Film

The Assignment

Name: The Assignment
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Released: 2016
Cast: Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, Caitlin Gerard, Anthony LaPaglia

Other titles called The Assignment: the 1977 film.

A body-swap revenge thriller that uses forced gender transition as its central conceit. Michelle Rodriguez is a hitman-turned-hitwoman seeking vengeance against the surgeon who remade her. It's a schlocky, morally complicated action film that swings for the fences with its premise, landing unevenly but never boring. For viewers who like their revenge stories weird and willing to provoke.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like lean, pulpy revenge stories that take a ridiculous premise completely seriously, where a hard-bitten lead's cynicism is the main pleasure and the plot is a mechanism for it.

Skip it if you need the premise handled with care or weight, since this treats its central transformation as a pulp hook and its tone can feel cheap, flat or unpersuasive.

What it asks of you: Brisk at ninety-five minutes, it moves in hard bursts of action rather than a slow build, and asks you to accept a lurid conceit without much hand-wringing.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Haywire2011

Soderbergh's lean thriller centres Gina Carano as a betrayed operative on a killing spree. Like *The Assignment*, it trusts its lead's physicality and asks what revenge tastes like when personal and professional lives combust.

But Deliberately paced and cerebral—this is a thinking person's action film, not a spectacle. If you want explosions and one-liners, look elsewhere.

Atomic Blonde2017

Charlize Theron as an MI6 agent in 1980s Berlin, fighting through neon-lit brutality. Stylish, visceral, and fundamentally about a woman reclaiming agency in a male-dominated apparatus—thematically close to what *The Assignment* attempts.

But Heavy on style, lighter on character depth. Some will find it more interested in looking cool than feeling real.

Revenge2017

A French-Swiss desert revenge film where a woman hunted by men turns predator. Visually stunning and morally unflinching about violence as liberation. Raw and genuinely unsettling in ways mainstream cinema rarely dares.

But Intensely brutal. This is not cathartic wish-fulfilment—it's a descent. If violence needs to feel good, you won't find it here.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Assignment

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Paprika2006

Both use radical body/identity transformation not as gimmick but as the actual subject—what remains of 'you' when your flesh is rewritten by force?

Satoshi Kon's masterpiece: an anime where a psychiatrist's dream-infiltration device gets weaponized, blurring identity and consciousness. Like *The Assignment*, it uses transformation and body-horror as real philosophical territory, not just plot device. A journey, not a story.

But Animated, Japanese, surreal, and 90 minutes of visual density. If you need linear plot and grounded realism, this will feel like noise.

Anna2019

Luc Besson's spy thriller with Sasha Luss as a woman caught between Russian and American intelligence. Like *The Assignment*, it's playfully pulpy, focused on a female assassin navigating betrayal, and unapologetically stylized.

But Besson's sensibilities mean it can veer into sleaze. If you want substance over gloss, the hollow centre might frustrate you.

Peppermint2018

Jennifer Garner's suburban mother becomes a precise killing machine after tragedy. Unabashedly trashy revenge fantasy that doesn't pretend to be anything else. Sometimes dumb action is exactly what you need.

But The plot is a skeleton barely holding up the action sequences. Expecting coherence or nuance will disappoint you.

Colombiana2011

Zoe Saldana grows from orphaned girl to assassin, methodically tracking her parents' killers across years. It's a revenge blueprint executed with style and genuine emotional weight anchoring the action.

But Treads familiar ground without major surprises. The premise is stronger than the execution, and it never quite transcends its own formula.

Red Sparrow2018

Jennifer Lawrence as a ballerina forced into espionage, navigating power, sexuality, and survival. Complex moral landscape where revenge isn't simple and bodies are battlegrounds. Spicy and intelligent.

But At 150 minutes, it meanders. The pacing can feel like watching someone else play a video game for stretches.

In the Cut2003

Jane Campion's pulpy neo-noir where a woman navigates desire, violence, and betrayal in New York's underbelly. Stylized, erotic, and genuinely tense—proof that body and identity can anchor complex thrillers.

But Deliberately divisive on what men and women owe each other. The sexual politics are complicated and unresolved, which some will find bold and others punishing.

Johnny Guitar1954

Both films centre a female action lead whose gender is itself part of the story's machinery—and both willing to let audiences wrestle with that rather than resolve it neatly.

Ray's subversive Western where Joan Crawford leads a gang of outlaws, flips gender power dynamics, and proves it was possible to make transgressive action cinema decades before anyone claimed it was new. Visionary and strange.

But 1950s pacing and aesthetic. If you hate Technicolor Westerns, the presentation will feel dated faster than the ideas do.

Thelma & Louise1991

Transformation as liberation-turned-dangerous: what happens when you're suddenly more powerful than you know how to control, and that power is tied to your own becoming?

A Norwegian psychological thriller where a young woman discovers she has telekinetic powers tied to repressed trauma. It's slow-burn, metaphorical, and uses genre language to explore identity and agency. Utterly hypnotic.

But Glacially paced and introverted. Nothing happens in the way action films train you to expect. Patience and mood are mandatory.