[[TheBigSleep http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lauren-bacall.jpg]]
[[caption-width:254:Speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first, see if they're front runners or come from behind, find out what their whole card is, what makes them run.]]
-->''"What are you looking at?"''\\
''"That star. It's a planet, really. It's Venus. It reminds me of you."''\\
''"Hot, poisonous, and deadly? You're sweet."''
-->-- Blackarachnia and Silverbolt, ''Transformers: BeastWars''

She's stunningly beautiful and alluring, and she knows it. Made famous by FilmNoir, Femme Fatales straddle the line between good and evil and confuse the hero's moral bearings with their undeniable aura of sexiness and danger. He knows she's walking trouble and that she knows much more about the bad guys than she should, but damn it if he can't resist her feminine wiles.

Unlike the virginal and sweet DamselInDistress (or an ActionGirl with a similar gentle attitude), the Femme Fatale exploits her sexual appeal to be a ManipulativeBastard and wrap other men around her finger, which can be quite a refreshing change from the submissive women rescued by the hero or the more active girls who remain sweet and clean-cut outside the battlefield. However, StatusQuoIsGod, so by the end of the story, the Femme Fatale must either be reformed by the hero to the side of good and [[GoodIsDumb lose much of her appeal in the process]], or be outwitted by him to her doom.

If the Femme Fatale is vying for the hero's romantic attentions, she will almost never win because of her illegal and low means of beating out her [[BettyAndVeronica sweeter and purer rival]], and the hero will decide that she's not worth the trouble she causes. This remains true even if she becomes a reformed character.

Often the LadyInRed.

What separates the Femme Fatale from TheVamp is that the Femme Fatale often shows signs that she [[HeelFaceTurn can be redeemed]] or is not wholly evil [[BrokenBird (often, more like disenchanted, tragic and broken)]], while TheVamp is so black-hearted that there's no chance of her becoming good.

While the FemmeFatale is generally evil, or at least morally conflicted, there are occasional exceptions, most notably the leading ladies of ''MissionImpossible'' or ''CharliesAngels.'' They are [[ShowSomeLeg using their feminine wiles]] in an artificial context to snare the bad guy... all for the greater good, of course.

If [[DarkActionGirl she can fight, too,]] then she's ''really'' going to be trouble.

The morally ambiguous FemmeFatale is the typical client in a hardboiled detective story. You know the type. Dressed all in black with legs up to here, she slinks into the sleazy detective's office, holding a cigarette on a long, long, holder, saying "Oh, Mr. Rockhammer, you're the only one who can help me find out who killed my extremely wealthy husband." Did she do it? Do I care? [[{{Sexophone}} Where'd that saxophone music come from]]? Whatever her story is, whether she did it or not, she's definitely keeping some secrets.

