Lilya (Zara Phythian) is a minor antagonist in the 2014 action film He Who Dares.
She is part of a group of terrorists who kidnap the daughter of the British Prime Minister, who then fortify themselves in an underground car park rigged with explosives.
Film[]
Lilya first appears masquerading as an employee who was taken hostage, who is rescued by a squad of SAS officers. Believing Lilya would guide them towards a way out, the officers follow her deeper into the car park until one man notices a tattoo on her wrist, signifying that she was a part of the terrorist group. Lilya knocks away the barrel of his submachine gun before she can be taken at gunpoint, killing one of the officers, and turns a corner before she can be shot. When the officers pursue her they are quickly mowed down by a group of terrorists waiting around the corner. The officer who discovered Lilya's tattoo is struck in the shoulder, incapacitated but still alive.
Lilya kicks away the man's gun and straddles the agonized officer, sadistically pressing into his gunshot wound before pulling a pistol from his chest pouch and executing him with a shot to the forehead. Lilya chuckles to herself as she and her fellow terrorists leave the man's corpse behind. She is later yelled at by her boss for failing to secure the entire car park, forcing her and two other grunts back onto the upper floors in order to deal with any remaining threats.
Armed with the dead officer's pistol, Lilya lies in wait behind a pillar while the two remaining SAS officers make their way onto floor 10 of the car park, sweeping the area with guns drawn. When the officers come close Lilya shambles out towards them, feigning a leg injury while hiding her weapon behind her back. The farthest officer (Christopher Lowe, played by Tom Benedict Knight) tries to warn the other to be cautious, but as soon as Lilya comes near she stumbles against him and fires several shots into his gut. The critically wounded officer manages to unload the pistol before she shoves him into Lowe, dropping them both to the floor. She pounces onto the downed Lowe and violently beats him with his submachine gun, but he manages to knock her off to the side with a headbutt.
Seeing his fellow officer dead from his injury, Lowe delivers a hard kick into Lilya's side while she lies on the ground, forcing her back onto her feet. Rightfully angered by the death of a fellow officer, Lowe places his hand on this sidearm while he and Lilya circle each other - showing the villainess that even though he could easily kill her, he's chosen to risk taking her on in a fair fight.
Undeterred, Lilya attacks Lowe with a rapid series of kicks that disorient and nearly take him off his feet, but when she gets too cocky and tries throwing a punch into the mix he manages to counter her by grabbing her arm and whipping her sideways before delivering a hard kick into her back. Lilya cries out in pain and turns around with a look of sheer terror as Lowe leaps into the air and follows up with a vicious sucker punch that sends her stumbling backwards. Without missing a beat, Lowe rushes forward and picks the battered Lilya off her feet, holding her sideways and he barrels straight into the edge of a square concrete column at full force. Lilya's spine strikes the concrete and breaks with a heavy crunch, killing her.
Trivia[]
- Zara Phythian also portrayed Katarina in The Fight Room (2014), a Falonex Assassin in Warrioress (2015), and a Brunette Zealot in Doctor Strange (2016).
- Lilya is implied to be the sister of Holt's henchwoman Cassie in He Who Dares: Downing Street Siege.
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