The 15 Most Badass Women In Steven Soderbergh Movies

Tomorrow, Steven Soderbergh will release his latest thriller, Side Effects, and to hear him tell it, it'll be his last feature film. The decision to hang up his camera is his prerogative, but it'd sure be a shame if he's done. Few filmmakers can claim such an eclectic filmmography.

Soderbergh dabbled in many genres, but if there's one constant in his films, it's the presence of independent, determined, and yes, beautiful women. From Jennifer Lopez's US Marshal in Out of Sight down to Rooney Mara's maybe victim, maybe femme fatale in Side Effects, Complex has rooted out the best of Soderbergh's take-charge women.

Read on for The 15 Most Badass Women In Steven Soderbergh Movies.

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Written by Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)

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As the spunky sister of one of Mike's (Channing Tatum) fellow dancers, Brooke is attracted to the eponymous male stripper, but not in the shallow manner that he's used to encountering as a man who often takes off his clothes for drunk people. Brooke's also quick to call him out over his bullshit.

Smart, beautiful, but not jaded? Isn't hard to see why he quit the life for her.

In contrast to her repressed sister Ann (Andie MacDowell), Cynthia Bishop is a sexually independent, free-spirited, self-assured bartender. She's also secretly sleeping with her brother-in-law (Peter Gallagher).

As greasy as sleeping with your husband's boyfriend is, Cynthia stands out as the one person in Soderbergh's indie trendsetter who is unflinchingly true to herself, a rare and special thing in a film full of self-deceivers.

Most of Magic Mike's customers would die for a date with him, let alone a relationship, but Joanna isn't so caught up. Like many of the women in Soderbergh's films, she's not about that commitment life.

Magical Michael takes it hard, but Bill Withers suggests being used at least once. And if it's Olivia Munn doing the using, well...

Dr. Orantes is an epidemiologist studying the origins of the film's super-virus in Hong Kong when she's kidnapped by a local doctor in a desperate bid to get the vaccines delivered to his village.

Months later when the exchange finally goes down, Orantes has become Stockholm Syndrome-close with her captors. Upon learning that the delivered vaccines are actually placebos, she returns to warn the villagers—risking exposure to the virus and/or retribution from the angry villagers in the process.

She has principles.

Abigail Sponder has all of Barkin's well-aged charm, but with the added menace of being the right-hand woman to unscrupulous casino magnate Willy Bank (Al Pacino), the Billy Sherbert to his Ace Rothstein.

Barkin's portrayal of Sponder is a high point in a film sorely lacking in them.

Working under the alias of Chelsea, Christine is a captain of industry, an NYC-based escort who offers the coveted "girlfriend experience" to wealthy, powerful clients.

Say what you will about her profession—her business is her own, she answers to no one, and conducts most of her dealings, in expensive restaurants and gorgeous hotels. If that's not a boss, we don't know what is.

Is Emily Taylor the victim of a bumbling psychologist (Jude Law)? Or is she a femme fatale using the psychologist and his new anxiety drug to further her own clear-headed motives?

That's the question at the heart of the twisty Side Effects, Soderbergh's latest thriller, a fine note to go out on if he is indeed calling it quits.

Oh, you're waiting for an answer? Throw down for a ticket—we're not telling.

Europol agent Isabel Lahiri gets props for being the only cop in the Ocean's series smart enough to foil Danny (George Clooney) and the gang, in large part because she's the daughter of world-renowned master thief LeMarc.

The small fact that his arrest was part of the plan all along is just a technicality, one that was dependent on Isabel's ability to keep up with them in the first place.

Tamara Bunke, also known as "Tania the Guerrilla," was a key member of Che Guavera's (Benicio del Toro) Marxists, proving instrumental in their efforts until her death at the hands of the CIA in the ill-fated Bolivian insurgency.

You can tell by the way she wears her beret that she's not fucking around.

Julia Roberts exudes sass and will in her turn as the real-life file clerk who rallied an entire community to bring down a corrupt gas company.

Movie Brockovich is a potent blend of brains and beauty, having the investigative prowess to pry into the gas company's dealings in the first place, but not above using her God-given cleavage to move the case forward.

And all while being a single mother to three children.

While the rest of the world descends into madness over the rapidly spreading super-virus, CDC doctor Ally Hextall not only discovers the origin of the unprecedented strain, she also creates the vaccine to cure it.

Only there's no time to go through the proper testing procedures, so she takes it herself, then goes to visit her infected father, an incredibly ballsy move that pays off and saves the world.

Salute.

In addition to being the vehicle for Jennifer Lopez's finest performance, U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco is an Elmore Leonard creation, much like that other marshal currently gracing TV screens on FX.

Like all Leonard characters, Sisco has a biting wit she uses to hold her own in a world dominated by bad dudes. Combine that with her looks and you have one of Soderbergh's most memorable characters ever.

Soderbergh's examination of America's misguided and failing war on drugs is full of dynamic characters, but none are more impressive—or scary—than that of Los Angeles socialite Helen Ayala.

When her husband is outed as one of the biggest cocaine distributors in the country and arrested, she puts on her game face and proceeds to do whatever is necessary to keep her family (and lifestyle) intact. This includes conferring with high-profile assassins to organize a hit on key witnesses, and negotiating high-priced drug deals with cartel bosses...while six-months pregnant with her second child.

Mallory Kane is not only the most badass woman in the Soderbergh filmography, she's one of the most badass spies in action movie history. You've never seen a female spy involved in fight scenes as brutal as those in Haywire. Couple that with her above average operational skills, and it becomes confusing as to why the film's villains would even try double-crossing an agent so damn good at what she does.

Still they try, fail, and later suffer her wrath for their troubles. Soderbergh can't retire yet—Kane needs a sequel first.