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French filmmaker Luc Besson has a type. However, his muse isn’t an icy Hitchcockian blonde or a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Luc Besson is into short-haired vixens with a penchant for murder.

Scarlett Johansson becomes the latest of Luc Besson’s foxy femme fatales in this weekend’s new theatrical release, Lucy. In the film, gangsters use Lucy as a drug mule for an experimental drug, only the drug gets leaked into her system, and then she begins to access her entire brain. This means she can stop time and change her hair color at will and kill people — like you do.

Maybe Johansson is the first of Besson’s muses with telekinetic powers, but she’s merely the latest in a long-line of short-haired, beautiful, lithe heroines who kick people’s asses. If you think we’re exaggerating, we’ve compiled a list of leading ladies from Besson’s work as a writer, director and producer, and yeah, Luc Besson totally has a type.

Anne Parillaud as Nikita in La Femme Nikita (1990)
Does She Have Short Hair? Yes
Is She Beautiful? Yes
Is She Lithe? Yes
Does She Kick Ass? Yes. In case you didnt know, the Nikita franchise is exclusively about Nikita being screwed over by life and then kicking everyone’s asses.
GoWatchIt: La Femme Nikita

Natalie Portman as Mathilda in Leon: The Professional (1994)
Does She Have Short Hair? Yes
Is She Beautiful? Yes
Is She Lithe? She’s 12, guys. (So, technically, yes, because she’s got the scrawny and flexible body of a child.)
Does She Kick Ass? Well, she helps a hit man murder drug dealers and he trains her in his profession. So, there’s no hand-to-hand combat, but she is lethal.
GoWatchIt: Leon: The Professional

Milla Jovovich as Leeloo in The Fifth Element (1997)
Does She Have Short Hair? Yes
Is She Beautiful? Yes
Is She Lithe? She is the most flexible being to ever walk the Earth.
Does She Kick Ass? Yes. She beats the hell out of many a big, bad futuristic thug.
GoWatchIt: The Fifth Element

Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
Does She Have Short Hair? Yes
Is She Beautiful? Yes
Is She Lithe? Yes, even in that battle armor.
Does She Kick Ass? She leads France to freedom, so yes.
GoWatchIt: The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc

Salma Hayek as Sara Sandoval and Penelope Cruz as Maria Alvarez in Bandidas (2006)
Do They Have Short Hair? Nope and Nope.
Are They Beautiful? Yes and Yes.
Are They Lithe? They are both curvaceous, but they are both also thin and toned. So, sure.
Do They Kick Ass? Yes, they rob banks and shoot guns and throw knives.
GoWatchIt: Bandidas

Zoe Saldana as Cataleya in Colombiana (2011)
Does She Have Short Hair? No
Is She Beautiful? Yes
Is She Lithe? Yes
Does She Kick Ass? Yes. She kicks many an ass.
GoWatchIt: Colombiana

Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi in The Lady (2011)
Does She Have Short Hair? Yes. Well, it’s pinned up.
Is She Beautiful? Yes, inside and out.
Lithe? I guess. I don’t know.
Does She Kick Ass? Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize, so I guess you could say she kicked violence’s ass.
GoWatchIt: The Lady

Louise Bourgoin as Adèle Blanc-Sec in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)
Does She Have Short Hair? Nope
Is She Beautiful? Yes
Is She Lithe? Yes
Does She Kick Ass? Well, she’s a journalist in 1912 France who encounters mummies and dinosaurs, so I think she kicks ass.

Michelle Pfeiffer as Maggie and Dianna Agron as Belle in The Family (2013)
Does She Have Short Hair? Nope and Nope
Is She Beautiful? Yes and Yes
Is She Lithe? Yes and Yes
Do They Kick Ass? Uh-huh. Maggie blows up a convenience store and they both kill hit men.
GoWatchIt: The Family

Scarlett Johansson as Lucy in Lucy (2014)
Does She Have Short Hair? Yes
Is She Beautiful? Yes
Is She Lithe? Yes
Does She Kick Ass? Yup! Based on the trailers, Lucy murders many men.