The younger version of this is the FilleFatale.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Kagura from ''InuYasha'', all the way.
* Lust from ''FullmetalAlchemist'', natch.
** The anime also had Psiren, a PhantomThief that behaved this way while she was in disguise--particularly since she had a tattoo on her chest that allowed her to use alchemy, meaning she had to open the top of her shirt and reveal her cleavage to use it.
* Faye Valentine of ''CowboyBebop''.
* Nao Yuuki from ''{{Mai-HiME}}'', with [[FemmeFatalons claws to match]]. She uses her feminine wiles to lure overly eager sexual predators [[EnjoKosai with promises of dating them]] and separate them from their money [[spoiler: as a sort-of revenge for the family she lost: thugs robbed her family, killed her father and left her mom in a ConvenientComa]]. (Oh, and [[DarkMagicalGirl she can fight, too]].)
* Esmeraude from ''SailorMoon''
* Fujiko Mine from ''LupinIII''
* CC from ''CodeGeass'' fits the description pretty well [[spoiler:later revealed to be something of a BrokenBird under the mask]]
* Lily Maguire from the first ''FatalFury'' OAV. She's one of the few cases where the FemmeFatale ''does'' win the heart of TheHero, in this case Terry Bogard. [[spoiler: Only to tragically die in his arms]]
* [[{{Negima}} Evangeline]] with the interesting twist of being biologically ten. She still acts the part and ''usually'' had the ability to have a much bustier adult form which she preferred.
* Rue from ''PrincessTutu'' behaves this way, particularly when she's her alter-ego, [[DarkMagicalGirl Princess Kraehe]]. [[spoiler: And she ''does'' get her guy, Mytho. [[BreakTheCutie After many hardships]].]]
* Dorothy Catalonia from ''GundamWing''.
* Kanoe, from ''{{X1999}}''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Catwoman in the ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'' comic books (and related media) is referred to in her universe as the 'Feline Fatale'.
** And by extension, so is [[SpiderMan Black Cat]]
** Also see Poison Ivy; extra emphasis on the "fatale" part.
* Kriss of Valnor in the ''{{Thorgal}}'' comics
* Twilight in the British comic strip ''BuckRyan'' . At least until her HeelFaceTurn.
*This troper is fairly certain exposure to Mystique as a child is what turned her into a lesbian.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Actress Theda Bara's career was primarily made up of these characters due to type-casting.
* Breathless Mahoney from the mid-1980s ''DickTracy'' [[LiveActionAdaptation feature film]] was a classic FemmeFatale.
* Dr. Elsa Schneider from the third ''IndianaJones'', after she finally stops pretending to be a DistressedDamsel.
* Pretty much any [[JamesBond Bond girl]] except [[TheWorldIsNotEnough Christmas Jones]], [[LiveAndLetDie Solitaire]] and [[TheLivingDaylights Kara Milovy]].
* [[FlashGordon Flash! Ah-ah!]] Princess Aura was a FemmeFatale to the extreme in the 1980 movie. [[HeelFaceTurn She reformed]], [[OrIsIt supposedly]].
* Disney's TheMovie version of ''TheThreeMusketeers'' gives this role to Milady de Winter, who even reforms at the last moment and helps the heroes before dying. In the book, however, she is evil to the bone.
* Mae West in several of her roles.
* ''{{Rent}}'''s Maureen Johnson
* Lili Von Shtupp in ''BlazingSaddles''. Hedy Lamarr sends her to "seduce and abandon the sheriff of Rock Ridge."
**This character was a parody of Marlene Deitrich's later Western roles. Deitrich specialized in this trope.
* Helga from ''[[AtlantisTheLostEmpire Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'', pictured above. Her body language and voice acting screams film noir.
* Rebecca Romijin Stamos in the movie ''Femme Fatale''.
* PlayedForLaughs in [[http://www.elvira.com/home_1.html Elvira, Mistress of the Dark]], though YourMilageMayVary.
* Subverted in the ''{{Thunderbirds}}'' film. We hear the voice of the BigBad's female assistant, and then she climbs down a ladder. Large butt, horrible fashion sense, bad skin, bad teeth, frizzy hair, big glasses, and later on she nearly ''rapes'' the Thunderbirds' team scientist. [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar The last one is just barely played for comedy]].
* The first AustinPowers movie has Alotta Fagina, played by the almost ''painfully'' hot Fabiana Udenio.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Delilah, from ''TheBible'', is the UrExample, making this one OlderThanFeudalism.
* Lale of ''TheAssassinsOfTamurin''.
* Josephine Balsamo, the recurring enemy of ArseneLupin.
** Laetitia de Malreich/[[spoiler:Dolores Kesselbach]] the villain in "813".
* Denna/Dianna/Dinneih, or whatever else she's calling herself when she appears, from ''TheNameOfTheWind''.
