Sandra Bullock's Most Badass Movie Characters, Ranked

From Miss Congeniality to Gravity.

By Seija Rankin Oct 29, 2015 10:32 PMTags
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Ah Sandra Bullock, that bastion of the big screen. She might be one of the most beloved actresses out there, and with good reason. Her onscreen presence is matched only by her ability to straight up keep it real. 

This weekend Bullock is taking over theaters again with her new movie Our Brand Is Crisis. The flick follows Sandra's character, a political strategist informally known as Calamity Jane, as she travels to Bolivia to take over a presidential campaign. It's loosely based on a 2005 documentary of the same name, and it sees Jane and her team through all the typical stages of a dramatized South American political upheaval—muckraking, civil unrest, protests and dirty campaign tactics. (Sound familiar?)

Bullock's onscreen persona is something of a force to be reckoned with, as she goes up against the frighteningly corrupt political system with some of her own not-so-ethical tactics. In other words, she's kind of a badass. Which brings up the point that Sandy B. is no stranger to roles that kick some butt, whether she's pulling a gun or just mouthing off some sass in the best way possible.

So naturally, we chose her eight most badass roles and ranked them.

8. Speed

She's driving a bus loaded with a bomb, for God's sake. Sandy gets points for style under pressure, as well as some seriously Nascar-worthy steering skills. Although, this movie was made in 1994 and thus this role devolves into a bit of a romantic set piece at times, but Bullock did her best with what she was given. And again, she was driving a bus with a bomb on board.

7. Practical Magic

The Owens Sisters may not be gun-toting FBI agents or astronauts on a spacewalk, but there's something to be said for the badass-ness of black magic. Practical Magic Sandra can do spells, after all. Any woman who has the ability to reign complete occultist control over the men in her life goes to the top of our girl crush list.

6. Miss Congeniality 

Castle Rock Ent./Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com

Watch her punch, watch her shoot, watch her put Benjamin Bratt in a headlock. Sure she can wear a bandage dress and a sash like nobody's business, but we're more into all those physical stunts. Plus, if she can resist punching the pageant contestant that answers "April 25" as their ideal date, she deserves a gold medal in patience.

5. The Blind Side

It's Sandy The Rebel: Southern Edition. All the sass, with an extra side of twang. Most of her characters are badass' in the physical sense, but Leah Anne Tuohy is a badass of the social and cultural variety. She doesn't give a damn what other people think and that deserves a standing O. 

4. The Proposal

Hear us out for a second. This is a romantic comedy in its truest form, sure. But Bullock's Margaret Tate is a force to be reckoned with. She's steely, she's powerful, and she has a fantastic job, which is more than we can say for some of her other roles (cough Forces of Nature cough). Oh and there's the fact that she gets to be Ryan Reynolds' boss. Win.

3. Our Brand Is Crisis

Say what you will about the quality of this actual movie, but we love seeing Sandra play a complicated woman with a complicated job. Calamity Jane swoops on in to Bolivia and takes control of the situation and isn't afraid to break a few rules or yell at a few politicians on the way. She's certainly not perfect, but she has conviction in spades.

2. Gravity

Remember that time Sandra Bullock played an astronaut who gets marooned in outer space? Sure, Ryan Stone may have needed a wee bit of help from George Clooney to navigate her way back to Earth, but that doesn't take away from the fact that she's 1) an astronaut—a huge feat in and of itself—and 2) an astronaut who manages to save herself from a space debris collision and then pilot a tiny (and broken) module all the way through the damn solar system.

1. The Heat

20th Century Fox

In our minds, The Heat was basically Miss Congeniality without all that silly pageant stuff. We always love to see police-officer-Sandy, and when she's ordering around Melissa McCarthy it's all the better. And just look at how badass she is—you can't argue with a sure thing.