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The list of new franchise action heroes who’ve emerged over the last decade or so pretty much begins and ends with John Wick, but I’d love to see another, lesser-known action hero join the ranks alongside him: Rebecca Hooper.
She may not have the same name recognition as John Wick, but Becky (as she’s known to her friends and enemies) starred in two of the most entertaining action movies in recent years, and she’s just as well-poised to lead a franchise. As played by Lulu Wilson, Becky is lethal and sardonic, a teenage girl who wreaks righteous vengeance on white-supremacist villains who target the people she loves. She teaches these crude, sadistic men that they should never underestimate the determination of a teenage girl.
Both 2020’s “Becky” and 2023’s “The Wrath of Becky” are now streaming on Netflix, giving them the chance to find the wider audience they deserve.
Becky is an action hero for our time
Maybe “Becky” screenwriters Nick Morris, Lane Skye and Ruckus Skye were just looking for an easy target when they decided to make neo-Nazis their villains, but the image of a petite young girl taking on burly, swastika-tattooed men turns out to be inspirational for the current societal moment.
“The Wrath of Becky” doubles down on its skewering of white-nationalist losers, and it’s even more cathartic to watch them get what’s coming to them. At the same time, both movies place action, suspense and humor ahead of social commentary, so they never come across as heavy-handed.
The bad guys’ goal in “Becky” isn’t even primarily related to their abhorrent views. Hulking neo-Nazi leader Dominick (Kevin James) and his even larger right-hand man, Apex (Robert Maillet,) escape from prison and join two other associates to invade a vacation home where 13-year-old Becky is staying with her father Jeff (Joel McHale); Jeff’s fiancée, Kayla (Amanda Brugel); and Kayla’s young son, Ty (Isaiah Rockcliffe). Dominick and his gang are searching for a mysterious key hidden on the property, and Becky and her family just happen to be in the way.
Becky takes a more proactive approach to eliminating racist terrorists in “The Wrath of Becky,” although the inciting incident still involves an attack on her home. Now 16, Becky is a runaway working as a diner waitress and living with kind but tough old lady Elena (Denise Burse). A group of insecure jerks from a Proud Boys-like group called the Noble Men harass her at the diner, then follow her home, where they kill Elena and kidnap Becky’s beloved dog, Diego. She then takes the fight to their compound, squaring off with quietly ruthless leader Darryl (Seann William Scott).
Becky is as funny as she is deadly
While “The Wrath of Becky” is much more comedic than “Becky,” both movies lean into the potential humor of this unassuming teenager brutally destroying much bigger, more dangerous men, without any hesitation or remorse. “Becky” is structured like a gory, R-rated version of “Home Alone,” as Becky has to improvise weapons from the items she has at hand to fend off her attackers. She retreats to her childhood fort in the woods behind the family home, where she fashions weapons out of innocuous items like colored pencils and rulers and uses a walkie-talkie toy to taunt her adversaries.
She’s more prepared and more heavily armed in “The Wrath of Becky,” using the Noble Men’s large arsenal of weapons against them, but she’s still creatively nasty, often going out of her way to maim or kill her opponents in the most humiliating way possible. In “Becky,” she stabs Dominick in the eye with the very key he’s been looking for, and in “The Wrath of Becky,” she tricks Darryl into triggering an explosion that blows off his own underling’s head.
It’s also amusing to watch comedy stars James and Scott play such cruel, detestable villains, and they’re more entertaining because they both play their characters straight. Becky gets all the funny lines, while Dominick and Darryl seethe and threaten, and the normally goofy actors, both prodigiously bearded, give genuinely menacing performances. That makes it even more satisfying to watch Becky totally demolish them, and the filmmakers in both movies offer plenty of crowd-pleasing moments of comeuppance.
The Becky franchise is full of potential
After they see what she’s truly capable of, both of Becky’s enemies eventually attempt to recruit her, and she takes obvious pleasure in turning them down. She’s offered a different sort of recruitment from a mysterious character played by Kate Siegel in the epilogue to “The Wrath of Becky,” setting up the possibility for future installments. There’s been no confirmation of further sequels yet, but Becky’s presence on Netflix may be just what she needs to get the green light for another movie.
If so, Wilson is clearly able to carry a larger action franchise, as Becky takes on more degenerate douchebags and defends the people she cares about. Kayla calls her “strong-willed and vindictive as they come,” and Elena compares her to the heroine of “True Grit.” She lives up to those designations, with a gleeful mean streak that sets her apart from more upstanding action heroes.
She’ll do anything to defend her independence and protect her dog, even if it means killing everyone who opposes her. John Wick would approve.
“Becky” and “The Wrath of Becky” are now streaming on Netflix
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