With Rooney Mara (Youth in Revolt) set to star as rebellious hacker Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo next week, we thought weâd take a look back at past female badasses in cinematic history. Noomi Rapace nailed the role in the original Swedish version, so Mara will have a lot to live up to. Not only will she be compared to the performance of her predecessor, but also to the relatively few female heroines that came before her. Will Mara equal or surpass Rapace? Can she hang with the baddest ladies in movie history? Will she impress us enough to fight her way to the top? Hit the jump to check out our selection of the five most badass female leads of all time.First, letâs set up some ground rules on what makes a badass. Firstly, our heroine must be capable of handling herself, be it against man, machine or otherwise. As youâll soon see, our list encompasses a broad range of women with particular sets of skills. Secondly, the actor must portray the role in a way that is both memorable and original. Weâve taken a number of archetypes and determined which actor set the high water mark. Lastly, aesthetics count. You donât have to be a runway model, but if youâre going to put on your badass shoes, you have to look good doing it. Now that thatâs taken care of, on with the countdown!#5: Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell in Basic InstinctWhile this movie will forever be remembered for Stoneâs interrogation scene, it was only a small part of her overall performance. Stone used her sexual attraction to wrap her male co-stars around her little finger as crime novelist and femme fatale, Catherine Tramell. Even though Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) had her figured out, he still fell into her trap and nearly ended up on the wrong end of an ice pick. While Stone may not be heroic, she proves that sometimes you donât need big guns and kung fu lessons to be a badass. Check out the trailer for Basic Instinct here:Honorable mention for âBlack Widowâ goes to Kim Basinger as Lynn Bracken in L.A. Confidential. #4: Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the LambsFoster might not strike you as a badass first off, but her Oscar-winning performance as FBI cadet Clarice Starling is one of the mentally toughest roles in cinema history. Not only does she match wits with the genius cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), she tracks down the serial killer, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) and puts him away for good. When things looked bleakest for Starling, as Buffalo Bill stalks her in a pitch black basement using night-vision goggles, her relative calm under pressure saved the day. (It also helped that âBillâ forgot to cock his gun ahead of time.) Check out the final stand-off in the following clip:Honorable mention for "The Enforcer" goes to Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson in Fargo. #3: Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride from Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2Kill Bill: Volume 1 opens with the Sun Tzu quote, âRevenge is a dish best served cold.â Perhaps, âHell hath no fury like a woman scornedâ is even more appropriate. The folks of Quentin Tarantinoâs Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2 found out how true that statement is after leaving Uma Thurmanâs character for dead on numerous occasions, only to have her hunt them down with extreme prejudice. The Brideâs vengeance is so great that it took two blood-soaked movies to tell her tale. Witness her in action against the âCrazy 88.â (âThis is what you get for fuckinâ around with Yakuzas!â)Honorable mention for âAssassinâ goes to Saoirse Ronan for Hanna. #2: Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment DayIâm sure many of you are already fuming that Sarah Connor isnât at the top of this list and you may well have a point. Although Hamiltonâs character has a nice arc from the time-traveler-banginâ waitress in the original Terminator to the hard-core survivalist and neo-anarchist of Terminator 2, the mechs more than overshadow her role. Thatâs not to say sheâs not in the elite of the badass, whether the discussion concerns men or women. Unfortunately, later installments in the series have sort of derailed and gotten away from the Sarah Connor character almost entirely. Perhaps a Justin Lin-directed reboot could pull her back in. Check out a clip from T2: Judgment Day below:Honorable mention for âRebelâ goes to Natalie Portman as Evey in V for Vendetta.#1: Ripley from Aliens In my mind, this is no contest. Sigourney Weaverâs portrayal of Ellen Ripley throughout the Alien series is not only a defining role, but an eternal one. It is the benchmark to which all other female badasses must compare themselves. Sure, Sarah Connor dismantles robots in the Terminator series. Yes, Angelina Jolie is probably the hottest badass in movies today (Wanted, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Tombraider, Salt). I even expect great things out of Mary Elizabeth Winstead after her performance in Scott Pilgrim vs the World and more recently as an incredibly capable scientist in The Thing prequel.But Ripley has survived all sorts of incarnations of Aliens on four separate occasions. She stood up to a queen to save a little girl when all of the soldiers around her were pissing in their pants. Ripley survived (sort of) a prison overrun by the acid-blooded creatures and was even hardass enough to kill off her own hybrid spawn (in very gruesome ways). There may come a time when a performance by an actress supplants Weaverâs Ripley from atop the throne of badassdom, but it is not this day! Weâll have to wait to see Maraâs performance as Lisbeth Salander when The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hits theaters on December 21st. Until then, enjoy some vintage Ripley:And hereâs a bonus Ripley video, because you know you want it: *This editorial is part of an ad-buy on Collider for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The Five Most Badass Female Leads in Movie History
Top 5 Badass Female Roles in Movie History for the release of David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Rooney Mara stars as Lisbeth Salander