Left to right: Ezra, Ryder, Daisy, and Diamond
Sheroes is an action movie written and directed by Jordan Gertner. It was released in 2023 by Paramount.
Diamond, Ezra, Ryder and Daisy (Sasha Luss, Isabelle Fuhrman, Wallis Day, and Skai Jackson, respectively) are close friends. They decide to go on vacation together at Diamond's invitation. Flying to Thailand, they get into trouble when it turns out Ryder's bag was switched for one full of cocaine. They foolishly use some, and Daisy is then kidnapped by the drug traffickers it belongs to so they can get the bag back from the others. Diamond resolves to rescue her, with Ryder and Ezra going along in spite of the danger.
Sheroes contains examples of the following tropes:
- Action Girl:
- Diamond is quite skilled with guns, including handguns and sniper rifles. She also teaches Ezra and Ryder to shoot a bit too.
- Ryder's a very skilled martial artist and skateboarder, using both these in the film against opponents.
- Ezra assists them to a lesser degree using guns.
- Near the end, Daisy fires a bazooka to blow up a truck driven by drug traffickers pursuing them.
- Badass in Distress: Ryder, after beating two previous thugs skillfully, gets in trouble with another behind her strangling her. Daisy saves her though.
- Braids of Action: Diamond, who's very good with guns, puts her long hair into two braids while going for the ransom drop to get Daisy back. It's downplayed however as in her other action scenes she just has it loose.
- Butch Lesbian: Ryder is an athlete who's very skilled at martial arts and skateboarding with very short hair, who often wears flannel shirts and leather jackets. She has a relationship with Daisy, her more girly female friend.
- But Not Too Gay: Ryder and Daisy's sex scene is discreetly shied away from, with them only kissing first and never undressing either. Diamond, on the other hand, has more explicit sex with Jasper, in which she's shown topless as well.
- The Cavalry: Near the end, when it looks like the girls will be shot dead by the drug traffickers, a team of DEA agents arrives, rescuing them.
- Closet Gay: Daisy isn't out as a lesbian when the story starts, only having sex with her friend Ryder while in secret. It's not made clear why, with Daisy just claiming her life is complicated. Later though they're affectionate with each other in front of Ezra and Diamond, who realize that the two of them are a couple, which Daisy confirms (both are accepting).
- Damsel in Distress: Daisy gets kidnapped by drug traffickers while on vacation in Thailand with her friends. The rest of the plot focuses on them working to rescue her.
- Gender-Blender Name:
- Ezra is a woman with what has traditionally been a man's name.
- Ryder is a short-haired athlete who's a Butch Lesbian too, with an androgynous name.
- Genre Savvy: Diamond declares that she has spent so much time watching and taking part in her father's films that she can predict what the kidnappers are going to do and counter accordingly.
- Groin Attack: The girls threaten Koon when he's their prisoner by brandishing shears close to his nards.
- Honey Trap: Diamond seduces Jasper to have sex with him and search his room afterward. Later, she seduces Koon so he can be kidnapped by her and her friends.
- I Banged Your Mom: During turbulence while they're on the plane, Ezra thinks they're all going to die so she confesses that (among other things) she slept with Diamond's dad, enraging her. Diamond gets her back for it in several different ways over the rest of the film until at last she forgives her.
- Instant Sedation: Ezra injects Koon with a sleeping drug and he immediately goes down.
- Latex Perfection: The girls create a latex mask which lets Ezra impersonate a Thai drug lord (how she mimics his voice isn't explained, except perhaps by her being an actress) perfectly.
- Lesbian Jock: Ryder is a Butch Lesbian who turns out to be very skilled at skateboarding and in martial arts.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Daisy is a demure, long-haired lesbian with a feminine clothing style.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Butch Lesbian Ryder and Lipstick Lesbian Daisy are a couple, secretly at first.
- Mile-High Club: Ryder and Daisy have sex in the bathroom while on their plane trip.
- Missing Mom: Diamond tells Jasper her mom left when she was little, without even saying anything beforehand, which devastated her dad.
- Ms. Fanservice: All four of the main quartet are attractive young women, and are shown wearing revealing clothes or swimsuits that show off their good looks. In particular:
- Diamond is shown topless having sex with Jasper, having made explicit use of her beauty for seducing him, then a Thai man, getting herself all dolled up multiple times to enhance this.
- Ryder gets a long shot while in a bikini as she's swimming. Later she also has on a pretty revealing outfit of short shorts and a tank top (first to fight) over several scenes.
- Ezra puts on a mock striptease to get Koon aroused in a stripperiffic red outfit.
- No Full Name Given: None of the characters in the film's last names are revealed.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Ryder is the least conventional looking of the four friends, which includes her hair being dyed a metallic blue.
- Once More, with Clarity: After it's revealed that Ezra had impersonated Koon, the film flashes back to reveal how they managed to kidnap him.
- One Head Taller: Ryder is much taller than Daisy, her secret girlfriend, which gets shown early on while they're kissing.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Diamond is meant to be American (born and raised in Hollywood). Her actress Sasha Luss' Russian accent is obvious throughout, though she does seem to be trying with an American accent.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Ryder is quite into and very skilled with martial arts and skateboarding. Diamond also says she's into sports in general, keeping very fit as a result.
- Queer Establishing Moment: It turns out Ryder and Daisy are a couple, not just friends, when the pair talk about their relationship while in the plane's bathroom before they kiss, then agree to have sex (offscreen).
- Secret Relationship: Ryder and Daisy are dating in secret at first, as Daisy's not comfortable with being out. Their friends though learn by the end of the film and are fine with the relationship.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: As Ryder and Daisy prepare to join the Mile-High Club, the scene shifts.
- Shout-Out: Diamond has Ezra give the kidnappers the "particular set of skills" speech from Taken to intimidate them when they first make their ransom demand for Daisy. It turns out they can actually back the boast up too.
- Statuesque Stunner: Diamond and Ryder. Both are quite tall, beautiful young women, which they show off with revealing outfits or swimsuits during the film, plus Diamond's sex scene in which she's topless.
- The Syndicate: It turns out Daisy's kidnappers are from the Thai drug cartel. To get her back, her friends kidnap the cartel's head, Koon, and take it on.
- Title Drop: At the end of the film, after Jasper calls all the girls heroes for their heroic fight with the cartel, Diamond retorts they're "sheroes", which they toast.
- Twofer Token Minority: Daisy is the one black woman in her friend group, and it turns out also a lesbian, while the rest are white. She's also the only woman of color in the film. Her girlfriend Ryder is the only other LGBT character.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Jasper turns out to be DEA, who's been investigating cocaine smuggled using Diamond's dad's jet.
- Vapor Wear:
- Ezra wears a dress while on the plane trip with clearly no bra underneath. She later wears a stripperiffic red outfit with no underwear too.
- Diamond later goes out in a long cocktail dress, with it being made clear when she's getting dressed again later after she'd slept with Jasper that there's nothing on under it.
- Workout Fanservice:
- Diamond is introduced while doing yoga in workout clothes, with the camera close up on her body.
- Ryder fights a man in a fairly revealing outfit of short shorts and a tank top later as well.
- You Go, Girl!: All of the men at the underground fighting competition are incredulous after Ryder, a woman, arrives to challenge the reigning undefeated champion. She's skillful enough to defeat him fairly quickly though.