Convicted for the cold-blooded murder of a police officer, Nikita finds herself at the end of a needle crying for her mother. Women Who Wow Wednesday celebrates Luc Besson’s signature character in the 1990 film La Femme Nikita.
She awakens in a sterile, white room thinking she may have gone to heaven. But a man dressed in black tells her otherwise. On the record, she died committing suicide taking a massive dose of tranquilizers and her remains lie in Maisons-Alfort, Row 8, Plot 30. The man reveals he works for the government and the government is willing to give Nikita a chance to make amends for all the wrong she had committed.
If she refuses—Maisons-Alfort, Row 8, Plot 30
Nikita’s first order of business entails her to undergo a rigorous set of training exercises dedicated to computer wizardry, weapons mastery, martial arts and beauty. Her task? To become someone else. Someone she would never have imagined possible of becoming when she had taken the life of that police officer.
The film stars Anne Parillaud who underwent a year’s transformation to make her believable as the rogue government agent Nikita. She had received the script ten days prior to filming, allowing her to create realistic reactions to many of the film’s brutal scenes.
Nikita came from the cold streets of drug abuse. She eyed every pharmacy as a potential score. The company she kept equally hated society. Their dark world consisted of scoring and getting high. Between the binges of scores and drugs, they lived empty lives lacking hope for the future and direction for a better life.
In some ways, when her mentor and boss, Bob (Tchéky Karyo), recruits her, he did her a favor by removing her from the streets, saving her life in the process.
And when she meets Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade), the wave of an ordinary life washes over Nikita. She finds happiness for the first time in her abused life. She finds love for the first time as well. His love for her grounds her, keeping her sensibilities pure.
But as in every fairy tale, reality sets in forcing Nikita to realize there’s only one solution to ending her double life.
Don’t worry I won’t spoil it for you. Suffice it to say her reality is what she wished for all along.
Have you seen the movie La Femme Nikita? What did you think of it?
Looking to God 
I didn’t think it was that brilliant as you did, however, it was a smart Besson movie that treated its characters with enough care and emotion that the emotional-weight is lifted to uncontrollable proportions by the end. Nice points, though.
I remember the original, more or less when it first came out. Up to 1990 I can’t immediately think of any characters like this. Besson had a habit of setting benchmarks in film that allowed others to follow, and I don’t think we would have had tv series like Alias without Nikita.
Ooh, I’ve never seen this! Going to have to look it up now!
This sounds awesome! Not sure about the gruesome bits though. Is there a book?
It’s a shame the TV show Nikita got an early cancelation. You really got me interested in watching the film though.
Oh, you made me want to watch this again! It’s a brilliant film.
It’s totally an awesome movie I enjoy watching over and over again!
As soon as I saw your Women Who Wow feature months ago, I had been waiting for THIS particular woman. To me, she is in so many ways the epitome of Wow-able women. 🙂
Sandi, I have a list of women I’ve been meaning to get to. Nikita has always been on top, but I never really knew from which angle I should approach her character. Thus the long wait!
I never saw the original, but is ‘Point of No Return’ connected to this? I know they have, or had, a TV series called Nikita too. Gives me the sense that she’s the epitome of female secret agent.
Yes, Point of No Return is actually a remake of this movie. Nikita’s backstory is awesome, but in this movie it’s spectacular! It’s a tossup between Salt and Nakita as best female secret agent.
I didn’t really get into Salt when i watched it. Think I saw too much of it coming. Can’t think of any other female agents though.
Now that I think of it, Mrs. Smith, also played by Angelina Jolie, is incredible too! Did you see Mr. & Mrs. Smith?