Girls Who Can Kick Your Ass: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton, Terminator)

Perhaps no other female action hero has had a story arc as drastic and dramatic as Sarah Connor, science fiction's Virgin Mary. When we meet her in James Cameron's sci-fi classic, The Terminator, she's a cute, struggling waitress who can't keep a date. By the end of the sequel, she's a muscular, ice-cold killer who is saving humanity with a shotgun whil protecting her Christ-like son. Connor is the earthbound answer to Ellen Ripley. She's tough on men and violently resists being sexualized. That's probably why she ends up in a mental ward (because men think that kind of girl is crazy) not that anyone there could hold her down for long.