Everyone loves a strong leading lady. Women were originally cast as the damsel in distress or some other frail person that just screams and faints in the sight of danger waiting for a big strong man to save them. Horror movies have really helped put the butt-kicking female on the map. Women in movies no longer have to be frail, they can be portrayed as both feminine AND strong. Women can really do some damage to the antagonist of the modern movie which is over all a pretty neat spectacle. I’m not really sure what spawned this movement to take place, be it the feminists or solely that the cliché was so expected and old hat, but whatever the reason it’s here to stay. Without further delay lets get to the action!

10. Ellen from ‘The Quick and the Dead’ (1995) – Sharon Stone played ‘Ellen’ which was a woman gun-slinger in the old west participating in a big gun duel to get back at the man that murdered her father ‘Marshall’ which was played by Gary Sinise. She’s a pretty tough customer and nobody’s fool either and ends up beating the billy bad-ass of the film ‘Herod’ played by Gene Hackman.

09. River from ‘Serenity’ (2005) – Not really much to say here, Summer Glau was really doing some serious damage in this film, a real wrecking machine.

08. Fox from ‘Wanted’ (2008) – Angelina Jolie plays this sexy assassin that can curve bullets. Although she is mis-guided by her boss ‘Sloan’ played by Morgan Freeman, she is really a good girl… and a bad girl if you know what I mean.

07. Trinity from ‘The Matrix 1 2 3′ (1999-2003) – Carrie-Anne Moss kicked some serious digital butt in the Matrix movies. The scene in the lobby was awesome, and when she ran on the walls or the ever famous (and ever ripped off) slow-mo kick.

06. Selene from ‘Underworld 1 2′ (2003-2006) – Another female in super tight leather, Kate Beckinsale. She looked amazing with her ice blue eyes kicking vampire and warewolf butt. She put some serious smackdown on a lot of people and looked super hot doing it!

05. Ellen Ripley from ‘Alien 1 2 3 4′ (1979-1997) – Sigourney Weaver didn’t really kick a lot of butt in ‘Alien’ but the sequel ‘Aliens’ she more than made up for it. Ripley is not your typical movie bimbo, she’s a hardened badass. Walking though alien territory with a huge flame thrower or getting in a huge machine to square off with the alien Queen, Ripley is one tough chick.

04. Kay-Em 14 from ‘Jason X’ (2001) – Not a lot of people can add ‘killing an un-stoppable killer’ to their resume but Lisa Ryder can. She was a cyborg that kicked Jason Vorhees’ ass so bad that he ceased to live and that says something. Who cares if nano-bots revived him, making him stronger than ever? Nobody thats who. She killed the horror slasher of my childhood in a blaze of glory. It was awesome.

03. Sarah Connor from ‘Terminator 1 2′ (1984-1991) – Linda Hamilton’s character survived being stalked by a super assassin made out of metal. The machine ransacked an entire police station killing like 30 people, but Sarah Conner somehow survived by crushing it in a hydraulic press. The character had to teach her son how to be the most badass leader of all time to lead humanity on it’s struggle to survive a tyrranical and self-aware super computer named ‘Skynet’. Sarah Connor is a real badass.

02. Alice from ‘Resident Evil 1 2 3 4′ (2002-2010) – Milla Jovovich plays a super sexy (clone?) woman that has super human abilities. She can run really fast, she can kill zombies and other creatures with her bare hands, and she pulls it off looking so good at the same time! I was a huge fan of the games which made me almost hate the movies, but pretending the title doesn’t say Resident Evil helped. Milla was dynamite jumping around and shooting all over the place.

01. The Bride from ‘Kill Bill: Volumes 1 & 2 (2003-2004) – Do you really have to explain how Uma Thurman made this list? She had to kick so much ass in these movies it was ridiculous. Actually a lot of it was pretty ridiculous but that was kind of the point. We had mega fights with tons of people vs the Bride and samurai swords and blood, it was epic. Explaining how she didn’t make the top of this list would have been more challenging.

A tip of the hat: Honorable Mentions

1. Princess Leia from ‘Return of the Jedi’ (1983) – Let us never forget the famous Gold bikini or the fact that SHE killed Jabba the Hutt.
2. May Day from ‘A View to Kill’ (1985) – 007 has had some pretty tough female villains but May Day played by Grace Jones was tougher than most.
3. Æon Flux from ‘Æon Flux’ (2005) – Yet another ass kicking female in tight black leather. What can I say? Charlize Theron can look hot and kick a bunch of butt at the same time.
4. Pvt. Jennette Vasquez from ‘Aliens’ (1986) – I couldn’t in good conscience have to ladies from the same film be on the same list. Jennette Goldstein did look pretty menacing and believeable carrying that huge BFG of a gun around blowing Aliens away!