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If you spent any part of your three day holiday weekend going to the movies, it’s possible you did the patriotic thing and saw Independence Day: Resurgence. The long-awaited sequel to the ’90s alien invasion hit brought back many familiar faces from the original Independence Day cast, with two big exceptions. Will Smith skipped the reunion and Mae Whitman’s Patricia Whitmore was recast. Who took her spot? The beguiling “scream queen” Maika Monroe.
Maika Monroe has only been in a handful of feature films, but she’s found a way to stand out as a new kind of action heroine. She’s made the transition from corpse (we’re serious) to final girl to badass action heroine and it looks like the best is yet to come.
If you want the lowdown on Maika Monroe, we’ve compiled a streaming dossier for you. It’s kind of like a “meet cute” in a romantic comedy, but because it’s all streaming, we’re calling it your “meet queue.”
Labor Day (2013)
Look, we all have to start somewhere and one of Maika Monroe’s earliest roles was as a sweet, doomed young bride in Labor Day. The film follows what happens when a killer on the lam (Josh Brolin) shacks up with a sad single mom (Kate Winslet) and her son over the titular holiday weekend. Monroe appeared in flashbacks Brolin’s young wife who is killed accidentally, thus sparking the whole story. So, yes, Maika Monroe can play a convincing corpse. [Where to Stream Labor Day]
The Guest (2014)
Have we talked about The Guest? I mean, I’ve talked about The Guest. It’s hands down one of my favorite action films ever made and my number one vote for “movie that NEEDS to become a massive cult hit.” Maika Monroe plays Anna, a moody smalltown waitress whose life turns upside down when her family receives an unexpected visitor.
[Watch The Guest on Netflix]
It Follows (2014)
Maika Monroe’s big breakthrough came in the 2014 horror film It Follows. Monroe played Jay Height, a fun and fancy free teen who gets the surprise of her life after sleeping with her new boyfriend. Apparently he has infected her with a super creepy STD: a death curse that infects people through sexual intercourse. Can Jay outrun death? [Watch It Follows on Showtime]
The 5th Wave (2016)
In 2016, Monroe did her duty as a young Hollywood starlet and joined a dystopian YA saga. Monroe played “Ringer,” a young freedom fighter battling an insidious alien invasion, in the film version of The 5th Wave. [Where To Stream The 5th Wave]
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
Maika Monroe plays the grown up version of President Bill Pullman’s – er, I mean, President Whitmore‘s — daughter Patricia in Independence Day: Resurgence. Patricia works in the White House’s current administration as a speech writer and has training as a pilot.
Independence Day: Resugence is in theaters now.
[Photos: Paramount Pictures, Everett Collection]
