Return of the killer robot? Evil scientist?! Helpless woman?!?

by Paul Curzon, Queen Mary University of London

In an early issue of the cs4fn magazine we looked at how robots, female scientists and women generally were portrayed in 20th century science fiction movies. It wasn't great. Robots were killers, scientists evil. Computer scientist's were introverted and thickheaded. Women were either sexbots or helpless love interest to be rescued by the hunky male star. 1995's film Hackers was about as good as it got. At last a woman had expert computing skills. It's hardly surprising some girls are led to believe computing isn't for them with a century-long conspiracy aiming to convince them their role in life is to be helpless.

As our area on women in computing shows the truth is far more interesting. Women have always played a big part in the development of modern technology. So have things improved in films? There are more films with strong action-heroine stars now, though few films pass the Bechdel test: do two women ever talk together about anything other than a man? So can we at least find any 21st century films with realistic main character roles for women as computer experts? Here goes...

1999-2003: Matrix Trilogy

Hero Neo discovers reality isn't what it seems. It is all a virtual reality. Trinity is there to be his romantic interest - she's been told by the Oracle that she will fall in love with the "One" (that's him). It's not looking good. In film 2 Neo has to save her. Oh dear. At least she is supposed to be a super-hacker famous for cracking an uncrackable database. Oh well.

2009: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

This is the story of super-hacker Lisbeth Salander. Both emotionally and sexually abused as a child she looks after herself, and that includes teaching herself to be an expert with computers. She uses her immense skills to get what she wants. She is cool and clever and absolutely not willing to let the men treat her as a victim. Wonderful.

2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This film is all about a male hunk, so it's not looking good, but then early on we see Agent Natasha Romanoff, (also known as superheroine the Black Widow). She is the brains to Captain America's brawn and from the start she is clearly the expert with computers. While Captain America beats people up, her mission is to collect data. Let's hope she gets her own film series!

2015: Star Wars: Episode VII - the Force Awakens

Rey is a scavenger with engineering skills. She is very smart, and can look after herself without expecting men to save her. She's not a hacker! Instead, she creates and mends things. She repurposes parts she finds on wrecked spaceships to sell to survive. She learnt her engineering skills tinkering in old ships and fixes the Millennium Falcon's electro-mechanical problems. She is even the main character of the whole film!

There are plenty of moronic films, made by men who can't portray women in remotely realistic ways, but at least things are a bit better than they were last century. The women are already here in the real world. They are slowly getting there in the movies. Let's just hope the trend speeds up, and we have more female leads who create things, like the real female computer scientists.

Email your reviews of female characters in science fiction films (good or bad) to cs4fn@eecs.qmul.ac.uk