5 Badass Roles of Scarlett Johansson

Writer: Casey Lee

Scarlett Johansson in "Lucy"

Oh, Scarlett Johansson. Sexiest woman alive. Seduction incarnate. But if any man gets on her bad side, they will find out the hard way. Although Scarlett may have started her career looking good onscreen, she has mixed her repertoire of vanity roles with some pain delivering ones too, making her a tough sell if any man think that she is just another pretty face.

While we prepare to have our minds blown by her increasing brain capacity in "Lucy", we retrace her rise of female badassdom to remind you why she deserves to have a spot in the female pantheon of Luc Besson.

We start off the list with a little role in a well forgotten horror comedy when a then 18-year old Scarlett Johansson played Ashley Parker. Ashley is the sheriff's daughter in a quiet mining town until it is rampaged by giant toxic spiders. Although it is customary that the damsels in such movies are rather short-lived, but Ashley is far from the disposable damsel in distress.

Whether it comes to mutant spiders or forceful boyfriends, Ashley knows how to protect herself and isn't afraid to hurt anyone.

So guys, unless you want to wet yourself after having a taser to your crotch, you better listen to her when she says she's not ready!

When two dudes plan to steal the answers for the next SAT exam, they come to see Francesca Curtis, whose father runs the building where the answers are kept.

While Francesca doesn't do anything physically awesome (except for that Trinity bit), it's for her attitude that we count her as one of Scarlett's earlier badass roles.

Rich, cynical and an unapologetic biatch, there's more to what makes her a fearless badass when her only motivation to gamble her future on the desperate plans to cheat the SAT is because it sounds 'fun'.

She may be the clone of a supermodel, but Jordan Two Delta is not cut out to be an organ factory.

From dangling at rooftops, dodging mercenaries, escaping on high-speed chases to liberating free willed clones to an outside world they never knew existed, this is our first introduction to a Scarlett Johansson.

With her action chops, and she has definitely earned her stripes after running away from every explosion that Michael Bay can throw at her.

If the roles we've mentioned thus far are too nice, we get to see a shade of grey of her as Silken Floss in the best forgotten adaptation by Frank Miller.

Methodically cool with a scientific accuracy in explaining things, Silken Floss doesn't see herself as a pretty sidekick to her boss the Octopus (played by Samuel L. Jackson without the eye patch), but tags along just so that she can make lots of money as she refines the formula for immortality, and looking fabulous for a Mexican standoff.

If anyone hasn't heard of Scarlett Johansson before seeing her as Natasha Romanoff, they would definitely remember her after. First appearing as a helpful secretary to Tony Stark in "Iron Man 2", audiences weren't expecting that she would fit into a skin tight suit to take down an entire floor of mooks, while Stark's own bodyguard struggles with the first one at the entrance. From then on, it's hard to pick our favourite action scene with the former spy, whether it is that beatdown with a chair in the beginning of "The Avengers", or when she needs to secure the engine room in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". As a fan favourite outside of the core members of The Avengers and with a complicated back story that has only surfaced after three appearances, we cannot wait for Marvel to officially announce that "Black Widow" stand-alone movie.