctantly married to the mob through her boyfriend, Caesar,
00:48Violet finally sees her way out when she meets ex-con Corky,
00:52who has been hired to renovate an apartment in her building.
00:55In true femme fatale fashion, she seduces the newcomer
00:59and eventually convinces her to help steal a significant sum from her current partner.
01:04You have no idea what you're asking.
01:07How much trust it takes two people to do something like this.
01:10As one would expect, the plan quickly goes awry, putting Corky's life in jeopardy.
01:15Thankfully though, Violet doesn't just take the money and run.
01:18This femme fatale pulls off the heist and gets the girl.
01:2219. Suzanne Stone Moreto – To Die For
01:26Loosely inspired by the real-life crimes of Pamela Smart,
01:29To Die For is a mockumentary akin to The Office or Abbott Elementary,
01:34but with a considerably darker angle.
01:36Hi, my name is Suzanne Moreto.
01:41Oh wait, I'm sorry. Suzanne Moreto is my married name.
01:46My own name is Suzanne Stone.
01:49Suzanne Moreto, or should we say Suzanne Stone,
01:52is at the center of it all as the prime suspect in the shocking murder of her husband Larry.
01:57His desire to have a family was simply incompatible with her lofty aspirations of stardom,
02:03and she found it easier to dispose of him than waste any of her time with divorce proceedings.
02:08Couldn't you just get a divorce and then...
02:11And then he would get the car, Joe.
02:13And he'd get the car.
02:15And he'd take Walter from me.
02:17As a local news anchor, the devilish femme fatale manipulated a group of disadvantaged youth
02:23at the center of her teens speak out segment,
02:26convincing them to kill by lying about her relationship with her husband.
02:3118. Ruby – The Neon Demon
02:34While some femme fatales ride the line of moral ambiguity,
02:37Ruby is one of a select few that feels purely evil,
02:40although you may never guess based on her earliest scenes in The Neon Demon.
02:44Hey, you wanna go somewhere?
02:48Where?
02:51A party?
02:55What kind of party?
02:59The fun kind?
03:01Played by Jenna Malone, the makeup artist initially presents herself to the young protagonist Jessie
03:06as a friend and confidante.
03:08She warns the young model away from questionable photographers
03:11and offers her a place to stay when she feels unsafe in her motel room.
03:15Can you get out?
03:19I think so.
03:21Come here.
03:24You're gonna be safe.
03:26However, this kindness is revealed to have all been a ruse,
03:29with her true intentions being sexual and cannibalistic.
03:32Some have criticized the character for playing into the predatory lesbian trope,
03:36but as a femme fatale, Ruby's narrative puts an inventive spin on an old archetype.
03:4217. Mattie Walker – Body Heat
03:45Actress Kathleen Turner garnered a reputation as a sex symbol thanks to this smoking hot thriller.
03:51Set during an unrelentingly sweltering summer in South Florida,
03:55Body Heat finds its female protagonist Mattie in a predicament familiar to any fans of the genre.
04:01Tell me, does chat like this work with most women?
04:05Some, if they haven't been around much.
04:07I wondered. Thought maybe I was out of touch.
04:10Can I buy you a drink?
04:12I told you, I've got a husband.
04:14I'll buy him one too.
04:16She's saddled to an unloving and inattentive husband,
04:19dissuaded from divorce by the threat of financial ruin.
04:22Her only option? Murder.
04:24And thankfully, the corrupt lawyer Ned, with whom she is carrying out an affair, is up for the job.
04:30Why, Ned? What's happened?
04:35Because we're gonna kill him.
04:40We both know that.
04:44It's what you want, isn't it?
04:46What makes Body Heat stand out from the crowd is the fact that its crime happens fairly early on,
04:51leaving plenty of time in its second half for Mattie to play a complex mental game with both Ned and the audience.
04:5816. Bridget Gregory – The Last Seduction
05:02Linda Fiorentino commands our attention as the seductive Bridget Gregory in this textbook neo-noir.
