'Proud Mary' Is The Movie Black Women Like Me Have Been Waiting For

The trailer for the highly-anticipated hit-woman thriller starring Taraji P. Henson, Proud Mary, came out on Thursday, and, to put it lightly, it is everything I never knew I needed. The film, out early next year, is exactly what I've been wanting to see in the thriller genre; while there have been plenty of movies like Elektra, Aeon Flux, Kill Bill, Mr. and Mrs. Smith that've hit the box office in recent years, far too few action films have featured Black female leads. It's about damn time Black women like myself get a movie like Proud Mary.

The few mainstream thrillers from the last few decades that have had Black female leads are pretty much just Smokin' Aces with Alicia Keys and Colombiana with Zoe Saldana. Two films is ridiculous, and it's far past time for that number to change. Thankfully by the looks of the trailer (which is set, of course, to the tune of Tina Turner's hit “Proud Mary"), Proud Mary could be seriously great. In the movie, Henson plays Mary, a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston. Her life swiftly takes a turn when she meets a young boy who crosses paths with her during a hit gone bad. In the trailer, you can see Henson suiting up in a leather jacket and heels, with weapons that could put all other assassins to shame. The trailer doesn't share much else about the plot, but from the little seen, I couldn't be more interested in learning more about Mary.

To see Henson get to play an assassin is a major deal. She's kicking down doors with this role, literally and figuratively. There are so many little brown and black girls who will see this trailer, and, later, the actual movie, and think, "I can be just a brave as her." The portrayal of Black women in film needs so much improvement, and as awesome as the thrillers we get all the time are, I want to see more Black women on screen in roles like Henson's. Give me more movies like Kill Bill or Coffy with Black women as the leads, being masterminds, assassins, or just total badasses. There are too many Black girls, including me, who are hungry for heroes, or even antiheroes, that look like us.

Proud Mary is so necessary, and the fact that Henson is accompanied by some of Black Hollywood's greats like Danny Glover and Margaret Avery makes this movie even more worthwhile. The film comes out Jan. 12, 2018, and I, for one, cannot wait to start my New Year off will a movie like this.