Nikita (1990)

Description

Luc Besson's NIKITA is the stylish, high-voltage thriller that revolutionized the action genre with a sexy, gun-wielding woman as its main character. Starring Jean Reno (Mission: Impossible), Jean-Hughes Anglade (Betty Blue), Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim), and Anne Parillaud (Map of the Human Heart) in this title role (winning her a 1991 Best Actress Cesar Award), NIKITA achieved cult status worldwide, inspiring an American remake (1993's Point of No Return) and a hit U.S. television series. After being convicted of killing a cop, street-tough Nikita must choose between her own execution or training with a top-secret government agency to become an assassin. Given a new identity, new skills, and a new life by her sadistic mentor (Tcheky Karyo), Nikita becomes "Josephine", a seductive, sophisticated knockout who's also a brutally efficient killing machine. Powered by some of the most adrenaline-pumping action sequences ever filmed, NIKITA redefined femme fatale for a new generation.