5. Princess Leia
Actress: Carrie Fisher
Appearances: Star Wars Trilogy
Before Natalie Portman took on the role resident Star Wars heroine in the new trilogy, Carrie Fisher was stealing the hearts and inhabiting the fantasies of every fanboy from here to Alderan as Princess Leia.
4. The Bride/Beatrix Kiddo
Actress: Uma Thurman
Appearances: Kill Bill: Vol.1 & 2
After waking from a coma induced by a bloody beating from her former co-workers and lover, Beatrix Kiddo goes on what the movie advertisements refer to as a “roaring rampage of revenge.” Along the way, she gets shot in the chest with rock salt, buried alive and still manages to strike down everyone on her “Death List Five.”
3. River Tam
Actress: Summer Glau
Appearances: Serenity
Joss Whedon’s unfortunately short-lived sci-fi western Firefly saw new life with the feature film Serenity. While River was always an interesting character, she never was able to fulfill her potential and we got to see her kick all kinds of Alliance ass in the film.
2. Ellen Ripley
Actress: Sigourney Weaver
Appearances: Alien Quadrilogy
Ellen Ripley was introduced to us as a by-the-books Warrant Officer in Ridley Scott’s Alien. After the entire crew of her ship is killed off one by one at the hands of a ruthless xenomorph, she became one of the biggest badasses in science fiction. Ripley went on to fight the bugs in three more Alien films.
1. Sarah Connor
Actress: Linda Hamilton
Appearances: Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Sarah Conor’s role in the future of humanity’s survival was giving birth to resistance leader John Connor. In the first Terminator film, Connor is a woman thrown into her destiny when she meets her protector and father of her child Kyle Reese, who teaches her to survive until the future catches up with them. We must give her credit for destroying the Terminator in the first film, but it’s not until Terminator 2 that she really exhibits the badass qualities that put her on this list.