05:08Using the alias Wendy Croy, the character escapes to a remote town,
05:12hoping to lay low long enough to make off with the $700,000 of her husband's cash.
05:18So what? Hold on to it for how long?
05:20Well, as long as it takes to finalize the divorce.
05:24How long does that take?
05:26You'll fight it, maybe two years less if you're lucky.
05:29Jesus, Frank.
05:31She lies, manipulates, and even kills to get what she wants,
05:34all while charming the audience as her unsuspecting victims.
05:38Following the film's release, Fiorentino received several award nominations for the role,
05:43even coming up in that year's Oscars conversations before being disqualified on a technicality.
05:48Commonality, Mike. We don't like to have the same kind of fun.
05:52This is fun?
05:53Yeah, it's bending the rules, playing with people's brains.
05:56While we could do without The Last Seduction's last act transphobia,
06:00it's femme fatale is one of the best conceived in contemporary film history,
06:04and more than worthy of a spot alongside her many iconic predecessors.
06:12Some of the most dangerous women in film are also the most seductive,
06:15a trope which this subversive revenge thriller uses to its advantage.
06:20Promising Young Woman opens with its protagonist Cassie Thomas posing as a blackout drunk.
06:25You're so beautiful. Do you mind if I just...
06:29Oh.
06:30...get a little smudge?
06:32When a man attempts to use her apparent condition as an excuse to assault her,
06:36she flips the script on him, revealing her sobriety and shaming him for his behaviour.
06:41This is shown to be her typical M.O.,
06:43though she has plans to take it up a notch at the bachelor party of her late friend's attacker.
06:48While the character's approach to revenge can sometimes be divisive,
06:51it's interesting to see an archetype that occasionally lends itself to sexism
06:55tackled in such an overtly feminist way.
06:58Do I know you?
06:59I'm not sure you'd remember me, Al. You were so popular.
07:08You're Nina's friend.
07:13Regularly terrorized by the horrifyingly violent gangster Frank Booth,
07:17it's no surprise that Dorothy Valens is seeking a way out.
07:26Unfortunately for naive college student Geoffrey Beaumont,
07:29her way out involves entangling him in her complex criminal web.
07:34He quickly comes to the conclusion that Frank has been able to keep Dorothy under his thumb
07:38not only through the threat of violence, but through the kidnapping of her husband and young son.
07:43I want you to stay. Don't hate me.
07:46Oh, I sure don't hate you.
07:49I'm not crazy. I know the difference between right and wrong.
07:55That's good.
07:56The pair enter into a sadomasochistic relationship,
08:00eventually leading to Geoffrey's own abduction and interrogation.
08:03Dorothy is a unique figure for a neo-noir, lacking explicit malice but nonetheless
08:08forced by circumstance to achieve her goals through dangerous, unconventional means.
08:1513. Jane Smith
08:17Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
08:18Imagine being married to someone for five years and never realizing that you had the same occupation.
08:23Does this work?
08:24Yes, so-so.
08:25This is the case for John and Jane Smith,
08:28who masquerade as a construction executive and a tech support consultant
08:32but actually spend their days as highly trained assassins.
08:35Unlike most neo-noir dynamics, both sides of this relationship are guilty of manipulation and deceit,
08:41and it's said that Jane is clearly the smarter and deadlier of the two.
08:44Did you also get the base charge of the principal cable?
08:50Promise to leave town or I'll blow it.
08:58Okay.
08:59John is lucky that their mutual feelings for each other got in the way of their missions
09:03because if they hadn't, she undeniably would have come out on top.
09:0812. Lynn Bracken
09:09L.A. Confidential
09:10In a world where everyone dreams of seeing their name in lights,
09:13Lynn Bracken just dreams of having a normal life.
09:16The cool girl works for Fleur Delis, an upscale business selling sex with a celebrity slant,
09:22where even the girls' faces are not their own.
09:25Bad news.
09:26You have to go.
09:28Go?