* In ''TheStainlessSteelRat'' action/comedy series by Harry Harrison, thief turned galactic secret agent 'Slippery Jim' [=DiGritz=] finds himself up against the psychotic (yet beautiful and criminally brilliant) Angelina. Jim falls in love and marries her in the next novel of the series. Supposedly the psych-techs have straightened out Angelina's twisted personality, implanting her with a conscience, but there are times when her husband has to restrain Angelina's natural enthusiasm for [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] and killing. Plus Jim quickly learns the inadvisablity of showing interest in other women, or trying to wriggle out of promises (an attempt to back out of their marriage is stopped by Angelina shoving a [[ReallyBigGun .75 calibre recoil free pistol]] up his nose).
* In DanAbnett's GauntsGhosts novel ''Ghostmaker'', Inquisitor Lilith actively tries to incite [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] in Gaunt as a way to manipulate him. Gaunt calls her on it and tells her it's not needed, he will help voluntarily. She admits at the time that she's not used to voluntary cooperation and later, when about [[CoolGate to go through a gate to an Eldar craftworld]], that she actually found Gaunt attractive.
* War from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's GoodOmens is basically the ultimate Femme Fatale, with emphasis on the ''fatale''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Marguerite Krux from ''[=~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World~=]''.
* Number sixes in general in the new ''BattlestarGalactica'', especially Caprica-Six with Baltar, and Gina with admiral Cain.
* Selena Coombs of ''AmericanGothic''. In an interesting inversion, however, her primary sexual usage in the show, aside from being Buck's mistress, is not to turn a good man evil, but to keep a man nominally on the side of evil from defecting to the good--Ben Healy.
* Sam Marquez on LasVegas works for a casino. Specifically, her job is to keep 'whales'-big spenders-happy. Once she only slept with a guy because he was dying, and she has openly called herself a slut. Strangely, she rarely sleeps with any of the whales themselves, and had to start going to a therapist later in the series after she was [[WhamEpisode abducted and nearly raped and killed]].
* ''StarTrekVoyager''. Queen Arachnia in the Captain Proton holoprogram is a clear homage to this type. Even MadScientist Dr. Chaotica is totally smitten by her.
** Best episode in the series, [[RaygunGothic for]] [[AffectionateParody obvious]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny reasons]].
* Fiona in BurnNotice.
* ''LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': Nicole Wallace, who is likely based on Marie-Andrée Leclerc, an accomplice of the serial killer Charles Sobhraj. Sobhraj was the inspiration for Wallace's mentor Bernard Fremont.
* [[{{Lost}} Nikki Fernandez]].
* Miss Parker from ''ThePretender''. Makes her entrance stomping out a cigarette on an oil tanker, shoots at the good guy a lot, has UST with him, and regularly growls at and intimidates most men within range.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Putting the 'fatal' back in 'femme fatale', the Slaaneshi Daemonettes of ''[[{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40,000]]'' definitely qualify as the end-all, be-all of femme fatales. Not only are they bourne of the God of Decadence, but their idea of foreplay is [[{{Squick}} cutting you with their razor-sharp crab-claws, leaving boils all over your flesh]], and then [[{{FateWorseThanDeath}} dragging you back into their world for an eternity of ecstatic agony at their hands...erm, claws]]. According to some of the novels, being cut by these seductresses is enough to ''[[{{}} bring people to orgasm]]''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Alaura from ''City Of Angels'', a musical drawing heavily on film noir stereotypes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Videogames]]
* Rouge the Bat from the ''SonicTheHedgehog'' games.
* Ada Wong from the ''ResidentEvil'' series initially showed very mild DistressedDamsel qualities in her first appearance, but by the fourth game in the series, there was no question that she was a first-class FemmeFatale, to the point that it's clear in retrospect her being originally helpless was playacting the whole time.
