Jodie Foster: Roles Ranked in Order of Steely Self-Sufficiency

With Elysium, Jodie Foster once again takes the screen as her favorite character type: the solitary, stoic, iron-willed woman who seems to exist in a universe all to herself. We went and found 13 roles and ranked them by how much they embody these very Foster-ian qualities. Quid pro quo, Clarice.

13. The Beaver: Playing the supportive/concerned wife to a mid-breakdown Mel Gibson doesnt offer a lot of opportunities for the kind of iron-spined character that Foster delivers so well.

12. Carnage: Jodies character in this Brooklyn-set comedy of manners, lack of manners, accusations, and bourgeois contentment is anything but steely. She kind of flies off the handle at a moments notice.

11. Nell: Nell kind of splits the difference between steely self-sufficiency. She certainly managed to survive all that time in the wild, so shes got the latter part down. But shes also completely child-like and thus not exactly the kind of steely broad were looking for.

10. The Accused: The harrowing events of The Accused ultimately lead to Jodies character having her day in court, but its a long road to get there, and before that, shes a live wire who needs to be wrangled by her attorney (Kelly McGillis).

9. Flightplan: Jodie is a nervous wreck in this one, but she basically battles back against a plan to blow up a plane basically all by herself, so thats not bad.

8. Maverick: Another team-up with her best pal Mel, Jodies old-west con-artist manages to get a lot done on her own, but for so much of that movie shes a sidecar to Gibson, leaving us with thoughts of the movie that could have been if Jodie was the main character.

7. Inside Man: God, is Fosters character a righteous bitch in this movie. Shes amazing. Do not mess with her at all.

6. Panic Room: Much like in Flightplan, Fosters character in David Finchers claustrophibic rollercoaster is a mess of jangled nerves, but as she and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) are forced to defend themselves against home-invaders, shes forced into being a self-sufficient action heroine.

5. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys: In what amounts to little more than a cameo, Foster played Sister Assumpta. And is there any better example of steel-spined autonomy than playing a nun?

4. The Brave One: That mid-2000s trend of Jodie playing frightened women who fight back concluded its trilogy with this Neil Jordan movie about the dangers lurking in scary, scary Central Park. Once we get past the films mid-point, Jodie becomes a vigilante warrior who embodies all the classic Jodie characteristics.

3. Contact: Only Jodie Foster could take an emergency space mission to an uncharted alien civilization and do it all by herself. Sure, fine, nobody believes her when she says that she traveled through a wormhole despite no time having passed (that mean old James Woods!), but we saw it, and she succeeded in that mission all on her own.



2. Taxi Driver: At an incredibly young age, Jodie exhibited her tendency to be self-sufficient and preternaturally self-possessed. As the teenage prostitute who becomes the object of Robert De Niros fascination, she was the closest thing to a strong protagonist that the film had.

1. The Silence of the Lambs: FBI trainee Clarice Starling remains Fosters best and most iconic role. Her transformation from stoicly nervous student to gun-slinging unlikely hero is not without jangled nerves throughout. But at some point, she realizes shes on her own, and thats where the iron-lady stuff kicks in.

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