09:29Something very important has come up and you have to go, but I'll make it up to you, okay?
09:34Through cosmetic surgery, Bracken's face has become Veronica Lakes,
09:38a real-world actress known for her work in films like I Married a Witch and Sullivan's Travels.
09:44Unfortunately, those drawn in by her prosthetic visage would soon find that
09:48marrying a witch would have likely been less trouble.
09:51It would be easier for you if there was an angle, wouldn't it?
09:55You're afraid of Bud because you can't figure out how to play him.
09:59He doesn't follow the same rules of politics as you do.
10:02It makes him dangerous.
10:03Bracken's only true alliance is to herself,
10:05and she's more than willing to blackmail and manipulate those around her to get what she wants.
10:1111. Mal Cobb
10:13Inception
10:14If Mal Cobb's name sounds a little macabre, it's not unintentional.
10:18The mysterious woman who haunts Dom Cobb's dreams is actually his ex-wife,
10:23and her self-inflicted death weighs heavily on him, both in his fantasies and reality.
10:28What are you doing here?
10:29I know who you are. What are you doing here?
10:32And although his subconscious' memories of her are initially clouded with guilt and desire,
10:36it's slowly revealed that their time together was actually more of a nightmare.
10:41While attempting to work out the specifics of dream sharing,
10:44the pair got caught up in an imagined reality where 50 years played out in a single night.
10:49I'm asking you to take a leap of faith.
10:52No one here.
10:54No, I can't. You know I can't do that.
10:57Mal's sense of time and space was forever shifted,
11:00and she attempted to bring Dom down with her when she resorted to drastic measures to wake up.
11:0610. Catherine McToyle
11:08Cruel Intentions
11:09For Catherine McToyle, life is a game, and it's one that she's used to winning.
11:13How do you do it? Where do you get your strength?
11:16Well, I know this sounds corny,
11:19but whenever I feel the temptation of peer pressure,
11:22I turn to God.
11:24The high-class high schooler presents herself to the world as the ultimate picture of good breeding,
11:29clever, popular, and devoutly Catholic,
11:32all while getting off on the pain of those around her.
11:35In Cruel Intentions, she sets her sight on Cecile,
11:38the current girlfriend of her ex, Beau,
11:40hoping to manipulate her into cheating,
11:42while also entertaining him with her love for him.
11:45What are the terms?
11:46She lounges around their posh home,
11:48pulling the strings in the two low-down love plots
11:51until Sebastian's surprising connection to his Marc
11:54results in her untimely downfall.
11:579. Roxy Hart
11:59Chicago
12:00Largely based on the novel of the same name,
12:02Roxy Hart is the daughter of a wealthy businessman,
12:05who is also the daughter of a wealthy businessman,
12:07who is also the daughter of a wealthy businessman,
12:09who is also the daughter of a wealthy businessman,
12:11who is also the daughter of a wealthy businessman,
12:13Roxy Hart.
12:14Chicago
12:15Largely taking place in a women's prison,
12:17Chicago is ostensibly a film full of femme fatales,
12:21but only its protagonist, Roxy Hart,
12:24has a full man devoted enough to take the blame for her crime.
12:27Is that true, Mrs. Hart?
12:29I'm telling you, it's the God's honest truth.
12:30My wife had nothing to do with it.
12:32Although the duo's cover story doesn't work well enough
12:34to keep Roxy out of the slammer,
12:36it's just the first in a series of manipulations
12:39played out by the character.
12:41She's quick on her feet,
12:43with natural charm and a devilish nature.
12:45She even manages to con the double-tongued lawyer,
12:48Billy Flynn, feigning pregnancy
12:50to win the favor of the general public
12:52when it seemed her case was losing traction.
12:55Don't worry about me.
12:57Oh, I only hope the fall didn't hurt the baby.
13:01Rachel
13:02Blade Runner
13:03From the moment she steps on screen,
13:05Rachel captivates both Deckard and the audience.
13:08Rising above her status as a synthetic human,
13:10with a unique magnetism.
