Nikita (film)

"Bob: You died Saturday at 5:00 p.m. The prison doctor confirmed suicide after an overdose of tranquillizers. You're buried in Maisons-Alfort, row 8, plot 30. ...I work, let's say, for the government. We've decided to give you another chance. Nikita: What do I do? Bob: Learn. Learn to read, walk, talk, smile and even fight. Learn to do everything. Nikita: What for? Bob: To serve your country. Nikita: What if I don't want to? Bob: Row 8, Plot 30."

Nikita is a 1990 French film by Luc Besson (director of The Fifth Element). Released in America as La Femme Nikita (just so everyone would understand it was in French).

Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a young junkie who (along with her friends) holds up a pharmacy and ends up killing a police officer. She's sent to prison and finally sentenced to death via lethal injection. Strapped down to a chair, she's injected...and wakes up to another life. A life working for a shadowy government agency. She will be taught how to kill, how to be a lady, how to be a spy, all in the service of her country.

Remade in America as Point of No Return with Bridget Fonda in the Nikita role. There have been two television adaptations so far: La Femme Nikita with Peta Wilson and Nikita with Maggie Q.


 * Ax Crazy: Victor the Cleaner. His idea of salvaging an operation gone wrong is simply to shoot as many people as possible.
 * And he only gets worse when he suffers a Villainous Breakdown.
 * Bathroom Break Out
 * Bittersweet Ending
 * Boxed Crook: Everyone who works for Division basically.
 * Career Killers
 * Cold Sniper: In one memoral scene, Nikita has a conversiation with her boyfriend and then carefully snipes a target from within the bathroom of their hotel suite.
 * Contract on the Hitman
 * Determinator: Victor the Cleaner. He doesn't give up, period.
 * The Dog Shot First: If you just know the tv show, then you'll think Nikita was wrongly framed for murder. In the movie, she isn't.
 * Femme Fatale
 * Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Victor the Cleaner.
 * Impaled Palm: Nikita does this to a policeman early in the film.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Jean Reno as the creepy Victor.
 * Pistol Pose: One of the posters.
 * Spiritual Successor: The character of Victor the Cleaner has a spiritual successor in the later Luc Besson movie Leon (although Leon is more sympathetic).
 * The Un-Smile: When Nikita is told to smile.
 * Woman in Black: Nikita herself. A straight example and a subversion at the same time.