** In Resident Evil 5, [[spoiler: Excella Gionne]] is an interesting subversion of this trope in terms of who she claims to help ([[spoiler: Wesker]]) and, inevitably, how much power she holds over [[spoiler: him]]. In the end, [[spoiler: it's Wesker who betrays Excella and not the other way around, leaving to her wail pitifully calling out Wesker's name. Of course, her Las Plagas form is a gigantic squid thing that can only be taken down by a LASER SATELLITE, so she kinda makes up for that.]]
* Katrina from the ''QuestForGlory'' series.
* [=EVA=] from ''MetalGearSolid 3''.
** And also Naomi from ''MetalGearSolid 1'' and ''4''. According to the backstory, she seduced Richard Ames away from his wife Nastasha Romanenko in order to get onto the [=FoxDie=] project so she could modify it to kill Snake. I should point out that she spent the game until the bombshell [[{{Tsundere}} alternately]] acting very cold towards him and [[StalkerWithACrush drooling over him]]. In ''MetalGearSolid 4'' she's even worse, but she always remains a sympathetic character with honourable, if misaimed, intentions.
* Millenia from ''Grandia II''. Complicated by the fact that she's the alter ego of virginal DistressedDamsel Elena. [[spoiler:Neither of them gets the guy.]]
* Olivia Ofrenda from ''GrimFandango''
* SoulCalibur's Ivy more or less fits this trope, using sex appeal in her costume, and rather... dominating imagery in her moves. She starts out helping the BigBad of the series in thanks for giving life to her weapon. She does go full-out good on her intentions later on... the costume and moves remain though.
** She also subverts the trend brutally, because she's a CelibateHero, for fear having a child would give the Soul Edge another potential vessel. [[spoiler: Considering that who her birth father is, well, said fears aren't that far from the truth]]
* Mona Sax from ''MaxPayne'' IS this trope. Although [[LoveRedeems love]] ends up causing her to team up with Max.
* Ultimecia in ''FinalFantasyVIII'' is this. When she's [[spoiler: possessing Edea - who normally wears a very simple and modest dress - she makes her wear incredibly ornate and over-the-top "sexy" clothing]]. When you finally meet her in person, the costume she has on is to say the least extravagant. She uses her body to get what she wants, and was openly called a Femme Fatale in the spin-off game Dissidia.
* Sophia Blake from ''PostMortem''.
* Anna Williams from ''{{Tekken}}''.
* Quite possibly Viletta Vadim from ''SuperRobotWars'', starting out as TheMole of the team for [[spoiler:Ingram]] and is a deadly pilot in combat. This is later subverted that Viletta [[spoiler:and Ingram]] has good intentions despite coming off as just rather strict [[spoiler:and oh-so-much a MagnificentBastard for Ingram]], not flat out evil. Her looks also gave her the distinction to be one of Excellen's 'Three Beautiful Sisters' and [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer would be the only person she'd go]] LesYay with. To hammer it home, her theme song was re-named as this trope when OriginalGeneration gets a US translation by Atlus (it was formerly 'Woman The Cool Spy')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Blackarachnia from ''Transformers: BeastWars'' plays this to the hilt when she gets a chance, towards allies and enemies alike, though she [[DarkActionGirl does less flirting and more fighting]] than is usual for this trope. The choice of a black widow spider as her alternate mode is surprisingly appropriate, though she's not without redeeming qualities.
** The Blackarachnia in TransformersAnimated fulfills this trope whenever it's convenient for her, either with the Autobots or the Dinobots. Optimus Prime is especially vulnerable to falling for this no matter how many times she does it. It does make you wonder why she considers herself such a horrific freak, when everyone with a spark seems to want to jump her thorax.
*** Probably because of her face under the helmet.
* ''TheSpectacularSpiderMan's'' ClassyCatBurglar Black Cat is very much this archetype, willingly flirting with and helping Spider-Man to [[ClearMyName clear his name]], while using the same opportunity to steal jewels on the sly.
* [[spoiler:Andrea Beaumont AKA the Phantasm]] in ''Batman: Mask of the Phantasm''.
* Molotov Cocktease from ''TheVentureBrothers''.
* Inque in ''Batman Beyond''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* The [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/eddurd/everydayheroes/series.php?view=single&ID=129947 Jane Gang]] from EverydayHeroes. Iron Jane adds in a bit of DarkActionGirl.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Some of the deadliest players in ''SurvivalOfTheFittest'' have been Femme Fatales, examples being Mariavel Varella and Clemence Ceillet de Rousseau.
[[/folder]]

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