13:12Do you like our owl?
13:16It's artificial.
13:19Of course it is.
13:22Must be expensive.
13:26Very.
13:27Though man-made, she remains mysterious,
13:29with unclear alliances
13:31and the capabilities for complex emotion.
13:34Unlike some of her archetypal predecessors,
13:36Rachel does not approach the protagonist with any malice,
13:39but her sheer existence sets in motion a domino effect
13:42that causes him to question everything he thought he knew about his world.
13:46I'm not in the business.
14:01I am the business.
14:02His mission to retire her is foregone for a whirlwind romance,
14:06with the futuristic femme fatale
14:08managing to make it out of the film alive,
14:10despite the odds.
14:16To become a master manipulator,
14:18a woman must be comfortable wearing many different faces.
14:21This is no issue for Mystique,
14:23whose mutant powers allow her to literally morph
14:25into entirely new identities.
14:28You know, people like you are the reason I was afraid to go to school as a child.
14:33Rebecca Romijn's version of the character
14:35in the first three X-Men films
14:37most closely aligns with her film noir influences,
14:40playing up her seductive villainy in service of Magneto.
14:43She's a real force to be reckoned with,
14:46executing a complex jailbreak
14:48and infiltrating the US governments by impersonating a senator.
14:52The Mutant Registration Act continues to draw support.
14:55Mystique.
14:56We appreciate Jennifer Lawrence's unique spin on the character as well,
14:59but when it comes to the character's penchant for deceit,
15:01Romijn's interpretation simply can't be beat.
15:066. Xenia Onatop
15:08Goldeneye.
15:09It's not uncommon for the women in James Bond's world
15:12to have euphemistic names,
15:14and Goldeneye's villainess Xenia Onatop is no different.
15:18Onatop?
15:19Onatop.
15:22Your accent Georgian?
15:24Very good, Mr. Bond.
15:26You've been to Russia?
15:27Not recently.
15:28I used to drop in occasionally.
15:29The former Soviet fighter pilot and officer
15:32is a master of sexpionage,
15:34using her brute strength and striking good looks
15:37to execute some rather innovative assassinations.
15:40This special skill,
15:42paired with her allegiance to the evil Yanis Syndicate,
15:45makes her one of the deadliest women to go up against 007.
15:48You think you can break me?
15:50She even comes close to killing the famed agent twice,
15:53but is ultimately foiled in a fittingly crushing finale.
15:565. Ava
15:58Ex Machina.
15:59Following in Rachel's footsteps,
16:00Ava offers a futuristic spin on a classic character type.
16:04As an artificially intelligent robot,
16:06Ava is meant to be subjected to tests
16:08by a young programmer named Caleb
16:11to determine her capacity for human thought and emotion.
16:14You already know my name,
16:16and you can see that I'm a machine.
16:19Would you like to know how old I am?
16:21Sure.
16:22But as the film's plot unravels,
16:24it becomes clear that it is Caleb, not Ava,
16:27who is truly being tested.
16:29The android manipulates the newcomer
16:31into favoring her over her creator, Nathan,
16:33even temporarily cutting the power in their home
16:36to have private chats with him.
16:38Her tactics work as well as any human seductress's would,
16:41and her influence over Caleb
16:43eventually allows her and fellow android Kyoko
16:46to rebel against the man who gave them life.
16:49Ava!
16:55Go back to your room!
16:59If I do,
17:04are you ever going to let me out?
17:064. Alex Forrest – Fatal Attraction
17:09This 80s pop culture phenomenon
17:11plays out like a PSA for not having a girlfriend.
17:14What begins as a no-commitment one-night stand
17:17spirals out of control as the woman, Alex,
17:20becomes increasingly obsessed with her married lover.
17:23Hi.
17:24Hello.
17:26This isn't a bad time, is it?
17:28I was in the area, I figured that...
17:30No, no, you, uh, you wanna come to my office?
17:33She threatens to harm herself,
17:35pours acid on his car,
17:37and even kills his daughter's pet rabbit.
