Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft

This article explores the multifaceted legacy of Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft with a focus on the first film devoted to the popular video game character, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It presents Jolie’s performance of Croft as emblematic of a transitional moment in the evolution of women as Hollywood action stars in which a carefully curated blend of stereotypically masculine and feminine traits came to characterize their roles in high-budget action-adventure cinema. Drawing connections between the successful video game adaptation and industry changes around the turn of the millennium, the article also frames Jolie as Croft as a harbinger of twenty-first-century celebrity activism and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider as an early example of outsourcing production to satellite locations around the globe. Finally, it examines the film’s impact on the development of Jolie’s unique celebrity persona, which facilitates slippage between the fictional roles assumed by the actor and her work as a public-facing celebrity activist.