- Tank Girl (1995) was a pioneering female-led comic book film based on a British comic book series, but it was considered a failure due to poor critical reviews and financial performance.
- The live-action adaptation of Tank Girl starred Lori Petty and featured predominantly non-Australian actors, deviating significantly from the original comic’s tone and content.
- Despite its initial failure, Tank Girl has gained a cult following over the years, with regular sold-out fan screenings in theaters across the U.S. and internationally.
Arriving decades before the box office successes of Wonder Woman(2017) and Captain Marvel(2019), Tank Girl (1995) was a pioneer of the female-led comic book film, or pushed back their popularity for another 20 years — depending on who you asked.
Tank Girlwas based on the British comic book series and strips of the same name by artists Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett— the latter of whom would go on to further global prominence as the visual co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz— first published in 1988. Set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, the series is led by the titular character (real name Rebecca Buck), who, along with mutant Kangaroo boyfriend Booga, navigates the lawless outback in a series of misadventures in an abandoned military tank.
Starring Lori Petty(Orange Is the New Black, A League of Their Own), the live-action adaptation co-stars Naomi Watts(Mulholland Drive, The Impossible), Ice-T (Johnny Mnemonic, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, The Mentalist).
With predominantly non-Australian accents and actors, alongside the rejection of the dry British humor of the comic and its overt violence and sexuality, the Tank Girlfilm was a far cry from what the fans of the comic book expected. With abysmal critical reviews and a revenue of $6 million against a $25 million budget, the movie venture was largely considered a total failure, particularly by Hewlett and Martin.
Hewlett, who was just 22 years old when MGM studios first approached him about a film adaptation, reflected in 2006: “The script was lousy – me and Alan Martin kept rewriting it and putting Grange Hill jokes and Benny Hill jokes in, and they obviously weren’t getting it. They forgot to film about ten major scenes so we had to animate them … it was a horrible experience.
In a 2017 interview with Vice, Hewlett elaborated, “They played that game of looking for things that are cool, buying those things and then turning them into something else.”
“Which is what Hollywood does. If they were to stick to the actual storyline of the original idea of Tank Girl, then you’d probably have an X-rated movie on your hands, and what they want is a family movie they can open and have a big box office weekend with,” he continued. “They take out all the essence – all the good ingredients – and then turn it into something else.”
Just like its lead character, however, Tank Girlhas outlasted much of the death and destruction thrown in its way, with the now-cult film havng regular sold-out fan screenings in theaters across the U.S. and internationally.
“It’s a lot easier to swallow the pill of its box office failure now that it has cult status and longevity and so many people now tell me how much they love it,” Tank Girl’sdirector, Rachel Talalay, told the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2014.
If you’re curious to see which side you take on the divisive film, Tank Girlis currently available to watch on YouTube, free with ads.
This story was originally published byMen’s Journalon Jul 25, 2026, where it first appeared in theNewssection. Add Men’s Journal as aPreferred