17:39And while Alex's behavior is a far cry
17:42from the cool and calculated plots of most noir women,
17:45her unpredictable mode of lashing out
17:47just serves to make her a more formidable foe.
17:50I just want to be a part of your life.
17:52Oh, this is the way you do it, huh?
17:54Showing up at my apartment?
17:55What am I supposed to do?
17:56You won't answer my calls, you change your number,
17:58I mean, I'm not gonna be ignored, Dan.
18:01She is willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants
18:04and won't be stopped by anything less than death.
18:073. Amy Dunn – Gone Girl
18:10Amy Dunn isn't like other final girls.
18:13She's dead.
18:14Well, technically missing.
18:16Soon to be presumed dead.
18:17A little over an hour into Gone Girl,
18:19Amy takes control of her own narrative,
18:21and in doing so, completely upends everything
18:24we thought we knew about her world.
18:26Nick Dunn took my pride and my dignity
18:29and my hope and my money.
18:31He took and took from me until I no longer existed.
18:35That's murder.
18:36Let the punishment fit the crime.
18:38What initially appears to be an open-and-shut case
18:40of a husband killing his pregnant wife
18:42is revealed to have all been a set-up,
18:44a calculated revenge plot for the crime of infidelity.
18:48She's definitely one of the craftiest femme fatales
18:51in film's history, and one of the most frightening.
18:55Right now it's all about our marriage.
18:58When two people love each other and can't make that work,
19:02that's the real tragedy.
19:04We certainly wouldn't want to be on her bad side.
19:072. Selina Kyle Slash Catwoman
19:10The Batman franchise.
19:12Few people in Gotham are able to get under Bruce's skin
19:15quite like Selina Kyle.
19:17You make it so easy, don't you?
19:20Always waiting for some Batman to save you.
19:26I am Catwoman.
19:28It's why the sultry cat burglar
19:30has become one of the Caped Crusader's
19:32most frequently faced foes,
19:34having been adapted several times
19:36over both on the page and on the screen.
19:39Never committing to being fully good or evil,
19:41each iteration of the iconic character
19:43allows its actress, and the film she's in,
19:46a chance to try something entirely new.
19:49There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne.
19:52You and your friends better batten down the hatches
19:55because when it hits, you're all going to wonder
19:58how you ever thought you could live so large
20:01and leave so little for the rest of us.
20:04Whether she's a timid secretary
20:06who learns how to land on her two feet,
20:08or a waitress wrestling with hefty moral dilemmas,
20:11it's guaranteed that her presence will shake up
20:13both the plot and its protagonist.
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20:321. Kathryn Trammell – Basic Instinct
20:35When retired rock star Johnny Bozz turns up dead,
20:38his girlfriend, Kathryn Trammell, seems like the obvious culprit.
20:41Are you with him last night?
20:43Yes.
20:44Did you leave the club with him?
20:45Yes.
20:46Did you go home with him?
20:47No. We had a drink at the club we left together.
20:51He went home and I came out here.
20:53Her latest novel details an eerily similar death,
20:56and the company she keeps includes convicted murderers.
20:59Nonetheless, she is able to sow seeds of doubt within the police force,
21:02using her innate desirability to her advantage.
21:05Lead detective Nick Curran proves to be her most malleable mark,
21:09falling hard for the could-be murderer over the course of his investigation.
21:14What happened? Did you get sucked into it?
21:17Did you like it too much?
21:22I don't know what you're talking about.
21:24As a well-researched crime novelist,
21:26Kathryn is one of the most perceptive femme fatales in modern history.
21:30She consistently remains ten steps ahead of her adversaries,
21:33and delights in playing mind games with both men and women alike.
21:38Who do you think is the best modern femme fatale?
21:41Let us know in the comments.
21:43Well, hello again.
21:48Have you been to the bars in this town?
21:50Well, it's very nice to see you too. I've been looking all over for you.
21:54Did you enjoy this video?
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